The period of time between around mid-November when we last worked and now has been by far the longest period of my life in which I haven't worked. The biggest issues on a personal level in dealing with lockdown(s) have been the restricted freedoms faced and the lack of purpose that work brings (there are certainly plenty of other things that bring purpose into life, however, not working has been a real challenge from this perspective).
We made the decision a couple or so weeks ago that in order to be ready for work resuming this week (29th March 2021 was named as a key date for relaxing of certain English restrictions with respect to the Covid-19 pandemic) that some preparation would be necessary eg. checking venues; being fit enough and making at least some effort to ensure that skills were up to scratch. This was a difficult process to manage and carry out in a responsible manner, it certainly couldn't be achieved by "working at home" as such we endeavoured to keep contact down to no more than one other person; keep anything we did as local as possible and obviously conduct all of our activities outdoors. There are a few photos at the foot of this post from this preparation phase.
Anyway, the 29th March 2021 came around and we found ourselves out caving twice in the first three days of the week. They were events of a very different nature with Monday seeing us out with two folk who hadn't spent much (or any) time underground before, whilst the second activity was with a much more experienced individual. The weather also had its say with the first day following immediately after a period of heavy rain - with all the challenges it brings to caving - whilst the second day (evening) saw settled high pressure in control and a mild dry evening for our visit to Alum Pot. Both events went off extremely well and it was a pleasure to be back up and running again. There are a few pictures below that capture the nature of the first week back & some more later from our short time of preparation.
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