SUCC: Caving Log

Ogof Craig a Ffynnon

2010-12-18T14:03:00.000Z

Post Exam Trip

2010-06-24T11:56:00.004+01:00

Trip Report by Tom Roberts

Wales
Thursday (17/06) - Town Drain, White Lady, Little Neath River Cave
Friday (18/06) - Ogof Fechan/Llygad llwchwr, Ogof Pont Styrnd
Saturday (19/06) - Ogof Rhyd Sych, Ogof y Ci

Mendips
Sunday (20/06) - Attborough Swallet/Swildon's Hole short round
Monday (21/06) - Rod's Pot through to Bath, Drunkard's Hole, Hunter's Lodge Inn Sink
Tuesday (22/06) - Box Mine/Longwood
Wednesday (23/06) - Longwood/Swildon’s Hole entrance series

Apologies to any people for my butchering of the spelling of some Welsh caves and I might have got some caves on the wrong day but you get the general impression.

After what seemed like an eternity of not caving due to exams, members of the SUCC headed to south Wales as part of a week long caving exped. Staying at the Westminster and with weather you could only dream of, the theme of this part seemed to be wet, wet wet.

Day 1 started with one group going down Little Neath and the other doing two short trips down Town drain and White lady. Town Drain proved interesting for a while but just as you started to get into it, it ends. Still feeling the need to cave, we went into White Lady (some of us twice) to have quick look inside. The dead mouse floating in the water that was noticed on the way out gave everyone an incentive to try the dry(ish) way out. On reports of the water being warm in Little Neath, the other more armchair focused group decided to take a look and it was definitely worth it, the duck proving particularly challenging with people having to take helmets off to get through. The day finished and with only minor difficulties getting back up the hill we made a brief stop at Porth-Yr-Ogof to view the impressive opening on our way back to the hut.

Day 2 began as day 1 with us splitting into two groups with one going to Llygad Llwchwr and the other going to Ogof Fechan. Ogof Fechan was very dry but still sporty in places. It started with a crawl through sheep bones and after some chambers and climbs, opens up into the stream way. Despite the water being low, we still got thoroughly soaked, or at least I did after forgetting to zip my over suit up before crawling through the deep water, I was glad I had a wet suit on. The passage then opens up into a chamber with boulder chokes onwards. We preceded upwards to a couple of chambers with an impressive formation and rather worryingly a large cross made out of left over digging tools. The three of us then left for a quick brew and as the others wouldn't be back for ages, went in search of Ogof Pont Styrnd. After some difficulties looking for the entrance (under the wrong bridge), we went in only a short distance from the entrance before going back to the hut.

Day 3 begin with some of us in better shape than others, midges and horse flies are apparently very particular as to who they bite, we joined the two groups and proceeded to do Ogof Rhyd Sych and Ogof y Ci. Ogof Rhyd Sych proved a little too tight for some of the group however so we didn't get much past the duck at the beginning before going to Ogof y Ci but not before some questionable dancing "You're hot then your cold, you’re yes then you're no, you know who you are!". Ogof y Ci was very pleasant. We entered through the wet way and proceeded until we could go no further and ran out of songs we all knew or thought we knew the words to. The cave has a bit of everything and though it lacks any real technical climbs, was good fun. With a long drive ahead, we quickly cleaned the hut and made ready to depart.

Onwards to part 2 and into the Mendips we went. Staying at the Shepton, most of us where looking forward to ticking a few white whales off of our lists. The first day started with the immortal quote "Attborough, I wonder why no ones heard of it". This prompted a trip to the aforementioned cave and after about 10 minutes we realised why! The place is a not exactly safe. The upper series is basically a large boulder choke with very lose scree everywhere else. Despite a well organised attempt on the president's live (he survived) we carried on with an exploration of the lower series where it became too tight for some and not being willing to climb down further without any chance of help from above, we soon turned back and went back to the hut. We were soon meet by the other group and then pushed onwards to the important part of the day, the hunters. The pub proved to be eventful with a well known BEC member trying to pitch a wooden block to an aeronautical engineer and a few games of shoving half-pennies.

The next day saw us group together again to do the recently opened (in caving terms) Rod's to Bath through trip. We started by rigging the ladders at bath so everyone could descend Rod’s. This took a fair amount of time which meant the two of us not involved in rigging the ladder got slightly bored and invented a game which I shall call rock lap (patent pending) which even included innuendos. Apparently laughter could be heard from the surface. What can I say? My timing was brilliant. I did however lose quite badly. I spent the rest of the cave fishing stones from my over suit. The ladder rigged, the group then preceded down rod's which was a lot shorter than I remembered, and after some difficulty finding the way on from the main chamber and some chimney climbing, we proceeded to the through trip and with ever graceful style climbed/fell to the bottom of bath. The group then started ascending the ladder until it was just me left at the bottom. Then came a particularly impressive bit of derigging whilst on the ladder (I'll be the first to say how awesome I was, I will completely ignore the time it took you to do it properly after). With the through trip done, three of us decided that one cave a day is no fun and seeing as we were there anyway, decided to do drunkards. Feeling slightly over equipped (I had 8 slings and two ladders as well as numerous crabs on my belt) we went down to the squeeze where we found two very dead rabbits, somehow I don't think we will be going through there. So we headed back towards the hut. That evening, we went for a quick trip down hunters lodge. It provided very interesting with no dead animals at all and some nice pretties in the main chamber. We soon reached a pitch which we weren't equipped for so most of us left. However one person decided a side passage looked interesting and I felt I should follow. The "side" passage seemed to go on for a very long way until it reached a hand line of dubious quality over a pitch which didn't look particularly nice so we decided to leave. However the trip back was not devoid of entertainment. Our honourable president decided to have an underwear malfunction on the crawl out, ripping through his last layer protecting his modesty, and the caver behind him. It was apparently more funny than scary but still I'm glad I didn't see into Pegg's inner sanctum.

The next day and time for me to tick of a place I've wanted to do for a long time, box freestone mine. The other groups did Longwood or GB. Despite being difficult to find we made it eventually and with enough time to have a crafty pint in the local. The initial plan was to descend through the skylight in the biggest chamber but that was scuppered due to it being on private property. We inside went in through the back door and quickly located the impressive cathedral. We then went in search of the B12 route in an effort to complete the round trip. This proved more difficult so we decided to leave whilst we still knew where we vaguely were. The survey really didn't help. With the other two moaning slightly about it not being sporty enough, I promised to secure permission to do the SRT through the skylight for next time. We returned by a questionable route (my bad) to the hut where two of us then attempted to get to Flower Pot whilst the others hit the pub. Our endeavours failed however when we found the farmer had annoying started growing stuff in his field and we didn't really want to traipse amongst his crops so we joined the others in the pub.

Our last day in the Mendips saw another trip go to Longwood whilst a nice man date went on a Swildon’s pootle. The journey to Longwood was interesting with a discussion breaking out about how best to get there from the place we parked. We soon reached the entrance though and opened the gate. Feeling grateful for finally getting out of the sun, we descended the start rift until we reached the ladder pitch. Though it seemed slightly pointless we rigged it anyway and were soon in Showerbath Chamber where I began to appreciate the slightly too tight thermals I had borrowed for the occasion. The round trip didn't take long after that despite the supposedly difficult traverse and another climb up a waterfall which meant you couldn't see much. The warm water dripping from on me from above was more worrying but I was assured this was just welly water. The round trip completed, we scurried on out pausing only to de-rig the hand line and ladder.

After cleaning the hut we then left homewards bound with everyone tired. 13 caves in 7 days, if we keep this up people might think we are hardcore!

After a very successful trip, I would like to give a few awards...

Most Revealing Moment - Pegg and his moment in Hunters lodge Sink
Worst Navigating - Me for getting us lost multiple times (though I don't think they realised half the time)
Tastiest Morsel - Dan Heggs (Probably should mention that this is based on amount of bug bites not my personal preferences)
Most Technology Dependent - Naomi
Most Corrupted - Tarn used to be a sweet natured innocent girl, no more!
Best Engineering - Whoever decided to be the contraption for the swing, genius. Thank god you didn't use the car though
The Hunter's Inn award for the most up for a heavy night - Dan despite being in was always the last one up
Best Balancing - me, fell asleep on the way home, didn't spill a drop of beer
Most Hardcore/ far too keen - Tarn
Most Armchair - Everyone else
Best Collector - Everyone seemed to do new caves so everyone really unless you did a cave twice, that disqualifies you
The Peggle Hillwalking Award - Annie for sleeping in the car whilst we did rod's, though you might have been ill, in that case Pegg wins by proxy
The Worst Assassin Award - me, though I will get you eventually
Best De-rigging - me just because that ladder de-rigg was awesome
Most Questionable Artistic Moment - This award covers any attempts at singing/dancing. Whilst there was numerous efforts, it has to be Pegg with his Hot'n'cold dance due to it being more public
Best Singing - The group down Longwood second time - was the summer of 69! Oooh yeah
Biggest Fail at a Game You Co-Invented – quite specific but I suppose I win this one as well
Most Expendable – After the amount of times I heard “This doesn’t look right, better send Tom down it” I claim this dubious honour

Dent De Crolles, France 2009

2009-11-08T17:34:00.010Z

POST EXPEDITION REPORT

Four members of SUCC September, 2009 completed an awesome trip to the Dent De Crolles, Rhones-Alpes, France. We were assisted by two very experience intructors from the Combined Service Caving Association (CSCA).

DAY 1 - Travelling took 16 hours by ferry and combi van :(

DAY 2 - Trou de Glaz to Grotte Annette Bouchacourt via Galerie 43
A long day travelling before combined with a late night and a nice 300m climb makes an interesting and slow walk to the entrance taking 1h30min. Follow the white and red lines used by walkers which take you to the peak via the entrance to Trou de Glaz along with signs posted.

Enough rope was taken to rig the lantern shafts but because of the size of the group it was decided to leave the ropes for L1-L3 at the pitch head to be rigged another day. L4 was rigged in a time that wouldn’t rival boy scouts; a good place to shake off the cobwebs for new cave leaders. The point of leaving ropes was to speed up any future pull through trips and to preserve in situe ropes. A really good trip to start off the expedition at around 6hrs in order to break members into the cave system and just realise how good French caving can be. The way out is via the ‘l’Escargot’ (snail) were a note should be made that the arrows help considerably when leaving this way but not in the other direction which will become clearer in a later trip.

The walk back from Annette takes less than an hour downhill and at this time of year the tracks are good which may not be case earlier in the season and care should be taken.

DAY 3 - Guiers Mort round trip crossover.
Two teams today, one team to go from the low level route to the high level via p.noir and the other team to vice-versa but via the cascades. The walk took around an hour is on a signposted track through a steep wood. Upon arrival the waterfall entrance to Guiers Mort is an impressive sight with hill walkers peering in to get a glimpse of a beautiful place where these crazy ‘speleo’ people explore. This trip is well worth exploring as it makes it easy to have two teams roaming around and the lower level is a must to explore and is very good training for underground navigation. The team starting at the lower level took 7 hours and the team starting at the higher level took 8 and exited in the dark were it should be noted to make sure you are on the track, if in doubt go back to the waterfall and find the track. For future reference it is a simpler route to take the high level for through trips.

DAY 4 – Gouffre Therese and Grotte Chevalier
It was decided that one team would check out Gouffre Therese, take up a lot of rope to see if it was worth rigging. It was decided to continue with more rigging the next day.

The second team decided to check out Grotte Chevalier. The mist on the ‘Meadow of Death’ meant that visibility was down to 20m and the group grouped close, walk on the track past the old and start to head up the hill and right until you reach a track running uphill close to where the hillside steeply declines. This track will lead you to the turn off for Grotte Annette Bouchacourt and Grotte Chevalier. This walk should take around an hour but due to the mist and not knowing about the track specified above it took 2 hours. The team explored the massive chamber in Grotte Chevalier checked out a few side tracks took some interesting photos and got to know the passages ready for a through trip later on. Do not disturb the sheep as they may be tempted to kamikaze off the mountain.

DAY 5 – Gouffre Therese and Trou de Glaz – Guiers Mort via Galerie des Champignons
The first team went to Gouffre Therese and rigged more of it to see if it would be possible to conduct a through trip later on whilst the other team complete a through trip from Trou de Glaz to Guiers Mort. Warm kit and money were left in a dry bag at the car park to Guiers Mort in case the first team were late back from Therese and a mobile was available to both teams. The timing went well as the Therese Team pick up the other team as they had just started making their way to the nearest bar/cafe.

The Therese team were very experience and took with them enough kit to drill, bolt and rig most of the entrance pitches. With some interesting swings and homemade deviations drilled with ‘Mr. Makita” the cave was rigged to puits Astrid before it was time to leave the mountain and head back for the second team.

The Gouffre Therese would make an expedition and would be well worth doing but plenty of bolting and rigging kit would have to be brought but for this expedition it was decided not to venture any further.

The second team having never completed the through trip before made only one mistake early on whereby they ‘yomped’ past P36 but only lost about 20 mins. From P36 and through puits des Malchaneux advancement was slow as there are a few small pitches not on the survey which can be confusing and regular checks were made. It is worth noting that the Traverse for p.De l’Arche and p. Malchaneux is very long and not short one before hand with a ~ 5m pitch is not it so don’t worry about the small pitch and head down it. At the cascades half the team took the Cascade route and half took the puits Noir route and both met at the junction after puits Noir.After this the rest of the cave is very quick through the Galerie des Champignons (mushrooms) and Galerie du Solitaire until the final scramble from p.pierre. Trip Time 7 hours. The walk to Trou de Glaz taking only 38mins this day as the team got used to the walks.

DAY 6 – Rest
It was a good idea for a rest day before fatigue was made as issue. A trip was made to the 2nd world war museum the ‘musee de la resistance’ in the Vercor which provided a an interesting overview of how the area was used by the resistance. An outdoor sports suppliers which gave member the ability to spend some money on shiny kit.

DAY 7 – Gouffre Therese
The entrance to this cave is near the peak of the mountain at a height of 1925m which was a 600m climb and took 1h30min. The route taken was via the Trou de Glaz and we saw a wonderful site of a group of Roe Deer who found the terrain a lot easier than we did.

The trip took us to the bottom of Puits Astrid followed by a de rig which was loads of fun especially on the pitches entering side passages. Note that if your lunch is with other people then be aware of falling baguettes from the pitch head. It may be interesting to see what the fungus looks like at the bottom of Puits Astrid next trip. Total trip time, 4-5 hours.

After exiting the cave kit for the next day was left at P40 and the team walked back over the peak, past the Dent (tooth) de Crolles which would make a good climb. The walk down took 45 mins.

DAY EIGHT – P40 – Trou de Glaz
The same team that completed the Trou de Glaz through trip to Guiers Mort attempted the P40 to Guiers Mort trip with the help of the support group setting up the P40 and de-rigging it and going to the Trou de Glaz to explore whilst waiting for the other team.

The plan was for the through trip team to split at the 4th Lantern Shaft with one half leaving at Trou de Glaz and the other carrying on to Guiers Mort. However, due to the almost endless and arduous meander form the P40 instead of 5 hours it took 7 to reach this point and it was decided not to attempt the big trip. This was disappointing but it just means that we will make sure to complete this next year.

The team waiting around Trou the Glaz found route that can bypass most of the Lantern Shafts which may be worth exploring next year also. After the p.des Trios Soeurs it is important to micro navigate and make sure that you are not in polish route. The Lantern shafts that we rigged were also de-rigged.

DAY 10 – Grotte de Annette Bouchacourt – Grotte Chevalier
A very nice final through trip. As mentioned previously l’Escargot provided some amusement after the following the arrows and coming to a point an interesting point, “This place looks familiar”, “I think we’ve gone in a circle”, “Yes we have”. The Arrows can be useful but check your compass! Enough rope is required to pull through a 55m pitch and a 60m and 50m would be useful as the rope at this point may be undesirable to descend. The final pitch descends into the Grande Galerie which is a magnificent and awesome sight due to its size. 1hr walk in and 45 mins back.

DAY 11 – Final De-rig, wash kit and pack.
While most of the team were washing all the used kit 2 members had a speedy ascent to Guiers Mort which took 45 mins in order to de-rig p.Pierre. Once cleaned the campsite was packed and to save money we left in the afternoon to return to Southampton. Along the way a visit was made to the Chartreuse Distillery which provides a free tour of the history of the monks that founded the monastery and created the liqueur. Late in the evening a stop in a lay by meant everyone could catch some sleep for the final leg of the journey.

DAY 12 –Vimy Ridge and the return
As we had made good time we visited the first world war memorial at Vimy Ridge which is run a by Canadian Student Volunteers (very nice :P) who provide tours. The memorial is a magnificent piece and has just undergone renovation. The story behind Vimy Ridge is well worth reading about and the area is full of war memorials and worth a visit on the way back to Calais. Again we were allowed on an earlier ferry and at 1800 we returned to Southampton. We are not sure as to whether it was Charlie or Steve but one of them attracts suspicion from customs officers, maybe it’s the beard and the moustache.

Anyone interested in running a similar trip e-mail me at seananthony86@hotmail.com and I'll be glad to help :)

Post-Exam Caving in Yorkshire

2009-01-30T19:57:00.000Z

The first trip to Yorkshire of the new year. We managed to entice all of our freshers into the joys of SRT. We did the traditional Kingsdale fresher's trip (Bull and Jingling Pots) as well as trip to Alum Pot on the Sunday.

Caving in South Wales

2008-11-07T20:22:00.001Z

After a rather large break, the first trip report of the new term. We were camping at the SWCC, which would have been fine were it not for the howling gales, rain and hail. We managed to drag ourselves underground, seeing the delights of Cwm Dwr, Bridge Cave, OFD I and II, and the vowel-challenged Llygad Llychwr.

Caving in South Wales

2008-02-22T23:40:00.000Z

After a trip where we struggled to break even for lack of cavers, we get one where we have to turn people away, people suddenly realising they like caving. We continued the SRT theme of the previous trip, aiming to get all of our freshers on a rope, something we almost managed. Since we were staying at SWCC, we obviously were going to OFD. We also tried Bridge Cave and Pant Mawr.

Yorkshire Caving

2008-02-01T23:43:00.000Z

The first vertical caving trip of the year, and perhaps the only one we might do for a while. We had a smaller group than usual, something to do with severe weather warnings on most of the roads. We did Jingling Pot on Saturday, after a crash refresher course in SRT for some of us. The sheep is still there, quietly rotting away. On Sunday we went to Hagg Gill Pot, a nice streamway cave with an easy entrance pitch. After much searching we found a chamber with some very nice straws. You can see photos from our trip here.

Caving & Fireworks

2007-11-02T13:19:00.000Z

After the first few fresher's trips we started to get to down to some 'serious' caving. A few of us started earlier than the others, literally, with a trip to Swildon's at 4 in the morning. After we had all had breakfast, we split up. Ben and Joe went off to learn SRT and the rest went to Longwood. On Sunday we fell back on the traditional standby cave, GB. We had a go at rigging the ladder, but realised it might be more difficult to bring down. The most embaressing monent of the trip would be backing the minibus into a ditch.

"The Mysterious Lake of Cuckoo Cleves"

2007-05-18T20:55:00.006+01:00

This trip report was written by Rich Beer

Cuckoo Cleeves is a pleasant cave for the most part, although it does harbour a more sinister, darker side. Deep within the cave is an elusive lake of crystal clear water, 10m long by 2m wide. Mendip Underground describes the route as 'excessively arduous' and recommends that 'the area should be avoided by any but experienced, slim cavers'. The route is so strenuous in fact that it has even been said by some that the lake doesn't even exist.

Duncan and I both had something to prove by doing this trip. Duncan had visited the lake when he left university, although this fact is refuted by both Paul Walker and Rich Bayfield. I had been to Cuckoo Cleeves before with Charlotte Harris and claimed that I would be able to find the lake on my next trip. So we find ourselves on Friday night getting changed outside, 1000m down the road from the Hunters wondering why we aren't enjoying Butcombe instead.

Our first hurdle on the trip was crossing the three fields that lead to the entrance. They were filled with overly inquisitive cows that refused to be shooed away and followed us all the way and then proceeded to form an eerie watching presence as we rigged the ladder. After the obligatory ladder shaft shots and some inexplicably camp poses we started exploring the cave.

70m of caving, climbing down vadose trenches and following the streamway down the rift eventually leads to a short flat out crawl. From here Dan, Hector and Zhen followed the streamway, which eventually reaches Wookie Hole. Meanwhile Duncan and I climbed the 6m rift and found the entrance to the lake passage, 'a difficult manoeuvre over a stalagmite slope overhead'. From here there is a 12m climb down puke rift to the start of the squeeze.

Aware of the notoriety of this section and with fresh recollections from Duncan I proceeded to take off all my excess clothing. The first section of the passage however doesn't produce any serious problems and started to raise my hopes, perhaps it's all like this and being a 'slim caver' is relative to barrel-chested, pie-eating Somerset folk. Unfortunately this isn't the case as I soon found out in a tight 90° bend that favours those with short legs. Once round this corner I had naïve hopes of seeing the edge of a lake but was instead treated to a glimpse of the next section of passage, an impossibly tight gap that I would have not believed possible to fit through had I not already committed myself to doing this. The only way through is to put one arm forward, take deep breaths and wriggle on through. Eventually it slopes to 45° downwards and the edge of the lake appears to much elation on my part.

Reaching the lake was an important psychological point, if you got stuck before reaching this terminus rescue would be near impossible and sliding backwards uphill would be exceedingly difficult. Although the guide book says the squeeze is most difficult on the return knowing you have already fitted through is of immense help.

The lake was a satisfying end to the squeeze with waters genuinely crystal clear, the physical barriers to entry probably being much to thank for this. I could not see the lake for long though as my helmet, which I had been pushing through, had been considerably bashed around which caused my light to fail just as I was standing up, unfortunately one of my legs was still trapped so I found myself in pitch black with the helmet straps between my teeth having to brace myself against the other wall to avoid a good dunking. Eventually I freed my leg and frantically started turning the switch, two complete turns, No LEDs, No Halogens. Still bracing myself against the wall I attempted to find somewhere in this perpetual darkness to sit and attempt to fix my light, well aware of the fact that eventually my arms would tire and I would fall in. The lake however has no bank so eventually I had to settle for a position that was slightly less strain on the arms. Luckily I was still within audible reach of the others and after some shouting we established that if I couldn't fix my light within five minutes someone would have to come down with a spare, no one was eager to do this, or we would have to find an exceedingly thin member of cave rescue. Either way I was going to owe people a few pints. Luckily, after systematically feeling all the connections on the lamp I managed to identify the loose connection and saw the first flicker of light. Needless to say, it was a good moment.

By this point I was sweating buckets but thought at least I could have a few pleasant mouthfuls of this crystal water. Bracing myself against both sides with that obscure sense of vertigo you can get when standing over clear water I reached down to try and get to the water. Bizarre as it sounds I could not reach the water without fear of falling in and had to abandon the thought of that cooling drink. Never before had I fully appreciated the phrase 'water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink'. The thought of just jumping in did occur to me although I was put off by the evident fragility of my lamp and the thought that it would be a quicker route to hypothermia were I to get stuck on the return.

The return trip probably was harder but I was keen to get out and felt like I got out relatively quickly. In reality it took 1 hour 20 minutes to go through, averaging a speed of 30cm a minute, although this does seem quicker than when I was stuck in the tight bits. All in all it is a satisfying trip and a cave everyone enjoyed, although the lake passage really does live up to its fearsome reputation and should only be completed by those looking for a 'collectors piece'.

"Breaking the dam in Waterwheel Swallet"

2007-05-05T21:26:00.001+01:00

Trip Report by Paul Clement-Walker

After a manic and somewhat unusual night at the Belfry (Bad dancing / pizza problems and too many homemade cocktails) all woke up with the threat of Sophie going to cook breakfast.

Someone, as someone usually does, suggested Swildon's hole. Everyone nodded and continued eating but in browsing through Mendip underground I noticed a peculiar little cave that I had not been to for 9 years! Having described to everybody just how rare and wonderful the cave was. Sophie and I raced of, with the roof down, to find someone at the MCG who could give us permission to go down. They couldn't the key wasn't for other clubs to use. A very kind man by the name of Martin saved us from going back to Swildon's by volunteering to take us there himself. Eventually Leila turned up and we changed and had a very pleasant 15min walk in sunshine along country paths until we reached the cave.

We had some difficulty getting in, as Martin wasn't using the correct key (at first). Though it was worth the wait- we clambered down the concrete entrance tube using the built in rungs. I went in last so that when it came to the swimming passages somebody else would swim through to let the water out. The entrance was had steps carved in as a remnant of when the cave was used in mining for lead by the Romans and then the Victorians. Once through that stepped section the cave descends very steeply (although with plenty of hand and footholds). After a long climb down we were at the part weir, luckily for Leo. Martin volunteered to swim through. he let out he first bung and half drained the passage. After this there was another flooded passage that we waited at the start of. Whilst sat discussing this and that I took of my helmet and filled it with water (despite what some people may claim- no one noticed) then carefully angled it to go down Kathryn's collar and the freezing cold water poured into her over suit - ha ha ha. Then we had a nice wade through cold water until . . . PANIC Leila knocked the bung out of the hole and the passage began to drain out down the passage that our friendly guide (oh yeah - and Leo) were off at some distance. An awful commotion ensued which was along the lines of:

Leila : aaaaaaaaarrrgggghhhh!
Dan : What seems to be the unexpected cause of your shrill shriek?
Leila (hysterically) : I've lost the bung.
Dan : Kathryn, Paul hold up there . . . try to find a place where your crotch isn't in the water we have a problem.
Leila : aaarrrgghhh! it's cold.
Dan : I can't seem to find it, quick tell Leo that we are currently suffering from an absence of water blocking devices.
Leila : What?
Dan : Tell him the bung is gone.

Some time later with P and K having still not found a place from which our crotches would be safe from the savage cold of the water, Leo returns...

Leo : Hey guys, Oh dear I haven't been involved in a crisis like this since uncle Bilbo let the water out of the bath and saw my not unimpressive tackle.
Leila : ew!
Dan : nevermind that. What are we going to do about this leak?
Leo : I know I'll put my hand in it.
Dan : I have an idea . . .
(Wait for it. This is the part that Ray Mears would be proud of)
Dan : here use this knee pad and a rock.

There follows a sizeable period of time where amongst the sound of the gushing water you can hear Dan desperately thrashing about trying to take off his knee pad and Leo struggling to avoid being sucked into the rapidly draining watercourse. then came back the message that made it all seem a bit farcical..

Leila : Don't worry guys, Martin said it doesn't matter.
Cue continuing with the trip.

blah blah blah . . too much water to go all the way. Some bizarre conversation about a rainbow kiss ?!? Sophie picked up a slag on the way back to car. (and I thought that the club slag was in Yorkshire this weekend!) Paul suggests a BBQ and party at his house that very evening. But that is a different story for another time.

Apple Dave's Grand Day Out

2007-05-05T21:11:00.002+01:00

Attending the trip - Dave, Maxine, Sean, Marcus
Caves included - Bull Pot, an exchange trip down Jingling Pot
Phrase of the weekend - "It didn't look that far on the map..."
This trip report was written by Dave Waidson

The long drive up to Yorkshire was well worth it. A record may have been set with regards to the most gear ever squeezed into an MG! We stayed at the YSS at Helwith Bridge and the weekend kicked off after a 5 and a half hour (cue the first use of the phase of the weekend) drive in the pub (where else?).

Slightly worse for wear, on Saturday morning the four of us along with Grace and Crispin from Cardiff set off to do Bull Pot and Jingling Pot. Cue the second use of the phrase of the weekend as we miss the entrance to Bull Pot and walk around a mile further up the hill than we needed to. A successful, if uneventful trip saw us descend down four pitches in what is quite a pleasant, vertical cave. After Bull Pot, we made our way to Jingling Pot. Here Marcus, Crispin and myself went down the main shaft with Marcus rigging, whilst Maxine, Sean and Grace went down the more complex (and much tighter!) side route with Maxine rigging. The entrance to Jingling Pot was quite impressive, with ferns growing down part of the shaft and a fair sized tree overhanging. The bottom was less pleasant - see sheep bones, old scaffolding and numerous dead rabbits. One of these rabbits was a bit ripe, and burst when i accidentally stood on it, so needless to say, we didn't hang about down there.

Sunday saw Maxine and Marcus head off with Reading/Cardiff, whilst Sean and me stayed behind. Sean and Dave both (completely independently) decided to walk into Ingleton. Sean's trip, from what I'm told was fairly uneventful - he found a footpath over the fells from just outside Austwick and took some nice photos of the countryside and then managed to get a lift back from Ingleton with one of the Reading lot. My trip was less pleasant. Cue yet another utterance of the phrase of the weekend. I walked down from the YSS through Austwick to the A65 and from there along to Ingleton. About halfway to Ingleton, the heavens opened and I got well and truly drenched. I also wasn't helped by the fact that there is no footpath for most of the way along the A65 from Austwick to Ingleton, so had to walk on the roadside with traffic thundering by. On the map, it had looked like about 5 miles from the YSS to Ingleton - the actual distance turned out to be more like 9 miles. Nevertheless, about 3 hours after setting off I arrived at Bernie's for a well earned cup of tea and some cheese on toast. After buying some kit for myself and a couple of new shiny things for Dan, I set off back to the YSS. The first few miles of the journey back could almost be described as pleasant - I had pretty much dried off from my prior drenching and the clouds were beginning to break. By the time I reached Austwick though, I was feeling the pain and the last three miles back to the YSS were the hardest of my life. I kept myself going by setting myself lots of small targets such as trees and fenceposts a few yards apart, and I slowed down to a snails pace. The best moment of the whole trip for me was when I spotted the lights of the YSS - and the worst a few minutes later when they dropped back below the brow of a hill! Finally, 18 miles, 8 hours, blisters on both feet and twinges in both hamstrings later, I collapsed back into the YSS. It's not a journey I intend to make again any time soon!

On Bank Holiday Monday, a few people had planned to cave. As it happened though, nobody could really be bothered and after a quick stop at Bernie's (if I'd known we were going to go on Monday, I wouldn't have bothered with my 18 mile trek the day before!) we set off on the long drive back to Southampton.

SUCC go to Iceland!

2007-02-04T21:18:00.002Z

This trip report was written by Rich Beer

After a few years at University most members of SUCC were familiar with that depressing feeling of failure that follows the January exams. One night in the pub we decided the solution to this problem was to go on a foreign trip and forget all our worries. We decided we needed somewhere with cheap flights, a minimum age of 18 to hire cars and some caves (in that order). After rejecting lots of sensible options we finally settled on Iceland and booked our flights for early February.

Now Iceland isn’t particularly famed for being a great caving region… and that’s because there aren’t many caves. It does however contain plenty of lava tubes for us to indulge our subterranean exploration fantasies and was once considered to be the ‘frozen gateway to hell’. We felt these tenuous links were enough to justify calling it a caving expedition.

The first lava tube we visited was Raufarholshellir which is a 40 minute drive from Reykjavik (and the hostel we were staying in). The first 100m of the ‘tube was impressive as the roof had fallen in and was like caving in daylight, the next 100m were equally impressive, although slippery, and contained hundreds of ice formations. The remaining 1700m however was just a train tunnel sized tube. Although initially humbling some members of the group soon got bored and failed to make it to the terminus. We also visited the Arnaker lava tube and had races running up the snow plug although failed to do much exploration due to the fact that we concluded that all lava tubes were the same.

In addition to caving we also found time to spot the Northern Lights, go ice-skating, visit the geysers, Europe’s largest waterfall, and apply face packs in a geothermal lagoon. Flights, hostel and the car cost £150 per person and SUCC would recommend Iceland to those who don’t mind -15°c temperatures, £5/pint Beer and monotonous lava tubes.