Mendips I
Chris Hayes, Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Jackie Li, Aurelia Eberhard, Lamya Adam, Hannes Reichle, Jakub Wornbard, Esther Mueller
Friday
Esther and I had decided to spend the day in Bath and Bristol, where a very nice light installation could be seen. All in all, it was a lot of walking and new information, but very atmospheric. In Bath, we made the deal of a lifetime by buying 5 kg of plums for just £1, as well as 10 avocados for another £1! These then had to be carried around in Bristol, where we took turns, as it was just so much. Luckily, Arun and Perry picked us up in the evening and brought us directly to the Mendips hut.
Hannes
Swildon: Chris Hayes, Thurston Blount
Travel plans were a little chaotic, but fortuantely, all went smoothely in the end.
Thurston and I decided to meet early, and get in a cheek Friday night Swildons Trip. We met at Castle Cary after Thurston's sat-nav tried to take him to his ex's house? Anyway, we made it to the SMCC for 6, and prepped for our trip.
The trip was a lot of fun, and obviously, did not proceed without issues. Immediately after entering the cave, Thurstons headtorch decided it no longer wanted to be a headtorch, it was happy enough just being an expensive head-mounted 21700 holder, and did not feel the need to emit photons. I found an awesome diagonal bedding plane 20m above the streamway floor which I rapidly belly-slid down, before trecking back up river to rescue Thurston from darkness.
Proceeding onwards with my backup light, Thurston shared his vast Swildons knowledge with me, and we had a great time! The 20-foot was rapidly descended, and I asked Thurston to lower me because I could not be bother climbing (awful mistake, that sling dug into my ribs -hard!). Arriving at the sump, we suddenly grew conserned about the waterproofing of my headtorch. Due to damage in Slov, and subsequent modifications, it no longer had it's waterproof seal... We tested it by qucikly submerging it, which in hindsight, was a terrible idea, because we were still at the bottom of the cave! Anyway, it passed the test, so through the sump we went!
This was my first sump, and I was pretty nervous given my fear of water. Fortunately, our epic pace, and thurstons excellent charisma had me in the correct mindset. Damn, it was so short, and really easy! We proceeded onwards and explored the Black Hole series which was a lot of fun. I then drank a load of water from and inlet, so did Thurston. We then got pretty worried about Weil's. I had also done Sump 1 with my eyes open. We were both marked for death. Oh well, might as well enjoy our remaining 2 weeks of life.
We had some time left, so we visited sump 2, before returning. It was at this point it became obvious that my backup headtorch was not waterproof, as it bean blinking, changing modes, and rapidly loosing battery. hurriedly, we began to exit. Thurton dropped the phat krab at the bottom of the 20-foot, and almost lost it. It was quite funny as he kept picking up the bottom of the ladder thinking he had the krab!
Walking back, it had snowed beautifully, and we arrived at the SMCC just as everyone else was also arriving. What a lovely trip!
Chris
Saturday
GB Cave: Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Aurelia Eberhard, Jakub Wornbard
Hiking: Esther, Hannes
As I had promised Esther that we would go hiking, we set off on our adventure. Our plan was a circular hike to Ebbor Gorge, but it was quite boring as we spent the whole day in the fog, rarely seeing more than 100 meters ahead. We actually walked past Wookey Hole, apparently one of the best show caves in the UK, but decided not to enter, as the entry fee—including access to the dinosaur park and a 4D cinema—exceeded half of what we paid for the entire weekend.
On the way back, the path was sometimes extremely muddy, and there was no other way than placing one foot to the very left and one foot to the very right, as there was barbed wire on both sides. However, we were back quite early and spent the afternoon cooking and baking (the biggest plum crumble I've made so far in my life!) and socializing with the old lags, which proved to be a lot of fun. A special memory was the squeeze table, which proved invaluable in preparing Esther for her first proper caving trips in the UK. Watching Chris was also fun: first, he squeezed through the narrowed table in great pain, only to then help the others drink away their sorrows when they got stuck.
Hannes
Sunday
Manor Farm: Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Jackie Li, Aurelia Eberhard, Lamya Adam
Waterwheel Swallet: Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Jackie Li, Aurelia Eberhard, Lamya Adam
Eastwater: Hannes Reichle, Esther Mueller
Esther had promised me to try out caving this weekend as well, so we went into E(a)st(er)water, but only just past the first big boulder choke. We asked Chris lots of questions about the cave and finally set off with some of the old lags on our 10-minute walk. After hearing that the descent could be quite wet, we were relieved to find the entrance completely dry! We quickly made our way through the boulders. Since it was Esther's first cave in the UK, I tried telling her where to place her feet. I didn't do a very good job, though, and soon Esther found her right foot stuck between the wall and a jagged edge of one of the rocks, unable to get out. I had to offer her my upper thighs to stand on, and after some wiggling, she finally got free.
After the boulder choke, we did a bit of gymnastics by trying out the different leads. We successfully found the Upper Traverse but didn’t try to go any further because the 45-degree slope with converging walls at the bottom didn’t look very friendly. However, the old lags tried to get through but had to turn around after failing to squeeze through at the end. After reading some old trip reports, I think this might have been because they tried a lower continuation instead of the upper one.
Having no real map besides our (bad) memory, Esther and I tried to look for the path to the Boulder Chamber but didn’t succeed, as we just couldn’t find it. After returning, I realized that we also didn’t recognize the path to "Kentish’s Cairn" as such, as the ceiling went way down. Note for next time: instead of turning right to go down the 45-degree slope to the Upper Traverse, head left.
We went back to the hut without any incidents and were happy that we got a lift to Bristol, where we boarded a coach to London. Our lift was also very happy to get the last remaining plums. We were back by 9, earlier than on any other trip!