Goatchurch Cavern, Burrington Combe, Mendip.

When:  11 Feb 2015  19.00 – 21.30 pm.
Where:  Goatchurch Cavern. Burrington Combe, Mendip.
Who:    Darren T, Rach Sparrow, Nikky Dennis, Chris Castle, Trish Denning-Kendell, Pete Sanders and two possible new members.

After a layoff of some 8 months or so from caving I thought its about time I got underground again. This trip was organised by ChCC for a couple of new members to try out caving and it turned out to be a rather good trip considering it was in Goatchurch Cavern which has got to be one of the easiest of caves to cave.

 



Survey of Goatchurch Cavern.

 We started off in the Old entrance and after Trish gave a history lesson we spotted a couple of bats which got one of the newbies very excited. We then went down the Giants steps and followed the passage to the bottom of the new entrance. Here we met Rachelle, Nikky and Chris who were running late. We then preceded down the smaller steps to the terrace. we opted to go under the terrace and along tight rift to Boulder Chamber. Down the slide to Water Chamber and then onto the Drainpipe, This is a flat out crawl of 12 metres or so. Even the newbies managed this. After a brief rest we went back through the Drainpipe and made our way to the new entrance and exited the cave. I think everyone enjoyed the trip and it was good to say hello to everyone after my layoff from underground exploration.

 

Click on the link below to see a short video of me following someone through the Drainpipe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Uv5R_frAk&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

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East Twin Swallet, Burrington Combe, Mendip.

When:  25 April 2013 7.30 – 8.45 pm.
Where: East Twin Swallet, Burrington Coombe Mendip.
Who:    Darren T, Rich T.

 We arrived in the Coombe and parked in the lay-by closest to the cave and were soon changed and following the path to the cave entrance. The stream was lightly flowing into the entrance. To avoid getting wet you can go in to the right of the stream and climb down a 2 metre rift. Once inside the cave resembled a builder’s yard, there were bags of spoil and plastic pipes all over the place. This cave is an active dig site. We followed the scaffolding pipes down into the first chamber where a rift on the right takes most of the stream water.
Ducking under some rock into a smallish passage takes you into the main chamber where the haulage system is set up to remove the dig spoil from the bottom of the cave. The chamber floor is very steep and the diggers have built a series of steps to get down to the bottom. As I had been a numpty and left the survey in the car we decided that it was probably best to retreat and come back another day for the cave didn’t really resemble the survey as there had been so much digging going on.


We exited the cave with some ease which is surprising as the pitch looks quite difficult in reverse lol.
As we had not been long in there we had a look for Foxes Hole cave up the road but couldn’t find it.
We then thought we would have a look at Toothache dig in cheddar gorge. This is one of the clubs digs.
We parked at the gates to Black Rock and put our helmets and wellies on and followed the track. By now it was pitch black and not knowing where the dig is we went back to the car and headed home.

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Goatchurch Cavern, Burrington Combe, Mendip.

When:  21 April 2013 7.30 – 8.45 pm.
Where: Goatchurch Cavern Mendip.
Who:    Darren T, Rich T.

 First caving trip in for a while. Just a short trip to the drainpipe and back again and a look around at the bottom the tradesman’s entrance. We exited the cave via the main entrance and had a look in Sidcot Swallet on the way back down the hill.

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Rods Pot, Burrington Combe, Mendip.

When:  7 December 2011 7.15 pm to 9.30 pm.
Where: Rods pot, Burrington.  Digging trip.
Who:    Darren T, Flexx, Andy Sparrow.


 This was our second trip since joining the Cheddar Caving Club and our first digging trip. We met Andy Sparrow at the carpark just passed the cattle grid on link lane. Once we were all ready we walked off to find the entrance. Andy was telling us all about the numerous digs going on in the area and we were soon at the entrance. It’s quite a tight cave and you have to crawl round the edge of some large and deep pots, we soon arrived at the top of the 45ft pitch whereby we climbed down freehand using the flying angel technique. Andy went first and I followed, Flexx brought up the rear I think he was out of sight and couldn’t really see how we descended the pitch so he struggled to get to the bottom. We sat and chatted about the dig for a bit and then heard movement way up above us. It was Burt coming down to join us. It was decided Burt would stay at the bottom of the pitch and distribute the spoil from the digging, I would sit at the entrance to Bone Chamber about 20 feet along a passage from Burt and do the change over of the bags of spoil from one drag cart to the other, Flexx and Andy would go to the dig face about another 20 feet along the passage. While Andy was digging Flexx was busy filling the bags with spoil and loading them into the drag cart. I would then drag the cart to me by hauling on the rope, I would then transfer the bags to the next cart and Burt would then haul them to his position. All was going well until the rope became undone between me and Burt and I ended up with no cart on the end of it, and then had to crawl down the passage to retrieve the lost end of rope. A good job was done and I think we must have moved about 30 to 40 bags of spoil in all.
I even had time to crawl into bone chamber and can see why it’s got that name. Not sure what animal remains are in there but it has been there a long time.
We all decided that we had done enough for one evening and Flexx went back up the rift first. Glad Andy had told us to bring a hand jammer to aid free climbing back up with the aid of the rope. I think we both got up there reasonably well considering how much of that sticky Mendip mud we had stuck to us. Flexx’s new warmbac didn’t look too new now.
It didn’t take long to get to the last Z bend and we could smell the cold night Mendip air coming through the small rabbit hole that is the entrance and exit of Rods pot.
That was our first cave digging trip, did we make any great discoveries of new cave systems, no not this time anyway.

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