Tunnocks - First photo trip
Julian Todd
A normal rotten, damp morning at the stone bridge. A group of four arranged to go down the deep stringfellows pitch, leaving Mark and me. Becka suggested I partake on a photographic trip. Knowing Mark's propensity to jack on the entrance pitch (in '08), I was quite horrified to find myself underground at 11am on the 3rd day on the run. After an emergency dump somewhere not discrete enough, I began to feel much better (previous dump was in usual suspects chamber at 5pm same place as two were taken in '09 during the flooding incident). Either I have gotten inconveniently out of phase with the morning ritual, or there is something disagreeable among all the powdered food like substances at top camp. Maybe it's the custard. First photographic stop was down the stringfellows big pitch. Mark abbed down and put 4 flashes on the ledge, then made me lean back on my rack from the slope at the top on the red rope everyone has been complaining about. About 20 photos were taken with me looking the wrong way (not down), with my eyes closed, with a 'concerned' expression on my face. I better get a copy of something to put on the web as I am not normally found in that situation. It helped also to be convenient to send me down to collect the flashes without kicking them over the side. We could hear drilling and hammering going on down at the bottom of the pitch. Second photo shoot was on the mounting choss behind the pitch. Third was on the other side of the choss around looking away from the usual suspects pitch. Stal chamber in Goody-goody was ignored. We did a quick diversion to Starfish chamber and the snowy aven. More photos at Caramel catharsis sandy crawl and the ice column at the bottom of the entrance. It was mow 6pm. Neil caught up with us on the climb out. Foggy walk back to the stone bridge and faff allowance put us too late to head down the hill. Another hard custard night with rain that carried on well into daylight when almost everyone jacked and followed down to a warm base camp.