| Destination: |
Dartmoor Adit |
Date: |
25May 2010 |
Party: |
Big Dave, Dave J, Margot, Neil, Ali, Richard, Lionel, Finbar, Darren, Ferret, & Rupert |
Photos: |
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In Brief: A sultry spring evening provided the background for one of the more disorganised of PCG trips. On a small parking lot near Sheepstor it so happened that Finbar, Lionel, Neil, Margot, Richard, and our debutant Darren gathered. A fine gathering, but not fine enough; time passed while Rupert and his car full of fellow men and useful kit failed to show up. How uncharacteristic! At some point, the gravitational pull of the adit became too much for Lionel, Richard and Finbar, and even though they did not know where they were going they set off. Confusion in the ranks! Follow these clueless men, or wait for Rupert who did not answer his phone, and may perhaps not make it at all? We decided on the first, carrying a phone. And a while later a peloton formed; Rupert, Ali and Paul caught up with the intermediate group, and altogether and without further ado they walked to the adit. Where the three bold men were nowhere to be found. Nothing to be done about that!
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Continued:
Ali tried to drain the adit a bit by being unforgiving to some weeds, while Rupert got Darren into his gear. And in we went, observed by Ali’s new camera. Neil immediately went to look for interesting traces of ore, while Ali and Paul disappeared into the deeper recesses for some burrowing, and Darren decided that standing in cold water up to his thighs in a dark, murky tunnel was not as comfortable as expected, and that enjoying the pink evening sky sitting in the soft grass was preferable. He was chaperoned back by Rupert, who afterwards pushed on, around the corner with loose rocks, and to the first collapse, where he found Margot. They went to have a look at what the diggers were doing, which meant belly-crawling through a low tunnel (apparently it had accumulated a lot of sediment in the past months), and wading through water that was deep and cold enough to bring unexpected musical talents out in Rupert. The dig looked decidedly questionable, and Margot decided to head back, finding Neil on her way. While taking pictures they went back to the entrance, and found Darren there, who was not at all taken aback by the situation. By then Dave and Dave, who would come later and only hang around above ground, and the three fearless explorers had also been spotted, but Margot being wet to the collarbone and Darren having cooled down from sitting still was reason enough to postpone any socializing to the pub. So as divided as we had arrived we went back, but in the end we all found our way to the Rock Inn, where we exchanged experiences; the scouting party turned out to have restricted itself to wandering around among the surface relics of Eylesbarrow mine, and everybody had had a splendid trip. And together making plans for imminent SRT training over a pint (this referring to the making of plans, not to the training itself) made this trip end not only pleasantly but also usefully..Write up by Margot |
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Added 25-05-10 |
