GOYDEN - 2nd CAVING ATTEMPT

Saturday 7th June 2003 Week 14, Day 74 Dave and I spent some time at Patently Bridge looking for our meeting place, The Copper Kettle, which apparently did not exist. We ran into more cavers - Allistair, his g/f Sarah, and their two scottish friends who were first time cavers - also on the look out for the place that didn't exists. Instead, we headed off to the caving venue though none of us knew where that was exactly. Calling Lyndon at the Tacklestore for assistance, we headed on down the road we thought to be the one and ended up going into an area labelled "not suitable for motor vehicles" but thought, 'hey! that sounds like where cavers would go' and attempted it anyway. Bam-bow! Wrong way, please turn back. And we did. Finally saw the turn off which was the way to Scar House Reservoir. By now it was about 1:30pm. The others were geared up to go. I was busting to go to the toilet and picked a spot behind a tree only to see some of the caving group heading that way also. Waited for them to go and then squatted, only to hear a car pass by and then see that all the cows in the field were watching me. Ah, the country life. The walk to the cave was quite a long one, over rocks and wading through water, but we got there in the end. Si, Chris and Tom went in first and helped the rest of us down. There was a 15m pitch to climb down first, and then a 10m. That was hard, but I knew going up would be harder (and I was right!). Inside the cave, we all walked our separate ways and explored in little groups. Dave did a lot more than I though I was with him. I wasn't feeling well and so sat around most of the time. It was a good trip anyhow. Going up was difficult, but 15m pitch was made easier by the boys (now accompanied by Sam, John, Pieter and Benny. For some reason my cow's tail kept getting caught in the ladder which was annoying. Outside, we took a shortcut back to the cars and had a lovely BBQ to re-energize (the non-drivers drank of course). We searched for camping grounds after that (it was already 10pm) but everywhere was either full or didn't allow tents (what the...?), so we headed home instead. The giant golfballs on the way. A view from the parking site. The gang before... Chris, Tom, Si, Allastair, his two Scottish mates (whose names have left me now) and, Sarah and I down front. Sam, Pieter and I after stripping down after the trip, only Tom behind us had beat us to it! Si and I escaping the crowd. All photos © David G. Birch, 2003.