Another wet trip with the ladies

After the marking deadlines I gave a shout to my underground companions Lydia and Sharon that I was up for a trip again. And a good weekend for that turned out to be the one of the 17th. Now we needed to decide where to go! The first suggestion was Ogof Hesp Alyn (OHA), which none of us had done. But some light googling gave me the idea that it was a cave with a lot of pitches. Sharon had heard that it was extremely muddy. And they were reasons why we thought neither of these was a good idea. And we settled for a cold wet local mine. I had been there before with Lydia, and several times before that, but Sharon had never been. And Lydia still had a lot more of the mine to see.

As usual, I picked up Lydia, and went to the meeting place. It was an overcast day, quite unlike most recent days, but it was still quite warm. That was good! We would come out of that place pretty cold.

The entrance is so close to the parking lot I thought I could just wear my full suit walking up, but I reconsidered. It really was too hot for that! But a few meters from the entrance I was already standing in thigh-deep cold water. That was the end of me being uncomfortably hot.

Soon we came to the mysterious rope going up that Lydia and I had seen the previous time. We had climbed up to the first anchors. It went further up, but we weren't sure of the rigging, and by the time we were also getting a bit cold. But it was all new to Sharon, so she was up like a squirrel, and soon investigating the slightly dodgy rigging above the first anchors. She improved it a bit, and went further up. That meant: new terrain! Exciting!

Quite soon we came to a gap in the floor with a beautiful bridge. It looked too fragile to use, but you could traverse! Someone had rigged this, and not particularly long ago. But the level didn't go much beyond that. When we explored on the other side we found some artefacts, and the way back to the pitch from the other side. That was a little bit dodgy! It wasn't the best false floor I had ever seen. But we all came down safe.

The bridge. Pic by Sharon

Then we went beyond where Lydia and I had been. And there were more surprises! Just before the real wet bit, there is a mystery ladder going up, going nowhere. And this time, there was a rope next to it. Both ends coming down! But where to? Lydia investigated. She confirmed that the rope also went nowhere. I then decided to come up on the other rope. You don't get a pitch with two parallel ropes very often! Might as well enjoy some social climbing (pun intended). It was a strange pitch. It must have been an enormous work to put it in, but why? 

After this conundrum, it was time to face the real wet bit of the mine. It normally is chest-deep! Almost swimming deep. You might as well swim because you're not getting a lot wetter deep. It was less deep than normal; probably the influence of the drought. My guess is about 8 inches lower! And that makes a difference. It was still cold though.

I went up at another ladder next to an ore chute, but didn't feel comfortable coming off it. And then we went deeper into the mine. More deep water! And we found more shafts, more ore chutes, and more ladders. Quite nice! But we were getting a little bit cold.

Wet! Pic by Sharon

At some point we reached the end of another level. We knew there were more levels we hadn't explored, but by this time we were so cold we were keen to get back into the sunshine. So we turned around! And just got out.

I hadn't been able to feel my feet for a while. I think Sharon was the same! She went back to the car quite quickly, but I preferred to see if I could get a little bit of feeling back into my feet before I walked back. Lydia was feeling the same. It was also quite nice to sit outside in the hot weather and really appreciating it. There were some walkers coming by, in shorts and T-shirts, looking at us a bit puzzled. But I was really soaking in the warm air! And after a while, I clumsily clomped back to the car, still with not a lot of feeling in my feet. Maybe I shouldn't do this on steel-toed boots. It makes your feet a lot colder! But they do provide protection. At some point there was a rock falling dangerously close to Sharon's foot. Maybe she had cold feet now, but it probably still was good she had been wearing the steel-toed boots! And the same could've happened to me.

I got changed and warmed up again. Both Lydia and I had brought cake. And we had sandwiches and drinks. And it wasn't a very bad day for midges.

I thought it had been a good trip! I am always excited about new terrain, and I was also glad we had done this trip in a drought. We had been cold enough as it was! And Sharon had, as usual, taken amazing pictures. As you can see here!