Margot's Blog: Ladies’ trip into lead mine

The ladies were coming to the west again! I had skipped the previous trip, as the venue was something like a 1:20hr drive to the east. That just wasn’t feasible on a week night. But now we would do a mine in the Gwydir Forest! That’s not far. And I like that mine.

It would be a big tight; we would meet at 18:30, and I would be teaching until 18:00. But I know the place; I could rock up a bit later, and get to the entrance on my own. I was sure I would find them. But my lecture was done a bit before 18:00, and there was no problem with traffic, so I actually rocked up pretty much 18:30 on the dot. The ladies were still there! And I quickly changed.

We walked up the hill to the entrance all together, and got in. Some ladies hadn’t been here before. And those who had been, hadn’t necessarily seen it all. And even if you’ve seen it all, it’s nice to see it again! So from the entrance chamber we all had a lovely time.

We first explored the level we had come in on. Plenty to see! It’s a very diverse mine, where you never know what will be around the corner. And it’s full of drippies in all sorts of colours.

We then shimmied up to a higher level. That was nice too! And then back. Sharon had belayed those that wanted that up and down the vertical passage, and before coming down herself she threw the rope bag down. It sounded like a human crashing down! Several hearts almost stopped. Luckily it wasn’t a human.

Then we went back out. I was home by about 10:30. It had been a lovely trip!