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.






