The Columns and the Belgian buns

Sunday saw us doing another must in the system with a bank holiday trip to the beautiful Columns. The plan was to follow another group via the short route and then come back through the labyrinth, but Jess spent so long putting on her make up that we missed out on following anyone in.
Convinced we knew which way to go, we managed to explore every passage off big chamber before recognising the right route to Cairn Chamber. Here we began up a wet calcite passage and soon heard voices ahead.  The columns are magnificent and Keith had also mentioned not to miss the unusual mud stalagmites topped with pebbles at the entrance which again were something we had never seen before.
After a few photographs we made our way down the labyrinth and through to the base of Arete Chamber, down through the boulders and out via Salubrious.
At the top of the corkscrew boulder choke I wanted to find the other routes to Arete.  After spotting the climb up for the mid-section, we went off to find the top route. There we found a group of Belgians who thought they were making their way out, but were actually about to make their way across the top of Arete chamber & quite possibly down to the bottom of Arete chamber and squished like a bun, so we decided to lead them back out and save exploring further for another day.

Jess admiring the Columns

Present Mark Burkey & Jessica Harding