Depth through thought

Editorial

Sorry DTT has lapsed so badly recently, but the editor has been busy, or away, or hasn't had any contributions. This week's is a bit thin too, I'm afraid, but I thought I'd try and jog people back into the habit of writing or e-mailing stuff for each Wednesday. As far away as Australia, our punters are missing their weekly fix of OUCC gossip and rumour.

Some bits of news. Its Anita's birthday today. She is 12, and has new wetsocks, so she must be keen on coming to Spain this summer. Sherry is coming to the Picos, to cave in a Belgian-free section of the Central, but she has promised to come and drop in. Steve Phipps has a full colour picture on the back of the latest C&C: James grimacing (!) in The Fierce Ladies of Cannock (F64). Brilliant: well done Steve.

The Hungarians Revisited: Doing Daren Ciliau

Despite mammoth clusterfuck potential, various people driving from Oxford, Cardiff, Winchester and Budapest all managed to meet up within half an hour of each other at the WSG the weekend before last. Immaculate timing. Would such precision last.....?

No. Next morning James did a heroic job of trying to sort out numerous cavers, wanting to go to various different caves (Daren, OFD, Draenen and Aggy) with limited means of transport. By early afternoon it was sorted; Tim, John and I, plus Kutya and Lajos left for Daren in the van, stopping on the way to pick up Ildiko (a Hungarian friend of Moha's temporarily living in S Wales), whose lifelong ambition was a long trip in Daren. Well, she got what she wanted. We had a great trip (but I'm biased. I love Daren). After the pleasures of the entrance crawl we moved along steadily and got as far as where Crystal Inlet enters Bonsai streamway. Unfortunately, due to a late start and me having to be back in Oxford that evening, we didn't get quite as far as St. David's sump, our planned destination. However, I think the Hungarians were suitably impressed by Daren's features: the infamous crawl, the magnificent Time Machine, the amazingly silly formations in Bonsai streamway and that gorgeous bit of passageway in Red River (I told you. I love Daren).

After lining down the ladder, Ildiko and I, being of the weaker (but fairer) sex, started making our way out ahead of (but presumably slower than) the men. However, despite getting a bit lost in Eglwys, having several rests, chatting away and laughing along, we still emerged under the stars ahead of the men, and had to wait in the van for an hour and a half for them to turn up. Paah. Men! You just can't do without them.....or can you?
Jenny Vernon

Well, whether Jenny can or cannot do without men could be a subject for discussion in its own right. But on this Daren trip there were lots of them, including one very large one. Lajos was so huge, in fact, that we literally had to pull him backwards through The Vice on the way out of the crawl. And this was not for being feeble in any way: he's Hungarian boxing champion or something, so not short of muscles.

Actually, everyone did very well. Except me. I managed to leave John's cowstails at the top of the ladder pitch on the way out, and have to go back for them. But other than that it was a great trip.

I think, though, that my most memorable moment that weekend at the WSG was watching Will put tiny thought bubbles into a drunken James head, then listening to James singing (yes, singing) them out in strange, ungrammatical combinations (you can find some in the log book). Other strange things emerged from James' mouth a bit later too, and filled his hat. Lovely.
Tim Guilford

Cutting Edge

I have a copy of the Cutting Edge programme containing scenes of "effortless superiority" (as the papers put it) involving a certain Quaking trip late last year. If anyone wants to borrow it they may. The scenes of underwater scaffolding digs at Malham are perhaps the high point of a rather well filmed half hour of underground antics. No, sorry, of course James' singing was the high point. Silly me.
Tim Guilford.