Valley Entrance - 20 May 2006

Saturday May 20th 2006

Members present: Adrian Turner,  Gary Douthwaite,  James Gregory,  Kevin Francis,  Matt Ewles,  Neil Bird,  Richard Gover

I camped on my own near Grassington the previous night due to a lack of anything better to do. Perhaps around 11 o clock I eventually got up, packed away my tent and drove in the direction of Bernies with the aim of buying a cup of coffee.

On arrival I was somewhat surprised to discover a group of YUCPC cavers there, given it was now close to lunch time. I therefore elected not to buy a coffee but instead to hire a helmet and light, which when combined with the wesuit and wellies in my car allowed me to join the caving trip. The streamway was extremely wet, and as all the above reports say we (repeatedly) fought our way upstream before turning round and sitting down, flying downstream and bouncing off the bottom/the walls back down to the pitch. I used my hands to fend off the walls, but unfortunately they are not as strong as rough spiky rock, hence the big gash in my hand and all the blood. Still, taping up my hand with climbers' tape is cheaper than patching a wetsuit.

Then we went back to York and watched Eurovision. Probably it was the effect of the alchol, but Hard Rock Hallelujah was awesome. Tis the day of rockening, bring forth the arockalypse!