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.

Sunday 15th Match 2015 – G.B. Ladder Dig

Group: Will, Ali, Wayne, me.

Pretty speedy trip round the round trip and up Ladder Dig, rigged by Wayne. Checked out the various routes up into Great Chamber for next time. Very low water levels in the cave, although the duck was still plenty wet.

Sunday 18th January 2015 – Swildon’s Hole

This trip was a momentous occasion. After four or five trips in Swildon’s, Ali finally got the chance to go down to Sump 1 – and through it.

From a trip report point of view, there’s not much to write about. We went in via the Zig Zags, like normal, and down the short dry way. The water levels were about average for winter – not low but not too sporting either. The top of the Twenty was rigged with a traverse line, so we kindly popped a ladder on for the other group’s ascent 🙂

Saturday 10th Jan 2015 – OFDii

A rambling wander around OFDii, taking in a few of the sights.
Duration: About four hours.

We headed in over the mini traverses and down the corkscrew, before heading straight across the top of Salubrious and up the four climbs. After thrutching through a tight rift (which we learned on the way back was easily bypassable!), we made it to Timmo’s Table. From here we popped down Poached Egg, which was a much easier climb than I remembered, and up the other side to Straw Gallery.

Poached Egg, OFDii

13th December 2014 – Fernhill Cave

This was the second trip of the day – the first, Withyhill, is written up here. Fernhill is a short cave, also located in Fairy Quarry, and it contains some rather impressive curtains.

The entrance is a large concrete tube, descending nearly vertically

Fernhill Cave entrance

13th December 2014 – Withyhill Cave

Group: Alison, Will, Jude, me.
Duration: About an hour.

This trip was one of many organised by Ali Moody as part of an epic Second Saturday. Trips down a number of  leadership caves were offered on a first come basis, with dozens of leaders agreeing to lead (sometimes multiple) trips. Pretty much all the major caves were on offer – Upper Flood, Charterhouse, Cuthberts, Swildons, most of Fairy Quarry plus lots more.

We managed to bagsy spaces on a couple of Fairy Quarry caves that I hadn’t been work before, starting with Withyhill Cave. Our second cave, Fernhill, is written up here.

Withyhill Cave entrance

Thursday 5th July 2014 – Swildon’s Upper Series

Quick trip after work, all the usual stuff.

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 30th June 2013 – Sandford Levvy Mine

Sandford Levvy – The Haunted Mine
Group: Ali, Will, me
Duration: Not particularly long

Sandford Levvy is a mine in Sandford, Somerset, that was also used by the Home Guard during the war. There is a brief historical write up, with photos,  in the book ‘Somerset V. Hitler: Secret Operations in the Mendips, 1939-45‘. The mine is seriously easy – if it wasn’t for the slightly low and muddy entrance, you wouldn’t even need protective clothing. There are, of course a few bit off the side passages, going either up or down, with very dodgy looking old ropes left on them. I know there was an old dig down there but we weren’t sure which areas were stable, so left it all alone. The rest of the mine could be done in jeans and trainers.

The mine is supposed to be haunted but I can’t find a single reason why anywhere on the internet. There are lost of posts where people vaguely say ‘Oh yes it’s haunted‘ but no good stories to suggest why it might be so. Very disappointing, I like a good ghost story. If you know where the haunted rumours come from, let me know? Anyway, it does feel a bit eerie but not very scary. I put it down to it just being an old mine. I certainly didn’t feel the menacing presence that other people have reported and I’m often quite jumpy in caves (although none of us tried the crossroads challenge…).

There is quite a good description of how to find the entrance here.

Photos after the cut 🙂

Tuesday 25th June 2013 – Swildon’s Upper Series

Group: Me, Ali
Duration: An hour and a half-ish

This was my second trip down Swildon’s Upper Series, following my trip with Jude and Anne the week before. I was planning on following pretty much the same exact route to see if I could remember it all, and to consolidate it. I’ve been in Swildon’s on trips dozens of times, but never in the upper series and I always, without fail, took the short dry way. I don’t know if any of my uni caving friends even know any of the other routes because I certainly didn’t (presumably a few of them must though).