13th September 2003
People present - Sarah Cooper, Adam Cooper

We decided that it was about time I stopped being a chicken and tried doing SRT down a proper cave....NO problem i thought, sounds a doddle, 2 ropes, a couple of metal jammers, what could go wrong??? Two short pitches and a play around at the bottom, back up and collect the kids..Easy! I can do that no problem!
Well that was the theory at least!

We arrived at the Pot, kitted up in our oh so sexy kit and walked in the general direction of the cave. Fortunately Adam had been to New Goyden with Dono not too long since so knew where it was which helped no end. So over the barbed wire fence, down the dry river bed a short distance and we come across what looked, to me, like, well, a rabbit hole! Apparently that was the main entrance so in we went, Adam lugging my new rope bag. We crawled the short way to the top of the first pitch.

Adam rigged the rope and said " Do you want to go first or shall I?" well I thought that I would go first cos no doubt if he did I would chicken out again... so down I went.. I was really nervous at first cos I hadnt abseiled for months, but I soon got into the hang of it and whizzed down to the bottom. " SLOW DOWN" says Adam. ( Oh not someone else telling me to slow down, I thought, landing on the bottom of the cave elegantly.)

That was pitch no.1. down, one down one to go... NO PROBLEM I thought this is easy................!

Pitch no2 was just as easy.....I glided down to the bottom, no problem at all.. we had a play in the bottom, Adam took me to the sump, and started making our way back up........

Which is where the fun started. I decided that I would go first seen as tho I would be worried about getting attached on to the rope properly at the bottom ( I am a girl... I worry about these things!) anyway up I went... slowly at first then gaining a bit of speed when I started getting into the swing of it... hey I can do this I thought....I scrambled up to the top of the first pitch, clipped my cows tails on and................

I am STUCK... (no sorry not stuck Detained on my rope).....i got my handjammer off, but my chest jammer was firmly detained.

ADAM! I AM STUCK HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP! I screamed..
" are you off the rope yet??" he shouted
"Nooooooooooooooooooooooo" i said
" I am stuck"

"what's stuck?" well I wont bore you with the details, but after a lot of shouting we managed to establish that I was stuck on my rope and the only option was for Adam to come up the rope with me still attached to it. Well I don't know if you have tried having 2 people on the same rope and understand the laws of gravity and the likelihood of getting back ache from trying to get one 15st caver up a rope without you falling off the edge of the cave......not a good way to spend a saturday evening lets say! But eventually he got up to the top,without me killing myself in the process, and we managed to get my chest jammer undetained......Phew!

" I think I will go up first this time don't you" Adam said. I couldnt agree more having sussed that it wasnt exactly rocket science putting oneself onto the bottom of a rope. Up we both went, me a bit more steadily than Adam but we got there in the end, out the cave and back to pick up the kids before it got too late.

Sarah "Supercaver (not)" Cooper