- GERMAN AGGRESSION -
The darkness is intense, pierced only by 5 sources of torch light as we search this big shake hole. I could hear the loud unmistakeable roar of water. As I scan the landscape a surprisingly large waterfall is raging away. It’s a still night with a small mizzle of rain. Eventually in the far corner of the shake hole we discover a hole surrounded by tree roots.
Crock pot was the main plan for tonight. It was serendipitous how this trip occurred with the original explorers of this cave messaging Rob stating that a picture from LWS looked like crock pot. Rob unearthed a survey that screamed team awesome as we read phrases like “not entered”.
I decided to ditch the tackle sack because it looked like it would be a tight trip. We followed the obvious way on to begin with, negotiating some squeezes until we hit the floor of the rift. Right looked like t’owd man but shut down very quickly. Left it is then.
There was a gap in the rift to the left and so joe climbed up and in to have a look. I continued onwards with Fabs, we got to the end, poked into all of the crevasses which all shut down. Well it’s not that way then. Heading back Fabs pointed out a mat on the floor on the opposite side of Joe. I climbed up over a chockstone to enter a tight rift, this then dropped down and through a squeeze. This maybe the way on I thought, but then voices got more excited and louder on the opposite side of the rift so I made my way over. Luke and Rob had found a way down nearer the entrance. Joe, still in the rift was searching around for a way down as we could see Rob and lukes lights below.
“It looks a long way down, I have an idea” said Fabs who picked a rock up and yeeted it into the rift as Joe and I both shouted at the same time. The rock bounced off Joes arm and made its way to the floor, pinging off the walls on the way down.
“Jesus Fabs, what’s with the German aggression” I said as Joe still wide eyed in shock at the sudden blitzkrieg that had headed straight at him uttered something similar. Soon there was a call for the ladder from Rob so we all followed down into the rift where they had entered.
- Snagging my Gentleman Sausage -
There was a scaff bar hanging out over a tight rift around 8m high. Rob rigged the ladder onto the scaff, which was anchored by simply being wedged shallowly into a bit of rock. Then he slid into the rift. From high above it looked awkward and very tight. Lots of grunting followed by “I’m fully 500 commited here boys” Hmmm, when Rob thinks it is hard then it is worth taking note.
Luke equally made it look tight and awkward. At the bottom I could see it was then a sideways flat crawl to a cross rift. They did not sound overly optimistic, Joe went next as I wanted a better look at the squeeze. He slid into it and just dropped to the bottom, easy as you like. Well that didn’t look bad at all. I followed next, went at an angle as I entered the squeeze and slid easily to the bottom. It was a very fun controlled fall which I think was position dependant. At the bottom for me it was a helmet off job as I inched sideways trying not to snag my gentleman sausage on the sharp chert sticking out. I joined the boys in the cross rift to find that this wasn’t going anywhere. Joe had a poke up high into a tight rift. Rob consulted the survey and we concluded that we might have been in north rift. Fabs had come down the squeeze but decided against the sideways squeeze crawl through and worked on sorting the ladder for the return upwards. Content that we had exhausted this bit I exclaimed that I thought I knew the way on and so we made our way to the south rift. We climbed up and down and up and down and around tight squeezes and rifts. I led the way following my nose until I saw a small rope and some hangers. Boom, this was the way. Fabs rigged the ladder and dropped down first. I heard a very excited voice with one hell of an echo. Joining him at the bottom was fascinating. We had been in tight cave the whole time and suddenly we were in a huge thin, long and tall chamber with a hole at floor level surrounded by scaffolding. Poking around we concluded that there was no way on. Rob chimneyed up by the rope to search high but felt that he needed SRT kit to get to the top. Content that we had exhausted Crock pot we made our way out uneventfully. It had felt so good to be underground again and I felt sad that we were done already after only an hour or so.
We got back to the vehicles and much to my delight Rob stated that we could do LWS and still make the pub. He and Joe were keen to survey the new section. I had left my SRT kit in my van, but Luke kindly offered his to me. “You aren’t coming with us?” Rob asked. “No I don’t want to get muddy” came the reply. So we kitted up and left Luke to burp the worm.
- I Don't think femurs bend that way -
It was still mizzling lightly and as we got into LWS shake hole I saw another waterfall, but this one was much smaller with a lot less water. Rob pointed out the dam that had been built to divert water into V2. There was a small steady flow into it as the dam was working well.
As I entered V1 Rob was giving me the history guided tour explaining each break through session. It was fascinating and the work completed was impressive in such a small environment. Soon we were at the pitch and all dropped down, past the deviation 24m to the floor. Rob and Joe went right into 1st Reich. Fabs and I dropped our SRT kits and went left, sliding along Brooklands Straight we eventually reached the end and a large slopped boulder. Fabs explained that he thought there might be a way on there. I climbed up onto the boulder to see a dry mud bank but couldn’t see any way on other than digging out the mud and seeing where that went. This part of the cave is just a large boulder choke so I imagine there would be something.
Fabs started climbing up here. I had forgotten my gloves and by this point my hands were really really sore. Minimally travelled caves mean sharp rough rock. It’s a mistake I will only make once. (as a climber i'm used to getting sore hands, but caving in muddy caves mean you effectively have a constant grinding paste on your hands. Very different wear to climbing)
At the top of the climb Fabs pointed out a small keyhole squeeze at floor level of the ledge that we were on. Through that gap I saw a lot of water and muddy, ah, here is where I get cold tonight. I slid into a small chamber, half submerged in water. Ahead was a big boulder with a way on left or right, both leading to the same point. Right looked worse so I went left. I slid my body through fine but my thigh got pinned. I was firmly stuck. “What’s beyond here? Is it worth looking at?” I shouted back to Fabs. From what he said I decided I should go on but didn’t fancy breaking my leg so I retreated and went to the other side of the boulder. I decided to go in chest facing right as it looked like it curved around to the right. I got my body through but then weirdly it started bending me backwards. Aware that my spine shouldn’t be bending this way I retreated once more, flipped around and went back in. this felt really easy except for a sharp flake sticking up that was jabbing me in the ribs and back but eventually I was through. There was a small slot ahead, I peered through and could hear a lot of running water. That sounded interesting. Looking up I saw another vertical letter box style squeeze, again it looked like it might be hard but once I stepped up on a foot hold I popped through no problem to be stood up in a rift. It was super tight to the right. I could hear the running water again, but conscious that I had left Fabs alone a way back I chose not to push on in this squeeze alone. I went left into a large chamber, which felt quite impressive after what I had gone through to get there. There looked like a way on in the floor but again, aware of Fabs I chose to head back. I dropped back down into the small chamber, went feet first into the flake squeeze which I thought I had managed to avoid a stabbing until my shoulders had to pass over it. Dam that needs capping.
- Wetter than an Otters pocket -
As I returned to Fabs, caked in mud and grinning from ear to ear he said “did you move or disturb something?” I said that I didn’t think so. “oh, its just that there's some water flowing out of that squeeze now.” We could see it gently trickling over the edge where he was sat but thought nothing of it. As we down climbed to the floor we became aware of the sound of water that we hadn’t heard earlier. I climbed back over the slopped boulder to see water GUSHING in through a small crack, filling the mud bank and could also heard loud water behind the flake infront of me. Fabs exclaimed that it was flowing down Brooklands straight.
We mooched back to our kit to see it swimming. “I definitely put that down on dry ground” I pointed out. “yeah, weird” came Fabs. “I might go and see where they are surveying” I said to Fabs, he climbed up the rift so that I could squeeze under him to get passed. I walked past the rope and into 1st Reich. “Oh, tell Rob that there’s some water flowing” came a shout. I got to the small duck that looked like it was a bit of a dog leg. Rob had heard me coming, “are you coming through Ben?” “yep, what’s the best way through this?” I shouted back as I assessed the puddle which was about half full. (Oblivious at this point that it was filling up) I went through on my back for some air space and contorted around the corner and popped up into a tight rift. I could see some tools and allowed myself to fall forwards at a 45 degree angle and slid forwards bit by bit. “You coming to the end?” shouted Rob. “Yes mate………….Oh, Fabs said to let you know that there’s some water flowing” I said calmly, completely ignorant to the impending danger. Rob and Joe, normally cool as cucumbers clearly took a moment to process this and then came the shout “GET OUT, it’s going to sump!!!” still in my Winnie the Pooh bubble of ignorance didn’t quite grasp the situation and replied “ok, I’ll head out then shall i?” and began working my way back. Hmmmm. The duck wasn’t that full when I came through. This time I got a mouthful and ear full of water as I negotiated the awkward squeeze.
Now, my hearing isn’t the best, and as I had passed through the squeeze Rob had been shouting “build a dam!” but I didn’t hear that at all and so Rob then Joe came barrelling through even wetter. Standing by the squeeze Joe exclaimed that 1 minute after he came through the water had not only sumped the squeeze but had put it 20 cm under water. “You don’t realise that you just saved our lives there!!” Rob said maniacally.
Deciding this was no longer an optimum place to stay rob started to climb up as I got on the rope. I was using lukes gear as mine was still in my van. Lukes hand jammer didn’t have a handle which I found most odd, it was effectively a chest jammer being used as a hand jammer, the pantin was different to mine and I could quite understand the closure system as it kept popping open. This made for a laboriously ascent in a tight rift. Half way up rob was resting and giggling. “where else can you SRT up next to someone freeclimbing” he said with a massive grin. In fairness I very nearly unclipped from the rope to freeclimb as it looked like a much easier task. Eventually we both got to the top of the pitch. “I can’t believe you just saved our lives back there” we were buzzing as the Fabs and Joe joined us. As we exited the cave we could see the dam was overflowing into the cave. V2 was a torrent and the waterfall was raging, and yet it was only mizzling, so where on earth was all of this water coming from? Hoping that Luke had finished poaching the egg we headed back to the van, dekitted and hit the Mechanics.
One thing I really love after caving is the reactions. Still caked in mud the landlord did not even bat an eyelid; it was the norm to see muddy cavers. On the way home Fabs and I nipped to McDonalds. “guest 48” came to the call so I stepped forwards. The server handed me my bag and looked at me properly for the first time, took a step back with a strange expression on his face, looked at Fabs and asked quizzically “Have you been shagging in a field?”
Vid on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/shorts/wgCodFNVG98?si=vmuweSXBB9pSCwCJ