Bru and Steve and me went to Cheddar to top up our tans today and engage in some ropey antics... unfortunately a non-planned event turned our trip into a mini epic shortly after this photograph was taken of Bru hanging his backside over a 450' drop...
Bru's phone about to fall out of his pocket..."Oops, I've just killed my phone", said Bruce, as his mobile skydived into oblivion. "It's got all my numbers on it and I haven't got a backup".
Silence and pondering ensued.
No matter, we'll just up sticks and climb/abseil down Chute Gulley which is an easy twenty minutes (or so) scramble to the bottom wherepon we can try and search for the remnants of the phone, the SIM card being the prize!
Steve enjoying the little abseil(s) down Chute GulleyOnce at the bottom we wait while the Bruce goes a-furtling for his phoney but he comes back claiming it never made it to the bottom of the cliff, but instead he recalled it landing on a ledge about half way up/down.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/53/bru2g.jpgBru (far bottom right, white speck of his helmet just visible) seeking in vain for his dead mobile....Well, we've got plenty of rope and no brains between us so we climb back up the Gulley and do a multi-pitch abseil off off the Gorge (Britain's highest inland cliffs) with Steve finding it a bit of a daunt as the biggest abseil he'd done before today was only thirty foot... so it was a tad "in at the deep end" experience for the poor chap, but I think he enjoyed it very much indeed.
Me on a bit of psychologically reassuring 8mm hanging my arse into the windIt takes a while for three people to do four abseils down a sheer cliff, clipped on to bolt belays while the rope is pulled through and rerigged and, like we weren't already pushed on our original mission for the day, Bruce had to pick up the kiddlings from school at 3:20pm.
Er....
We got to the bottom of the cliff at 3:00pm.
The car was parked at the top of the Gorge.
We ran. Uphill. For about a mile. Carrying bags and ropes and jinglies. In hot weather.
We were late picking them up.
:-)
At least I found the phone and apparently the SIM still works. Jobsagoodun!!!
