I took off Monday and Tuesday to train in SRT with the Wessex caving group. Their caving hut was pretty nice, and much larger than the WSG hut. They also had a tower set up for training purposes.

Sunday we met with Aga and she drove us to the Wessex Hut near Bristol. The trip was a harrowing experience, as it was amazingly windy, crazy rain, and very dark. Along the route there were 4 instances where a small tree or large branch was in the middle of the road, but in every case we could swerve around it. The hut was nice and warm as Michael had gotten there before us. We were the only people sleeping in the hut, which could hold probably 40 people. 

Monday was mostly about learning the techniques on the tower. It was a pretty crazy day for weather. Some blue sky, some downpours, and two instances of hail. At the top of the tower the wind was blowing hard, and during the hail, one went into my ear. It was a lot of learning, but we got comfortable with it.

At the end of the day we headed to one of the small, nearby caves to do a small test in the actual cave environment. It went really well, and it was nice to be out of the wind. We saw a small bat in the cave, and it was pretty cute.

Tuesday morning we went to Hunter’s hole, after it stopped pouring rain. We had multiple pitches and there were a few larger chambers with some nice formations. Steph helped to derig on the way out, and everything went smoothly.

We cleaned up and then drove back to London, getting back pretty late.