GREAT WHERNSIDE

‘…hours from the entrance, they are heading for the distant end of the cave where they hope to find new passages. Next comes the infamous Far Marathon. Still, spirits are high. They are making good time. Some of them at least have been here before. They laugh, they tease each other. The omens look good for making a discovery. Then one perhaps mutters – is it a joke? – “Eh, what’s that rumbling? Not the stream going up?” It is every caver’s nightmare – lying flat-out in water, not a joke that cavers like. But now everyone hears it. Unmistakably,