Dear Cavers, For weekend 27-29th November we are going to DERBYSHIRE, where the deepest vertical caves in the country lie. We're NOT CAMPING (as that would be ludicrous in the Peaks in winter), but staying in the incredibly nice Orpheus cave hut in the middle of nowhere. Deep caves by day, mince pies in the pubs and roaring fires back at the hut by night. We mislaid our pretty little red organising book at the weekend - so if you've told us you want to come BEFORE THIS WEEKEND, please email us to remind that we promised you a place! Otherwise we'll give your place away and you won't be very happy come Friday night. ==== Winter Tour Dates are _very_ flexible on this! The hut we are staying at is 2km from the Clapham (North Yorkshire) rail station which is in turn on a railway line to Leeds. You can get a single back to London for £15 or so! (just checked the cost for coming back on the 22nd December - though prices will go up very quickly as the advance tickets evaporate) If we have any cash left we can also subsidise train tickets @ 30%. The journey is really nice and only 4hrs: a picturesque traipse across the Dales in a slow train, Leeds train station where you can get some good coffee and is right in the heart of this lovely little city, and then a high speed powerhouse which will see you back in London in 2:35mins. Certainly beats the M6 in a speed limited minibus... Currently we believe the minibus will be going up on Friday night (18th) and coming back in the evening the day before Christmas Eve, to give everyone a chance to wash & pack before heading home for Crimbo. We're taking the 9-seater minibus, so there's plenty of room to stretch out, we can take all the gear + tools we need, and the back can always be used to get changed in when it's snowing! So why do the Winter Tour? The main reason is that there's just so much more time there - without the pressures of getting to Yorkshire & back in a weekend, we can do far longer and more serious caving trips, with much more opportunity for teaching & learning new skills. We'll cave in small groups and be far more self-directed - whether you're interested in long traverses, East Kingsdale classics, bolt climbing / exploration, extremely vertical rope fests or even a tight wet pervert. Cost: We're not actually entirely sure, though we'll do everything we possibly can to keep it well under <£99 for undergrads! We'll do it as some kind of per-day thing to make it fair if you're only there for a few days. ==== Christmas Curry - Tues 15th December Back by popular demand! The traditional yearly get together between the pretty young things and the stacked echelons of older members, loitering in the background just waiting to step forward some random weekend and take you on the trip of your life... We'll probably go to Lahore Kebab House (Tube: Aldgate East, just off Commercial Rd), and if the queue is infinitely long, we'll go around the corner to Tiffin! They'll almost certainly be a few bikers heading there from IC if you want to join a caravan. RSVP if you want to come, as we'll probably try and book closer to the date. To great things via small entrances, Jarv Your smiling-secretary and smooth-gear-changing-minibus-operator