First Trip to Nettle

By Sema

On a fine wednesday afternoon me and Hannah planned to go caving in Nettle. i have heard good things about this cave from Tom 1 so i was very excited to go. Hannah’s got her shinny new van that big and beautiful but unfortantly nameless for the time being. we will find a name for him soon.

When we got there we had to pay the farmer with the scary dog and of course i had to do it since Hannah doesn’t like dogs. why would she after seeing that one! i nearly fell in the mud from trying to dodge it. lol. The air wasn’t too cold so getting undressed was fine. But once dressed H discovered she had not braught her stop and didnt have a rack of any sort. So she desided to use a knot in the rope to gently lower herself in the cave. from this point we knew it would be a bit of an improvisation trip. There was still snow on the ground but is was rock hard in most places but there was the odd little bit where you would step on it and you would loose your foot in the ground and then stumble which was quite amussing! i helped carry rope but then i wasnt very good at keeping up so super Hannah put everything on her back and powered up the hill! wow!

When we got to nettle i carried the bag of rope down since H didnt have a stop and the wait of the bag wouldnt hold. i was happy to do this. Unfortantly i hadnever done this before so when it came to changinging from one rope to the other i got really tangled and the bag was alover the place. Trying to get out of that mess was a little complicated and i dont even know how i got in it! The way down is definatly easier then the way up because the walls are so tight together is hard to move up them. Lucky my bumbs not any bigger otherwise i woudl have got stuck more times then normal! Knowing me i got stuck a couple of times anyway just for being a little stupid and going down things the wrong way! lol.

When gettng to the bottom of the first pitch we had to crawl through some yummy mud which cover our faces and hands. It was really fun!! when we got to the next pich the level is still low so you cant really do much apart from lie down and look up at the ceiling. The bolts in the roof are quite camoflaged and so it was difficult to spot them. you have to be carful you dont slip and fall down the holes in there because everyhting is so muddy

When we went down the next pitch everything got a bit more roomy which nice to striaght your back in. We trecked on to another area of the cave where we had to go up a pitch! it wasnt very far but i always make everything look so difficult! i scrambled on the top of the rocks which made me even more muddy and quite funny to watch. also not haveing a chest harnest didnt help me very much! i seemd to have lost it while crawling so Hannah made me one out of rope.

There was another up pitch but inorder to go up this one we had to tape our rope to another one whaich was like a pully and then pull it through the hole at the top! unfortunatly after too attempts and all the tape me and Hannah couldnt get it through the hole! everything was too wet. so we sat down and had some boob cake, (cake that was in our boob pockets) they were nice n squished with a topping of mud! just the way i like it. the iceing on Hannah’s cake got stuck to the rapper so we had to lick it off and beause my hands were to dirty hannah fed the cake to me.

After our fun time break we begain our journey back up to the surface. it was frosty outside and quiet slippery  on th ground but we got back in one peice.

Thankyou Hannah for takeing me to Nettle!