Present: Al C, Zara C, Manny C, Joe Taylor, Han B, Peter B, Alex S, Kev R, Mark Cant, Richard Haigh, Mssr Leech
Set off at 9am on a bright, sunny day – awesome. 1hr 20mins to Ingleton – most of it airborne and some near crashes but still worth it. Much phaff in Ingleton – various people needed to buy gear, eat breakfast etc. Left 12ish! Changed at Valley Entrance and split into three groups.
The first group journeyed in. Al rigged the pitch whilst Zara tied a Fig-8 in the rope. Cold, drak and fun; spent most of the way crawling with back hurting bad but so worth it. Some of the tunnel was so smooth and almost man-made-looking. Finally reached a massive cavern… really massive [Swinsto Great Aven]. The wonderful route out involved crawling under a narrow gap. Only one cave done today but 2hrs long –was perfect.
Spent an hour or so in the garden at The Marton Arms topping up with chips and beer. Lovely sunny weather. Also Joe left a shoe in the Kingsdale road that Al had to drive back and fetch!
The Rowten Sumps by Ralph, age 7.
Leaving the others, I dived the sumps to view the foot of Rowten pitchs. Met a diver. Sumps were clear and visibility was around 1m. 1st sump was just a duck, 2nd (~3m) and 3rd (~8m) were spacious. Top trial run, bring on the pull through!