Last weekend we joined Rachel and many of her friends in Derbyshire for her mid-year birthday celebrations. (Like the Queen she also has another one later in the year.) As Richard is still injured from his last trip underground he didn’t join us for the journey into Giants Hole Cave. This should have acted as a sort of warning; Richard is very experienced and had managed to break his arm last time out; I was a novice with one other caving trip to my name. Oh well. With Keith and Brendan helping Rachel look after us and Pete and Tish having a lot of underground experience there was no real need to worry……. was there?? The group was made up by myself, Anna, Dalma and Elsie.
The cave had a number of different features; Long winding clefts, a ladder to descend into a large pot, a crawl through the Devil’s widpipe (half full of water) and a crab crawl. Most of the details have merged into one long experience of struggle, water and cold, but strangely it was again, thoroughly enjoyable. And yes Rachel, on Monday I could only paint skirting boards again. Big thanks to Keith and Brendan for looking after us.
Series - Rachel's Rendezvous
- Stanage Rendezvous
- Rachel’s birthday Cave trip
Perhaps those who ‘enjoyed’ this trip might like to see the trailer I did for a yet to be completed video of Giants? The video was taken on a Dudley Caving Club trip in March. If I’ve done everything correctly the link should appear below.
Giants Hole Trailer
Yep, the trailer was good,look forward to the full feature length movie!
I look terrified! π
And I look very happy just emerging from the Devil’s Windpipe but I could very easily have been photographed with an even more terrified face a bit later, traversing over the shaft! But I enjoyed the trip very much as well as meeting you all! :love:
My body is still full of bruises! π
The weekend was :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
And likewise 5 :star: for Rachel’s Sacher cake! :yum: :yum: :yum: It was worth extending my holiday just for that!
Good to meet you, Dalma – funny that we all thought you knew other people :sarcy: – and very brave of you to turn up to meet a load of strange people (strange in both senses perhaps…. π )
Yeah, it was great to meet you. π π
Because we hadn’t heard from you for a few days we feared you were soooo tired after the caving trip and the drive down to London you were still recovering.
Keef has posted on YouTube this cool little video that includes some of our trip…