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<h2>Cambridge University Caving Club Expedition to the Totes Gebirge
massif, Austria 1977</h2>

<p>It had begun to seem that we would be unable to get any transport to
Austria when Dave Harrison came along and offered us a lift. Plans were
quickly made and equipment bought, then Dave disappeared... a return of his
nervous complaint so he would obviously be unable to drive to the continent.
Given the impetus to go we hurriedly made our own arrangements to go out by
train to Salzburg. We finally got the tickets on Saturday August 6th, to
travel on Moday August 8th.

<p>Simon and I arranged for food and some gear to be sent out with various
other members. We met Nick at Victoria station and then set off by train to
Dover, there to catch the ferry to Ostend. From Ostend we got a train through
Brussels, Aachen, Cologne, Bonn, up the Rhine valley, Bavaria and Munich and
then, as we approached the border with Austria, mountains appeared. These
were viewed and piccied enthusiastically before we crossed the border. Five
more minutes and we were in Salzburg.

<p>Nick was enthusiastically pushed forward to speak German at the locals and
we soon found ourselves on a bus to Bad Ischl. From here a train took us
round the edge of Halstatter See and some very spectacular views of the
Trippenstein and Dachstein were eagerly snapped up by my camera. The train
carried on up the valley of the Traun and into Bad Aussee. One last bus took
us up to Altaussee where a friendly Austrian directed us to the campsite
without being asked for info. We arrived and it was immediately obvious we
were in the right place because of the large squalid camp, with 6 canoes and
an English car. We were greeted by Dave Fox and Vic Brown who informed us
that everyone else had gone up to the plateau to camp.

<p>We unloaded, unpacked and settled in. The camp was next to the lake, on
the far side of which towered the massive Trisselwand, an enormous clean
limestone face 600m high. Nick and Simon went off to speak to the man in
charge while I rerigged my tent which had been mis-erected by team Leach.

<p>Almost immediately after we had put up the 'Joke tent' and cooked a meal,
it started to rain, a serious change from the glorious sunshine on our
arrival. This soon developed into the most spectacular and noisy thunderstorm
I have ever seen, and continued for some considerable time. We retired to our
pits to catch up on sleep lost on the train. After a while a vehicle arrived,
and Reckert's voice drifted across the campsite. His tent wasn't waterproof
and was last seen with an inch of water on its tray groundsheet!

<p>After some time the rain eased off and we all headed for Fischers bar, the
normal sequence of events for all subsequent evenings. Next day the weather
was still poor and more of the expedition returned leaving only Mike and
Julia on the plateau. Getting more and more bored, I eventually decided to
borrow a canoe and ended up by canoeing 7 miles on the lake.

<p>Next day was better and we set off up to the plateau. We discovered that
the way up the mountain was by toll road, and that the toll would be about
&pound;3 a time for the average vehicle we were taking up. Luckily we had had
a free passage negotiated on our behalf by Karl, our Austrian contact. On
about the seventh hairpin, we noticed that the alitude was 1348m, putting us
higher than Britain.

<p>From the car park at the top we walked for about 20 minutes, mainly fairly
level, until we arrived at the campsite where Mike and Julia were. From here,
we walked for another 20 minutes or so to a col from where the plateau was
visible. An enormous area of sparsely vegetated karren stretching for about
three miles into the distance greeted us. A small area just in front of us
had been looked at last year, while Nick, Steve and Julian were working over
to the left and Team Leach with Mike and Vic and Dave were working to the
right. We struck off into the centre.

<p>Very shortly we found an east west rift with water sinking nearby. The
shaft seemed to be about 20m deep so we decided to start exploring. The
prospecting technique we had been advised to use was one person exploring,
one supporting, and the other prospecting for more holes. Simon had elected
to be surface Martyr, so I prepared to descend while Nick rigged the pitch.

<p>The ladder went down for about 15m to a sloping boulder floor where I
untied. I descended the boulders and climbed down a hole. A small sharp crawl
led off. I followed the crawl for about 3m and then met water. This came down
as a heavy drip from the roof and disappeared into a narrow slot in the
floor. There was no way on. I retreated to the pitch and reascended, noting
where a window from the hole next door to the west came in. The total depth
was about 20m, and we decided it was worth numbering. We started our sequence
with number 100. I photographed the entrance, and wrote down the details of
the hole.

<p>Simon had been looking for the sound of water nearby and had been
frightened by a snake, so had moved to a more open area with various holes.
He had already found one deep hole with a long stone-rattle, but this had a
number, B11. We later found that this descended 55m to a choke. Somewhat
further on, we found a colossal hole with a huge snow plug, and a possible
hole going down at the far end. We knew we were in an area which had been
looked at, so we decided to ask about it before investigating any further.
Shortly later, we found a large hole with a snow plug and a passage leading
off. This came to a pitch head, and we were looking for belays when we
eventually spotted the number - B9 in an obvious place, but almost invisible
after a year. On later occasions we found that the number can only be seen on
dry rock and vanishes under the mottling of lichen when it is wet. Further on
still we passed B8, so we decided to head directly away from the col until we
found something new.

<p><a id="id1977-101-1">After some time</a>, we climbed down a small fault
scarp onto a dipping area of rock and I found a small rifty entrance a few
feet long with an obvious climb down inside. I descended this and found two
ways on. To the left was a short pitch, while to the right was a short crawl
leading to another entrance in the face of a small scarp. Nick kitted up and
while he did so, I traversed over the pitch to a smaller climb down with a
tiny tube leading back to the base of the pitch. I retreated and put a ladder
on the pitch. Descending this led over a gravel floor and over an awkward
rock into a tube. This led on for some way to the top of a climb down into
what promised to be a larger passage but turned out to be a similar tube with
a floor slot. This slot closed down and I was forced to crawl at roof level
in the tube. This continued with occasional steep sections, descending for
some way until finally, the floor slot became aparent again and turned left
sharply. At this point there was a window on my right which led out via a 2m
climb down onto boulders at the base of a large aven. There were holes in the
boulder floor and a descent at the far side would have been perhaps 5m onto
what appeared to be more boulders. I retreated and Nick went down for a look.
I don't think he went as far as I did, but we both agreed that if we did find
anything down there, carrying tackle would be a severe problem, so we decided
to leave it. We labelled the original entrnce 101, and the second entrance
101A. About 50m away, Simon had found another shaft which descended for some
way, by the sound of stones, so we laddered it and I set off once again to
explore. This time it was a smallish joint-orientated shaft which descended
almost exactly 20m to a solid choke with a small amount of snow. We labelled
it 102.

<p>Prospecting was now going more slowly and we all joined forces to
investigate various nearby holes until Nick and Simon decided on a rifty
semi-horizontal entrance not far from 102. We had, however, run out of time,
so we dumped most of the gear and headed back for the col. On the way we
passed various holes which we thought held considerable promise and we
congratulated ourselves on finding a promising area.

<p>Next day we attempted to walk directly to our area, but were soon
frustrated by a large area of spruce. Nick and Simon attempted to bypass it
on the left while I went off to the right. It was some considerable time
before we remet, and we were still separated by a large patch of dense bush.
Between us lay a large horizontal cave entrance which Nick and Simon
investigated as a horizontal tube which bifurcated and then choked.

<p>By taking bearings on the local mountains, we deduced that we were a long
way from where we should be, and in precisely the opposite direction from
what we expected. We set off, still separated by a band of bush, until we
were nearer the place where we ought to be. We then split up again to try to
find the OAV pole which had seemed an obvious landmark when we were at our
entrances. Eventually I spotted it and was soon at the entrance to 101. It
took Nick and Simon about half an hour to arrive despite their being only
about 100m away. We had lunch.

<p>Nick and Simon rigged their hole - 103 - and both descended in what proved
to be a narrow rift with ledges. Simon had to go half way down to line Nick
to the bottom. It choked.

<p>We were fast coming to the conclusion that this area was not too good so
we set off to the right (as seen from the col) to look at some of the holes
we had seen the day before. We failed to find any. The scar we were walking
along seemed to be a fault and obviously quite a bit of water sank there, but
everything looked very choked. Eventually we emerged at the top of a slope
down to an area which looked very heavily jointed and which had numerous
large holes in it. As we might have expected, everything seemed choked.

<p>Since the area was fairly clear of bush, we decided to dump our gear here
and prospect the surrounding area which looked as though it could hold
something and was also likely to be fairly easy to find since some large
erratics formed an unusual landmark... we had learnt that landmarks needed to
be visible from afar&nbsp;!

<p>We split up and started wandering across the karren finding various open
holes which obviously choked and several horizontal entrances which had to be
looked at more closely. Nick and Simon found most of these but they all
choked.

<p>Eventually we ended up a long way from where we had started and Nick and
Simon called me over to them as Simon had found a long narrow rift entrance
with no loose scree near it which looked promising. Nick and Simon fetched
tackle (some of it) and Nick and I started to rig it while Simon meanwhile
found more holes.

<p>Though awkward to rig, Nick was soon descending only to find it getting
too tight with a way down visible. Since the depth was only about 10m, we did
not number the hole. Time was running out so further investigation was
delayed for a while...

<p>Back on the karren again the next day, we had less trouble in finding our
holes, though at some stage in the proceedings I got thoroughly lost
retrieving gear from the heavily jointed area where it had been left. We
turned our attention now to Hohle 104 which Simon had found. There was
nothing resembling a belay for this, but a very large erratic perched about
10' from the lip provided a secure point to which we attached a bolt. While
this was being done, I was prospecting for the tackle left a long way away. I
got very lost again and almost ended up back at 101 before realising. When I
got back with the gear, I found that Nick had found another hole down which
stones rumbled for a long time; things were looking up&nbsp;!

<p>Simon was fed down 104 and descended for some time, freeing ladder on his
way. He was instructed to count the rungs on the way up and by this means we
found that the hole was 32m deep, our deepest so far, but as usual it choked.

<p>We began to suspect that 105 would choke the same way, so while it was
being rigged by Simon and Nick, I started prospecting again. The only thing I
found was a small horizontal entrance in a scar, but on entering this I was
amazed to find I was in a large black space. Walking in carefully I seemed to
be in a large flat-roofed chamber about 2-3m high and 10m wide. At the far
side was a very exciting black space leading on. To my left, daylight came in
through a small hole in the roof. After a few seconds, my eyes started to
adjust to the light and I saw to my great disappointment that the far end of
the chamber ended in a solid wall. The floor was solid boulders and scree
with no obvious place to look for a way on. I climbed out of the hole in the
roof and returned to the others to find that they too had visited it.

<p>105 was being rigged from a ledge about 6m down where Simon had climbed on
a handline. A lot of ladder was being put down, but time seemed to be running
out again. It was fully rigged but not descended before we returned to the
cafe.

<p>My diary for the next day read 'Fed/Festered/Farted', and this sums up our
rest day except to mention that I canoed round the lake, then across the
lake, and then part way across the lake, about seven or eight miles
altogether.

<p>Monday the 15th saw us back on the plateau to investigate a small
draughting hole which I had found on our way back last time, but first there
was the small matter of 200' of ladder down 105...

<p>From the first ledge, the place looked very loose, but after a final bit
of gardening, I started to descend in what proved to be a fine shaft in clean
white limestone. The ladder was caught on a couple of ledges on the way down,
and the shaft sidestepped onto a parallel joint about halfway down. The whole
place was very roomy and clean, but landed on a damp, level and very finally
choked floor at a depth of 41m. The view up the shaft to the daylight at the
top was superb. I coiled the remaining ladder and set off back up, tieing
back onto the lifeline (which was too short) about 5m up from the floor.
Since the rock was rather knobbly and there were several ledges, I pulled the
ladder up at each one and coiled it. This meant that derigging was pretty
efficient and we quickly moved over to the draughting hole.

<p><a id="id1977-76-1">The</a> entrance which was next to a patch of Bunde
was vertical for about 6m to what sounded like a snow ledge. It was pretty
narrow with some snow in it, so I descended on a handline. This proved rather
sporting since the snow was only a centimetre or so deep over hard ice, so I
slid down rather rapidly.

<p>At the bottom of this first section was the expected snow ledge, and
leading off were two passages. The way on, though, was neither of these, but
a steep ice slope in a narrow rift from which came the enticing draught. I
again descended rather less than elegantly, but a good deal more carefully,
to find a small chamber with a window at the far end from which roared a
powerful gale. I looked out of this and to my delight saw a pitch of about 6m
onto another snow platform. I returned with some difficulty to the first snow
ledge and then investigated one of the side passages which carried some of
the draught and emerged at the base of a nearby doline. This was to become
the normal entrance to the cave.

<p>Elated by the find, we had lunch and set off to rig the cave safely, by
putting a ladder on the ice slope above the pitch. There were few belays to
be found, but once rigged it was a good deal safer. There were even fewer
belays for the pitch, and eventually we rigged it from the handline and a
dubious flake. We put 20m of ladder down and I descended.

<p>The window led onto a pleasant pitch of 6m free onto the centre of a large
snow plug down the sides of which were two holes. I fed the ladder down the
larger and descended. This proved rather awkward, against crystalline snow
and round a spiral which made communications difficult. I dropped down onto a
further snow platform just before the end of the ladder. Off the edge of the
snow, the pitch continued round a corner to the left. I looked down this and
could discern more snow about 20m down with more black space beyond. I
retreated rapidly.

<p>The excitement at this stage was intense, but we could obviously not
proceed further without better belays, so a temporary exit was made. Nick
went down and put in a bolt at the top of the ice slope, and for the next
attempt, the bottom of the first ladder was used as a belay. We still needed
more bolts however, so further progress was postponed.

<p>On the surface, Nick and Julian wandered by, having given their area up as
being generally loose and choked. We next saw them in the campsite where they
said that they had found a draughting hole about 100m beyond ours, but it was
too small to enter. In typical Northern Branch dedicated fashion, they
proposed to apply mechanical persuasion with a lumphammer to the entrance.
Team fat geriatric jeered at the idea, but the results certainly justified
the means.

<p><a id="id1977-76-2">Next</a> day we were back at 106 and a bolt was put in
at the head of the pitch, and Nick descended, with 60m of ladder on the
pitch. Lifelining at the pitch head proved to be the most desperate part of
the exercise, with a very powerful wind (enough to blow a carbide out) coming
up the pitch at freezing temperature.

<p>About 12m below the snow platform below which the pitch continued as a
steep snow slope into which steps could be kicked. This went down for 9m to a
rock lip below which it was somewhat awkward to climb as it had got caught
below. A further twelve metres down, the ladder went down a 'rift' with one
wall of snow and one of rock. This choked off about four metres down and Nick
had to climb back out. The rift proved to be a sort of mini-bergschrund, and
he was able to climb over a snow pile and descend the far side for 8m to a
large ledge below which the ladder had been catching while he was climbing
the last section. Below the ledge the pitch still continued, turning left
again. Dropping rocks, Nick estimated the depth to be about 20m onto yet more
snow, but throwing rocks further out indicated a floor of considerable
extent. We had no more tackle to continue, and it was becoming obvious that
we needed to get more people further down. This would entail the placing of
several bolts and rigging for abseil/self-line.

<p><a id="id1977-76-3">Next</a> day we showed our entrance to Nick and Julian
again, and they showed us theirs, so we could act as mutual call-outs. I
descended to put a second bolt at the head of the pitch, Simon put a bolt at
the -18m snow platform, but this went wrong. I then placed a bolt on the rock
bridge. For most of this time, Nick was at the bottom where he had taken an
extra 20m of ladder. Simon exitted and I descended to the bottom
(Yesterdays's Terminus) where Nick and I put another bolt in, not realising
that it was now very late. When we eventually exitted, the ladder proved very
knackering to climb as it kept getting caught. We emerged into an incredible
hailstorm (at least, Nick did - five minutes later or less, when I arrived,
it had all finished) and rushed down to the car park as quickly as possible,
noting the 6" banks of hailstones on the way. After this epic we decided to
have a gonk-day.

<p>Nick, Julian and Steve had by now extended their hole (97) to about -75m,
including one very tight bit called the Nun's C**t on account of its needing
banging.

<p>Our gonk-day unfortunately turned into two gonk-days on account of some
nasty low cloud and rain. We were fairly pissed off with the shaft (Plugged
Shaft) which was proving so awkward to rig, but by next day we were keen to
get to the next pitch down (Saved Shaft).

<p><a id="id1977-76-4">We</a> found that the abseil/self-line technique was
proving very effective as we all descended to Yesterday's Terminus in about
ten minutes at most. Nick abseiled down the next pitch which proved to be
about 14m onto a snow slope descending a few metres further into a big
circular chamber whose roof soared out of sight even to Nick's electric. The
floor was composed of large angular limestone blocks and one of these
provided us with a belay for the next pitch which was a rift to one side of
the chamber which appeared to be about 15m to a rock floor. Nick and Simon
rigged the pitch while I took piccies, and then they both descended. From the
top of the pitch they didn't sound happy: they had descended 16m into a small
chamber, the far side of which was composed of huge limestone blocks, from
beneath which the draught emerged. There was no way to climb over and boulder
chokes are not the nicest things to meet when in such an isolated spot.

<p>I descended to see the choke, and soon discovered that climbing over was a
poor idea since the large blocks all supported piles of loose grubble which
fell off when used as handholds. I then turned my attention to the small hole
through which most of the draught appeared to come. This was directly under a
very large block, and had a floor of more loose grubble. I pushed lots of
grubble through the hole to make it larger and more stable, and then crawled
into it on a lifeline. I discovered that the choke ended immediately and led
out into a rifty passage with a choked floor of jammed rocks and muck.
Kicking various amounts of grubble out of the way I was able to descend onto
this floor, remaining jammed in the rift in case it wasn't stable. I started
to clear some of the muck from the choke to make it easier, and dropped a
rock down a hole in the floor. To my surprise there was silence. I was
reaching for another lump when there was a loud crash with lots of echo. More
rocks followed with the same effect. I traversed forward to a place where the
floor seemed to end and dropped rocks down here. We estimated a pitch of at
least 30m in a very roomy shaft, and from the lack of bouncing it seemed to
be free-hanging. The floor obviously needed gardening a lot before we went
down the pitch, and anyway the top looked rather tight. Nick had a look and
then we made our way out.

<p><a id="id1977-76-5">The</a> next day - Sunday 21st - we rapidly reached
the head of the new pitch, and I went as far forward as possible, again on a
line, and started to remove the floor of the rift. This proved fairly easy as
it was not very thick and after about half an hour or so, I had shifted most
of it. A bolt was put in at the far end of the pitch and a traverse line
rigged to it, the ladder belayed and Simon tied on to lifeline me. The pitch
head needed a bit more gardening as I descended, and proved very awkward
being so narrow, but the shaft below widened immediately, and was not
free-hanging at all. In fact I was climbing a very easy pitch against the
wall, which started at this side of the pitch, explaining why it had sounded
free hanging from the other end of the traveerse. The shaft was oval in shape
and quite large. I descended 32m passing only one small ledge, and then the
lifeline became tangled at the top. This was very frustrating since I was
only about 1m above a large ledge and had just come under a heavy drip. Once
I got a bit of slack, I crossed the ledge and the pitch continued round to
the left, though it sounded very broken. We had no tackle to investigate this
with, so reluctantly I reascended, finding Simon with the lifeline in a huge
tangle hanging down the pitch in my way. When it was eventually sorted out
Simon left and I derigged. When only about 15m of ladder remained in the
hole, a large chunk of the pitch-head decided to go in for free-fall caving.
A sudden jerk on the ladder at the same time as the crash from below
indicated that we had smashed a ladder and indeed it proved that one of the
exCS ladders had a wire smashed three-quarters through. It was retired from
service.

<p>Considering the size of the hole and the power of the draught we were
following, it seemed a little odd that I could not detect it so I looked
round a bit. The rift continued beyond me, but since the pitch below didn't,
something odd was obviously going on. Simon came back across the traverse to
help with the tackle so I got him to line me while I investigated the rift.
There were a few loose rocks, so I climbed up and found a hole over a
chockstone which led out onto a traverse about ten feet up in the rift. I
found a place to descend and this quickly led to an enlargement and then a
pitch head. The draught came through the hole, so the way on was open again.
This meant that we would not be derigging, so we ferried the tackle forward
and Nick came through. We were now running out of carbide, and as my light
was about to go out, it seemed reasonable not to refill it until necessary.
Accordingly, I waited in the Boulder Chamber with no light while Nick
descended the pitch. It was 18m to a large ledge and Nick estimated another
20m to the bottom, so we had to retreat to get another lifeline.

<p><a id="id1977-76-6">We</a> were now getting left behind as the Team
Enthusiast hole 'Schneewindschacht' had reached over 200m and was still
going, while our deepest point was about 145m. We realised that we would not
be able to get much further unless we found some gently descending passage
with lots of short climbs, but next day saw us with another lifeline obtained
from H&ouml;hle 82 - Team Geriatric's 220m find.

<p>We were intrigued, particularly on this trip, to note that the draught was
becoming very variable and even reversed for a couple of minutes at one
stage. Back at the new pitch, Nick descended to the large ledge and then
continued down what proved to be only 14m to a passage leading gently
downwards&nbsp;!

<p>This vadose passage led to a large chamber and numerous possible leads,
but unfortunately had a heavy drip which made exploration by one person on
carbide very risky. Nick returned and reported what he had found, and we then
had an argument on the safety of two people going down at once. Nick reckoned
he could return the lifeline to the ledge but no further, but as there was
room on the ledge for two people, we decided it would be safe to go down as a
pair. Simon and I descended and made our way forward to the chamber, where
the following leads were noted -

<ol> <li>Large holes in the floor dropped about 10m to what appeared to be a
passage continuing below carrying the stream from the huge aven above.

<li>A large rift on the far side of the chamber appeared to continue the line
of the passage by which we had entered.

<li>Nick had found a small lead which came to an abrupt halt at a large
circular shaft in the floor, at the far side of which the passage continued.

</ol>

<p>While not at all certain, it appeared that the draught came out of the
holes in the floor and went up the passage we had come down, and also up the
passage on the far side. With all these leads, there must be something there,
though a somewhat better equipped party with at least some electric light
will be essential next year.

<p>A photo was taken for posterity and we retreated, performing a grade three
survey on the way out. The final series was not named. We derigged as far as
Yesterday's Terminus, where we belayed all the tackle in a huge pile and
exitted.

<p>There was a huge amount of rain during the night, but somehow I was
persuaded to go on a two-man trip with Nick Reckert down Schneewindschacht to
derig the bottom half after it had ended too tight at a CUCC record -265m.

<p>On entering the shake where the entrance lay, it was noticeable that a lot
of water was around. Ignoring this, we descended the entrance which is quite
thrutchy and leads out onto an easy free-climb and thence to the
'Baptistry'-like tight bit. A lot of water fell down this at the start but
was soon lost in the narrow slot below. The head of the first pitch was
festooned with SRT gear, and Nick and I descended the first three pitches in
rapid succession. The takeoffs were interesting....

<p>The first pitch was an easy takeoff once out of the crawl, the second was
rigged from below a small stream gully and involved traversing on a rather
small ledge whilst clipped into the bolt, while the third involved chimneying
out above the pitch to reach a bolt which looked as if it had been placed by
a spider, but which was fairly easy to clip into the pitch itself. Below this
came an awkward step over a Puits en Baionette which led to a sizeable ledge
which was the first point out of the substantial waterfall (Slit Pot sized)
which accompanied the first three pitches of 55m total. Here Nick decided
that the pot was rather too wet for a complete descent, especially for a
comparative novice in SRT such as myself. Accordingly we retreated, leaving a
rather massive task for Nick, Julian and Steve the next day.

<p><a id="id1977-76-7">Next</a> day was the last day, so all derigging had to
be completed, and everyone went up to the plateau to help carry gear back
down. Team enthusiast had made a very early start, and I was jacking since
all my gear was wet. Accordingly, Rod Leach went down 106 to assist. I
remained on the surface with Jont and we investigated another draughting hole
nearby, but this came to a pitch with ice very quickly so we left it for next
year, pausing only to number it 99. To our surprise, when we went over to
look at 97, we found a Perry emerging, after only six hours underground.
Shortly later we were pulling 300m of rope out of the hole, all uncoiled to
get it through the Nun's C**t. Nick emerged to find that he was trapped in
his harness by the well known properties of Clog krabs and we all had a good
laugh before Steve managed to free him. Upon wandering back to 106, we found
the first of the team emerging from 106a with the first of the gear, and
learned that a new extension had been made behind the rock bridge in Plugged
Shaft. Dropping onto the snow behind the bridge led to a descent into a
passage which soon ran out over another shaft - no draught. This is yet
another lead to be investigated next year... five in all.
<p><a href="../1978/log.htm#id1978-76-1">Eislufth&ouml;hle next trip</a>

<p>The assembled multitude now returned to the col via 82, where yet more
tackle was picked up and I got given a saturated Marlow rope which weighed
more than what I was already carrying. The walk back with all the gear was
somewhat epic.

<hr />
Packing and camp-derigging was next, and then paying for the campsite,
which, though at a reduced rate, was still somewhat expensive. Next day -
Thursday, we set off with our huge loads of rucksacks plus a large kitbag and
caught the bus to Bad Aussee, train to Bad Ischl, bus to Salzburg (the buses
are marked 'standing room 37' and this seems to be what was being attempted
most of the way - we were never told whose turn it was to breathe.) and then
a long wait in Salzburg during which time I took the opportunity to go and
wander round the old part of the city and take photgraphs while the others
festered eating butties and beer.

<p>The train journey was less comfortable than on the way out, but we still
got back home OK. Simon and I got the train to Preston and then got taken
home by car, having got back home about twice as quickly as the other members
of the expedition and about twice as expensively!

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<!-- LINKS -->
<ul>
<li>1977 Expedition info:
<ul>
<li><a href="log.htm">Logbook</a> (currently missing)</li>
<li><a href="report.htm">Expo report, Cambridge Underground 1978</a><br>
<!-- <li><a href="bcracc.htm">BCRA Caves &amp; Caving Report</a><br> -->
<li>Eislufth&ouml;hle - <a href="descnt.htm">from Descent 40</a></li>
<li>Nick Thorne's write-up in <a href="771649.htm">Belfry Bulletin 354</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="../../pubs.htm#pubs1977">Index</a> to all publications</li>
<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to Expeditions intro page</a></li>
<li><a href="../../../index.htm">CUCC Home Page</a>
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