My day out to Dotty started after finishing at mid-day on friday with the kit packed i set off for an over night stop in Sheffield at a mates (and follow YDers house ) the journey up was uneventful getting there around tea time for pizza and beer..... distance travelled 240miles so far.
The alarm goes off at 5:45am this morning and in a mole like state the kit gets loaded into Deepestandys 'big red dive bus' I think being a Shandy drinking southern yokel from Somerset makes me feel the cold more it was freaking baltic up north this morning !! Across Sheffield we go to pick up anothe mate and YDer Scubapimp... onward to Dotty (via Maccy Ds). Sheffield to Dotty 160 ish miles
We arrived at 10ish the weather was absolutly fantastic today not a cloud in the Sky ...which was slightly better than the last time i was there (2 days after boxing day when it was grey horrible and pissing down but its a stunning place in any weather... i think so anyway.
Kit up and off we go down the slope past the cairn ( never pass a cairn without putting a stone on top). Past the gnomes on the roof gently down to the top of the ladder at 40m quick 'every body OK check' and over the side and down the ladder past the 'how narked are you' puzzle at 50m (don't even remember whats on it let alone whats wrong with it
) we then followed the wall along to the 55m tunnel after checking we're all ok all three of us go through and out the other side , with 15 mins of deco to do and me being a cold soft shandy drinking southern Yokel we start the climb back up the wall and out .Max depth 57.1m dive time 40 mins or so.
We spent a good couple of hours de-fizzing which flew by with the usuall post dive pissing taking of my force fins ,DeepestAndys flirtation with the DIR side and Scubapimp stating that he was deffinatly not narked at the tunnel entrance...come on James we know different you weren't giving the unsure sign that was most deffinatly 'Jazz hands'
For dive two rather the lugging the 15s down the slope to decant from we desided to just make the second dive a quick trip out to the 24(ish)m tunnel and back which was still really good, being a sunny day up there really makes a differance we could see the surface from 22m !! max depth 24m dive time 25 mins .
With the big red fun bus loaded up the 160 or so miles back to Sheffield was pretty none eventful but i did catch some ZZZs so i'd feel slighty better for the Journey back from Sheffield to Yeovil . I spent quiet alot of the Journey home thinking about whether or not i'm mental for travelling about 800miles over two days to go diving for about an hour and a half .... and whilst alot of people might think ' i'm nuttier than a Squirrels fart ' i think its worth it .
Cheers Deepestandy and Scubapimp for a excellent day out !!!
One final thing if any one else was there today or recently and went through the 55m tunnel did we see a PC keyboard in there or was i well and truly spannered ?????