Which (Mendip) cave have you visited this week?

[bagpuss]

Eastwater last night, not sure what it is about Eastwater but it's the only cave I've not had an enjoyable trip in. Last night's was enjoyable though. A lovely walk in with the setting sun and singing skylarks. Entrance boulder choke was dry. Made it over the upper traverse without a meltdown. Did a short round trip then whilst the rest of the group did a longer route had a nice cup of tea and chat at the top of the canyon. Perhaps that is the answer to a good trip in Eastwater, 50% lounging around!

 

[mikem]

Definitely a marmite cave

 

[bagpuss]

Too nice a day to be underground so went looking for Baby Face cave on the Clevedon Coast. I think we found the right location based on the MCRA grid ref, but we failed to find the carving. Has anyone else managed to locate it?

We did find two 'just about caves' which didn't appear to be on the MCRA.
Just along from Baby Face cave, a few body lengths long.

Further along in the middle of Margaret's Bay, we nicknamed it Strewth Ruth.

 

[tony from suffolk]

Eastwater last night, not sure what it is about Eastwater but it's the only cave I've not had an enjoyable trip in. Last night's was enjoyable though. A lovely walk in with the setting sun and singing skylarks. Entrance boulder choke was dry. Made it over the upper traverse without a meltdown. Did a short round trip then whilst the rest of the group did a longer route had a nice cup of tea and chat at the top of the canyon. Perhaps that is the answer to a good trip in Eastwater, 50% lounging around!

I loved Eastwater. Probably perverse of me, but I always enjoyed its rather doomy atmosphere.

 

[bagpuss]

First visit to Honeymead Hole yesterday, the air was nice and fresh in the cave. We took a bit too much tackle which made it harder work than it needed to be at times! Really enjoyed the cave, very typically Mendip. Some nice down climbs, decent 10m pitch, a few formations dotted around, lots of interesting fossils and some very muddy passage!

 

[Sid]

Good to hear the air was good as last time i visited we had to abandon the trip.

 

[bagpuss]

Good to hear the air was good as last time i visited we had to abandon the trip.

I've had that twice with Little Crapnell, last time we tried there we barely made any progress and aborted for a Swildons trip instead. What time of year was your visit?

 

[bagpuss]

Waterwheel Swallet, water levels pretty low at the moment, you can see the traverse line high above the water, could stand up at the end of the pool. Stopped en route to the Hunters to move a massive tree trunk out of the road on the bend just after Stockhill woods to find the road blocked with flytipped rubble and trees. Moved as much as we safely could and called the police when we had signal at the Hunters. When we spoke to the police on our way home later they seemed to think they'd found paperwork with the fly tipping.

 

[bagpuss]

Bone Hole, thanks very much to @mikem MCG for showing us around. A lovely variety of formations, quite a few iffy looking rocks!

 

[mrodoc]

The other side of Bone Hole is interesting for other reasons!

 

[bagpuss]

The other side of Bone Hole is interesting for other reasons!

We also visited that part (Perforation choke?) but didn't feel like getting my camera out!

 

[bagpuss]

Visited a bunch of micro Burrington caves/shelters today, East Twin Top Sink, East Twin Middle Sink, (walked past East Twin Swallet), Whitcombe's Hole, Tunnel cave, Tunnel bedding plane, West Twin Brook Spring, West Twin Brook adit, Pseudo Nash's Hole, Johnny Nash's Hole, Quiddler's Arch, (walked past Flange Swallet, Goatchurch and Pierre's Pot)
Didn't find Yew Tree Swallet, we were on the grid refernce, if we were in the right place it's possibly filled with leaves. Picked up plenty of ticks for our troubles.

Whitcombe's Hole

 

[mikem]

Yew tree swallet is just a sink in the stream bed, no cave evident

 

[bagpuss]

Sludge pit hole to practice a bit of SRT (paid our money but couldn't get the bucket to open to sign the log, anyone had issues with this?)

Visited Longwood afterwards for a quick recce of the entrance climb for a club trip on Wednesday, the climb was just a bit drippy and only a small puddle in the squeeze.

 

[bagpuss]

A wander around the small mines and clefts of Harptree Combe at the weekend, some interesting things to see in the surface workings.

 

[bagpuss]

Thrupe Lane Swallet> Hobnail Hole
No photos as I broke my phone case.
Thanks to all the hard work of the volunteers that dug out the stream recently.
I've visited Hobnail once when it was *very wet* but hadn't been into Thrupe before. Also with a life long fear of heights am only just learning SRT/abseiling. First pitch was short and not tricky, everything was catching in the next down climb, 2nd pitch more awkward as its a bit tight at the top & my bag wedged itself a few times. We detoured along marble stream way to look out into Atlas Pot, a first for me as last time there was so much water coming through I was too worried I'd be washed off the edge to step out onto the ledge. The outward journey through Hobnail was straight forward with a short ladder climb and other upwards climbs to get out. Marble streamway had flowing water in it and the cave was a bit a drippy, but didn't get a total soaking.

 

[bagpuss]

Hilliers to Fairy last night. Usually go to the end of Hilliers which can then make the way out after the duck feel a bit rushed. Nice to have a shorter trip and a better look at everything in Fairy. The duck still had a fair amount of water in it, but just a suit soaking as opposed to an ear dunking.
Had a looking in Conning Tower afterwards, don't think anyone had been in there recently as the silt had no prints. Bit of a duck to get into the final sump pool.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Nice to see old " stomping grounds " Fairy and Conning Tower are the upper and lower ends of the geomorphology. We dug the Fairy Hilliers Link decades ago. Three in the team and I am the only one left. Hope to be back in Withyhill next week now my leg is not so sore.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Ahh memories. The digs were after work. Calling in at " Greasy Lils " fish and chip shop at Street on the way home about 11 pm. It was a horrible dig. PR put a load of bang in there and blew the floor out into " Drop Out Rift ". Of course Hilliers was blocked by quarry waste back then.

The late John Kidd. Fairy Hilliers dig and a tray stolen from Boots the Chemists. ( still one in St Dunstan's Well Cave after 50 years. )



The late Pete Rose with his special parcels. If the mods don’t like it knock it off.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Note their Texolex helmets. All the thing 50 years ago. Boiler suits so no over suits back then. Pete looks to have his home made wet suit jacket on. Oh yes. Those heavy ex army ammo boxes. Hope you can forgive an old man's ramblings on your thread Bagpuss.