Yorkshire I
Ben Banfield, Clewin Griffith, Dan Greenwald, Dave Wilson, Gergely Ambrus, James Huggett, Jutta Schnabel, Lyndon Leggate, Marc Labuhn, Sandeep Mavadia, Sarah
Saturday - a cold and windy day, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Yorkshire. The sheep huddle together for shelter beneath the stone wall, rain splashes against the windows of the van and a shiver runs through everybody who glances at the muddy puddles outsides. All in all - the best type of day to go underground!
After changing behind the van in this less than inviting weather we headed off towards the caves. I found the bare windswept fields look much more agreeable when compared to this 50 metre deep hole at our feet. But we had already has gone this far and the bottom of the drop could only be better than the horizontal sleet up here.
They should have told us before that caving was like a drug, it turns you into an addict. Three drops later we arrived at the furtherst point for this trip - descending steep walls almost as easily as small rocks in freefall (although it took us freshers a bit longer than the leaders). The water sometimes gurgling at our feet and sometimes drenching us from above; only getting cold only when we had to wait for another group to pass us underground. Even though we had divided into three pairs it still took us quite long time to pass the technical sections so we ended up doing more waiting than moving underground. We were repaid by the imaginative shapes that the water had cut into the rock giving our minds enough material for reflection...
We emerged just as the night sky appeared showing off all its stars, a perfect end to a perfect day.
By the time we scrambled down to the minibus we were frozen and could barely wait for the hot curry being prepared back in the hut. When we had eaten we went out for a walk and happened upon some deviants and their fascinating fire show, even the cold was forgotten.