18 November 2018

Back to Wrysgan

It had been a while since I had been underground! And the last time was in the dig. After that night, work got a bit too much for a while. But I emerged on the other side and decided I could come out with the Thursdaynighters again! And even all the way. Not just a walk to the entrance and then bail out like the previous time. The last time I had actually been fully underground with the lot had been in September...

I hitched a ride with Phil. He hadn't been out on a Thursday night for a while either! And by teaming up we could just go home after the trip would be done; David, Paul and who not would go for a pizza afterwards. And the venue would be Wrysgan; the mine on the other side of the valley from Cwmorthin. We had an unfinished project there; we had managed to establish a through trip, but is was a sketchy one; it would need shoring up to make it a long-term feature. There is a bit too much potential for rocks falling through the crucial passage!

There were a fair few of us; Don, Chris, Edwyn and Jason were there too. Nice to see them all! They had assumed I had been digging the past weeks. If only! And it was a quite sultry, moonlit night; you can't have enough of these.

We walked to the entrance, got in, checked if the rope down from the 'wormhole' was in position (it was) and walked the long way to the top of the wormhole. We had a sandwich stop along the way. Always nice! And once we were there, we pondered how to make it safe, and took some measurements. Then we all dropped it and were ready to come out. What a nice quick trip! We were even out earlier than we usually are when we are digging.

I don't know when we'll actually do the shoring up; the project has been lasting for years and getting a bunch of cats like underground explorers to collaborate isn't easy. Oh well! No rush. But it's nice that for now, this through-trip is there!


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