Pridhamsleigh Cavern

Date:

13 Sep 07

Party:

Pat, Richard, New member Ross and Guests - Colin, Steve, Kev & Dale, Lee & Matt

Photos:

by Steve McC

In Brief:

Who'd have thought it a trip on a Thursday... And well attended too.

Met up in the lane, had to park on the North side of the bridge due to the Boat building "stuff" on the other side of the bridge. Thanks go from the guests to the PCG for the use of their lights belts and helmets, all of which worked perfectly.

Unfortunately Kev and Dale didn't believe the tall tales of cold wet and muddy and so were very under dressed for this cave, but Kev works with mud so we thought he'd be ok...

Continued:

For a group of nine with several novices the trip went very smoothly and a good pace was maintained. A bit of fun was had at the lake, Col leapt in with a nice big splash , nice and refreshing. shortly followed (twice) by Ross, as he attempted that scrabble up the the lake end of the Maggot Crawl passage - third time lucky though.

After the uneventful emergence from the Maggot hole, it was off the the stocks. It was at this point that Kev finally got his feet, (ankles, knees and beyond) wet.

The letter box was nextm, then back to Bishops, a quick trip up the mud staircase was followed by a brief visit to the Attic.

The finally was a trip to the flooded rift, where a handful of brave (that's what we'll call them here) souls went right though to the end. Kev and Dale were banned from partaking due to attire.

It was time to beat a hasty retreat as it was getting very close to pub-o-clock, the squeeze at the top of Crystal thingamy-bob was a good laugh, for some of us any way...

Exiting the cave, the guests expressed their thanks for taking them in, with even more thanks for getting them out. Steve took the 'after' photo to go with the 'before' he'd taken earlier, perhaps we can get them up here.

Parking over the bridge made the trek to the river to wash easy, the water l ever was quite low and the temperature - re-refreshing.

A swift half in the Abbey was most welcome, thanks to Kev and Lee for the beer.

After the beer and tales of daring-do and tittering at a very cold Kev we set off home.

Thanks to all for a very enjoyable evening, good spirits and good company.

Write up by A Guest

Added 14-9-07