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| The day started off a bit wet but quickly cleared up to a bright but crisp one. Ian, Simon, Chris and myself arrived at Hodge Close at about 9.30. We took a look at the tunnel and as the water level was quite high we decided to do two trips through. I'm glad I didn't take my twin cylinders as the water must have been over 2.5 feet deep in part, and that made it hard work walking.
Eventually we managed to get ready to dive and in we went only to find that Simon was having problems with his regs free flowing, so no diving for him. Ian, Chris and myself started the dive and slowly descended to the bottom. I was a bit surprised to find that there had been a large rock fall since the last time I was there and the bottom was quite small, like the bottom of a cone.
We had decided to keep the rock face on our right side so it was a matter of going round and round in ever increasing circles. At it's deepest it was 30m. After a couple of laps we were at 24m and came across the entrance to one of the caves. It was clearly marked with a shot line and there was a line going into the blackness; needless to say we didn't venture in! |
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After that we continued to have a good look around but there was not a great deal to see. The water was a bit chilly at 6ºC so after forty minutes or so my hands were getting cold so we decided to call it a day. After getting warm and having had a rest, Simon and I took the others for a trip to the sump through a very dark tunnel. You have to throw yourself into it then swim through the cave (on the surface) then duck dive under a rock that was submerged to get out into a large cavern on the opposite side of the quarry. After that it was back into the water for a swim back to the other side. By this time I was rather tired and we still had to climb a ladder and make two trips through the flooded tunnel to get back to the van. Later on as if that wasn't enough the others wanted to dive Devil Bridge. Thank God the water was going like a bat out of hell; that was a good cue to go to the pub. On the whole we all had a great day, just a pity about Simon’s regs. |
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Alan Wyper |
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