Random encounters with cavers

[PeteHall]

Not living in one of the main caving areas (though we do actually have a few caves locally), it's rare to bump into another caver around here.

This morning, I was taking my son for his pre-school vaccinations and was surprised to be accosted by an old chap at the surgery who had spotted my caving club hoody.

Turns out he is a veteran the Hereford Caving Club and was very active in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Chatting caving certainly passed the inevitable wait much quicker than usual!

So, where else have people randomly bumped into another caver?

I'll accept strangers (eg. the bloke mentioned above), people you didn't know were cavers, who turned out to be cavers (eg. my son's school teacher), or caving friends/ acquaintances, bumped into in random/ unexpected places.

 

[aricooperdavis]

Last year on my local beach (in Cornwall, so not a caving area), a man came over to me and pointed out that we were wearing almost exactly the same clothes (black outdoor trousers, red waterproof coat, bobble hat), and said that I must also be caver! I don't know what it is about that particular look, but it's slightly worrying that it's such a dead giveaway.

 

[Emsy]

Once bumped into Roger & Jackie Dors of The Hunters Lodge Inn, Priddy fame, on the escalator in the London Underground. We were going in opposite directions so could only point and wave at each other.

 

[Fulk]

In 2018 we went to Hungary where we did a bit of caving. At the end of our stay we returned our hired car to the drop-off point, where the young man in charge started walking round it, making many notes about the state of it (mucky, rather than damaged); he didn't seem very pleased. I then noticed that he was wearing a tee-shirt with a logo that contained the only Hungarian word we'd picked up – 'barlang', which means cave. So I said 'Are you a caver?', and he said 'Yes', so we had a long chat about caving. He then said,' Ah, this is good cave muck. it doesn't matter', and waved us on our way.

 

[Pitlamp]

You want to try working at a show cave; it's amazing how many old cavers you end up having in depth conversations with. It normally starts with: "I used to do a bit of caving . . . . " - and away you go! On occasions I've been able to put folk back in touch with old friends from decades before, which is always very satisfying.

 

[Katie]

When I first started caving my parents lived in Thailand.
One Christmas I had gone to visit them (maybe about 2005?)
We had gone down to the coast and gone a boat trip. We asked the boatman to take us somewhere away from all the tourists and we ended up in a bay off a small island. Our boat was one of three in the bay.
Me and my sister were swimming off the boat when a voice from another distant boat shouts ' Katie, Katie, It's Dave from Titan!'
I swam over to say hello - it was Mad Dave from Glossop who I had last seen about a month before at the Titan dig where we were both involved in the digging. It had been a freezing windy day on top of a hill in Derbyshire. And here we both were in the same bay, swimming in the warm Thai sea. It's a small world........

 

[Dickie]

On a walking holiday in Interlaken in Switzerland, I spotted a colourful bug on the footpath and bent down to look at it, nearly knocking heads with someone doing the same thing. Turns out it was another Eldon member!

 

[ChrisJC]

I bumped into Roy Fellows in Cwmystwyth. But perhaps that's not a co-incidence.

Chris.

 

[Graigwen]

I bumped into Roy Fellows in Cwmystwyth. But perhaps that's not a co-incidence.

Chris.

Almost a certainty I would say!
.

 

[Badlad]

In 1990 we went to the Masai Mara in Kenya on a safari. Our tour camped near to a posh game lodge one night and we popped in for a drink. There we met a member of the Red Rose we knew quite well but had no idea he was even in Kenya.

 

[mrodoc]

I started a conversation with a chap on the train once. Turns out that back in the 60's he went to Longwood Swallet and there was a major rescue effort. It was the scene of one of the few fatalities on Mendip when a girl died of hypothermia in the entrance chimney. I have also caved with Alan Caton, an Australian, on 3 continents now having first met him on a Mammoth to Flint Ridge trip then when I took him into St. Cuthberts some years later (only realised we had caved together when we got out) and I think I have been underground with him in Australia. He does get around though!

 

[Tritim230]

I moved to the Cotswolds 4 years ago and started swimming regularly in the two main lakes open for swimming. The open water community is much like the caving world with stories to tell, and very supportive. One of team, Cath, I thought looked familiar. It was some 18 months later that I happened to mention I was going caving. Then it clicked! Cath and I were on the same LUSS expedition to Tresviso in 1986 (it was a small team that year). Cath has now joined GSS and is active with various projects. Amazing after so many years, separate families, etc. Indeed, it is a small world. To add to this another swim friend told me that her local vicar was a caver. It turned out to be Arthur Champion. So another opportunity to chat and spend some time underground with a caving legend.

 

[Ed]

Unbeknownst to We managed to book a few days in Florence... At the same time as a regular caving buddy from BPC.

Only found out just before we both set off

 

[wormster]

Waiting to pick up the snappers one day at Strensham Services when aoad of BEC stop for a pee on their way somewhere

 

[mrodoc]

I was in Venice on a vaporetto some while back and it swung in to pick up passengers. They leapt on and one spun round to exclaim'It's Pete Glanvill'. It was Graham Wilton-Jones a fellow BEC member who had just come on a trip to Venice at short notice. We ended up having a meal together with his wife.

 

[Slug]

I went to see Dweezil Zappa at Colston Hall in Bristol, and two rows in front of me was mrodoc.

A few years earlier I was watching my local evening news, there was a report about young offenders doing community/conservation work at the RSPB headquarters, the person in charge of the work was Graham Wilton-Jones.