wife waxing lyrical..? 18 11 12 (11) 25 2 1

Apropos the rescuers for the people trapped in caves that have been in the news these past few years, particularly those of Thailand and the ones in Norway where the dedicated rescuers went into caves deemed to be unsafe by other experienced rescuers from other countries. In particular it was the "calmness" of these rescuers which when pressed each of them said was the most important attribute as being imperative down there in a cave under siege, as in if one didn't take control of the situation and remain calm one would be lost.

We were in the pub at the time, Roxx, Saturday evening when these past few weeks we have visited Roxx after my putting our sauna to heat up and then going to Roxx in my car to have the odd No 3 beer, just to have a chat. Although we have lived together most of our two lives we still find the occasional visit to the pub the most conducive for light conversation...

Of course this reminded me of my own caving experiences though over the years I can’t remember they ever came up for a chat when each of us was contributing though of course it wasn’t something that represented a forbidden subject either. Just not something of particular interest as now. So I told her about the caves, Pot-holes in the British countryside that for a time in my life I used to frequent: not as something I made a conscious decision to do but as something that came my way and I just fell in with it…

I was becoming a regular Sunday cyclist at the time aged 15 with the Bury Clarion Cycling Club and this particular Club Run, Charlie Westlake I think it was who asked the early gathering whether anyone fancied going to Pen- y- Ghent (2277 ft high, 694m), that is before the rest of club arrived, for a more regular club run. I didn’t know where or what this was but someone explained that it involved "rough stuff", again something new to me as someone unwilling in my inexperience to make too much of, and I readily agreed to accompany the ones who opted for this kind of a run…

When we approached Pen-y-Ghent I then understood it was a famous hill in the Yorkshire Dales and as a consequence of going there also learnt it was in limestone country which had a reputation for being also riddled with potholes. If not on this first visit but then on a subsequent visit not too long after, one of the party had the idea of taking us down a pothole called Long Churn, which led into an even bigger pothole called Alum Pot, which could only be accessed otherwise using ropes to descend into its almost vertically steeped walled opening.

On a still later visit we had one of our party, a friend of mine, a guy called Derek Magnall, who was unable to stride across a particular section in the pothole which involved striding across 2 slabs of limestone rock, no doubt separated into two by running water eroding a fissure over many years, if indeed not centuries of years past, a stride to most of us no problem. But Magnall was panic-stricken and had to retreat from that point unable to continue. When I Googled him just now his name came up with a book he had authored entitled "The Pioneers' Round" which described a 20 mile or 32 km walk, dated 1994, which started in Rochdale where at Toad Lane where the Co-operative Society began. Later in life I met Derek when he told me he had switched from cycling to long-distance walking, and so I believe this to be the same person, hahaha.

When I switched from cycling I switched to rock climbing and it was only when my wife was pregnant with our as yet unborn son that standing atop Napes Needle on English Lakeland’s Great Gable Fell that I decided I no longer needed to prove anything so hazardous to myself, when I should soon have responsibilities of a different nature.

An interesting chat all these years later wouldn't you have to agree?