Lost Johns Mud Inlet out Notts II
Saturday, 26 November 2016
Having not been up to the farm for a while and not really feeling any particular desire to go to CHECC I decided to bother Becka and see if she was up to anything. Amongst other things she had some surveying to do but apparently none was too miserable and what misery there was, was brief.
Having got a train to some random place near Liverpool I was picked up by Becka and off we went. Coming off the motorway Becka managed to drive the wrong way up an extremely large and empty junction, my unhappy/unsure noises particularly subtle and unnoticed on this occasion. We arrived at the farm and it soon began to fill with Birmingham university walkers. Due to walkers sleeping in my space I had to sleep in the members bedroom which was very pleasant (only 1 snorer). We got up early on Saturday, breakfasted on museli and fruit (a disturbing lack of grease) and were on the fell by 9!!! and down Lost Johns by about half past (I think a record).
We headed down the furthermost route and were quickly at Battleaxe, I got to rig this and in no time at all we were at the last pitch into the master cave. I don’t really know how to rig this and perhaps because of this the rope was just not long enough to decend (having removed both knots) but probably a challenge to come back up. Whilst Patrick & Becka fixed this I had a wee and it seemed to be solved by the time I had finished urinating.
At this point Patrick seemed to have a premonition and was insistent he headed out (with an agm in several hours), this left Becka and myself slightly bemused by his insistence to leave heading off to mud inlet.
The inlet begins with a greasy, unpleasant climb (with 2 ropes); carrying on to a muddy thrutch and then onto a muddy crawl. After a few minutes of muddy crawling we got to the end of Becka’s previous surveying trip. I’d been promised that after a few legs it would end in a mud sump (“I’ve looked at the 60’s survey”); unfortunately someone had inconsiderately dug it and it went on for some time until a large chamber.
Whilst we were in the crawl we head some odd noises and I began to worry that my SRT kit which I’d left near the streamway as an indicator of where we were, was going to be washed away; a few minutes later Dinny emerged (the source of the strange noises) having abandoned his group somewhere near the entrance. After a bit of distraction & minor crossness from Becka we carried on surveying up a nasty, loose boulder choke whilst Dinny went to find his group.
Eventually we finished surveying (more or less) and we headed out (once I’d decided I wasn’t keen on further surveying up Rumbling Inlet) via Notts II; the connection between the Lost Johns and Notts II is particularly impressive. Various minor tasks (Becka talking about brains, me sitting and drinking tea whilst making affirmative noises) later we were back at the farm where Becka was informed that what we’d surveyed had already been surveyed.
Seeing that Becka didn’t look miserable enough someone else informed her that the data was also on the repository. Everyone we met that weekend took great pleasure in informing us that Mud Inlet had been surveyed, it was at this point that Becka admitted that she’d previously looked at the data. Apparently this wasn’t a waste of time as “I needed the practice”. We then proceeded to reconstruct the legs from one of the chambers as something didn’t look right; the combination of alcohol and tiredness meant several reconstructions still didn’t really make sense and we resolved to sort it in the morning.
The next day I was meant to go caving with Sam Allshorn but after dithering in Inglesport (we were late but Sam Allshorn still allowed me to have second breakfast) we set of to Large Pot (with Becka going digging in Ireby) with the intention of bolting it. Once I’d got changed into my still damp caving gear, Sam Allshorn went for a poo (having not been for one in Inglesport) announced that he’d just had a particuarly loose and watery poo (having cleaned up a childs vomit the previous day) and couldn’t cave. We headed back reclaiming some wooden pallets from SOEE before being dropped at Quarry Street to meet Peachey’s mum.
Cheers to Becka for chauffeuring and feeding me and to Sam Allshorn for not making me get the train home.
Comments
I didn’t “abandon” them, they “chose” not to keep up…
Dinny Davies
Friday, 02 December 2016