In Which Wretched Rabbit Lives up to its Name
Sunday, 6 November 2016
Shuffled into a small group of people more experienced than I, this fresher was in for a treat on Sunday. Lancaster Hole was a happy, muddy experience for me; my companions soon learned that a muddy Kayla is a happy Kayla. With loads of pretties and the Sam Allshorne amount of indecisiveness, Lancaster Hole proved itself to be my favourite cave so far. Doing my best to look as skilled as the rest, I learned how to overexert muscles that I didn’t even know I had. The colonnade and the chamber were awe-inspiring, and I could have happily plodded around exploring every inch of those walls for an age. The stream way proved fun for the first time ever-my newly acquired wet socks showed that you can indeed be warm inside a cave.
The transition into Wretched is where I started to suffer and my inexperience was revealed. The crawls where CSJ with a busted shoulder still managed to make it through in half the time were my undoing, and the squeeze where it was necessary to brace feet on one wall and knees on the opposite withdrew from me much more effort than planned. Finally, climbing up a wall with just a rope on the way out of wretched wasn’t to be done; I needed to stand on other people in order to make it up. Exiting the cave right on our 10 pm call out showed us a late night, but one with a beautiful starry night sky.
All in all, this was my favourite cave in my short time of caving. Caving continues to be the most adventurous and strenuous thing I’ve done since I’ve come to England, and it’s probably been the best decision I’ve made thus far.
Images
Colonnade
Posted by: Kayla Ford
Size: 76kb
Width: 600 pixels
Height: 450 pixels
Posted: 09 November 2016