To celebrate Dave’s birthday he wanted to go down Gaping Ghyll’s main shaft – the longest daylight pot hole in the UK. But the previous week’s torrential rain had made that option a decidedly dangerous proposition. Rowten Pot was chosen as a good alternative, being a nice short walk and not threatened by high water levels.

To celebrate, Dave had a special birthday hat to wear for the trip…

There’s some really fun SRT on the way down Rowten – hence the big smile on Laetitia’s face in the next picture…

Dave had planned a birthday party for the bottom of the cave, complete with cake, tea (well, actually just water), and special sparklers to adorn the top of the cake! Awesome. They’ve over exposed in the picture, but there were two sparklers – a four and a zero. You may be able to work out how old Dave was this birthday from that, you may not.

After heading back to the NPC hut, Greenclose, we set about further celebrations – much beer, a champagne toast, and a hearty BBQ followed by delicious strawberries! Yum Yum!

After the BBQ – strawberries!