Having enjoyed the trip into
Swildons on the Saturday, we split into 2 groups again on the Sunday. With
Chloe leading a party into GB, Brendan, Keith, Mark and myself were booked to
go into St. Cuthberts. On the day however, Brendan decided to join Chloe and co.
as he had hurt his leg the day before, so only the 3 of us met with Estelle our
guide.
Estelle pointed out the valve
which cuts water flow off from the entrance of the cave, and we descended the shaft
to the head of the entrance rift. “There’s lots of hand and footholds, just
watch what I do” she said, and then proceeded to slither down the rift faster
than the eye could follow! After we had also wriggled down (not as gracefully
or speedily) Estelle proceeded to show us around the cave.
We were led down a series of
fixed ladders into ‘Wire Rift’ (a steeply descending tight rift which was
easier than it looked – at least on the way down. Once in the main cave we were
overwhelmed by several things;
- the variety and number of fabulous formations, such as the Pillar, the Cascades, the Curtains, the Octopus, the Beehive…
- the diversity of “challenges” the cave threw at us in the way of climbs, wriggles, slides and thrutches…
- the array of passages and chambers in the cave (about 7km of passage in a 3-dimensional maze)
- our guide Estelle, who outcaved us completely! Keith described her as ‘like watching a time-lapse video – don’t blink or you’ll miss her!’
We regained a little of our
dignity (and puff) when we stopped for a quick break and Estelle offered to
show us more of the cave than is normally seen on tourist trips, as we were
caving so fast!!! Dignity went straight out the window for me however as the
first challenge was climbing a vertical water chute which looked impossible
from the bottom and I squeaked like a girl.
The ‘extra’ tour completed,
we arrived back at the entrance series, where I made very heavy work of ‘Wire
Rift’, tiring myself out completely before even attempting the tricky final
rift upwards. Estelle went first (fairly slowly!) showing me where the holds
were, and I wriggled up slowly. At no time did I feel scared of falling, as the
rift is so narrow that you only have to bend your knees and you’re not going
anywhere. In fact that was the problem near the top – no matter how I wriggled,
I wasn’t going anywhere! A final thrust and pull on the arms however and I was
up and out, hurray!
While Mark and Keith easily followed
me up the rift, Estelle and I climbed out of the shaft. I didn’t quite get to
the valve in time to soak the boys unfortunately, but maybe next time – I’d
definitely love to go back to this cave and explore it with a little more time.
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