When: 29 May 2013 7.30 – 9.30 pm.
Where: Fairy Cave through to Hilliers Cave. Stoke St.Michael, Mendip.,
Who: Darren T, Rich T, Tricia, Sean.
We met in the carpark as I have a CSCC Key. It was pouring down with rain. The others soon arrived and once we were all changed we made our way to the entrance of the Quarry. There is a combination lock on the gate. The entrance to Fairy cave is at the back of a building to the left of the gate. Trish led the way and we were soon crawling around underground. Fairy cave is quite short but what it lacks in length is made up for by the size of the boulder chokes and small passages. Some places are very tight and Sean and Rich struggled to squeeze through some bits. We found the way to the water duck quite easily and Rich went first. Luckily the water level was low so no need to hold your breath today, however Rich left his oversuit open and scooped up a few litres of water as he went through which made it even better for the rest of us. There are quite a few pretties in Fairy cave and I had brought my new compact camera. I didn't know how crawly it was and had opted to carry the camera down the front of my oversuit and when I got it out to take some pictures of the large curtain formation at the top of the dig passage I discovered that the viewing screen at the back was cracked and not working. Not many pictures today then I thought. We continued over drop out rift and through the connection to Hilliers Cave. A sharp right took us into some very tight and twisty boulder ruckels which led to Upper grotto which is a low passage made of flowstone with some stalls etc. The way on is straight ahead over some shallow pools and then a sharp left into Cambridge grotto. I stayed in Upper grotto while the others went on as I didn't like the look of the tight passage. Once they returned Rich said I should have gone and looked as it was quite magnificent in there. We decided to return the following week with the photo kit and I would man up and crawl in there.
We back tracked to dropout rift and continued through Hilliers cave over the small traverse and onto Tar Hall. Its called Tar Hall because the walls are coated with tar which has seeped down through the stone from the Quarry works above. There are lots of flowstone curtains broken on the floor from the explosive blasting from when the Quarry was active. We soon arrived at the base of the climb to the door of the cave. Not long and we all exited to a dry evening. Quite a good trip despite the broken camera lol.
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Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Waterwheel Swallet, Charterhouse, Mendip.
When: 8 May 2013 7.00 – 9.00 pm.
Where: Waterwheel Swallet, Charterhouse.
Who: Darren T, Rich T, Tricia, Rachel, Nicky and Chris.
We parked up and soon got changed into wet suits and caving gear, this is a very wet and sporting cave. The entrance is a steel tube with a lid on to keep the sheep from falling in. There are rungs welded to the inside to climb down. Once at the bottom we followed the passage and passed Oldmans chamber on the left. A right turn and a climb down later and we had reached some steps followed them down and then back up again and we found ourselves with a climb followed by a more challenging climb. Once the climb had been negotiated we stopped and admired the stalls which were a mix of black and white the black being lead apparently.
Not far past the pretties is the first of the Dams. These are a series of manmade pools which fill with water but can be emptied by removing a bung. When you remove a bung the pool empties and the water continues to the next pool. The first pool is about a foot deep with about 2 feet of roof space above the water. We climbed over the dam and as Rich was last to do so he pulled the bung to make the next part of the trip a little more interesting. We followed the path round and climbed down into the next pool. I was first followed by Tricia; I crawled into the passage which was full of water with only about 6 inches of space above the water level. At the next hollow I sat up to take a breather as the next part of the passage looked a bit daunting as there was only a few inches of space above the water and the passage was about 20 feet long. I could hear Tricia coming up behind me. She asked if I was ok and I said “yeah, is it meant to be that deep, it’s covering my nose and mouth?". Tricia replied "Let me take a look" a short silence and she said "I don't remember it being that deep". We had made the mistake of pulling the bung and talking for five minutes or so in which time too much water had gone into the second pool and still more was going in. Rachel back tracked and re inserted the bung and slowly the water level returned to normal. We were joined by Chris and Nicky as they had been late to arrive. We made our way through the flooded tunnels to the top of the pitch leading to the lake. After some inventive rigging from Nicky, Chris life lined us down the ladder. Rach was first and then Rich. I descended the ladder with ease into the lake, disconnected my lifeline and swam the 4 metres or so to the edge of the pool. Nicky was next down the ladder. While she was coming down me and Rich had a look down the rest of the passage which gets smaller and smaller. Nicky and Rachel caught us up and they all went on to the end of the cave squeezing through the rift onto the false floor not far past that the rift shuts down and that is the end. We made our way back to the lake. Rach climbed the ladder followed by me and then it was Nicky's turn then Rich. We were soon all up and de rigged and then swimming back through the tunnels, climbing and clambering we found our way out to a very cold and windy hilltop.
What an epic trip. To me this is what caving is all about as it reminds me of potholing in the Brecon Beacons when I went to Pencilli on a school trip many years ago.
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Where: Waterwheel Swallet, Charterhouse.
Who: Darren T, Rich T, Tricia, Rachel, Nicky and Chris.
We parked up and soon got changed into wet suits and caving gear, this is a very wet and sporting cave. The entrance is a steel tube with a lid on to keep the sheep from falling in. There are rungs welded to the inside to climb down. Once at the bottom we followed the passage and passed Oldmans chamber on the left. A right turn and a climb down later and we had reached some steps followed them down and then back up again and we found ourselves with a climb followed by a more challenging climb. Once the climb had been negotiated we stopped and admired the stalls which were a mix of black and white the black being lead apparently.
Not far past the pretties is the first of the Dams. These are a series of manmade pools which fill with water but can be emptied by removing a bung. When you remove a bung the pool empties and the water continues to the next pool. The first pool is about a foot deep with about 2 feet of roof space above the water. We climbed over the dam and as Rich was last to do so he pulled the bung to make the next part of the trip a little more interesting. We followed the path round and climbed down into the next pool. I was first followed by Tricia; I crawled into the passage which was full of water with only about 6 inches of space above the water level. At the next hollow I sat up to take a breather as the next part of the passage looked a bit daunting as there was only a few inches of space above the water and the passage was about 20 feet long. I could hear Tricia coming up behind me. She asked if I was ok and I said “yeah, is it meant to be that deep, it’s covering my nose and mouth?". Tricia replied "Let me take a look" a short silence and she said "I don't remember it being that deep". We had made the mistake of pulling the bung and talking for five minutes or so in which time too much water had gone into the second pool and still more was going in. Rachel back tracked and re inserted the bung and slowly the water level returned to normal. We were joined by Chris and Nicky as they had been late to arrive. We made our way through the flooded tunnels to the top of the pitch leading to the lake. After some inventive rigging from Nicky, Chris life lined us down the ladder. Rach was first and then Rich. I descended the ladder with ease into the lake, disconnected my lifeline and swam the 4 metres or so to the edge of the pool. Nicky was next down the ladder. While she was coming down me and Rich had a look down the rest of the passage which gets smaller and smaller. Nicky and Rachel caught us up and they all went on to the end of the cave squeezing through the rift onto the false floor not far past that the rift shuts down and that is the end. We made our way back to the lake. Rach climbed the ladder followed by me and then it was Nicky's turn then Rich. We were soon all up and de rigged and then swimming back through the tunnels, climbing and clambering we found our way out to a very cold and windy hilltop.
What an epic trip. To me this is what caving is all about as it reminds me of potholing in the Brecon Beacons when I went to Pencilli on a school trip many years ago.
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Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Cuckoo Cleeves Cave, Priddy, Mendip.
When: 1 May 2013 7.00 – 9.00 pm.
Where: Cuckoo Cleeves Cave, Priddy.
Who: Darren T, Rich T, Tricia, Rachel and Sean.
The plan was too meet at the Hunters and drive to the lay-by which is about 1km from the pub. Nobody had been to this one before except Tricia but she couldn’t remember which lay-by it was so we drove all the way to the end of the road and turned around and headed back, the lay-by was supposed to be by some farm buildings so we stopped at what could be it. We were soon changed and walked across the fields to a depression and there it was a stone tube with a lid on. That is the entrance to the cave. The ladder was soon rigged and we all entered the cave.
At the bottom it’s quite tight and twisty. We continued down into a chamber and went straight on. We soon came to a stop as there was a pitch with no obvious way down backtracking a bit we realised that the way is too the left down a wide rift which goes into a passage this comes to an awkward climb which reminded me of singing river mine where I broke my foot. It looked worse than it was and we were soon following the old stream way downwards around and between some awkward rocks and rifts and soon reached flat roof chamber where we stopped for a breather and chat. Rachel told us about a cave called Waterwheel Swallet which sounded very interesting. We then followed a rift down and reached another chamber where it was full with bags of spoil from and dig that went down and round to the left. Straight ahead there was a crawl that looked very tight. We decided that was the way to the lake. But no one wanted to try and negotiate it. Remembering the stories of anyone except the slightest of cavers getting stuck I’m not surprised. We followed the rift back up. The part of the cave called the canyon was very interesting on the way back up. Sean and I were the first ones back up to the large rift where we found a frog waiting for us. Sean put it in his pocket for release later. We soon found ourselves climbing back up the ladder and out into the fresh air. There are a lot of stories about bad air in this cave but today it wasn’t too bad although in places most of us did get short of breath at times. Will return again to take some pictures of the cave.
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Where: Cuckoo Cleeves Cave, Priddy.
Who: Darren T, Rich T, Tricia, Rachel and Sean.
The plan was too meet at the Hunters and drive to the lay-by which is about 1km from the pub. Nobody had been to this one before except Tricia but she couldn’t remember which lay-by it was so we drove all the way to the end of the road and turned around and headed back, the lay-by was supposed to be by some farm buildings so we stopped at what could be it. We were soon changed and walked across the fields to a depression and there it was a stone tube with a lid on. That is the entrance to the cave. The ladder was soon rigged and we all entered the cave.
At the bottom it’s quite tight and twisty. We continued down into a chamber and went straight on. We soon came to a stop as there was a pitch with no obvious way down backtracking a bit we realised that the way is too the left down a wide rift which goes into a passage this comes to an awkward climb which reminded me of singing river mine where I broke my foot. It looked worse than it was and we were soon following the old stream way downwards around and between some awkward rocks and rifts and soon reached flat roof chamber where we stopped for a breather and chat. Rachel told us about a cave called Waterwheel Swallet which sounded very interesting. We then followed a rift down and reached another chamber where it was full with bags of spoil from and dig that went down and round to the left. Straight ahead there was a crawl that looked very tight. We decided that was the way to the lake. But no one wanted to try and negotiate it. Remembering the stories of anyone except the slightest of cavers getting stuck I’m not surprised. We followed the rift back up. The part of the cave called the canyon was very interesting on the way back up. Sean and I were the first ones back up to the large rift where we found a frog waiting for us. Sean put it in his pocket for release later. We soon found ourselves climbing back up the ladder and out into the fresh air. There are a lot of stories about bad air in this cave but today it wasn’t too bad although in places most of us did get short of breath at times. Will return again to take some pictures of the cave.
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