As Pete and Ron did not turn (Ron had already made his reservations clear anyway) I was forced to try and find something to do. It was such good weather today well it was not raining, so I should have known no one would turn up. BlackRose only seems to turn out when it’s pissing it down or snowing.
I could have gone gigging? No, I had not brought my old oversuit and I did not want to wreck my new one so that was out. I had very little tackle of my own so anything with SRT which is not already rigged was out and I had no mobile charge to leave a call out, so if it was to be solo it would have to be easy.
Anyway I heard a certain club were doing Washfold near Alum so I headed over there. I got to the Alum pot
lane, however no one was there, so I hung around a bit. They did not turn up, so its not just the Blackrose it seems who are useless when keeping appointments.
As I was already there, there was nothing for it but to do the Churns as I had the place to my self. I
first popped into the Black and White house to pay my 50p. My honesty was cosmically rewarded as along the way I found £2, so I actually made a profit paying for access.
I headed up to the Churns and spent the next two hours exploring every nook and cranny I could find
taking photos of anything along the way, including some of the crawls and squeezes I explored that were off the beaten track. I would often follow one and I would find it ended up in the main stream further down, I hardly did any of the stream way on my way towards Upper Churns. The last inlet I followed however, which was about 50 metres down stream of the upper entrance known as “Milners” inlet did not re-join the main stream.
It went on and on for about 100 metres, most of it was flat out and in c-c-ccold water. I pushed it to the end which ended in a cobbled choke which I then cleared but then the ceiling came too low to the floor. It was very cold to reverse but I was soon out and out like a shot up that waterfall like a I had a poker up my bum in an effort to try and warm up again. I jogged half the way back to the car and got changed in the car as I am a wimp when it comes to cold nowadays, getting old you see nearly 28.
