Travels with a Donkey Pete Livesey

[Tricky Dicky]

Apologies if it's been mentioned before but I've just come across this tale from Pete Livesey, describing a couple of caving expeditions, which imho is well worth a read:

Travels with a donkey

BOOM— a plume of water shot 50ft. into the air. Kelly beamed all over his face. BOOM —the second depth charge went off. Kelly's beam tur...

footlesscrow.blogspot.com

 

[nobrotson]

'The rest of the expedition was boring—carry all the gear up a mountain, carry it all down a hole, bring it out again, carry it down the mountain and so on: exactly the kind of boring repetitive stuff you read in expedition books.'

An excellent summary which could equally be applied to the majority of cave digs.

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Is that Jim Eyre's nemesis Ken Kelly? I presume it must be.

 

[Speleofish]

The man was a legend! Also one of the most generous people I've known.

 

[Dickie]

At the risk of hijacking the post, there are very many stories that could be told about Ken, numerous of them with potential legal implications (although Ken passed away a few years ago). We took Ken to the punk disco, The Ranch, in Manchester and then afterwards he took us to one of his haunts, the Reno Club, an illegal West Indian shebeen in Moss Side near the Harp brewery. Small hatch in the door, into a dim cellar bar, ganja smoke and stolen goods circulating, a couple of fights - them were the days!

 

[Badlad]

Kelly owned the Gaslight Club in Buxton didn't he. I remember a wild night in there, eh Dickie. Kelly was out front fighting and throwing people out but on his best behaviour with us lot. He even gave us all a VIP pass - kept it for years.

 

[Dickie]

Yep, had a few fun nights there! And, as Jon said, he was a very generous man with his mates. Another great caving character!