Caving: Wookey Hole (30-Jun-01)

• Wookey Hole


• 07:00 hours
• 702:45 cumulative hours

As Gavin who was planning to film the end had no objections to me coming along on the trip to help carry kit, I was planning to dive in as far as thirds would allow. Kitting up in chamber 9 was easy as the showcave lights illuminate you. We followed the deep route in, bypassing most of the airbells and after passing some junctions surfaced in Chamber 22. From here a short carry was had through a squeeze and down a ladder to sump 23. This being a static sump with zero visibility but as I had enough air I decided to continue. After passing this unpleasant dive without seeing the line once due to the viz we dumped most of the kit and headed on further into the cave. There were a few short sumps / ducks to pass which were done so on single sets. Once in Chamber 24 I dumped my diving kit and helped GN carry his stuff through. Sting corner (a deep canal) provided the next obstacle. As I jumped in here my weight belt and GN cylinders proceeded to make me sink. After some frantic kicking and pulling on the in-situ line I finally made it to the other side. Once at sump 24 GN assembled his diving and filming kit before disappearing into the sump. MG and I then explored Chamber 24 for over an hour until GN resurfaced. At this stage he was so cold that I had to do everything for him (Lazy sod). MG and I then carried all GN stuff back to the other sumps because GN had just done a 61m-decompression dive. The dive out went without problems apart from MG direct feed into his stab jacket failed so he had limited buoyancy control. This meant I had to carry out the tackle bags. Viz not quite as good on the way in.