Underwater Potholer WWWW hhhhh tttttiiiii ttttt lllll 11 eee s DD i vvvv eeee SSSSSeeeeerrrrrrrriiiiiiieeeeeesss Whittles Dive Series editor Rod Macdonald Th e Whittles Dive Series is a collection of cutting edge books dealing with every aspect of diving – from exploring lost shipwrecks to cave diving, technical mixed gas and rebreather diving. Th e Series is edited by internationally acclaimed diving author Rod Macdonald, noted for works such as Dive Scapa Flow and Dive Truk Lagoon. Underwater Potholer a cave diver’s memoirs Duncan Price Whittles Publishing Published by Whittles Publishing Ltd., Dunbeath, Caithness, KW6 6EG, Scotland, UK www.whittlespublishing.com © 2015 Duncan Price All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publishers. ISBN 978-184995-158-6 Printed by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd., Plymouth Also by Duncan Price: Cave Diving Group, Welsh Sump Index (2005) Cave Diving Group, Somerset Sump Index (with Michael McDonald, 2008) The Cave Diving Group Manual (with Andrew Ward, Colin Hayward, David Brock, John Cordingley, Rupert Skorupka, Richard Stanton, Mike Thomas, John Volanthen and Clive Westlake, 2008) WOOKEY HOLE: 75 years of cave diving and exploration (with James Hanwell and Richard Witcombe, 2010) www.underwater-potholer.com DISCLAIMER: Cave diving is dangerous – do not do it. Remember I told you so. Everything else I say is bollocks! Duncan learned to snorkel on a family holiday to Majorca aged 8. At 17 he took up scuba diving with a local BSAC club but never completed his training before he went to university. A school friend introduced him to caving and further scuppered his chances of ever getting a diving qualification. Despite this, Duncan progressed to cave diving and has been involved in many discoveries, including helping establish a new British cave diving depth record at Wookey Hole Caves, in 2005. He has co-authored a number of books about cave diving, including the current Cave Diving Group Manual and the award- winning WOOKEY HOLE: 75 years of cave diving & exploration. When Duncan is not underground, he lives in Wells, Somerset, and masquerades as a chemical engineer in the semiconductor industry. He still hasn’t ‘officially’ learned to dive. www.underwater-potholer.com Cover photographs Front: Duncan Price in the shaft at the start of Sump 2, Emergence de Crégols, France. (photo: Liz Rogers) Back: Duncan Price in Chamber 9, Wookey Hole Caves, UK, at the end of nine hours’ exploration: cold, tired, smelly – and grumpy! (photo: Martyn Farr) Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................... ix Maps ...................................................................................................................... xi 1 Duncan the Diver ..................................................................... 1 2 Night of the Drunken Caver ................................................. 10 3 The Gothic Diggers ................................................................ 17 4 In Remembrance ..................................................................... 28 5 Nightmare in Elm Hole ......................................................... 36 6 Down in the Clydach at Midnight ....................................... 48 7 Coming to America ............................................................... 54 8 Pilgrim’s Progress .................................................................. 61 9 Lesser Welsh Caves ............................................................... 68 10 The C-word ............................................................................ 75 11 Saturday Night at the Movies ............................................... 84 12 An Unwelcome Guest ............................................................ 92 13 Dodgy Devices .................................................................... 100 14 A Close Shave ...................................................................... 110 15 In Search of Chamber 26 .................................................. 120 16 Veteran Cave Diver ............................................................. 129 17 ‘And then the Donkey Stood on my Foot!’ ..................... 141 18 An Unfortunate Series of Events ...................................... 154 vii Underwater Potholer 19 Deepest Mendip .................................................................. 160 20 No Picnic at Ilam Park ....................................................... 171 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................ 175 Glossary ............................................................................................................. 177 viii Foreword This is something to reflect on … I’m the best part of a mile into the multi-sump Old Cottage Cave (in New Zealand) and on my own. It wouldn’t be so bad if I was just exploring a dry cave – but here I am, the other side of three dives, each separated by varying lengths of dry passage. It’s over 500 metres from Sump 3, which I’ve just swum through, to the undived, unexplored, Sump 4 that I’m facing next. Granted, my cylinders are small – only 5 litres apiece – but with reels, spares, food and photo equipment, the entire load weighs in at over 20 kg. I have reached my destination, Llyn Glas, the Blue Lake, the furthest point I’d reached a year ago, also on a solo mission. At this point I decide to leave my photo equipment behind, as when it comes to exploration I can’t afford to be distracted. Once again, I run through all my equipment checks; everything’s working exactly the way I’d like it to. I relax for a couple of minutes, then take a good deep breath … just what I’ll find next is anyone’s guess. This is the exciting thing about cave diving! I slip gently beneath the surface and my line reel slowly unwinds as I move along the spacious tunnel. The visibility is at least 4 metres and the depth is much the same, for which I’m extremely grateful. My thoughts are focused totally on the here and now: nothing else intrudes. Then amazingly at 85 metres into the dive I surface to air – and better still, the sound of a thunderous free-flowing river somewhere close ahead. Any new ground is exciting stuff, but when it comes to a discovery like this I know I’m onto something big. I de-kit yet again, but this time it’s the dive equipment that I leave safely stowed on a ledge; for the time being it seems as though I won’t need it. Liberated from all encumbrances, I stride off up the waterway. Nothing else in life is as exciting as this … There is no simple, logical explanation for an activity that voluntarily takes one away from the comfort of daylight and into a world of darkness and deprivation. The sport of caving involves little glamour: it’s cold, damp and dirty; it involves great physical effort, isolation; and without question there are real dangers. To see a caver emerge after several hours or more from the confines of some hole in the ground, plastered in mud from head to foot, with a suit perhaps torn or shredded beyond redemption – naturally there are questions, not least concerning sanity. Why on earth should anyone subject themselves to such an experience? ix