Ill Concieved Plans Poorly executed

From Otter Hole to the Berger

Jon had moved to Bristol, he had joined a club there and was having a whale of a time, as only he knows how. I went down to visit him a couple of times and on both occasions we went for a wander down Otter Hole, a large system in the forest of dean that is protected by a tidal sump.

Otter hole is muddy, very muddy; the entrance is full of slimy wet mud that is given a soaking each time the tide comes in. Getting to the sump is more like a ride on a helter skelter with all the slipping and sliding that goes on. Before long you are at the sump. If you're there at the right time it is easy to pass but as the tide comes in the water level rises until the cave is sealed. It's quite a daunting thought to know that you will be sealed in cave but comforting to know that the seal will e broken on the next low tide.

There are two ways to do Otter Hole. There is the fast way between the tides where you arrive as the sump just becomes passable and hope to return just before it fills and there is the leisurely way when you enter on one low tide and leave on the next. I've only ever done the leisurely way as I've heard that a small error in the calculations can turn the fast way into the leisurely way. The advantage of the leisurely way is that you have loads of time to explore. In real terms Otter Hole is not that big. Being handed eight hours to wander around means that there is no need to rush about. Get back to the sump early and you'll end up sitting on a rock waiting for the tide to go out. Almost as interesting as watching paint dry. Otter hole is worth doing the leisurely way except when the tides dictate that you have to get up in the middle of the night to enter it.

The other side of the sump is just as muddy. It is covered in thick slimy mud with the consistency of molten chocolate. Further into the hole the mud dries and then disappears to be replaced with glorious clean sculpted limestone in a stream passage. There is something about splashing down a stream deep in the earth that lifts my heart and makes me feel good. It's the reason that I go caving. I can admire the formations and put up with the wet and cold as long as there is a good section of streamway to splash down. The otter hole streamway is just right. It is the right size and shape with the correct depth of water to give the optimum splash. Unfortunately like most good things it does come to an end.

The rest of the cave is hidden in the roof. A series of passageways lead to a hall filled with large stumpy blobs of gleaming white calcite, the Gnomes. There are dozens of them milling around the cavern, idly chatting to their friends and no doubt resenting the odd intrusion from the people outside with their lights and their funny ways. Yes doing Otter Hole was a highlight of my caving.

Jon's club was planning a trip to France to do the Berger. This cave drops down over a kilometre from the entrance to the terminal sump. Jon asked round the Leicester cavers to see if any one fancied a go. Of course they did! Now all there was left to do was to get plenty of practice. Because of the length ladders were out of the question, it had to be Single Rope Technique. The best place to practice this was definitely Yorkshire. The nature of the caves there with their clean-cut limestone and numerous pitches lent them selves perfectly to SRT. It was a flimsy excuse to disappear to the caves every two to three weeks for the six months before the expedition but them who really needs an excuse to cave in Yorkshire.

We spent a glorious six months ticking off all the major shafts, fiddling about with ropes, fine tuning all of our equipment, doing exchange trips and of course splashing up and down some really fine streamways. Slowly we became very proficient with SRT and had a great time into the bargain.

Unfortunately reality intruded into my plans. I was offered a job in the South, which meant moving house. The move date kept getting pushed closer and closer to the expedition dates until they coincided. There was no way I could go, buyer's sellers and solicitors made sure of that. In the end I had to pull out of the expedition. Shame really as I had really enjoyed the time leading up to it.

Postscript

I met up with Jon, Tony and Dave a while after they returned to hear about how they got on. The main highlight being that Tony and Dave got flooded into the system twice. I'm quite glad I missed that experience.