caving_fox
Active member
Having broken my collarbone in a cycling accident 7 weeks ago I decided that I was now sufficiently healed to attempt some proper exercise. What I needed was a nice reasonably gentle cave with a clear exit that I could reasonably retreat from if I overdid it, and a few sporting bits deeper in if I felt I was actually in good shape and could push it a bit. The choice offered to me this weekend was the RDCC taking some novices to P8 on Sunday or the CCCC who had a guided trip around St Cuthberts on Saturday and a more caving on the Sunday. Even though I heard the exit wasn't easy the lure of Mendip was too great and so I headed South.
Location: the Wessex. Yes I know Cuthberts is a BEC run cave, and there is a degree of antipathy between the clubs, but we really didn't fancy staying at the Belfry, even though I'm sure it is no longer the ebullient (riotous) place of legend past.
Attending: Me, Jane, Gordon, Bill, Rob and Rob.
A 10 O'clock meeting time meant the prospect of more before Midday caving.
something that still feels unnatural every time I attempt it. But fortunately Jane's cold didn't prevent early morning breakfast 
even though wisdom relegated her to a sunny day's walk in the fine countryside. The party eventually consisted of Me, Rob, Rob and Bill, and we managed to arrive on time to meet our two guides Toby and Fay. :bow: And so it was time to go caving. The first surprise was turning off the water flowing into the cave - a feature I feel that far more caves should come equipped with! - A sluice gate blocks the flow of a small stream increasing the depth of a pond. As we descended a small tube I was fairly gratefull already that there wasn't much water present. The entrance rift itself is narrow but comfortably body sized with suitably knobbled walls and descent with the aid of gravity is not difficult, the hung ladder not required in this direction. A few step/downclimbs and fixed ladders (should these move :doubt
brought us to the next recognised obstacle - wire rift - Formerly presumably fitted with a wire, but today you just have to cope. Again the usefully featured wall and general downslope direction made progress reasonable. The temptation is always to drop into the water level but prudent advice from our guides kept us up in the wider passages. A final fixed ladder lands in the first significant chamber Arete - so named because of the large arete like boulder in the middle of it. The initial discoverers were apparently also keen mountaineers so a few other mountainous terms appear as names. Route finding from here on was a complete nightmare as any glance at the survey in the Belfrey will confirm :read: . I can no longer remember where we went first, which bit led to which other bit, whether we went left or right, or started out left but then crossed underneath the right or cut between the two and ended up in the middle. Fay was leading - half way through her required 16! trips to become a full guide - and was exceedingly good at picking the right exit from the multitude of interconnecting passages and chambers. 
The general structure of the cave is two major faults intersected by many passages - these are generally comfortable without being spacious, leading into large (and sometimes very very high) chambers full of boulders and breakdown the junctions and some of the boulders sometimes require a careful climbing but anyone possessing long legs (like me :halo won't have any difficulties at all. Interspersed around this fairly fun caving are some genuinely amazing and pristine formations. Their excellent state of preservation is a whole hearted recommendation to the guided leader only access to this system - in addition to preventing what would otherwise be many callouts to find lost parties as people try and learn the complex routes. It also ensures that visitors get to see some fine formations that are otherwise located in un-obvious places.
Our general route was down towards the great Gour and Sump 1 but we stopped off to see my first ever cave pearls, a magnificent curtain chamber - very clear, very thin, very very long, and several of them! a large (the largest?) flowstone cascade and a few quite respectable stals scattered around. The washed out dripstone inverses under a false calcite floor were very unusual. Cerberus hall offered a poignant moment with the plaques of three of Mendips historical cavers, and their dining room used in the massive efforts required for the original explorations.
When offered a choice of the wet way or the dry way to progress we looked at the diverted stream flowing down a marginally bodysized slot and really weren't sure this was sensible. However brave in our PVC suits and hoods we thought we could cope. The wet way is the obvious comfortable tube above the slot :-[ which later drops into the stream that requires a tiny amount of crawling in. Bill and Fay took the dry way climbing up a slippery slope. We met them at Plantation junction (I think) and continued downstream to the massive Great Gour - 5m high. The stream has wormed a low passage underneath that Rob and I took while the others climbed up the chain and down the greasy other side. A very pleasant stream passage took us on to the Sump, crystal clear and time to return. Perhaps the best bit about St Cuthberts is it's overall variety. It has everything from grotty crawls to spacious passages, sporting features to beautiful pretties, history and development too. Nothing lasts too long, a bit of this a bit of that all in available in near proximity. Climbing up over the Gour this time (grovelling upstream in a low passage didn't have the same appeal) the chain descent leads to a drop best negotiated (as instructed) from the other side. On, up, round, over and through brought us eventually back to the Wire rift.
Heading upstream on a downstream sloping rift was decidedly more difficult. In the way that caves are there was a notable decrease in useful traction but being more or less body sized did mean that you could just jam in when you needed a rest. Our return to arete chamber proved (as Toby had predicted) that the sluice gate leaks. It was basically dry on our arrival, and now some 4 hours later really quite damp. The ladders were easy though. Ascending the entrance rift was not so straightforward - the increase in water flow made it impossible to look up, and the ladder hanging in the very narrowest part was hence also not as useful as it could be. My technique which worked for me was to have one foot and hand on the ladder and the others on the cave walls. Jam in, raise ladder hand/foot stand up, jam in and repeat. Our guides can climb without using the ladder at all, and while I probably could have done so if I really had to, I'm very glad I didn't. Fortunately my shoulder survived all this punishment with little more than an occasional ache when I pushed in the wrong angle. Daylight was fading as Fay waded into the now quite deep pool to allow the stream back into the cave and we crunched through the heavy frost back to the Belfry.
Many thanks :bow: to Toby and Fay, for their expert guidance, instructions, information, and banter which made a thoroughly interesting, exciting, enjoyable and rewarding days caving in a superb system.
Our return to the Wessex found the walking party still out in the dark, but as this was a Janewalk we were comfortable they'd return in time for dinner which we set about cooking after some suitable refreshment. We even managed not to burn it! An evening was comfortably passed in the Hunters.
Sunday - Jane had promised a later start
a full 15minutes later than Saturday I was awakened. 
eventually it was decided we would visit Mr Sparrow's new Establishment much to Jane's disgust :blink: but of course it was she who spent the most money/time trying on various bits of replacement SRT gear. With time pressing we thought we'd do a traditional mong around Goatchurch and maybe look at some of the other pots in the Coombe. Nice concrete work on the drainpipe entrance we furtled in a few holes. And then spent a cold while thrashing through the undergrowth looking for Pierre's pot. Just about at the time we had to leave we found what may have been it? We think it's the small hole in the rocks above the obvious hole just downhill of the stream sink along the main path? Without the time for rigging a sensible aid I didn't push more than a few meters into an awkward tube. Return even with a handline belayed around Mike's shoulders wasn't that easy as pushing with my legs wedged me in, but handholds weren't that frequent. I stopped at the top of a passable slot on the right that would have been an interesting return climb. Is that it?
If it is, then what is the hole by the path called? The removal of one smallish fallen stone seems to be the only obstacle to passage here ??
Thanks to the Wessex for accommodation in their ever clean and spacious facilities. Toby and Fay again, for their leadership, drivers for driving, Jane for organising and everybody else for cheer and good company!
Location: the Wessex. Yes I know Cuthberts is a BEC run cave, and there is a degree of antipathy between the clubs, but we really didn't fancy staying at the Belfry, even though I'm sure it is no longer the ebullient (riotous) place of legend past.
Attending: Me, Jane, Gordon, Bill, Rob and Rob.
A 10 O'clock meeting time meant the prospect of more before Midday caving.
something that still feels unnatural every time I attempt it. But fortunately Jane's cold didn't prevent early morning breakfast even though wisdom relegated her to a sunny day's walk in the fine countryside. The party eventually consisted of Me, Rob, Rob and Bill, and we managed to arrive on time to meet our two guides Toby and Fay. :bow: And so it was time to go caving. The first surprise was turning off the water flowing into the cave - a feature I feel that far more caves should come equipped with! - A sluice gate blocks the flow of a small stream increasing the depth of a pond. As we descended a small tube I was fairly gratefull already that there wasn't much water present. The entrance rift itself is narrow but comfortably body sized with suitably knobbled walls and descent with the aid of gravity is not difficult, the hung ladder not required in this direction. A few step/downclimbs and fixed ladders (should these move :doubt brought us to the next recognised obstacle - wire rift - Formerly presumably fitted with a wire, but today you just have to cope. Again the usefully featured wall and general downslope direction made progress reasonable. The temptation is always to drop into the water level but prudent advice from our guides kept us up in the wider passages. A final fixed ladder lands in the first significant chamber Arete - so named because of the large arete like boulder in the middle of it. The initial discoverers were apparently also keen mountaineers so a few other mountainous terms appear as names. Route finding from here on was a complete nightmare as any glance at the survey in the Belfrey will confirm :read: . I can no longer remember where we went first, which bit led to which other bit, whether we went left or right, or started out left but then crossed underneath the right or cut between the two and ended up in the middle. Fay was leading - half way through her required 16! trips to become a full guide - and was exceedingly good at picking the right exit from the multitude of interconnecting passages and chambers. The general structure of the cave is two major faults intersected by many passages - these are generally comfortable without being spacious, leading into large (and sometimes very very high) chambers full of boulders and breakdown the junctions and some of the boulders sometimes require a careful climbing but anyone possessing long legs (like me :halo
won't have any difficulties at all. Interspersed around this fairly fun caving are some genuinely amazing and pristine formations. Their excellent state of preservation is a whole hearted recommendation to the guided leader only access to this system - in addition to preventing what would otherwise be many callouts to find lost parties as people try and learn the complex routes. It also ensures that visitors get to see some fine formations that are otherwise located in un-obvious places. Our general route was down towards the great Gour and Sump 1 but we stopped off to see my first ever cave pearls, a magnificent curtain chamber - very clear, very thin, very very long, and several of them! a large (the largest?) flowstone cascade and a few quite respectable stals scattered around. The washed out dripstone inverses under a false calcite floor were very unusual. Cerberus hall offered a poignant moment with the plaques of three of Mendips historical cavers, and their dining room used in the massive efforts required for the original explorations.
When offered a choice of the wet way or the dry way to progress we looked at the diverted stream flowing down a marginally bodysized slot and really weren't sure this was sensible. However brave in our PVC suits and hoods we thought we could cope. The wet way is the obvious comfortable tube above the slot :-[ which later drops into the stream that requires a tiny amount of crawling in. Bill and Fay took the dry way climbing up a slippery slope. We met them at Plantation junction (I think) and continued downstream to the massive Great Gour - 5m high. The stream has wormed a low passage underneath that Rob and I took while the others climbed up the chain and down the greasy other side. A very pleasant stream passage took us on to the Sump, crystal clear and time to return. Perhaps the best bit about St Cuthberts is it's overall variety. It has everything from grotty crawls to spacious passages, sporting features to beautiful pretties, history and development too. Nothing lasts too long, a bit of this a bit of that all in available in near proximity. Climbing up over the Gour this time (grovelling upstream in a low passage didn't have the same appeal) the chain descent leads to a drop best negotiated (as instructed) from the other side. On, up, round, over and through brought us eventually back to the Wire rift.
Heading upstream on a downstream sloping rift was decidedly more difficult. In the way that caves are there was a notable decrease in useful traction but being more or less body sized did mean that you could just jam in when you needed a rest. Our return to arete chamber proved (as Toby had predicted) that the sluice gate leaks. It was basically dry on our arrival, and now some 4 hours later really quite damp. The ladders were easy though. Ascending the entrance rift was not so straightforward - the increase in water flow made it impossible to look up, and the ladder hanging in the very narrowest part was hence also not as useful as it could be. My technique which worked for me was to have one foot and hand on the ladder and the others on the cave walls. Jam in, raise ladder hand/foot stand up, jam in and repeat. Our guides can climb without using the ladder at all, and while I probably could have done so if I really had to, I'm very glad I didn't. Fortunately my shoulder survived all this punishment with little more than an occasional ache when I pushed in the wrong angle. Daylight was fading as Fay waded into the now quite deep pool to allow the stream back into the cave and we crunched through the heavy frost back to the Belfry.
Many thanks :bow:
to Toby and Fay, for their expert guidance, instructions, information, and banter which made a thoroughly interesting, exciting, enjoyable and rewarding days caving in a superb system. Our return to the Wessex found the walking party still out in the dark, but as this was a Janewalk we were comfortable they'd return in time for dinner which we set about cooking after some suitable refreshment. We even managed not to burn it! An evening was comfortably passed in the Hunters.
Sunday - Jane had promised a later start
a full 15minutes later than Saturday I was awakened. eventually it was decided we would visit Mr Sparrow's new Establishment much to Jane's disgust :blink: but of course it was she who spent the most money/time trying on various bits of replacement SRT gear. With time pressing we thought we'd do a traditional mong around Goatchurch and maybe look at some of the other pots in the Coombe. Nice concrete work on the drainpipe entrance we furtled in a few holes. And then spent a cold while thrashing through the undergrowth looking for Pierre's pot. Just about at the time we had to leave we found what may have been it? We think it's the small hole in the rocks above the obvious hole just downhill of the stream sink along the main path? Without the time for rigging a sensible aid I didn't push more than a few meters into an awkward tube. Return even with a handline belayed around Mike's shoulders wasn't that easy as pushing with my legs wedged me in, but handholds weren't that frequent. I stopped at the top of a passable slot on the right that would have been an interesting return climb. Is that it?If it is, then what is the hole by the path called? The removal of one smallish fallen stone seems to be the only obstacle to passage here ??
Thanks to the Wessex for accommodation in their ever clean and spacious facilities. Toby and Fay again, for their leadership, drivers for driving, Jane for organising and everybody else for cheer and good company!
