Paul Lydon: Return to Grotte de Goueil dy Her

Another lovely sunny day - cool in the shade but warm in the sun. Keith, Pete, Waggy, Steve and myself drove in Pete's car to Mané for another supermarket trip and Boyd plus Elaine took a trip to the Spanish side of the Pyrenees.
Afterwards there was a degree of faffing then we managed to head off down the road towards Arbas to have a trip into the Grotte du Goueil dy Her. A second go for Karen and myself.
Keith, Karen, Pete, Steve, Paul, Waggy, Phil and myself drove down to park at the car park and while we were getting changed, Karen realised she had left her helmet and light behind. So, the two of us returned in my car to the gite to collect it while wearing our furry suits.
When we returned, Waggy and Phil were still looking for the others and the cave as they had followed the main stream upstream as Karen and I had done last week.
We directed them to the cave entrance and then walked over ourselves to find everyone waiting at the entrance as they had heard Waggy shouting.
We all headed in and after the rest had dropped down the initial climb using the in-situ handline, Karen and I rigged a 10 metre rope and we abseiled down.
We caught the others up at the 5 metre climb where Karen and I had turned around last week. Paul and Keith were already at the top and I chucked up the end of a 15 metre rope which I had brought so that Keith could tie it to the natural thread which was at the top of the climb which we hadn't spotted on our last visit. The rest of us climbed up the slippery climb with assistance from the rope.
Soon we were at a sloping ramp of more slippery limestone. I was last as I had retrieved the 15 metre rope in case it was needed again. To speed my clamber up the slippery ramp, I again chucked up the rope and Waggy belayed it while I used the rope for assistance.
From the top of the slab there was a second slab with less holds than the first leading down at around 59 degrees and about 3 or 4 metres long. This was where Karen ahad turned back on our previous trip. Waggy held the rope around a low bollard of rock while I slid down the slab holding onto the rope. Waggy then slid down the slab as I waited to field him of he shot past. Luckily he didn't!
We joined the others a short distance down the passage to hear bad news: the sump was up! Arse!
We knew there was a sump bypass but the guide book description had mentioned that it was tight and by previous experience, when the guide book said tight, it was very tight! Paul was climbing up the 5 metre climb using the in-situ rope and even though Karen had checked on the sump, I walked down the muddy slope following the wire cable which was laid leading to it, just in case it was only a duck as water levels seemed to be low everywhere else we had been. I reached a low rock arch with quite a lot of air space, past this was a round, deep pool of water with the guide wire re-belayed to a boulder, then disappeared about 80° to the left and down into deeper water: definitely no way on. I even traversed along the side of the pool to get a better look getting soaked in the process, but no luck. Double Arse!!
Returning to the others, I found that Keith had tried the sump bypass and on reaching the top of the rope there was a tight ascending tube which was difficult to progress through especially wearing SRT kit.
Damn. This meant some of us of larger girth had no chance.
We waited a while and Pete Collins had a go. By now Waggy had joined Paul as he had the 20 metre rope for the pitch down beyond the sump and they had lowered some rope down the tight ascending tube to assist progress. Pete made it through. Soon Phil had a go and he too, was successful.
Once we were sure that Phil was going on with the others, Keith, Karen, Steve and I headed out.
At the bottom of the second slope on the way in I had spotted a low passage heading back on the left, looking back. Waggy had checked it on the way in and found it was a bypass for the slippery slabs. I told the others about this and they headed that way. Karen didn't like the look of the climb down at the end of the bypass so we returned to the upward slab and I again chucked up the rope to Keith who had climbed down at the bypass and clambered up the slab on the other side. He fed it through a nearby rope sling and gave me and Karen a doubled assisted handline as we clambered up the slab.
Karen then clambered down the second slab. I thought I might as well make use of the rope as we had it there and Keith body-belayed me as I clambered down while sitting down. Soon I found it was a lot easier to descend than it looked as there were some footholds but also a wall on the left and a rocky fin on the right so that you could brace yourself using these with your arms and hands. So I stopped and unclipped the rope while Keith slid it down to me and I quickly clambered down the remaining length of the slab.
We were soon back at the slippery climb which had stopped us on the first trip so I re-attached the rope and quickly abseiled down the drop followed by the other three.
We clambered up the initial climb near the entrance and were soon back in the warm air outside. We washed off some mud from our caving gear in a pool in the stream and then returned to the cars after nearly two hours underground. We had gone in just after midday and were back at the cars just after 14:00.
Karen and I got changed but Keith's and Steve's clothes were still locked in two other cars. We sat around in the car park until 16:30 then I drove back to the gite with Karen with Steve and Keith in the back of my car. We had a snack and brew while sitting outside. Meanwhile, Boyd and Elaine arrived back at nearly 18:00 with still no sign of the others.
A little while later I spotted something hanging from beneath the verandah above us: it was a bat! There ensued a mass photography session as we stood on a chair taking photos of the bat and while we were doing that, at 18:45, the others arrived back from the cave. It had been a longer and slower trip than we thought!