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Funny story in Butterbox Canyon 4-Nov-2010 At 12:37:07 PM another dave

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Did butterbox canyon in the bluies yesterday as it is early in the season is was as expected freezing water and ok weather. Water was slightly higher than usual due to rain fall in the previous few days.
We passed the abseil from the chockstone, swam the first pool. I down climbed using the manky tat into the second pool which was deeper than when I last did it. This pool formed up against a chock stone which you jump from into the last compulsory swim. So I'm in the second pool and I say its deep enough to jump so K descides to jump. He lobs his 30m rope over my head into the pool and jumps. We then watch J as he decides not to jump and down climbs in. We turn around and the rope has gone.
In my experience they usually float a little under the surface but on this trip we discovered that it doesn't when coiled. Eeep. We get out of the pool and look down can't see it, scramble to different locations can't see it, pull out the water proof head torch and can't see it. Oh crap. And to make maters worse there is a nice decomposing rat in the shelf next to us just out of the water. (If I get sick in the next few days I know why)
We did this with 2 30m statics so i got the other one tied a long tail onto the coil and lobed it in and watched it sink out of sight. It kind of drifted towards the chockstone so we decided to start there and work our way out.
K dives first his wet suit is too boyant so he only gets about a metre below the surface and then lots of thrashing. I jump in go to the bottom and kick around trying to kick it and don't feel it. J jumps in and feels around the chockstone and doesn't find it. To make matters worse every time we go under we come up with a really bad cold head ache that takes a good 30s to subside and another few minutes before you have the courage to go through the pain again.
We stuff around a bit at the chockstone then decide to be order and work our way up the pool using this diving pattern. The problem with this pool is that its full of ledges and boulders at the bottom and possibly hidden shelves so we are not entirely convinced we were going to find it. After about half a dozen dives and bad cold headaches I kick something that feel like a rope I go to grab it, miss and go for the surface. I get to the top excited and J goes in. He disappears down and after a few seconds he surfaces with a rope - its the wrong rope.
We can't believe it this is just too funny.

We decided to keep looking I jump into the same spot and I think I kick a rope strand but I'm not shore. J goes in nothing, K goes in he doesn't go deep and thrashes about a metre below the surface so by this time we have decided he is not really doing anything and just looks silly. So he stops.
I have another shot I hit a shelf and don't go deep enough so nothing. J's not going in again neithers K (its K's rope) they have given up. I decide to give it one more shot. So I jump I feel the rope with my foot I reach down and grab it and go for the surface. Its the right rope.

After that last dive I have a really bad head ache and feel a bit dodgy on my feet. Apparently I was under for 12s and completely out of sight. I'm guessing the water was 3 to 5m deep. I know my ears pop after 4 (when I was 12) and that didn't happen maybe cold or age prevented that.

Anyway the rope we found was a longish 50/60m blue rope 10ish mm without a dry core. It was found in a green SRT canyoning bag. We think the bag could have been there anywhere from an hour to 5 years before we found it.
I carried it out to the cave before the rock climb on the way out. Since it was very heavy being a water logged rope and total useless to us so we left it there for another group who might actually want it or for the original owners who might be alerted to it.

So if you own it go get it. Its located just before the climb out in the cave out of the sun.