Well Christmas went as Christmas does, family things and alcohol followed by slouching on the sofa watching TV like a plump chicken. No arguments this time! Woop! Was supposed to be travelling out to Luxembourg for a road trip with a good mate on Boxing Day but uni work got the better of me and it would never have got done (although it still isnt finished!).
Worked for a few days before new years but made up for it with a party at something of a mansion on dartmoor including a pool and then a house party and yummy meal in pensilva before having everyone gang up on me in a pretty nasty game of ring of fire! New years day I spent most of the day being hungover and subsequently getting drunk with dad.
The week following included work, uni work and an interesting house party at another house in pensilva, then an interview on the friday morning for my American Summer Camp councellor application. It went very very well! I'd rearranged the interview six times previously so I wasnt expecting a good response to be honest! I'll know within two weeks of the definate result and my dates when I'll be starting, will also need to go to the US Embassy in London for a face-to-face chat to get my J1 Visa which is a bit of a pain.
Literally an hour or so after my interview myself and Thom were headed up to Bridgwater to pick Mike up for our weekend in the Mendip hills staying in the Belfry again with EUSS. Unfortunately I forgot my camera this time so priceless photos weren't taken this time, but got another weekend in the Mendips on Friday so will try and make up for it! The weekend was nonetheless epic with us doing two caves and one mine across the two days, and plenty of drinking and games at the hut!
We arrived at about 7 and pretty much went straight to the pub (Hunter's Lodge Inn), where a few ciders and games were played before coming back and revealing to EUSS the AWESOME A&E Squeezebox. A few hours were spent on that one with Mike beating me on the side squeeze but im still first on the top squeeze!
Saturday it was decided that Singing River Mine would be the place to go so after trying to subdue our hangovers with oatmeal and lazing around we made our way to Shipham to find the entrance shaft (which is in someones back garden), Mike found it for us and we rigged it with our 10m ladder from the rather dodgy looking static ladder and a lifeline from a just as dodgy tree. I went down first and after getting to the bottom it emerged out ladder was 2-3m too short, a bit of a jump down and all was well and Mike and Thom followed. The mine turned out to be like some sort of badger set with every passage leading to everywhere! At the bottom there was some beautifully clear water forming a few lakes, one of which in the middle concealed a flooded shaft making it quite nicely deep enough for a swim. Thom and I had previously gone from the neighbouring lake through a duck and under a dodgy looking plank to enter the lake room so it was Mikes turn to man up, which he did quite well, decided to go for a cheeky swim over the submerged shaft on the way across. The room then led to numerous other passages which we proceeded to explore including a tunnel which Mike found, it included a portion of its floor that had collapsed into the tunnel below, however it was flooded beyond roof level into the above tunnel so was impossible for us to check out. =[ We got a bit lost on our way out but after some swimming and bimbling we eventually found our way, Mike SRT'd up to the top first and then belayed Thom and myself up. After some very cold changing in the centre of Shipham (luckily it was dark) we went back to the belfry.
The Saturday night included some very heavy drinking, particularly on my part but not entirely by choice, exeter decided to bugger me over at a game of Touch Cup to the point id had two bottles of skanky wine theyd been making me drink every time I lost including my own beer which somehow was a "forfeit" too. Mike threw a load of skittles in his cider bottle causing it to shoot foam at him as he ran to the kitchen looking suprised and Thom was busy doing the Uni work I SHOULD have been doing which I now regret not doing! Later in the evening some random game involving two bottles and some awkward balance was played, until everyone got sick of the strobe lights and decided to go to bed!
The next morning we chose Pierres Pot as our chosen cave followed by Sidcot Swallet, Pierres was really interesting with quite a lot of interconnecting passages, steep rifts to both climb and descend and some little pots to jump down, it wasn't really a wet cave but it had a lot of tight squeezes, most of which we manned up for but one particular rift we left alone as we had no rope. It was incredibly steep descending for as far as my light could let me see, it had a bolt at the top so it was obvious a rope was reccomended at least for ascending as it would certainly have been one hell of a struggle getting back, being nearly a vertical drop, and being only about 20cm wide (as a back to front dimension, room for shoulder width was plenty).
After leaving Pierres Pot we went to Sidcot where I encountered a minor problem, my fear of spiders - not a problem for the other two it seemed. Thom went in first and quickly discovered that there were some pretty big spiders hiding in the entrance halls, shafts and chambers, and quite a lot of them. I was second and had to go through a bit of manning up before proceeding, I'm usually not too bad but being in a confined space with them only a few inches from my face is pushing it! After the entrance there didnt seem to be any more so on we went to perhaps the most interesting bit of the cave we went to - Lobster Pot, so-called as getting in is easy, a very small slot in the floor with a fun little slide into a small chamber, just let gravity work its magic. On the way out however, it can be rather awkward. Thom was first in and last out, we all managed to get out suprisingly easier than we thought after looking at it. Overall the cave was nice and squeezy, with some of the passages we gandered to choking quite quickly, and me dreading the spider infested entrance we eventually had to go through on exit!
No comments:
Post a Comment