Barbon Pot or Confessions
of a Fat Bast*rd
Having spent ages cleaning out loads of farmer-type sh..(rubbish) out of
the entrance it was now a fairly pleasant descent to the bottom of the water-washed
shaft and into the large continuation passage. So now all we needed to do was
take a few photographs, finish the survey that Sam and I had started and then
leave it to the pushers (not drug related) to find the connection to Dog Holes,
simple! The reason for us leaving off at this point is quite simple, I didn’t
fit! I didn’t fit about twenty five
years ago when me, Fran, Charlie, Neil, Pete and Giles came down through the
rubbish to try to push the cave and I definitely didn’t fit now .So here we
were, Hugh St. Lawrence, Sam Lieberman, Andy Whitney and myself flogging up
that bloody hill again, I know it’s a short walk compared with some but I’d
done it getting on for forty times usually carting some heavy load either up or
down. No chance of keeping up with a rampant Hugh after all the wings help him
a lot when going uphill so I trudged along with camera gear and SRT kit behind
the younger members of the team. The entrance had been left rigged so the
survey team could get down easily but his meant that the others were carrying
absolutely nothing and romped away from a flagging pensioner.
As usual Hugh set off from the pitch as if followed by a garlic seller
and Sam followed as fast as his little legs would go, leaving me to bring along
the caving equivalent of Marvin from Hitch Hikers Guide. O.K. so the Main
Chamber is a bit muddy in places and looks a bit loose but it is still an
interesting piece of passage until the climb down through boulders and slide
through a muddy tube to the top of the pit, head first, well maybe not that
interesting! Once Andy and I’d negotiated the climb down to The Vaults, I found
Andy was really happy to pose for a photograph in the tight muddy bedding,
great. Descending the mud tube to the lower streamway is fun but it’s worth
remembering where you land in the stream for the return journey. The next
section involves a little thrutching in a narrow stream passage and climbing
over obstacles.
We caught up with the Count and Renfield as they were leaving the
station where Sam and I had finished our survey so Andy and I took a few photos
and then did a little exploring before heading back.
I led the way out but was surprised when after some time Andy hadn’t
arrived at the end of the muddy bedding. Then there was some sound of udging
and it appears Andy had missed the muddy tube back up and tried to crawl at
stream level, error! Exiting then went fairly straight forward and we had only
a short wait at the car before the others returned, defeated. Apparently there
is a lot more surveying beyond where they’d reached so that means the ‘skinny
folk’ will have to sign up to finish it off.
Ray Duffy