Hard Rock Cafe

Today's trip was to be a fairly tough one, involving roughly three miles of varied caving, reported to take 10 hours. This included the infamous Daren Entrance Series, the ladder up into Higher Things and a few “Velcro-mud” belly crawls for good measure. Having done the Draenen round trip with Anne and Loz two days prior, I was feeling a little unenthused about this trip. However, the thought of reaching Hard Rock Cafe - as well as it being George's first experience of Daren Cilau (despite several planned trips all of which had to be cancelled) - was sufficient encouragement to crack on with the trip.

We made good time through the Entrance Series which took us just over an hour carrying bags. From there, easy stomping led to Big Chamber Nowhere Near the Entrance, and before long we had completed the various crawls and squeezes into Preliminary Passage. Here we stopped to have a quick drink, and eye up the delights of the ladder up Welly Boy Aven. I went up first, swinging around as is inevitable, and got myself set up to belay George from the top. It was evident that George didn't enjoy this bit of the trip very much. It feels quite insecure climbing the wobbly ladder with a belt for safety rather than a harness. And I don't think this was made any better by my comment while George was halfway up that the lifeline didn't really add much safety as it was virtually impossible to take in the rope quickly enough as he climbed.

Nonetheless, we both made it to Higher Things and before long had completed the traverse and climbs down into White Passage. At this point, it really struck me how committing trips into the further reaches of Daren are. You head deeper into the cave with no easy way out, the thought of exiting through the entrance crawls in your mind, and the knowledge that rescue would be incredibly complex and protracted. These thoughts can transform Daren from a fun - if challenging - cave to one that is quite oppressive. Indeed, boulder-hoping through the Time Machine and Bonsai Streamway I was very aware of the possibility of a twisted ankle, and catching my feet on a few occasions didn't help.

After arriving at Hard Rock Cafe without incident, we started the long trip out. Somehow we managed to shave 90 minutes off our inward time, and make it back to daylight in just three hours. I have no clue how we did this; I was definitely feeling a lot more tired on the way out. However, it probably had something to do with George motoring through the crawls and dragging both bags behind him like a hero (does that man ever get tired!?). This meant I just had to try and keep up, and not cry or whimper too much about the Vice (my own psychological nemesis).

Of course, the problem with completing this trip is now I think that pushing on to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe is possible, or even Spaderunner. It looks like a Dudley trip to the end of Daren may be on the cards in the future…

Cavers: George and Dave
Trip rerpot: Dave
Photo: George