Mon 25th August - Caving & Camping - Joe Flynn
By Joe Flynn
Actually: 23rd August. Joe's Gaping Gill Meet
Members present: Joe Flynn, Lester Payne, John Dwyer (yes he is not dead), Sue Brooke, John Dobson.
Guests: Philip Dwyer, Dave Moon.
Every August Bank holiday the Craven Pothole club holds a "winch" meet at Gaping Gill, when, for a fee, they winch members of the public down the 300+ foot main shaft of Gaping Gill to view the cathedral like cavern below. When the representative of the Craven Pothole Club attended our last Annual Dinner, Flynn hatched a plan to avoid paying the £8 winch fee by manning the beer tent in return for a free trip on the winch. Unfortunately communications proved to be a problem and the plan never came to fruition, so instead, it was decided that we should pay the £8 and join the tourists for a winch down and a winch up with a two hours (max according to Joe) look round at the bottom. At the same time we would reconnoitre the event with a view to arranging a meet next year.
Following a 2nd breakfast in Inglesports café it was 13.00 before we arrived at the pot. Faced with a 2½ hour wait, Flynn hatched an alternative strategy on how to avoid the charge - we would go down Bar Pot, join the queue at the main chamber and they would winch us up without knowing that we had not paid!
A quick squeeze through the entrance passage led us to the first 40 foot shaft and an abseil through a tight rift opening out into a small chamber below. This was followed by a descent down an extremely polished and greasy slab to a larger chamber and more tunnels to reach the second 150 foot shaft. This was an amazing abseil as it was virtually free hanging all the way, with the main pleasure being the fact that we would not have to ascend the in situ electron ladder (but how wrong could we be). After what seemed an inordinate amount of crawling, at one point flat out, and changes of direction through a maze of tunnels, el presidenti finally admitted to not having a clue how to find the main chamber despite the fact that he was clutching in his mitts an extremely detailed map (downloaded for free off the internet!) and he assured us that he had done the trip before?
An extremely weary team headed back to the surface with the thought a of a 150 foot free hanging ladder to ascend as a starter. Joe had an epic on the ladder when Lester momentarily forgot which rope he was pulling on and Sue announced after 30 foot of climbing that she couldn't do it, and contemplated bursting into tears! However the problem of Sue's lack of strength was solved by Joe whose sympathetic character was revealed when he informed her that she didn't have a choice. Dave, John and Lester were more supportive and acted as a human winching system to help take the stain off Sue's arms as she climbed the ladder. The second 40 foot ascent was also challenging as the rift seemed a lot tighter ascending than descending and the body jammed without effort when trying to raise knees to climb the ladder.
