As Easter is always lovely and warm, (!) we decided to go up to sunny Yorkshire to spend some time with Jane and Tim, and get some caving, cycling and walking done. A nightmare journey up the M6 on the Thursday meant we only arrived in time for a quick pint before bed, so on Friday morning we met up with Jane, Tim, Kermit and other Dudley members in Inglesport and decided on a trip into Heron Pot. Jane was happy to be doing a short, dry trip that meant she would have time to prepare a delicious BBQ for us later on. It's obviously been a while since she caved with a photographer...
Having worn extra winter layers to climb up the hill to Heron, we were quite glad to slip into the cool entrance and Mark soon had the first pitch rigged. This has a really awkward corner to get round to the pitch head and we had Lucy with us, who doesn't have a lot of SRT under her belt, but she managed well and soon we were all down. She also did really well on the second pitch with her first ever deviation. Mark decided to reward her by getting her to splash in the streamway until she was soaked through, while he took photos.
Everyone declined to follow the streamway to finish the through trip, opting instead to stay dry and go back up the ropes. Best laid plans and all that...While we waited for Mark to set up a pitch shot, we huddled together like penguins at the bottom, until he shouted that he was ready for Jane to prussic up so that he could get a photo. Jane posed skilfully while Lucy and I scuttled round with flashguns, but apparently the ONLY way Mark could get a decent shot was if I stood right under the waterfall with a flashgun on my head. Who would have thought it, huh?
Once the photo was done we were all in a hurry to GTF out of there and warm up! Though of course I did manage to go the wrong way on the way out.
We finished the day with a fabulous BBQ with Tim and Jane and the Buttered Badgers, who are a lovely group of cavers. In true Yorkshire fashion we kept our down jackets and woolly hats on for the BBQ, but it didn't rain once.
On Saturday Kermit and Lucy went off to climb Penyghent while the rest of The Dudley headed to Easegill to do the County to Wretched Rabbit trip, via the Battle of Britain series. 5 minutes in, and Mark went arse over tip over a boulder and hurt his wrists, but insisted on carrying on. We had fun navigating, and decided to pop up to Monster Cavern for a quick photo, to try out some new flashguns. It took a bit longer than expected, and in the hurry to pack all the gear away, one lonely little flashgun was left behind...but we didn't realise until later
Mark was chuffed to find he remembered a shortcut from Monster Cavern to Wretched Rabbit which cuts out a lot of the awkward sections. Not so chuffed when we got there and he realised we had left the tackle bag back at Eureka Junction, expecting to pick it up on the normal route! "Don't worry" he said, "I'll go and get the bag, You three carry on, you can't get lost from here".
ANYONE who has EVER been caving with me knows that I struggle to find my way out of a paper bag. However, Mike had been to Wretched Rabbit before too, so between us we ticked off the various distinctive signs for the way on - awkward climbs, stacked boulder wall, and finally the first handline upwards. We were nearly out!
Half an hour later we had gone up every little passage, crawl and climb we could find, and all closed down. "How is this even possible?", we asked ourselves. Then I spotted another small climb up, to a window over a drop, from which I could see the hessian ropes that we should have gone up. So where the hell were we?
At this point a voice was heard from below. "What are you all doing up there? Why haven't you followed the main passage and gone up the normal handlines?" :-[ :-\
Suffice to say that we were all out safely very shortly after that and it wasn't even dark yet.
Sunday was forecast the best weather so three of us went off cycling, a very lumpy 65km route via Malham Cove, whilst Mark, Mike and Dave went to do the pull-through in Swinsto Pot. They were lucky enough to bump into cavers from the TSG who offered to rig the rope down for them in Kingsdale, and they set off up to hill to find a very dry Swinsto, though Dave managed to get very wet doing my usual role of flashgun-holder-under-a-waterfall, for a pitch shot.
Popping in to say goodbye to Tim and Jane, we were privileged to take part in the sacred ceremony of Beheading the Chocolate Badger, and very nice it tasted, I must say.
Monday we had planned The Return to Monster Cavern, to collect the forgotten flashgun, but as we woke to snow falling, we thought we'd better err on the safe side and head home instead.
Having worn extra winter layers to climb up the hill to Heron, we were quite glad to slip into the cool entrance and Mark soon had the first pitch rigged. This has a really awkward corner to get round to the pitch head and we had Lucy with us, who doesn't have a lot of SRT under her belt, but she managed well and soon we were all down. She also did really well on the second pitch with her first ever deviation. Mark decided to reward her by getting her to splash in the streamway until she was soaked through, while he took photos.
Everyone declined to follow the streamway to finish the through trip, opting instead to stay dry and go back up the ropes. Best laid plans and all that...While we waited for Mark to set up a pitch shot, we huddled together like penguins at the bottom, until he shouted that he was ready for Jane to prussic up so that he could get a photo. Jane posed skilfully while Lucy and I scuttled round with flashguns, but apparently the ONLY way Mark could get a decent shot was if I stood right under the waterfall with a flashgun on my head. Who would have thought it, huh?
Once the photo was done we were all in a hurry to GTF out of there and warm up! Though of course I did manage to go the wrong way on the way out.
We finished the day with a fabulous BBQ with Tim and Jane and the Buttered Badgers, who are a lovely group of cavers. In true Yorkshire fashion we kept our down jackets and woolly hats on for the BBQ, but it didn't rain once.
On Saturday Kermit and Lucy went off to climb Penyghent while the rest of The Dudley headed to Easegill to do the County to Wretched Rabbit trip, via the Battle of Britain series. 5 minutes in, and Mark went arse over tip over a boulder and hurt his wrists, but insisted on carrying on. We had fun navigating, and decided to pop up to Monster Cavern for a quick photo, to try out some new flashguns. It took a bit longer than expected, and in the hurry to pack all the gear away, one lonely little flashgun was left behind...but we didn't realise until later
Mark was chuffed to find he remembered a shortcut from Monster Cavern to Wretched Rabbit which cuts out a lot of the awkward sections. Not so chuffed when we got there and he realised we had left the tackle bag back at Eureka Junction, expecting to pick it up on the normal route! "Don't worry" he said, "I'll go and get the bag, You three carry on, you can't get lost from here".
ANYONE who has EVER been caving with me knows that I struggle to find my way out of a paper bag. However, Mike had been to Wretched Rabbit before too, so between us we ticked off the various distinctive signs for the way on - awkward climbs, stacked boulder wall, and finally the first handline upwards. We were nearly out!
Half an hour later we had gone up every little passage, crawl and climb we could find, and all closed down. "How is this even possible?", we asked ourselves. Then I spotted another small climb up, to a window over a drop, from which I could see the hessian ropes that we should have gone up. So where the hell were we?
At this point a voice was heard from below. "What are you all doing up there? Why haven't you followed the main passage and gone up the normal handlines?" :-[ :-\
Suffice to say that we were all out safely very shortly after that and it wasn't even dark yet.
Sunday was forecast the best weather so three of us went off cycling, a very lumpy 65km route via Malham Cove, whilst Mark, Mike and Dave went to do the pull-through in Swinsto Pot. They were lucky enough to bump into cavers from the TSG who offered to rig the rope down for them in Kingsdale, and they set off up to hill to find a very dry Swinsto, though Dave managed to get very wet doing my usual role of flashgun-holder-under-a-waterfall, for a pitch shot.
Popping in to say goodbye to Tim and Jane, we were privileged to take part in the sacred ceremony of Beheading the Chocolate Badger, and very nice it tasted, I must say.
Monday we had planned The Return to Monster Cavern, to collect the forgotten flashgun, but as we woke to snow falling, we thought we'd better err on the safe side and head home instead.