After the BCA meeting on Saturday I headed up to the TSG (which was empty again!!) and stayed the night in Castleton. Early in the morning Ann Soulsby arrvied and not long after Jules Barrett appeared. After a quick telephone conversation and a look at the river coming out of Peak we settled on Holme Bank Churt mine. We pulled up our cars at about 10.30 and five minutes later we were joined by Marcus Crabbe and John Taylor respectively.

About 30m inside the gates we met the water which had crept up the passage from where it normally starts. Fortunately for us John Cross had been in the day before and put a line from our new dive base to the old line. Once into the mine proper the water was crystal clear and I was extremely impressed. John Taylor and I did a bit of line laying practice whilst Marcus and Jules did some filming. I was the last out of the water - being fairly warm in my dry suit - after a 45min dive whilst the others were just going back in when I got out. I thought one dive was enough - considering my sinuses weren't great - and enjoyed a hot drink provided on the surface by the recently arrived John Cross and Elaine Hill.  

6th January: Priddy Green sink was on the cards until rain stopped play. Some how the conversation on other trips turned to mines and Tim and Faye were really keen on a Monkton Farley trip. So Henry Bennett, Bob Smith, Kat, Tim, Faye and myself jumped into cars and headed over towards Bath.

We started in Monkton Farley sidings (tunnel) - a mile long tunnel which can be done in normal clothes with a basic light. This also has an excellent set of conveyor rollers still intact - you can ride down about 50m worth of these on a large sheet of metal which is excellent fun (but you need gloves).

Then we had a pub lunch before visiting the Monkton Farley quarry. This starts off with a large entrance followed by a short crawl which enters several km of confusing and spacious mine passages. After a short tour we were shown a small hole which enters the munitions section of the quarry. This is really odd - you climb through a small hole and drop down into a tarmac floored warehouse complete with air conditioning (de-humidifying ducts). The complex is complete with toilets and washroom and large items of equipment such as very cool massive fans.

Boxing Day: I drove up on Boxing day morning and arrived at the Helwith Bridge at about 2.30pm. Phil and Ems arrived 5 minutes later and after hastily unpacking and repacking cars we headed off for Aquamole Aven via Ingleton.

27th December: With a whole day of caving before the hoards arrived Phil, Ems and I wanted to get decent days caving done. Large Pot was selected as the venue in preference to Brown Hill (my suggestion). I'd been down Large but not for some time so this sounded like a good idea. We planned to pop down Collossus and then head over to the Red Herring series on the way out.

I arrived at the TSG after work on Wednesday evening to discover that Charlotte wasn't coming due to car problems. Luckily I knew a couple of people in the Derbyshire CDG and made a few calls. John Taylor and Marcu were both excellent and put me in touch with Jules Barret who I went caving with on Friday. 

Thursday 21st: Walking on Kinder Scout - started at Edale (and managed to park for free outside the school!). Then up on to the top and across to the Pennine way. Followed that round past Kinder downfall and then down to snake path and along to the road. I then followed the road for a few km before heading off to skirt the foothills back to Edale. All in all about 28km and 6 1/2 hours walking. 

Friday 22nd: Jules met me at the TSG at about 11.30 and we headed off to P8. I was given a good guided tour down to the sumps and then we went off exploring one of the old digs (Ben Benthams) which can be accessed by climbing up a rope from the stream way. The work here was fairly extensive and we spent a while checking out all the passages.