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This week couldn't possibly live up to the previous fortnight of caving experiences, however it was possibly for the best that I did considerably less caving and a bit more work for once, although I still managed to get a brief Thursday foray in and had a cracking trip on Sunday where I picked up new skills, lost a tenner, gave a tour and spent the day finding out that incredible levels of hilarity don't need a lot of space, in fact a chamber about 1.8 metres in diameter complete with four supposed adult cavers will do it. The usual then!
Thursday;
Usual suspects
It was quite late by the time everyone had arrived and so we decided to take a walk through various fields and have a recce at a local site. Naturally we turned our lights off in an effort not to alarm livestock and alert assorted landowners, so imagine my surprise when upon turning round to wait for the others I spy a neon green dome floating towards me through the field. Standing aghast I distinctly recall someone exclaiming "Who the %*^$ is that with the luminous caving helmet?!?" and that's exactly what it was, so if there were any UFO sighting in Mendip on Thursday it was more than likely something to do with a hysterical procession of cavers and a bobbing green cave hat.
Completely hopeless, but very funny (you probably had to be there actually).
Saturday;
I was ill (need more sleep apparently) and missed a good trip, not amused.
Sunday;
Kings mine
Survey crew; Les, myself, Cookie, Big Stu
Sightseeing; Graham+Chrissy Price, Brains, JD, Ditzy
I turned up at the hut on Sunday at 10am sharp, which was my first mistake as despite what anyone may say or arrange, nothing happens before noon. Once everyone had turned up we all headed off for Kings mine. I'm banking on finding kilometres of new cave in Matienzo next Easter and so I had been bugging Cookie and Les to teach me how to survey in preparation for this scenario, so once the others had been shown around and had taken lots of photos and left, we would commence a high grade survey.
I always enjoy showing people around this little mine, as although it is small it has a lot to offer in detail and if someone has a good eye for photography they could spend all day in here taking all manner of wonderful photos; whilst down there we put a small amount of tape around some very delicate skeletons and I stacked up some deads that had either fallen or been pushed down since my last visit there.
There was a great deal of speculation as to what might have been mined from here and no real conclusions were forthcoming, although it was interesting to see various small deposits of sulphur and the extremely metallic looking galena, precisely what the purpose of Kings was is still a mystery.
Once people had sated their lust for photographs they headed up the ladder and were away, leaving us to our surveying and now that we no longer had to appear grown up the real stupidity was about to start.
It started with the mother of all bluebottles, even the most protracted surveying can be enriched with a simple game of 'fly tag', for instance there is nothing funnier on a Sunday morning in Kings than watching Les trying to sketch a new survey leg whilst being harassed by a giant fly. So it was that we found ourselves flat out in a very small chamber with Cookie drawing the short straw and having to survey a chamber 15foot down a small rift with a tightish squeeze at the bottom. Cookie had gone to a lot of effort to get down there and once he'd got through arguing with Les whether the space around a station on a grade 4 survey should be a cube or a sphere (this took a while), he was busy trying to explain to us hyenas up top the dimensions of the chamber he was in.
After we killed all of our lights we shouted down for Cookie to shine his own up the rift, so he stopped what he was doing and thrutched his way towards us and shortly a small light shone up at us and a sincere voice called up "Why do you ask?" to which we replied "we are trying to send this fly down to you mate"... shortly after this Cookie stopped talking to us altogether.
Surveying was cut short due to bad air of the methane variety and so we headed topside and it was then that Cookie got his revenge.
Whilst packing the kit away Les shouted out that he had found a new mine shaft and so we rushed on over to take a look, being keen I naturally climbed my way down it and searched for a way on, not being able to find anything I came topside and declared it as a dead end. Cookie on the other hand reckoned he knew about it and said it was effectively a through trip that came out elsewhere, being fairly positive that I had reached the end with no way on I made a ten pound bet that this wasn't the case and so Cookie never being one to back down from a challenge leapt down the hole, vanished and then promptly appeared out of another hole a few metres away.
While I write this I am thinking about what this tenner could have got me in terms of trips in the UK, I'm fairly sure it would almost get me insured with the BCA or even allow me 20 trips to Swildons, maybe even granted temporary membership to Parys mountain, but instead it got spent on the shortest through trip I have ever seen and I didn't even get to go on it! Shame faced and facing a barrage of mockery I admitted defeat and we headed back to the car... I got the last laugh however.......... because I didn't pay up!
Just when we thought it was all over and had prepared to head home, Les discovered that his Land rover wouldn't start which resulted in Cookie, Stu and myself pushing him down Eastwater lane whilst he sat in absolute luxury turning the key every now and then until it got going... on the way up the lane we theorised over why there's never a dull moment on Mendip and I'm not so sure it is the sheer volume of people I have met in the last few months but rather the type.... because regardless of what it is, with some folk you can be assured that there will never be a dull moment.
It was a great day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves, it just goes to show that the underground locations aren't nearly as important in the grand scale of having fun as the folk that frequent them.
Cheers!
Thursday;
Usual suspects
It was quite late by the time everyone had arrived and so we decided to take a walk through various fields and have a recce at a local site. Naturally we turned our lights off in an effort not to alarm livestock and alert assorted landowners, so imagine my surprise when upon turning round to wait for the others I spy a neon green dome floating towards me through the field. Standing aghast I distinctly recall someone exclaiming "Who the %*^$ is that with the luminous caving helmet?!?" and that's exactly what it was, so if there were any UFO sighting in Mendip on Thursday it was more than likely something to do with a hysterical procession of cavers and a bobbing green cave hat.
Completely hopeless, but very funny (you probably had to be there actually).
Saturday;
I was ill (need more sleep apparently) and missed a good trip, not amused.
Sunday;
Kings mine
Survey crew; Les, myself, Cookie, Big Stu
Sightseeing; Graham+Chrissy Price, Brains, JD, Ditzy
I turned up at the hut on Sunday at 10am sharp, which was my first mistake as despite what anyone may say or arrange, nothing happens before noon. Once everyone had turned up we all headed off for Kings mine. I'm banking on finding kilometres of new cave in Matienzo next Easter and so I had been bugging Cookie and Les to teach me how to survey in preparation for this scenario, so once the others had been shown around and had taken lots of photos and left, we would commence a high grade survey.
I always enjoy showing people around this little mine, as although it is small it has a lot to offer in detail and if someone has a good eye for photography they could spend all day in here taking all manner of wonderful photos; whilst down there we put a small amount of tape around some very delicate skeletons and I stacked up some deads that had either fallen or been pushed down since my last visit there.
There was a great deal of speculation as to what might have been mined from here and no real conclusions were forthcoming, although it was interesting to see various small deposits of sulphur and the extremely metallic looking galena, precisely what the purpose of Kings was is still a mystery.
Once people had sated their lust for photographs they headed up the ladder and were away, leaving us to our surveying and now that we no longer had to appear grown up the real stupidity was about to start.
It started with the mother of all bluebottles, even the most protracted surveying can be enriched with a simple game of 'fly tag', for instance there is nothing funnier on a Sunday morning in Kings than watching Les trying to sketch a new survey leg whilst being harassed by a giant fly. So it was that we found ourselves flat out in a very small chamber with Cookie drawing the short straw and having to survey a chamber 15foot down a small rift with a tightish squeeze at the bottom. Cookie had gone to a lot of effort to get down there and once he'd got through arguing with Les whether the space around a station on a grade 4 survey should be a cube or a sphere (this took a while), he was busy trying to explain to us hyenas up top the dimensions of the chamber he was in.
After we killed all of our lights we shouted down for Cookie to shine his own up the rift, so he stopped what he was doing and thrutched his way towards us and shortly a small light shone up at us and a sincere voice called up "Why do you ask?" to which we replied "we are trying to send this fly down to you mate"... shortly after this Cookie stopped talking to us altogether.
Surveying was cut short due to bad air of the methane variety and so we headed topside and it was then that Cookie got his revenge.
Whilst packing the kit away Les shouted out that he had found a new mine shaft and so we rushed on over to take a look, being keen I naturally climbed my way down it and searched for a way on, not being able to find anything I came topside and declared it as a dead end. Cookie on the other hand reckoned he knew about it and said it was effectively a through trip that came out elsewhere, being fairly positive that I had reached the end with no way on I made a ten pound bet that this wasn't the case and so Cookie never being one to back down from a challenge leapt down the hole, vanished and then promptly appeared out of another hole a few metres away.
While I write this I am thinking about what this tenner could have got me in terms of trips in the UK, I'm fairly sure it would almost get me insured with the BCA or even allow me 20 trips to Swildons, maybe even granted temporary membership to Parys mountain, but instead it got spent on the shortest through trip I have ever seen and I didn't even get to go on it! Shame faced and facing a barrage of mockery I admitted defeat and we headed back to the car... I got the last laugh however.......... because I didn't pay up!
Just when we thought it was all over and had prepared to head home, Les discovered that his Land rover wouldn't start which resulted in Cookie, Stu and myself pushing him down Eastwater lane whilst he sat in absolute luxury turning the key every now and then until it got going... on the way up the lane we theorised over why there's never a dull moment on Mendip and I'm not so sure it is the sheer volume of people I have met in the last few months but rather the type.... because regardless of what it is, with some folk you can be assured that there will never be a dull moment.
It was a great day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves, it just goes to show that the underground locations aren't nearly as important in the grand scale of having fun as the folk that frequent them.
Cheers!
(Clearly you've been caving longer than you reckon).
