Autumn Term Meets
Reports from the 2001 logbook
Mendip 20/21 Oct
BEC - GB, loads of small, twatty stuff!
Photos for this article are from this trip!
Saturday
Burrington Combe: Ben Ogborne, Clewin Griffith, Jan Evetts, Mark, Tom Ayles, Pui Yan Wong - Goatchurch, Sidcot Swallet, Pierre, Avaline, East Twin Swallet, Lionels
We went in Goatchurch + did the DrainPipe + took photographs. Then we were invaded by little children so we left. Then went in E.Twin Swallet + it was wet!
unknown
GB Cave: Colm Carroll, Mike Rogerson (Goaty), Anne-Laure S, Tara
Very good atmosphere, very warmly house with such a typical decoration! Fabulous house for cavers which only needs (perhaps) a woman to give it a once over!!!
We discovered the cave called GB, which has got very nice formations... I don't know the name in English... (edit: jambon da grotte - cave bacon; draperie - curtains)... that we reached having crawled in the mud - so that we don't need to do a mask of mud any more!
Anne-Laure S, Grenoble INPG
S Wales 2-4 Nov
WSG - Fireworks, OFD, DYO, Little Neath, Ogof Y Ci
[Colm, Jim, Anna, Jan, Clewin, Colin, Tom, Helen, Mark, Ben, Alex Dixon, Goaty, James, Pui Yan, Emily H, Adi, Tim, Emily]
Loads of people. Good fireworks.
Saturday
OFD Top -> Streamway: Colm Carroll, Pui Yan Wong, Adi Hooper
Great trip. Took Pui Jan and Ronald to see the mini columns, then followed usual route down the corkscrew, the Maypole etc. Had a look at the Judge and the trident, then had a stonk along the streamway. Came out to the mellow tunes of Jim's recorder. Back to the WSG for a cracking bonfire night party: great food, beer, fireowrks and the inevitable lock in at the Red Lion. Superb.
Adi
Dan yr Ogof: Helen Jones, Martin McGowan, Tom Ayles + a couple of WSG
One of the advantages of going to Wales with WSG is that you can steal leaders or blag yourself onto trips like this! Helen and I shamelessly abandoned the freshers to OFD, donned wetsuits to go on the 'once in a lifetime' DYO trip. The trip was basically for tourists, but that didn't detract at all. The cave is highly wet - entrance is a wade in through a river followed by a climb into dry passage. This leads into the (the closed) show cave. Following concrete for a bt leads to some water which gains access to the real bit. Cos I'm writing this up 6 weeks afterwards, I can't realy remember :) But - we did a round trip, which was fantastic. There was some twatty crawl which went on forever and then dropped into the 'proper' DYO, where the round trip started. In no particular order, there were rooms FULL of finest straws, sparkling walls (seriously), the green canal (involving swimming - with optional inflatible duck - a few hundred feet in the coldest bastard water ever), err, and some other stuff. Anyhow - this trip rocks: grab a leader and a wetsuit and go! (No tackle needed, other than a short rope < 10m for entrance climb).
Tom
Sunday
Little Neath River Cave: Clewin Griffith, Adi Hooper
Great excuse for Clewin to try out his new 'neo-fleece'! Cracking trip, very wet, must go back!
Adi
Derbyshire - 17/18 Nov
TSG - P8/Jackpot, Giants, JH Over-Engine Mine
Saturday
P8/Jackpot: Jan Evetts, Tom Ayles, Colin Steward, Adi Hooper
Nice wet entrance, rifty bit, after second pitch go above stream not the obvious way on. Down to sump, pissed around muddy climb. Had a look at Ben's dig, hammered out. Good trip.
unknown
Geology Pot and round trip, Giant's Hole: Ben Ogborne, Clewin Griffith, Duncan
Great trip really good variety of cave.
Followed the reasonable obvious way into the crabwalk. Via the first pitch (we did it on ladders - freestyling), it's about 8m ish with a big waterfally type thing. Probably ok to do this as a SRT trip. Down the crabwalk (very nice) and via some climby bits leading initially to a sumpy area. From here, backtrack up the inlet on your right as you go down. This leads to a complex and you have to turn left down some smooth floored tubes. The correct route will come out high ish above the stream from where you traverse out along it and to a section protected by a rope. This is useful for hanging the tackle bag off but isn't really needed for the traverse. This leads to the Geology Pot pitch. We laddered this and lifelined. We only had a line as long as the pitch, so I went down last, Italien hitching down. Below here, it all goes very moist, via a duck, a low wet stoop, several very wet climbs down waterfalls into a roundish pool. Stepping over the pool leads to quite high passage. The roof is covered in foam rather disconcertingly. From here, a short swim around to the right leads to the end; East Canal.
On the way back, we went on the round trip. This involved a 20ft climb up a rope from just adter the tubes after the traverses. Following obvious passage leads to a sign mentioning the giant's windpipe. This is a 20ft long duck that sumps. Only do it if there is a good airspace. There was about 6 inches of space for us. After this, turn right straight away, and over a load of traverses through a high squeeze. This all leads to more traverses and back down to the crabwalk.
Ben
Castleton round trip! - all
Started off in the Castle, nice pub, Adi gets the first round in, discussion ensues about origin of the word 'da bollox'. Move onto the Bull, shonky pub 10.30 move on quickly. Stop off at the Peak until closing ~1am.
Jan
Sunday
James Hall's Over Engine Mine: Clewin Griffith, Jan Evetts, Tom Ayles, Colin Steward, Adi Hooper, Duncan
Very shonky cave. Not nice in places. Went all the way down to the Speedwell streamway. Good trip, glad we've done it but probably won't be going back in a hurry. 50m free hang entrance shaft pretty cool, as was the pitch at the bottom. Everything inbetween was, well.... shonky!
Referring back to last night's conversation about "bollocks" we saw a ram today which had bollocks that were bigger than its head! Now that's what you call THE bollocks!