AndyF
New member
Les W said:AndyF said:
But it's not good enough for the UK. :-\
You won't be able to fly without a passport and if you use the ferry you will have no problem leaving the UK, BUT you will have huge problems at customs in the UK on your return.
Yes, Photo licence is ok for ferries, but not planes. I wonder what UK immigration would actually DO if you turn up with no passport... they are gona be pi55ed, but what can they do.....detain a UK citizen on UK territory for not being able to identify themselves with a passport? Sounds like a challenge to me....!
AndyF
New member
Les W said:
I wonder if this has happened. They can't lock you up without arresting you if you stick your heels in. And "Being in your own country (which you are) without ID isn't a crime (yet
) And you HAVE id if you have a driving licence, (ID sufficient for the Police at least) so not really sure what they could do.If you have lost your passport, what happens....?
I went through a phase of being stopped at customs EVERY time (about 8 times on the trot in and out of the UK) Anyone else been stopped on the way OUT??. I got pi55ed off with it and the next time it happened I demanded to know why, told them I would lodge an official complaint unless they gave me a satisfactory explanation. They caved in (as they are just bullies in uniform for the most part). Turned out I was on police "stop and question" list due to being mistakenely identified as a hunt sabateur by Staffs Police (due, it seems, to being spotted in overalls for caving near a hunt)
Got in touch with Staffs Police and told them in polite but certain terms that if I was stopped again I would create a mountain of paperwork for them so big I would need a van to carry it around in. Stranegly, I've not been stopped since.....
H
hoehlenforscher
Guest
Tis true. Since I lived in Germany I now have a German driving licence. I had to give up my UK one after 12 months and swap it. Not long after the EU acknowledged that all EU licences were valid in any EU country so now no-one has to change anymore.
Back to the topic in hand. I have done Penyghent Pot twice, admittedly "only" to the terminal sump and back, and although it was a long trip (first time 11+ hours and lots of waiting about) I enjoyed every second of both trips. I have done Daren on a few occaisions, first time with a larger than average mate and only his second ever cave. No real probs then. Another occaision I wasn't wearing my "normal" caving attire and it kept getting ruckled up to the extend that 3/4 of the way through the entrance crawl I freaked myself out and had to turn back. I have since donne the crawl in 35 mins. Point is that the difficluty of a cave is more often than not a state of mind. In climbing, you can try a climb that is too hard for you, fail, go away and train, try again, fail, train more, and probably eventually you might get up it. In caving, if a passage is too small for you then you're not getting through (unless you blow it like some gits tried in Rhyd Sych). No training is getting you through.
State of mind though can vary from day to day, week to week. Fear of the unknown is one of the greatest limiting factors in caving. In the UK we have guidebooks and plans so we need rarely face that fear so can pick a cave with the physical challenges we feel comfortable with. Some choose big pitchs, some squeezes, some just go for sporty of pretty trips. Each to their own.
What I will say though is if you really want hard caving then original exploration, especially in mountainous terrain, takes some beating. Both the hardest physical cave and the hardest pyschological cave I have ever done were in the Alps and on both occaisions involved pushing trips in unknown passage. I still have nightmares from the one while the other took days to recover from the exersion..........
Mark
Back to the topic in hand. I have done Penyghent Pot twice, admittedly "only" to the terminal sump and back, and although it was a long trip (first time 11+ hours and lots of waiting about) I enjoyed every second of both trips. I have done Daren on a few occaisions, first time with a larger than average mate and only his second ever cave. No real probs then. Another occaision I wasn't wearing my "normal" caving attire and it kept getting ruckled up to the extend that 3/4 of the way through the entrance crawl I freaked myself out and had to turn back. I have since donne the crawl in 35 mins. Point is that the difficluty of a cave is more often than not a state of mind. In climbing, you can try a climb that is too hard for you, fail, go away and train, try again, fail, train more, and probably eventually you might get up it. In caving, if a passage is too small for you then you're not getting through (unless you blow it like some gits tried in Rhyd Sych). No training is getting you through.
State of mind though can vary from day to day, week to week. Fear of the unknown is one of the greatest limiting factors in caving. In the UK we have guidebooks and plans so we need rarely face that fear so can pick a cave with the physical challenges we feel comfortable with. Some choose big pitchs, some squeezes, some just go for sporty of pretty trips. Each to their own.
What I will say though is if you really want hard caving then original exploration, especially in mountainous terrain, takes some beating. Both the hardest physical cave and the hardest pyschological cave I have ever done were in the Alps and on both occaisions involved pushing trips in unknown passage. I still have nightmares from the one while the other took days to recover from the exersion..........
Mark
H
hoehlenforscher
Guest
Rhyd Sych.... what a sod. I had to be pulled out of the bedding by my feet. Wetsuit zip got trapped on my sternum. I had a bruise for weeks. I always wanted to go back for a grudge match but shortly after someone supposedly blew the worst bit so could never face it again as challenge had been denied me:thumbsdown:
so could never face it again as challenge had been denied me:thumbsdown:
whitelackington
New member
After the "Wot to do with your car key thread" on The Axbridge section.
One hesitates to ask " Where did he stick it" :doubt:
One hesitates to ask " Where did he stick it" :doubt:
A
andymorgan
Guest
What about Ban-Y-Gor, has anyone done that?
W
wildsurf
Guest
AndyF said:
There are plenty of harder trips than Hangman's. I got to the bottom a few years ago. The entrance is tight, then the rest of the cave is loose pitches leading to some very hairy climbs to the very bottom where the handholds just crumble away. It is not a particularly long trip. Somehting like Crescent Pot or Quaking is a lot harder simply because of the distance involved.
gus horsley
New member
hoehlenforscher said:Rhyd Sych.... what a sod. I had to be pulled out of the bedding by my feet. Wetsuit zip got trapped on my sternum. I had a bruise for weeks. I always wanted to go back for a grudge match but shortly after someone supposedly blew the worst bit
Did you try the bypass? I went in that way, had about 300 attempts to pass a u-bend and shredded myself on a squeeze in a rift. The bedding was horrendous but it's tightest bit is at the entrance end. Don't know which route I'd recommend really.
rich
New member
gus horsley said:
A bit off-topic, but which way do you go in Rhyd Sych once you get to the waterfall beyond the bedding plane? I've been there twice and haven't managed to work it out. IIRC, the hole the water comes out of is too small. There's a climb up to the left (facing the waterfall) which leads to a bit of a pointy crawl but it doesn't seem to go in either direction. It doesn't seem possible to go through the waterfall, and I couldn't see any other ways on.
gus horsley
New member
If I remember rightly (it was over 20 years ago that I last did Rhyd Sych) there's a low bedding crawl just above the waterfall which almost looks like it doesn't go. It gets quite tight but then opens into the final chamber. I also seem to remember two waterfalls and I'm not sure now if the bedding crawl's above the second one or the first. There's also a tight rift section (where the bypass comes in) which must be before the first waterfall. Sorry my memory's a bit vague. Age, etc...
H
hoehlenforscher
Guest
gus horsley said:hoehlenforscher said:Rhyd Sych.... what a sod. I had to be pulled out of the bedding by my feet. Wetsuit zip got trapped on my sternum. I had a bruise for weeks. I always wanted to go back for a grudge match but shortly after someone supposedly blew the worst bit
Did you try the bypass? I went in that way, had about 300 attempts to pass a u-bend and shredded myself on a squeeze in a rift. The bedding was horrendous but it's tightest bit is at the entrance end. Don't know which route I'd recommend really.
Yep
tried the bypass and got defeated by the U Bend. No matter how I tried and tried I could not contort my way around that bend...
Just thought of another contender for Hard cave. Not a long one but Dr Jacksons by the P* lay-by used to be wicked. Don't know if its still doable though. Always remember the bit where you had to adopt the lotus position to get over a rock bar in front of a vertical drop.... even harder on the way back out.
