Society Of Lancaster University Graduate Speleologists

The pre- Christmas Meet in the Lakes is always a favourite, and we have developed little habits over the years, like traditional families do. We were comfortably established on Friday night, with coloured lights to make us feel suitably festive and red wine warming on the mantelpiece. We had a pretty good idea what we’d be eating on Saturday, and it was good to be among old friends. This year the weather smiled on us too, and on Saturday groups of Slugs set off on various jaunts. The biggest group went to Tarn Hows: Pete recovering from knee-surgery, Ritchie in the wheelchair, and a small throng of pushers and amblers. But honour was upheld by our Mountain Team, who headed for the Langdale Pikes, and had us worried when they weren’t back and it was long after dark…(they were in the pub). In the evening a gourmet delight emerged from the kitchen (after precision-timing in the oven, and battles with the microwave requiring Bletchley Park standard in Code-breaking skills). Sixteen of us squashed round the long table to demolish it. Roo brought some gravitas to the evening by doing a slide presentation about laser-surveying the world’s largest chambers (which is really interesting), then we threw another Potholer on the fire and opened his whisky. Sunday most of us took a stroll along the level path from Elterwater to Skelwith Bridge. There has been a recent upsurge in Sluggy interest in Photography; on both days, teams were out with their cameras, using multiple flashes down Cathedral cave and pushing the limits of long lenses. However, no Arty Shots for this report – just yer mates having fun. Here’s looking forward to our 2017 meets.