115 - Pushing (team gastonomic)
Pete Lancaster
Team gastronomique went down with the express intention of blitzing the food dumps; if the cave went a little bit further than last time then it was purely by accident.
Got quickly to main chamber + made do with a couple of Mars Bars. Blatted on down Purgatory + met Phil + Mike at Letch pitch on their way out. Brief pause to unload unruly bowels. Continued to Slit pitch where some rather desperate rope damage was skilfully concealed with a rope protector. Next pitch was Phil + Mike's undescended 8m pitch which landed in a pleasant, gently sloping canal. Sauntered on down, passage looking more + more sump-like every step. Rounded corner to see sump. Sighs of relief could be heard all the way back to the main entrance. Unfortunately.... youthful over-enthusiasm on the part of Plank caused him to plunge into a rather deep dank pool + find a duck with a few inches of air space out under one wall. Trying not to think of upstream bowel movements + ignoring little brown submarines in the pool, our intrepid team swam through more cnal (the final sump can't be far now can it ?) leading to yet another pitch - Orgasm Chasm. Rigged ~ 40 ft to a ledge then 40ft to another ledge. Still couldn't see the bottom. Pretty spray-lashed chamber - very impressive. Came out. Stopped for a brew at sump bypass food dump. Stopped for another at main chamber. Came out pretty slowly. May have had less to do with fatigue than with the weight of Dig Biccies being carried in tummies.
time 16 hrs.
Next pushing trip/ Next trip (surveying)