22nd December - Jingling all the way...

Our First Experience Potholing by James and Sarah
Dec 2012

So the Clothing?

I wrestled into my thick yellow suit which appears to be the standard caving attire! Another car of fellow cavers pulled up whilst we were changing and they were rather taken with my red wellie boots!

The Walk In

The sky was heavy with low lying cloud and as we walked up the sodden hill even the light drizzle did little to stop me overheating. My onesie fleece undergarment and caving harness equipment felt a little claustrophobic to begin with but that feeling disappeared when we came across this opening in the ground!

The Decent

A quick lesson from Mr Dick Gerrish using the descender, we found ourselves leaping across and down this traverse whilst Alastair was rigging the route ahead! More down, down and passing a deviation we found ourselves clipping in and out with more ease. 

The Bottom and The Ascent

There was the remains of a sheep that had come to an unfortunate end and the realisation that what we had just come down required climbing back up! Bouncing a little, I was able to establish a nice rhythm gradually moving up the rope in 6" increments!

Arriving at the top and traversing the tricky top section which was now under the cover of darkness we had come to the end of our trip.

A massive thank you to Dick Gerrish and Alastair Shawcross for a totally exhilarating experience! 

Guest editors James (Honey Bear) Outram (sitting in the middle) and Sarah Gerrish back at the van after their debut potholing trip.