P8

Karen, Keith and I again stopped at the Orpheus hut to sort out and clean the ropes from yesterday and to get the ropes for a trip in P8. It turned out that Boyd, Waggy and Ashleigh were also heading for P8 with a couple of new prospective members called Roy and Jason.
The three of us left the others sorting themselves out and had breakfast ta Monyash café first. We drove to the usual layby to park to find a couple of cars there and Waggy waiting in his car with Ashleigh. It seemed that Roy and Jason had forgotten their wellies and had to return to get them!
We left Waggy waiting in his car and set off for the cave. We found the cavers from the pair of cars in the layby making their way out at the top of the first pitch and also found that the pitch was still rigged. The same thing was apparent at the second pitch: the traverse from the hole in the calcite was also left rigged.
Then at the quite high downstream sump (their had been quite a lot of rain last night) there was a new diving line tied off well away from the old line. It looked like someone was leaving the pitches rigged as they were making many trips diving the sump(s).
After returning to the second pitch we met the other Orpheus members descending using an electron ladder, for the benefit of the two novices.
We arranged that they would de-rig the ropes we had left (as they were using them as lifelines on the ladders) so we had an easier return to the surface without having to cart out the ropes.

Again we returned to the café in Monyash on our way back to the hut for some food and a brew.