Saturday 1st – Sunday 2nd of December 2018

We held our 2018 Annual Dinner at the George and Dragon in Kirkbymoorside. It was a really nice pub with good food and impressive rooms. We had a bit of a caving sing along in the restaurant area.

On the Sunday morning, I went to Excalibur Pot with Carolina Smith de la Fuente, Dan Jackson, Alex Ritchie, Janet Kent and Ben Coult. There had been so much rain during the week that we weren’t sure if we’d be able to do it, but the water levels in the cave were fine.

Before going in, we had a quick crawl into Lingmoor Cave, which is where the Excalibur keys are kept. A worthy few minutes to add to the day.

The climb down the Excalibur entrance had a fair bit of water flowing down the sides, but it was hardly a battle for survival. The ladder pitch was also fine, although the wet bit at the bottom of this was certainly wet. After half of us had followed the water down, someone had the bright idea of attaching a second ladder on to the first one, to give a far drier descent down the big hole.

From there to the main streamway was pretty dry, mainly stooping and easy crawling. We climbed down to the main stream via an in situ handline and this stream passage was great fun, with deep, fast-flowing water. Very sporting. I must say I think Excalibur is a great choice for wet weather.