We would all go underground in the same area; there was a less demanding trip available for those not so keen on extensive crawling. We first got the other trip going; then we set off in search of our muddy adventure.
There were five of us. We all slid and glided down the steep slopes to the stream. The entrance would be somewhere on the other bank. But where? After only a few minutes of happily splashing around in the river, in the dark, Richard recognised something. We had found it!
Josh and Richard vanished. Then Bernard gave it a try. But he got stuck. He contemplated his options while Alex and I slid in too. He would try it a bit more; it would gain him a few bruises, but no access. He decided to join the other group.
Then we were four. Richard was a bit hesitant to slide into the first puddle; you have to go through on your belly. But after that first puddle, things don't matter too much anymore.
Fairly soon we came to a junction. Josh wanted to go the not-so-standard way. We agreed to all go, which got us to a deep puddle soon. It was fed by a stream coming out of the wall; that was the way on... Richard tried it, but couldn't get through. Then Josh wanted to try it. That involved him first crawling over Richard. From where I was wedged, that looked rather amusing. Josh got in! I decided to try too. Which involved me crawling over Richard too. That musty have been amusing from where Alex was situated...
Me quite near the entrance; I'm still relatively clean, and the cave is still relatively wide...
It was tight. It felt like it was possible, though it would take quite some force! But I soon realised that this was one of these places where you indeed run the risk of blocking the stream. With your head at the wrong side. I decided to wiggle back out. Alex decided to not even try.
We went back to the "normal" route. And that was eventful enough! Some of it is crouched clambering, quite some is knees-and-elbows work, and only a small part is belly-crawling. In varying amounts of mud. Somewhere along the route, the tunnel splits, and you have to go sideways through either of the two passages. One also has to be careful with the sometimes narrow floor; Josh got his boot stuck, and it took two to get it back out...
Josh consulting the survey, with Richard in the background
After a while we reached the end. And then we went back. That was rather quick; we now knew what to expect. Soon we were back at the first junction; there was one passage on the survey from there. It lead to a sump. Josh was unstoppable and wanted to check it out. I followed. It was quite nice actually; the streamway there was active, so the rock was clean. And I could walk (be it crouched) almost all the way (quite unlike Josh, who is taller).
I soon heard "this is not a sump, this is just a hole! But how small do you have to be to fit through?" And if you've known Josh for more than two minutes you know he will try. He did. He had to take his helmet off to fit through. He could see it went somewhere! So he tried to crawl through. Before he vanished too far, he told me "if I shout, pull me out!". A wise thing to say. Not much later he shouted "pull!" so I grabbed his suit and gave it my best midwife impression. It turned out that indeed, he had blocked the stream, and the water was rising, but he was wedged in so badly he could hardly move on his own initiative. Luckily I have sufficient pulling power, and *pop* there he was again!
Josh entering a very small hole
Josh almost vanishing
After some evaluation of what he'd seen we decided it was beer time. We crawled back out. Outside we found Bernard, who had come back to the entrance to wait for us. That was nice; this way he could take a picture of us looking all the same. And then it was time to wash the worst of the mud off in the stream, clamber back up the hill (with hardly an idea of where we were going, but "up" meant "out", eventually), get changed, and drive to the pub. Where we could just have a pint before we got too tired and the pub too closed. That was nice! I would be slightly bruised for days to come...
Alex, me, Richard and Josh. Does anyone notice all the guys are in red and blue, while I am in green and yellow? No? Oh dear...
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