Victoria, Katie, Edvin, Jenny, Grace and Anthony
Oh what fun mud can be. Tuesday Nighters met up for a nice wander into Merlins Mine. Yes, it has been raining off and on for the last month but there is always hope that you can get into the further reaches of the Stoney Middleton caves. Katie had her bag of Science with her and was tasked with collecting information and samples for J.G. . It has been mentioned that these water samples could be helping to keep his youthful appearance as he might really be 300 years old…. A rope was mentioned and some of us brought our SRT kits. Some did not. Yes, the shaft is climbable with the hand line but I opted for some SRT. I enjoy doing that just as much as challenging my slippery feet climbing, maybe next time. Katie and Edvin moved through quickly trying to reach a data logger only to find it was sumped so it was not retrievable on this day. They were able to retrieve some data from one other and the magical water sample. I never like to cave at the back of the pack…I am sure that last person is always eaten by zombies and since I rarely look at a survey (not sure why) I am sure to take a wrong turn. I was last. So following the feet in front of me they took a wrong turn. It really is a wonderful maze of a mine. We ended up scooting through like penguins in the slippery mud to find we were on the way to the through trip to Oyster Chamber which was not the plan. Well, back through the tight squeezes and mud we found the others returning from said sump. They wanted to return to where we had ended up to get to Gimli’s Dream.. so back through penguin style through the muddy puddles. Gimli’s does not disappoint and the conservation tape is still in good shape. We had to make a decision whether to just do the through trip or back out the way we came and explore the upper levels. We agreed to head back as some of us had SRT kits to collect. I would like to come back to do the through trip soon. Yes, back through the squeezes and climbs. We had a good look at some of the side passages on the way out and then out to the nearly tropical feeling warmth. I always love that first smell of wet earth as you emerge. Time for a quick photo on Katies phone-which ended up doing strange creative framing , probably due to the fact it had just been on a two hour journey in her suit in a tea towel. Fun done for tonight for most of us… Katie headed down the road to Streaks to collect another data logger…dedication.
