Recent Trips

Monday 12th November 2007

Manchester Hole, Nidderdale

People Present:- Adam, Mark, Cathy Killick and BBC Camera man Graham.

Following the recent press coverage the club was approached to take a reporter and film crew down Manchester Hole to try and promote caving as well as using the footage to help people have a better understanding of where the incident took place two years ago. All went very well with probably one of the longest trips I have ever been in the system. The weather was perfect - high pressure and clear blue skies. As I declined to undertake an interview Mark spoke on behalf of the club and also from the view of Teesside Adventure. After about 50 attempts Mark finally found his lines and hopefully points made. It came over very well. Almost forgot my role was one of being a donkey carting lighting and cameras and batteries around. However one thing that was proven is from time to time it is definitely worth taking a high power flood light. I never realized after all these years how pretty a little cave it really is.

Also the BBC will be sending a reasonable donation to the Joe Lister Memorial Fund in compense for our services. A great day was had by all even if the mood was very sombre.

Adam

Weekend Trip to Mendip 26 -29th October 2007

Following an invitation from Phil Oakley a trip was planned down to mendip to take part with the CSA cavers. After a drive down of about 7 hours on Friday night we finally arrived just making last orders at the local. Over about a gallon of beer (each) we met the other guys and gals. Some had come from as far as scotland and others were more local from London and the South Coast. At about midnight we all retreated back to the clubhouse (Wessex cave club cottage, Priddy) It was very basic and simple but compared with Bull Pot Farm it was like a four star hotel.

After taking part with various drinking games until the small hours we soon got to know the who was who and had an idea of peoples capabilities. Rough plans were made as for caves and groups for Saturday. The caves chosen were GB, Swildons Hole and Longwood/ August Cave. I was put in the Longwood Group which was situated in the heart of the Mendip countryside. About a 10 Minute drive from the hut. Our leader Nigel then informed us of the risks of the cave flooding etc and safe areas should we have a problem. The entrance to the cave is situated in a small stream with all the water sinking into the system. As we were walking across to the cave Nigel informed us that from time to time the cave can flood pulse due to when the water company turns off the pumps as it supplies all the local area with fresh drinking water. Just what you need to know when you are going underground with people you don’t know and in an unfamiliar system.

After unlocking the lid you enter a wet rift (note: which is normally dry) then you follow the rift into a flat out crawl which gently decreases in size to the letter box squeeze. Luckily I was the last to descend the rift and soon discovered that without either taking a hammer or chisel or breaking ribs it was going to be impossible for me to continue down the system. Nicola kindly made sure that I managed to get turned round and got to a point where she knew that I would be able to surface. Many thanks.

The rest of the group pushed on to explore the rest of the system hopefully linking into the August system. Unfortunately due to high water levels this was impossible. The rest of the group exited the cave about half past two. Making it about a 4 hour trip. I had the pleasure of feeling really *annoyed* and taking in the scenery around Cheddar Gorge. On our way back to the hut we visited the local dig templeton you have to see it to believe it, but basically the whole started off as a flat grass field with a tiny occasional stream sinking. After years of work it is now 178 ft deep with its own hydraulic bucket lift system, radios, electric lights and pumps. As the dig was fitted with fixed ladders/ platforms I made a quick trip down to the bottom. The only thing I can compare it with in Yorkshire is a mini Alum pot. A real credit to the guys who are involved.

We then retreated back to the hut to get changed and have a meal at the local pub. This pub was in a time warp all the barrels of beer didn’t even have pumps, just a simple tap on the barrel. The best thing on the menu food wise was faggot and peas. More drinking games ensued on Saturday night back at the hut. I think we all suffered Sunday morning. As the weather had turned wet overnight caving was very limited but we managed a trip down Swildon’s Hole I wouldn’t say it was an exciting trip but you certainly had to use ingenuity to proceed in some places.

Our goal was to go as far as the mud sumps which had to be bailed via a syphon system and then it was a case of laying on your back with just your nose and your mouth in a little air space. We turned round at this point and headed for sump one. Two of our group free dived the sump but myself and Phil chose not to do. My reasons were one it looked horrible and two there was about a 10 or 11 inch clearance which I felt was a little tight. I am told that bigger people than me go through but as you could only go through and proceed another quarter of an hour or so I decided to chicken out. After a short wait the others came back through and Phil took some photos. We then made a hasty retreat back out and returned back to the club hut for an early night (1.30 am)so that we could be up early for the long drive home. To sum up although having an enjoyable weekend and meeting some nice people from the two caves that we did it seemed to me I could now cross Mendip off my list of things to do for a year or two.

Adam Cooper

County pot through to Wretched rabbit passage and return

14^th October 2007

Mark, Dono, Alfie, Geoff, Bob, Steve, Mark, Steve, Adam.

Arrived at bullpot farm at 11am, after breakfast at Bernies and the lads on a spending spree we kitted up has Adam arrived, after signing on the board we headed up the hill to easegill and over the fell got at the entrance to county pot at 11.45 we entered county at 12am we all followed each other to the first pitch rigged up the ladder high up.

I was the first down then Dono then Bob took a few pictures of the lads on the ladder we headed for oxford circus then on along showbath passage and headed for spout hall and poetic justice and that slippery climb up, We got there Dono had the first attempted and give up so we let Geoff who got up no problem Bob got up then Dono give me a shoulder and I put a piece of rope for the rest of the group to get up we crawled along to the second ladder pitch with a rope already rigged after we all got down.

The last time I was down this route there was no water running at the waterfall so for the new lads who have not caved it was a bit more interesting having got on to the passage leading to Eureka Junction there was evidence that the warer levels have been high with flood debris on the ceiling at Euraka we stopped and rested and went up the passage to Carrot chamber and we did a u turn and headed for wretched rabbit passage I led the way I have been down this passage once and wanted to go down with out getting lost and it is easy to follow the only tricky bit is when you have to climbing high and it becomes easy to follow tight in places for Dono and Adam.

Alfie Steve and myself found this passage easy along the way we met two lads doing a trip to eureka and I told them we rigged ladders and ropes to county and said the could use them.. There is a large stalagtite which gets overlooked when you have your head down creeping along the passage we got to the chamber were there has been a lot of work been done hats off to the cavers who built up these walls great job reaching the ropes we bumped in to students doing a trip up wretched lovely ladies

We got up the ropes, does not get any easier got out into sun light at 1 pm Bob decided to have a swim and filled a welly up and tipped it over Steves head who kindly pushed Bob back in to the stream. Having spat his dummy out Bobs day caving ended. He did not fancy a return trip and a climb down the ropes. We had a 15min rest and headed back in Wretched rabbit I shot of and got to the end of Wretched in 23mins Dono set of along to county first followed by the rest of use we caught up with the two lads who were using our ladders to get out this slowed us down as there was 11 of us now Dono shot ahead to beat the back log and I lead the way blindly missed the climb up at Oxford Circus until I seen the carbide stains on the upper left wall we all got out of the cave about 2 45 and walked down stream showed Geoff and the lads Cow dub and walk over to lancaster and back past bullpot got changed went to Bernies for a Cuppa. Dono drove great we all were knackered. Another good day out

Mark Hodgson

LOST JOHNS. Sunday 30th Sept 2007.

people present- Dono, Daz, Mark, Bob, Jeff

After meeting up with bob ,mark and Jeff we headed off to the dales to have our ritual breakfast at Bernies.

then it was of to the moor to get kitted up for the days trip and the venue was lost johns cave.

Once ready we headed for the entrance a short walk away and entered the system .we decided that we would do the furthest route in the system and after a short walk and climb over various holes in the floor we arrived at the first pitch called mud. Dono quickly rigged this and the group descended on two the second and third (hammer and centipede)which was rigged by bob and the third by mark followed by bob who rigged the next called candle and shistol.

Upon reaching the traverse Dono rigged it, and must I say it was a mission i suppose it isn’t called the battle axe traverse for nothing. What a battle it was squeezing your body against the wall to jam ones self in the rift whilst rigging with a huge drop under foot. but enjoyable non the less. After the traverse came a fantastic 45m pitch called valhalla and what a drop it is reaching the bottom of this you drop into a streamway which leads to the sump area via another 30m pitch which we never had the rope for.

once the group all landed at the foot of the pitch we reflected on the trip so far and one by one made for the surface working well as a team de-rigging the way out and I must add that i was well shocked with mark as for once the tw*t actually de-rigged and helped with the bags..well done mark and we want to see more. once all out of the system ,we got changed and headed back to Bernies for a nice cuppa and a slice of (mouldy) cake didn’t we bob... nice end to a great day, 6 and half hours underground we had and what a great day was had by all.

Martin Donaldson

Crackpot Cave, Swaledale. 15/7/07

Dono, Josh, Conner, Lewis, Darren, Deggy, Andy and Bob.

After meeting up with bob we headed of into the dales for the day, we briefly stopped at Reeth for a bite to eat before making our way to the pot. Upon entering the gated area bob parked his car up and we continued off road in my trusty Delica were we drove right down to the cave, after getting changed we headed for the entrance which is under a small cliff face in the valley, the original entrance has now collapsed ,along time ago, so the way into the system is a good crawl which is small but interesting the kids enjoyed it anyway by the noise they made coming in.

This was the reason for choosing this pot as I was out with my children for the day as previously they had done long churns so I thought that i would show them some formations once we got into the main part of the cave we regrouped and hung around for a moment to cool of cos we were sweating buckets, (well the adults anyway!),then we headed off into the cave ,this cave is fantastic for formations it has it all from stalls to curtains and gour pools to columns ,its an amazing small cave and its a shame that its the size that it is, although work is going on by some hardy chaps at the top, would be interesting if they find more passage.

Once in the passage we headed upstream, the kids just wanted to get in the water, so they went of paddling upstream in the water through there short legs it wasn’t soon before the water was in there wellies then moans of cold feet started coming, after taking some nice photos we arrived at the big column which the kids thought was great and asked a million questions about, then we went up the side passage to the large chamber for a rest, it wasn’t long before we got on our way and headed off out, i carried our conner all the way back to the entrance crawl as the poor little bugger was freezing and he fell and hurt his knee, josh and Lewis stayed with daz for a route about the place ,half hour later we were all on the surface, getting warmed of the sun, what a good day it was, all i got after getting out was "when can we go again dad" so I looks like they enjoy the caving lark anyway ,as well as the climbing and abseiling and canoeing and gorge walking that they do with me, ya cant beet a good day out doing some crazy sport with the kids in the dales. they love it..

Martin Donaldson.