Cuckoo Cleaves 17th Feb

[bagpuss]

Attendees: Jim, Tim, Steve, Dave & Ruth

We had planned to visit Welsh's Green Swallet this week, but the forecast for heavy rain changed our plans (which always seems to be the case for when we plan wet weather effected trips!) As seems to have been the case for quite a few trips lately the traffic out of Bristol was shocking leaving us still in Clifton at the time we were supposed to be meeting everyone else.

We met 45 minutes late at the Hunters and everyone decided we would walk there rather than taking 1 car to the parking spot. A narrow miss in field slurry for me, and a few near trips in brambles later and we were at the cave entrance. If someone is visiting there soon it might be worth taking some shears to snip back the brambles which are a bit of a trip hazard (would do it myself if I was local)

I was hoping to visit the Upper Grottoes to get some photos as possible Mendip photo comp entries, so we spent a fair amount of time bimbling round in various holes having slightly misread the description. At one point it felt like we were nearly back at the surface after exploring one passage (Duncan suggested in the Pub after that we might have been in the old entrance to the cave)

We (presumably) found the Upper Grottoes and un-named inlet after descending further into the cave to the correct point, Tim and I passed throgh the narrowest part, with me going feet first as I wasn't quite sure how tight it would get. No-one else could fit through (or could be bothered to fit through) so Tim and I explored on our own until we got to stacked boulders which we didn't like the look of & decided to turn around. We didn't see the Dog Tooth Crystals described in MU, but did admire some brilliant fossil shells which looked to almost be levitating above the rock.

We descended into the rest of the cave as far Frome Dig, exploring some of the other parts of the cave en route. Jim continued on beyond this to the start of Lake passage to have a look see for another time, but wasn't too confident about it's potential for us on his return! Would be interested to hear if anyone has any photos of the Lake?

A cold walk back to the Hunters, and grateful as always for a warm by the fire, tasty food & a good pint. Would like to return to CC another time for a better explore when time is less restricted. Air felt pretty good in the cave which was a relief.

[dave_the_cave]

Adding to Ruths trip report - some of my photos

Jim, Tim, Steve, Ruth, Dave

• Dave braves the climb where he had a wobble. Steve shows how easy it is to do it safe, but no one uses it!
• Dave fails to try to do the squeeze to see the dog toothed crystals.
• Only Ruth and Tim get beyond the squeeze.
• We descend to the bottom of the canyon, but only Jim braves bad air to do the crawl to the bedding plane beyond
• Returning in a rush for the pub Dave drops his camera which bounces down three drops. Dave searches everywhere but just as he asks for the rope for the wobble. Jim takes pity and eventually finds Daves camera!

Daves Wobble


Steve's simple solution - sadly everyone who wanted the rope was down before the last man with  the rope!


Jim thinking about the squeeze to the dog tooth crystals



The squeeze/crawl



Jim starts to have a go



Sadly no dog tooth crystals for me - this is the best around




Jim tries (and fails) to persuade us to go beyond the bottom of the canyon



Jim in the crawl at the bottom of the canyon




In the canyon




A photo after the cameras fall - the climb where I dropped my camera


It dropped 2 metres, bounced and fell another 2 metrea bounced to another hole and dropped more than 2 metres down Dave's wobble - eventually coming to a halt just before another hole which could well have taken it to the bottom of the canyon

Good trip - but I now prefer moles to butcombe!
But the cheese and onion roll is still the best.
Ruth even gave me her onion!

An ethical trip despite the long walk

[dave_the_cave]

Forgot the video as we searched for the way on - and ruth returns
Ruth returns