Lythgoes Adrenalin Rush

The Leaders go Underground

29.05.2002

Team Omniglow Lythgoe were the first to arrive at PC14, the 2nd caving section, where the marshalling point was set up outside the visitor centre for the Marble Arch show caves. There would be no guided walk-through for the Adrenalin Rush teams though, their caves were well off the tourist circuit.

They had moved through the course much faster than expected and Team Apex, who had withdrawn from the race, were quickly sent out to marshal the PC ready for their arrival. They looked in good shape ‘considering’ and said they’d passed ‘Maybe Xdin’ early on the trekking stage that followed the horse ride. The Swedes had had a 3 hour lead and it’s not clear why they fell back so rapidly. Omniglow Lythgoe saw them at a ‘deiching’ PC approaching from the wrong direction, and thought they may have made a big navigational error.

As they put on their climbing gear and walked out to the first of 2 caves they talked about their race. Jim Davies quite casually and sincerely said, “The weather’s not been too bad really, we’ve had a few bits of sun and it’s not rained all the time.� This may be true but their feet have been permanently below ground level on the treks and some of the biking was almost an underwater activity! Perhaps he could cope with it so well as he was prepared for much worse!

They’d had their bad times too though, especially on the sea kayak. Gary Robertson has had problems keeping any food down for much of the race and in the kayak was suffering particularly badly. (The safety marshal said he was slumped asleep in his seat.) With only 3 paddlers, against the tide they were barely making progress, and were on the point of giving up. Only dogged determination kept them going on. It was a close call, but by this stage Gary was looking OK again.

He was walking ahead to the first cave. This had a narrow entrance where a stream disappeared into the rock and the racers disappeared down there too. Inside it was a low crawl and they had to descend a side passage to clip a deiching. It took them a while to find it before they poked their heads out of another hole and clambered up a steep mud filled gully to walk to the second caving area.

This was well hidden in nearby woods and started with an abseil down a small cliff at the base of which were several more caves. The whole area was covered in flowering wild garlic – it was a pungent spot. Again it took a while to decide which one their topo guide described but when they found it the entrance was broad and lead to a sizeable underground stream. To clip the deiching PC’s inside they had to explore both up and down stream, at times waist deep in fast flowing water.

Then it was a short walk back to the PC where they replaced a broken chain on Jim Davie’s bike, but they still had a 1 hour 43 minute lead over Team UK, who had arrived and set off to cave one. They are close enough to make the most of a navigational error on the final stages though, and finding a way through the hundreds of islands on lower Lough Erne at night is going to be tricky. It’s never over until the finish line is crossed.