GC2K97V

Well. That was freakin' AWESOME!

I found I had a spare day and could not muster a friend to come along so pinged a tentative email to BareClawz to see if he was around for the day... Yes! And the marvellous Cass! And half a dozen other nice people including the magnificent Cass and Sienna (4 & 6. Reportedly the youngest cachers to ever to brave the mighty Multi 2.)

And so we crawled through the entrance gate, which was mysteriously hanging open, locking it behind us - shortly to meet a small group of people ambling out in jeans and trainers with little torches. WE were all in helmets, headtorches, stout boots and rubble gloves. It was like that bit in Shaun of the Dead where the two groups of people meet each other and they are all the same, except on this occasion we were all kitted out decently and they were FREAKING IMBECILES. Shall we tell them we locked the gate? Spose.

And, we ALL had the route instructions printed out and waterproofed by various laminations or machinations. We ALL had compasses. Two or three had maps of the entire quarry system. We ALL went in the wrong direction. SEVERAL times. Not catastrophically but, to be honest, monstrously off-piste to the extent that certainly I only managed to follow our route on two of the paragraphs of the instructions. I REALLY would advise against attempting this cache without a knowledgeable guide AND a quarry map (available from the pub).

We found most of the incredible attractions and eventually, ultimately, found the cache.

After three hours underground it was glorious to be back out in the crispy autumn sunshine, to peel off the thickly muddied overalls, and retire to the pub for a pint of stonking local cider and to marvel at BareClawz' magnificent coin collection.

I'll be back next weekend to do the remaining four. And THANKS to BareClawz for being willing to take me around Multi 1 next week because frankly, trying it without him is probably ridiculous!