Gradišnica, Cave 86

The Gradišnica entrance pitch

An abyss in the forest, to put it bluntly, used to be used the equivalent of the Gaping Gill winch meet until an accident put an end to it. 1st pitch, 65m them rebelay and down to the top of the scree slope, wait around a bit, take some piccies and continue down. Wow! this cave was impressive, especially to someone only used to the caves of blighty. It's just a series of massive chambers, one after the other, all heading down. Bob and Geric trundled off down, while I waited for the rest, after mucho faffing we got to the top of the last pitch to be greeted by the tap tapping of Geric placing a new bolt and the little teeny weeny Bob at the bottom of the last chamber, couldn't believe it he looked so small! while waiting we set up some flashes for Bob's photo's then trundled on down.

After passing many dodgy rope rubs, we got to the bottom and looked up to...total BLACKNESS. This was certainly a big cave, the only worrying thing was the weighted divers rope that went all the way to the roof of the chamber!!!!! So we went to look for the sump, while navigating around mud dunes that were many metres high, this cave also had much mud. After much slip sliding I found the sump, which was fairly spooky really, then made my way to meet the others, who were happily munching away on their Mars bars and taking pictures while Geric sneakily made his escape. Unfortunately Geric was the only person who had, had the foresight to bring a spanner!

So after mucho shouting we got him to leave his spanner at the top of the pitch for Pete (unlucky!) to use to derig. The exit from the cave was pretty straightforward, I held the record for longest ascent of the big pitch (30 mins compared with Simon's 15). Later as Pete was on the final leg of his derig, he accidentely dropped Geric's spanner into the abyss, never to be seen again (though Geric did go back on the last day to have a fruitless look).

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