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@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ re-written. This is prevent spurious re-orderings and spurious git commit lines
Sorry about all the crap that surrounds the image tags which has been imported along with the content
when UK Caving blogs have been parsed.
Exported on 2025-07-12 16:07 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
Exported on 2025-07-14 16:07 using either the control panel webpage or when editing a logbook entry online
See troggle/code/views/other.py and core.models/logbooks.py writelogbook(year, filename)
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<div class="timeug">T/U: 72.0 hours</div>
<div class="editentry"><br /><a href="/logbookedit/2025-07-07a">Edit this entry</a><br /></div>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-07b">2025-07-07</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Buck</u>, Alice, Ella, Hannah UG</div>
<div class="triptitle">Postalmklamm - Ferrations of the Voracious Variety</div>
There I lay amongst the trees, flat against a bed of moss, my phone dead, my clothes soaked through by rain, and with no idea where I was.
<p>
That morning was like molasses. Rain had killed off any chance of heading back up to the plateau, so the five of us had agreed we'd meet at 10 to prepare for a different adventure: via ferrata at Postalmklamm; an epic traverse along a limestone gorge, then upwards beside a roaring waterfall, and apparently culminating not far from a remote alpine 'cheese factory' (!!!). However, tired as we all were from our hard expo-ing, Alice's hopes of a speedy start to the day were dashed by unfortunate but characteristic levels of faff, especially from Jonty, who almost pulled out of the trip entirely, before declaring that if he was to go, we had to grant him an extra half an hour to get ready.
<p>
We finally set off just after 11, with a ~50min journey ahead of us. Highlights included:
<p>
-The toll road up to the via ferrata, which was enforced solely by an old man sat in a chair by the side of the road who, as far as we could tell, sat there all day everyday to personally collect tolls such as ours.
<p>
-Hannah playing 'Roxanne but it's just Rocks', which, despite the awful phone signal, somehow perfectly sinked every time with the appearance of large cliffs along the road.
<p>
Toll collector placated and rocks appreciated, we threw our climbing harnesses and via ferrata cowstails on and headed down the path towards the gorge and our voracious ferration. The via ferrata began with a long, rickety bridge, an iron wire suspended above it just low enough that you could clip your cowstails on it, but just high enough to make it awkward. This was followed by some walking/gentle scrambling along wooded slopes, which became steeper and steeper as the ferration began in earnest.
<p>
The first obstacle of note was a pair of tensioned wires which spanned the gorge, maybe some 8m across, complimented by several hanging hemp ropes along their length. You clip into the upper wire, then tightrope walk the lower one whilst using the hemp ropes for stability (you can just hold onto the upper wire instead, but that's much less fun).
<p>
Next came an interesting predicament. Perhaps a two metre gap between the canyon walls, which the via ferrata crossed by way of a single steel wire. Was it a jump? Are Austrian via ferratists just taller? Who can say. Regardless, Jonty was the first of us to tackle the gap, swinging his legs up onto the rope and pulling himself along it till he could swing his legs back down onto the ledge at the other side. The rest of us followed in a likewise fashion, and after another much more straightforward crossing back to the other side of the canyon, we found ourselves ascending the canyon wall beside a lovely waterfall. Partway up this waterfall we found a lovely pool, which obviously required a quick skinny dip before continuing up past several more enticing pools and into some woodland beside a large cliff.
<p>
After signing the logbook at the base of the cliff, we started up the last and hardest ferration of the day: a very upwards and very vertical section demanding a lot more involvement of the arms than previously was required. Being the hard cavers we are, the only real issue we encountered here was our inability to read German, which resulted in a few minutes of confusion as to whether the sign along the route was indicating we required a belay or not (turns out it was referring to a route we weren't doing). Once this hurdle was overcome (google translate coming in clutch) and the via ferrata had been ferrated voraciously, we were faced with an important decision. The sky was clouding over, and some of the group had forgone proper precautions and not brought full waterproofs. So, to the car, or to the cheese?
<p>
After careful consideration, evaluation of our resources (four coats between five, and several dead or almost-dead phone batteries) we decided that the wisest course of action was to just wing it and do both. We split up, Alice and Jonty heading to the car (Jonty with no waterproofs and Alice actively refusing to take the waterproofs she'd packed in my bag) and Hannah, Ella, and I continuing on in search of cheese, with only Ella's barely-functioning cave phone with a photo of the via ferrata info board for navigation.
<p>
As the three of us continued on, it became increasingly apparent that the map on the via ferrata info board had been rather heavily simplified, and it slowly dawned on us that we really didn't know where we were, and all we could do was continue on and hope the forest track we were following would eventually intersect the road. Fortunately, morale was high despite the weather and navigational issues, mainly thanks to Hannah's Wonderboom blasting Cosmo Sheldrake from Ella's phone as we began to truly embrace being lost in the woods. As I trudged along that forest track, rain beading my forehead as Cosmo sang to the song of an ancient cedar tree, I became increasingly convinced that I'd found my way out of the realm of humanity, and into some other world, in which the forests never end. There, lost amongst the trees, we were overcome by whimsy, and veered off the path to throw ourselves upon a luxurious bed of moss. There we lay, the rain gently spattering our faces as we gazed up through the canopy and towards an infinite expanse of grey, laughing to ourselves and to each other as we revelled in the freedom of being lost.
<p>
It was then that we noticed the impressively large pinecones scattered across the ground, and thoughts of joy became acts of violence as the pinecone wars began.
<p>
Eventually we decided perhaps we ought to figure out how the hell to get out of this forest, so back onto the path we went. This path eventually joined a more established forest track (which was almost certainly the one we were supposed to be on to begin with) and after only a little more walking we reached a proper road. And there, only a little ways up the road, was a sign for the cheese shop. We could almost taste it! Up the road we headed, attempting unsuccessfully to contact Alice and Jonty as we went. We soon reached the car park, greeted by a particularly talkative herd of cattle in the neighbouring field, and stood around awhile trying to ascertain from a distance whether the cheese shop was open or not. There were a couple cars in the car park, which was a god sign, but the whole place was just so quiet and remote-looking.
<p>
Whilst we considered our next course of action, we discovered a fascinating little ditch in the side of the car park, in which a little spring emerged from the rock before immediately passing into a drainage pipe that ran underneath the carpark. An auspiciously person-sized drainage pipe, too! Ella was in the ditch in seconds with my headtorch, and before we knew it, both Hannah and I followed her as we embarked upon an epic cheese factory car park through-trip. There was even a shorter, wider, second section of pipe immediately after it, so we actually caved twice! Back in the car park, only slightly muddier and damper than we'd already been, we decided we were finally ready to approach the cheese factory.
<p>
Slowly, we approached the door. There was no window, so we couldn't tell if any lights were on. There was no signage of note. Eventually, I reached the door, and, reaching out, my trembling hand gently resting against the rough wood, I pushed. And the door swung open.
<p>
Inside, the stone floors and wooden furnishings of the small vestibule were gently lit with a warm, yellow light spilling in from the next room inside, bathing a table and counter stacked with great wheels of cheese and jars of clear, glistening honey. From the next room entered a woman, who quickly worked out we were English and helped us choose our cheese. We settled on 200g each, which she cut for us, plus a jar of honey, before reality finally came crashing down on our heads as she spoke those dreaded words: "we don't take card". Shit. Ella? Hannah? No cash? Ok, maybe Alice or Jonty have cash? Oh look! They've just arrived outside. Hello! No time to chat, cut the niceties, just give us your cash.
<p>
Of course, they had none, and we had to apologetically admit to the woman that she'd cut that cheese for nought. Morose, we headed back to the car whilst a bemused Alice and Jonty recounted how they'd driven up and down the road several times before they finally spotting the huge käse sign by the drive up to the cheese factory. And back to base camp we went, to stuff full of chips the cheeseless voids within us.
<div class="timeug">T/U: 0.01 hours</div>
<div class="editentry"><br /><a href="/logbookedit/2025-07-07b">Edit this entry</a><br /></div>
<hr />
<div class="tripdate" id="2025-07-09a">2025-07-09</div>
<div class="trippeople"><u>Joel</u>, Dyl, Hamish</div>
<div class="triptitle">plateau, - plateau, Gruffalo - No such thing as bad weather (just idiots who go out in it)</div>