Dudley Caving Club: Phil gets a little hotter in Otter

Phil requested a trip in to the stunning Otter Hole a while back and so a trip was booked. The team would comprise of Jess, myself, Phil, Mike & Kay.

We met our leader, Adrian at the car park at 7.15am kitted and ready to go. Jess had sent out a couple of emails warning that this would not be an easy trip and as we walked to the cave entrance people muttered about just the walk back up the hill would be strenuous enough!

We entered in to the flat out mud wallowing our way through. We kept a good pace, reaching the sump in 45mins, to find it wide open. The next leg of the entrance series begun to wear down Phil, who had not caved since Christmas and by the time we reached the breakthrough he was really feeling the pace.

Mike and Kay were eager to reach the end of the cave and so we discussed options. It was decided we would do the honourable thing.....ok maybe not.....we abandoned Phil with his camera to take a breather and play with photo's and video and headed on through the cave.

Otter hole has a reputation for being breathtakingly decorated and does not disappoint. I had not been further than Long Straw Chamber before and so was surprised as we reached the junction to see Tunnels Left changing character to phreatic boulder strewn passage.

We took a quick look at the final chamber and sump and then headed back toward Phil taking a couple of quick photo's as we went.

Once we reached Hall of 30 and rejoined him we again took a couple more shots before heading out.

Again Phil was feeling the pace so we took it nice and easy to exit at about 6pm.

Unfortunately my camera lens had given up by the time we exited and so we are without the usual mud covered exit shot, but the pic of the suits awaiting to be cleaned gives a good flavour of what we would have looked like :)