Baker’s Pit, Pridhamsleigh Cavern & Afton Red Rift – 16th-17th May 2015

Group: Me, Will and Wayne

A brief trip down to Devon, staying at the DSS hut for the first time. We were joined by Wayne, who had not previously experienced the amazing variety of caves Devon has to offer…

Saturday 16th May 2015 – Baker’s Pit
We started with the obvious choice and headed down Baker’s Pit. The plan was to visit most of the cave and the Plymouth Extensions (although not Glorious Devon or Crystal Pool Passage, two of the most misleadingly named bits of cave I’ve come across). We did the usual – Boulder Chamber (or is it Boulder Hall?) to the Green Lake. Unfortunately, the lake has gone missing, which was odd because the rest of the cave was not unusually dry. The lake was completely dry, which is quite a large amount of water to just wander off. Not sure if this is a permanent development or if it was down to the weather – last time I Bakers’d (in February 2014 whaaaat) it was most definitely still there.

3rd May 2015 – Swildon’s Hole, Short Round

Group: Me and James
Duration: Three hours

Each early May bank holiday, the Ring O’Bells in Compton Martin holds their annual Cheese and Cider Fayre, which is basically a fantastic excuse to eat huge amounts of cheese and drink scrumpy in a field. Last year, Will and I went down Hunter’s Hole with Max and James before the festival for an SRT refresher. This year, Will was ill and Maxine had inexplicably decided to go running instead of caving (some people have strange hobbies…), so James offered to lead a short round trip down Swildon’s Hole.

I’d only done the Short Round once before, back in 2013, and it was a bit of a confusing trip. There were a lot of cavers doing the same trip as it was a 2nd Saturday, and we also went down Blue Pencil. I ended up exiting the cave with an entirely different group of people than I’d entered with, and don’t really remember a lot about the trip other than being cold! I definitely wasn’t cold on this trip.

Saturday 11th April – OFDii – Routefinding Mission to Moonlight & Midnight – Photos

Duration: About 5 hours, of which approximately half was spent staring at the survey in baffled silence.

I’m determined to eventually learn my way around Top, and this trip was a great opportunity to try out my route-finding ability. I lead, with a survey and a lot of talking to myself out loud. We went in via the Brickyard and not Big Chamber / Mini Traverses because Big Chamber is an annoying pain in the buttocks to cross. This involves going straight when you enter the cave and not taking the obvious left fork. Continue across the Brickyard and past where the route from the Mini Columns joins the passage on your left. Shortly after this you will pass the Jellyfish and the Dragon’s Back.

Saturday 14th March 2015 – Eastwater Thirteen Pots

Group: Maxine, James, Will, me.
Duration: Four hours

I recently realised that I haven’t written up any of my trips in a couple of months. This is partly due to not caving as much recently (not a fan of cold weather kitting up in lay-bys) and partly because I haven’t done anything that seemed worth writing up. But now the weather’s getting nicer, hopefully I’ll be getting underground a bit more regularly (seems logical). This trip was also a good reminder of just how easy it is to lose your ‘cave fitness’. I don’t go caving properly in two months and all of a sudden I’m caving like someone’s grandma. No not your grandma, I’m sure she’s a great caver. I meant someone else’s.

Beginning of the Upper Traverse, Eastwater. Photo by James Collings

Saturday 7th July – GB and Ladder Dig

Group: Charlie, Will, Fran and me.
Duration: Four hours?

This was mine and Will’s first trip up Ladder Dig, Charlie’s second, and Fran’s first ever time down GB(!). We did the round trip down, and climbed up someone else’s rigging (which definitely saved some time). On through the crawl and the duck, which we optimistically bailed for about 5 minutes. I did it on my front both ways, but Charlie did it on his back so I may try that next time. Amazingly, we found the way to Bat Passage, which is quite pretty. Basically just go left and keep going that way, sticking close to the walk on your left. When you get to the pile of rocks, go down the fairly obvious hole, and keep going.

Thursday 5th July 2014 – Swildon’s Upper Series

Quick trip after work, all the usual stuff.

Saturday 12th April 2014 – Sludge Pit

Group: Wayne, Darren, Tim, myself and two fairly new cavers who were coming along to try the club out.
Duration: Two hours, aprox.

Second Saturday trip with a couple of very new cavers, who both did very well. We headed down the ladder and down to the sump, and then back along Aragonite Rift (still taking my belt off for that upwards squeeze!). Darren struggled with the squeeze but I’m pretty sure he made it up. Then we headed back into the cave and past Triple Arches to the Four Pots.

7th – 9th March 2014 – SWCC Weekend. Cwm Dwr, OFD 1 and the Waterfall Series

Saturday: Cwm Dwr
Duration: Around 4 hours
This was Alison’s first trip into Cwm Dwr, and only my second (not counting the exit trip of our 1-middle through trip. It went very, very well. It was the fastest I’ve ever been through the crawl, and the best in terms of route finding. Having only 3 cavers in our group probably helped with the crawl, but it was nice to not spend my entire time in Cwm Dwr wandering, in a frustrated fashion, in ever decreasing circles. We actually found our way to Piccadilly. For my own notes, I remember the way as being:

Sunday 16th January 2014 – Baker’s Pit and Plymouth Extensions

Group: Me, Frank, Les, Hatstand (not sure of real name…), and four others whose names I either forgot or didn’t catch. A mixed group of WCC and Buckfast Caving Group members.

A great trip, starting with a thorough overview of the main sections of the lower series of Bakers – Boulder Hall and Extensions, Crystal Corridor, the lake, down to Judge and a few other places I didn’t catch the names of. Bakers has too many names!

Sunday 17th November 2013 – Afton Red Rift

Group: Me, Will, Jess W, Josh L, fresher (Nick I think?), and Jenks.
Duration: Two hours?

Apologies to the fresher whose name I have forgotten. It was my first,and so far only, time of meeting you. Teach me to wait two months before writing up a trip.

This was my second trip to Afton in as many years, the first of which was written up for the EUSS Journal and can be found in this log here. For anyone newish to the sport, who likes to think that their caving skills are improving, I recommend an annual trip to Afton. It’s guaranteed to bring you back down to ground with a bump (not literally, that would be quite a long way to fall in Afton). I think it would be a good measure of improvement though. For me, it’s not an entirely accurate test because Afton utilises skills that I tend to avoid using on other caving trips (rifting, wedging, climbing, squeezing, walking in a straight line, etc). Seriously though, Afton is the kind of cave I don’t experience that regularly, so it’s more of a test of how much those specific skills have deteriorated rather than improved. As it turns out, not too badly!