We have just heard of the death of a caving legend, Jim Eyre.  We didn’t know him well but had the honour of his company in the New Inn in Clapham,  and at Caving Club dinners, listened to him talking and read his books.  Coming hot on the heels of the death of JRat, another caving legend, and friend, and Pete, fellow Grampian member and friend, it suddenly makes life feel quite fragile.  Three different people and I suppose three different generations.  Jim passed away at the grand old age of 83 after a long, happy and eventful life, JRat succumbed to an illness we all fear I suppose, and one that too many of our friends and relatives have died from in recent years.  The result of a life of carefree living and that feeling that “it will  never happen to me” , but a life, nevertheless, that was lived to the full, on the edge and with much laughter.  Pete died doing what he enjoyed most in life but far too soon nonetheless and in some ways we probably feel most sad and shocked about his death.   The Caving community is relatively small, disparate, anarchical but pretty close knit and the sense of camaraderie and “family” is strong.  It is difficult to come to terms with friends no longer being there especially when they die in tragic circumstances but that is perhaps the nature of having been involved in an “extreme” sport for so long.  We are sorry not to be able to be there to celebrate the lives of these friends and fellow cavers but they are in our thoughts and we can at least keep up with all that is going on through regular e-mails and blog posts.   Our thoughts and best wishes go out to their families.

These sad events happen just as we make our first forays into New Zealand caving. As I mentioned in my last post, I accompanied the OE group from school on their caving weekend.  Well, we followed that up with another trip last week.  Hans, the head of PE and OE was keen to check out another cave that we could take the OE group to, so during the holidays we headed off to Waitomo with Nigel and the boys.  We managed to find someone who could tell us where the entrance to a cave called Shangri La was and off we went.  It seems that whilst many of the caves in the area are on DOC (Department of Conservation) land where there is generally open access, many are on private land.   The landowners are usually quite happy to let you access the caves as long as you ask permission as there are no real permit systems in operation. Indeed we knocked on a couple of doors and met pleasant, friendly people who were only too willing to help and point us in the right direction.

We had been shown towards an obvious sink area and after a few minutes of poking around soon found the entrance.  A muddy slope led down to a stream way which was rather squelchy – Aonghas was in danger several times of losing his wellies as the mud threatened to go over the top of them!  We picked our way through the more solid sections of it until firmer ground was reached!  We had called in at the Black Water Rafting place where we had managed to get John – our cave guide from last week – to copy the survey for us. Route finding was pretty straightforward, there were several cross passages to explore before we reached a climb down – probably free climbable but since we had an 8 year old with us and a 13 year old only 2 days out of his plaster cast we stuck a ladder  and lifeline down.  More splashy stream passage – some bits quite deep – well it was for Aonghas! – and we came across a bit that looked like we might have to crawl – in water – under boulders !  Lachlan, Hans and Aonghas went onwards as Nigel and I brought up the rear looking at some dodgy looking hanging boulders until we heard Lachlan shout back that there was no way on! I backed out and climbed up over the top to look for the way on which I duly found.  An easy climb up and across the gap for an adult, but rather wide for the boys, so we rigged a ladder and line for them.  Not a lot of belay points as we were in some quite dry passage – loose boulders covered in mud equals not very stable anchor points!  Anyway, obstacle overcome, we headed on to find that, not surprisingly, we had to go down again! Again an easily negotiated (for adults) climb down into a rift passage and then a short crawl to a muddy, vegetation strewn, ramp out to the surface.  All in all a quite a good little beginners’ cave, a bit of variety – some stream, a bit of climbing, the possiblity of exploring some side passages. The boys had a great time and we enjoyed getting our caving gear back on – even if in Nigel’s case it was a litlle tighter than the last time he wore it!!? – and getting underground again.