A Rare Weekend on Mendip

Crystals in Neverland, Upper Flood Swallet

It had been been four years since I last went caving in the Mendips, and now I'm wondering why I left it so long! That trip in 2009 included a visit to recent discoveries in Upper Flood Swallet. However, the prettiest section, Neverland, was closed off as it was deemed too fragile to cope with any caver traffic. Since then, a bypass has been dug, which enables access to Neverland with less risk to the formations. When Alex and Jess sorted out a trip there, with Mike the Animal leading, in return for us doing a bit of digging, I jumped at the chance to join them.

 

The Tales of an Incompetent Cross Country Skier in Norway

Our home for the week

Until last week Kathryn and I had never been skiing. So when the opportunity to go to Anthony and Julia's hut in Norway arose, we embraced it with the kind of wanton enthusiasm typical of people who have absolutely no idea what they are letting themselves in for. Afterall, if couldn't be that different from sledging, right?

So it was that we found ourselves in a quaint wooden hut in the Hallingdal region, one week in late March. It was -25^oC outside, and the snow was a metre deep. But huddled round the stove, by candlelight, we were very cosy indeed.

Random Furtlings in Ogof Draenen

9/03/2013

Some of the best caving trips are the ones where you don't have a particular objective, just a vague idea of somewhere to go; perhaps with a bit of a survey or a description printed out. Any side passage can be worth visiting, and you just don't know what you will find. The results can be very satisfying. This was one such trip.

 

An early start, to meet Olaf and Chris who had the cave key, saw us getting changed in thick fog near the Lamb and Fox at 9am. It is always amusing to witness a German correcting the grammar of an English speaking native! Emma, Olaf and Chris disappeared off ahead of us to go digging, leaving Kathryn, Adrian, Sam, Jess and I to our trip.

A Non-Caving Trip

Sunday's caving plans were thwarted by our own laziness, so I thought I'd write about Saturday's non-caving trip to Snowdonia instead, since it was a 'minor epic'. Kathryn and I planned on practicing our winter skills by climbing Hidden Gully, on Glyder Fawr (we'd done a course last year and were keen to take things a bit further).

It's a fair old drive across to Snowdonia for us. When we pulled up in a layby near Ogwen Cottage, the persistent drizzle and low cloud base suggested it might be a wasted trip, but we'd come all this way so had to at least go for a walk. Donning coats and overtrousers, we trudged up to Llyn Idwal, our spirits about as foul as the weather. The occasional brief breaks in the cloud revealed mountain slopes stripped bare of snow by the thaw. We couldn't yet see our destination, Cwm Cneifon, but we feared we were a day too late for winter.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

12/01/12

After a Christmas full of excess, I'd built up a considerable paunch that needed removing. Well, that's a bit of an exagerration, but nevertheless it seemed like a good time of the year for a long trip to Daren Cilau with Emma and Tom. We were heading to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe - a campsite towards the further reaches of the cave (although this was only a day trip). Our plan was to take photos of the 'Blue Greenies', a set of formations which, I'd been led to believe, were not white.

Actually, this photo is the Restaurant at the End of the

Universe, not the Hard Rock Cafe.

We left behind a cold, damp morning at around 11am and crawled into Daren's cold, damp entrance series. Forty-odd minutes of squalour later, we were through. Familiar landmarks came thick and fast now, as we made good progress through the cave; Jigsaw Passage, the Big Chamber, the ladder and then boulder hopping in the Time Machine and Bonsai Streamway. After three hours or so underground we had now made it to the Hard Rock Cafe - the first campsite in the cave. I tucked into my carefully protected quiche and scotch eggs, and Emma and Tom started on the mounds of flapjack they'd brought with them.

Rock Steady Cruise was next: a series of pleasant sandy passages, separated by short crawls which filled my wellies with sand (I need bigger calf muscles, or slimmer wellies...). This was now pretty much the furthest I'd been in the cave before. Our next obstacle was Acupuncture Passage, a series of flat out crawls over a sand floor full of stones and sharp bits, hence the name. For the most part this was just plain tedious - the crawls were far too long. However, at the end it was also a little scary as a small bit of wall/ceiling had crumbled away partially blocking the passage (it looked stable now though). When it's a flat out crawl beforehand, a collapse is really not useful!

A Couple of Mines

A couple of quick mining trips to report before the New Year is out.

8/12/12 West Mine, Alderley Edge

An RRCPC trip with a Derbyshire Caving Club member, Nigel, kindly showing us round some of the extensive Alderley Edge Copper Mines. We spent about 4 hours underground (with a few minutes in Engine Vein) looking round an absolute maze of passages. As far as I could make out, West Mine was made up of 3 horizontal levels with various climbs, shafts and ramps connecting them. But I might be wrong...! There weren't too many mining artifacts left, but we did see some impressive vivid blue copper deposits where water had seeped onto the passage walls. We also saw a  mine shaft which  features in part of Alan Garner's Wierdstone of Brisingamen (a childhood favourite) - a good bit of trivia!

Engine Vein is a separate mine and, although it's less extensive, it looked very impressive and would warrant a return trip when we have more time.

24/12/12 Robin's Shaft Mine

Kathryn derigging the main shaft

Kathryn and I did some yuletide caving in the south of the Peak District. Robin's Shaft Mine consists of a 100m deep shaft inclined at about 45-60 degrees, leading to a small amount of natural cave at the bottom. It's an interesting SRT exercise to get down the shaft, but not too much to see at the bottom. A fine way to spend a very rainy Christmas Eve though! 2 hrs T/U.

Some South Wales and Yorkshire Caving

A few more trips to report before my next few weekends are filled up with various wedding related shenanigans.

Ogof Ffynnon Ddu
27/10/12

Martin and I had driven down to South Wales to help show CUCC's latest band of victims recruits round. With Martin, Adrian and three novices (Mikhail, Rui, Josh) we decided to try the OFD I round trip. Overall I think we did a pretty good job of persuading them that we knew precisely where we were despite this very much not being the case!

After stomping up the streamway and climbing up Lowe's Passage into the higher level stuff, I took a photo of Rui at the 'Bee's Knees' formations in Roundabout Chamber. This chamber is a classic place to confuse new cavers as the 'obvious' route leads you round a little circle back to where you started at the formations (unless you spot the actual way on which is slightly hidden). On our second time round I was asked to take another photo of the formations. I suggested that we wait as there were some more nice formations 'just round the corner'. On our third time round the penny finally dropped!

We continued on smugly and found the slithery climbs down to the bolt traverse above the streamway. After negotiating this we managed to follow our noses through various passages back to the Toast Rack to complete the round trip in about 4 hours or so.