G'day and welcome to another episode of: the MUSS Newsletter.
This happened in Southport this year - all the usual fun and lectures.
Beer and curry was of course obligatory in the evening followed by the Stomp headed by our very own Big Roy (for those that know him from Matienzo) - which was generally agreed by all to be boppingly stomptastic, even the poor young lady who was sporting a shiner the next day having been bopped by a projectile Paul Stacey (allegedly).
At rounding up time Keith, at long last!, announced his resignation from Conference organising, pointing out quite rightly that there are some obnoxious, selfish people around and that he was fed up with their complaining - jolly good rant that one, well done Keith.
Sheffield next year - come along.
Nent Head, for those that don't know, is an old mining village situated up in the hills to the west of Newcastle, and was once famous for its lead and zinc mining. There are supposedly over 58 miles of passages in the complex mine system - but we didn't get to see all of them on this weekend!!
My original plans to go straight to Nent Head had been scrapped by Ray on Thursday night for no apparently good reason, so Friday night saw me appearing, once again, in Scruffy Murphy's in Manchester to drink some beer. Consequently Saturday morning arrived with the usual thick head and delicate aftertaste of an Abdul's take away plastic-burger. After breakfast at a local greasy spoon cafe, two teams set off for ... one team set of for Nent Head. Dave Salerman decided that carrying hang gliders up a hill and sitting in the rain would be more fun.
A quick trundle up the M6 later we arrived at the nearby town of Alston, parked in the police station car park and went for a bit of a tourist. Ray was desperate to buy a new guidebook, so we found a gear shop to satisfy his craving. The next order of the day was:
"A pint of beer please", and a pub lunch ensued.
Ray had booked accommodation next door to the Crown Inn in Nent Head (Very convenient!), so we picked up the key and people sat down, made tea, etc. etc.
"err I thought we'd come here to look at the mines", I said.
"Sorry I can't hear you over the noise of the kettle boiling"... siggghhh
Eventually I started getting changed and Ray, Bruce and Grovel grudgingly followed suit, and it was off up the track to find the entrance. This was found about 15 mins later and the first obstacle was to work out how to open the gate, Krypton factor stuff this was. It was finally determined that the gate pivoted horizontally in the middle - now I know how a pinball feels.
The passage started out as walking height with a bit less than a welly's depth of water in, left turn at a major junction and we came to an area of workings. Ray and Bruce went right, myself and Grovel went left, 5 mins later myself and Grovel went right, but no sign of R and B. We arrived at a dodgy looking hole in the floor with a pile of rock held up by two random bits of timer for a wall, and thought,
"they couldn't possibly have gone down there - too dangerous"
So we went back to the first junction and went right - found lots of passage, a howling shaft, some coal, a boulder collapse, a collapsing boulder errr... we turned round and headed back - but still no sign of the others. There was nothing for it but to risk the "dangerous" hole in the floor - this turned out to be not that bad and led to a continuation of a passage we had found previously and followed to a blockage. Some rapid stomping brought us to Wheel Flats, with a mining trolley and a sign saying "Wheel Flats" and before long we heard Ray and Bruce returning down a small passage, soaking wet and telling tales of epic ladder climbs an bottomless puddles. That was enough excitement for this trip so we pottered out with Ray lamenting about not having found the Ballroom - supposedly well worth seeing.
A word about pubs in Nent head - there's the Crown, next to which we were staying, and there's the nice pub on the main road. In here we met up with Wendy, Jez and Dave - who had apparently actually got some flying in. After a meal and a beer or two it was considered appropriate to go and drink in the other pub, if for no other reason than to order breakfast for the following day.
The next morning Ray and Bruce decided that it had all been too much for them so it was up to Grovel and me to show Wendy and Jez around the mines. We quickly retraced our footsteps back to Wheel Flats where we made an effort to locate the magical mythical Ballroom. After exploring a few dead ends (well decorated with gypsum dead ends, mind you) Sam "cave ferret" Lieberman (me) eventually stormed off down the bit we'd seen the others coming out of yesterday. After a bit of stooping we popped out in another main passageway and with a bit of nose following we ended up at the Ballroom we'd heard so much about. It is jolly impressive, at least 10m x 40m in plan and at least 10m high with some equally sizeable other bits. A couple of hours trolling around then ensued and it was time to go.
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