From what is now the dimming past, but with fond memories of a mis spent youth with wayyy too much beer and outrageous parties in some even more outrageous locations. Like a long abandoned cottage in a slate mine valley in North Wales. The now Ex-club house in South Wales (I read CSS got a deal), and a few rather innebriated Mendip trips. Of course who can forget sweatting like a bitch all day carrying heavy amo cans full of whatever and putting same sweaty wet gear on next day. Or returning from continent with a roof rack full of gear that the customs gal insisted she really didn’t want to inspect after a week of wearing.
Kinda sad I missed the reunion, but I only just found out about it. Maybe I can attend next reunion if we can schedule.
Sounds like I might be the most distant so far. I now live downtown Toronto so I need quite a bit of notice, flights etc. But I seem to visit once a year so it is possible to coordinate and meet.
I do remember some other locations we went. OFD, LNRC, hmmm there was another cave down south Wales too, show cave with restricted access, can’t remember name. [Dan Yr Ogof]
Did anything ever come of the club dig ? [Interest in the dig petered out perhaps a day short of the breakthrough into caverns measureless to man, or else hundreds of metres of fill before the breakthrough to a miserable little muddy crawl…]
Oh yes. I visited DYO, was spectacular, huge solution tubes, beautiful straws, fantastic calcite.
Worst cave ? Prob one down in Severn valley I think. Entrance is tidal, goes under orchard. Made me sick as hell for over a week. Stinks like a corpse due to rotting vegetation. Just one long ever narrowing stream passage. [that would be Otter Hole]
I think last time I ventured underground was back in my university years, based in Bradford I headed up to Gaping Gill and rappelled down, I remember the smell of burning rope and praying the rope didn’t melt before I got to a damp patch of rope. That was an evil looking descent, railway size tunnel, green and slimy walls, water falling away into blackness, the silence made it seem to drop into oblivion. But intelligently I chose the weekend the winch was in place, so getting out was nice and easy. I think I have some photos from the bottom somewhere in my collection.
Caves in Canada tend to be either full of debris from the ice sheets that once covered the country, or out west they are on a vast scale and you have to fly to the entrance by helicopter, not a cheap proposition. No sign of any cave rescue out West either so your on your own here.
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