An abridged version of my entry in the WCMS online journal:
Some weeks ago I asked around to find out if any of our members were planning on attending Hidden Earth this year. Only Graham C responded that, yes, he would be going along as usual. Slightly disappointed that this excellent event seemed to be far less popular with our members than the annual NAMHO conference, nevertheless I looked forward eagerly to another entertaining weekend of socialising and talks.
It was therefore good to find that quite a few of our number were attending, albeit perhaps under a different guise. As all attending do so as individuals anyway, this hardly mattered, but in all there were some 8 of us there. Apart from Graham C and myself, we bumped into Richard V, Walrus, Claire C, John Maneely, Gary C, and Tony J. Apologies if you were there, and I didn't mention your name!
It may be that the idea of meeting and talking to other cavers in such numbers is a bit intimidating, or perhaps having no actual field trips over the weekend suggests that the weekend is just a mixture of boring lectures, amateurish trade and club stands, and outrageous drunken behaviour. Well it certainly isn't any of those!
I don't think anyone attending went away disappointed.
I am not going to list all the lectures, presentations and discussions I went to. You can read all that in Descent magazine in due course. One of the highlights for me was the showing of archive film footage from Devon, Mendip and Yorkshire. Maybe that's a sign of growing old, and feeling nostalgic. Perhaps so. But the anecdotal presentations of current cavers, and the after-dinner talk by Dick Willis were equally memorable, and Sid Perou's film at the closing ceremony was a fitting hilarious climax to another brilliant weekend.
If you think that actually going caving is always more important than attending conferences, or whatever we may choose to call such gatherings, I believe that, yes, in general you may be right, But as far as Hidden Earth is concerned, as "Goon" said in his closing address, this is one weekend in 52. I believe that to make the effort to go along, meet other cavers, do some 'networking' as they say nowadays, or just to enjoy yourself, is an extremely valuable thing to do. I hope all the rest of you who were there think the same way, and will be along next year.
Oh, and yes, I am proud that as we did two years ago when I last went to Hidden Earth, Graham C and I totally trounced the opposition at the surveying competition, achieving a 0.25 percent closure error over a 4 leg loop of about 130 metres. In fact we did it twice, once with Graham on the instruments, and once with me. Graham's work achieved the 0.25 percent error, and my loop was 0.5 percent. The accuracy figure seemed to draw gasps of awe (or incredulity) when announced. Our closest rival was a massive 2.5 percent out! As Graham also achieved the best result two years ago, and has the awarded prize mounted on his wall at home, I am very grateful to him for letting me pocket the loot this time, money that will go a long way towards buying a new lamp.
And I haven't even mentioned the beer.