Wookey 24

Mendips: Day 2

Team: Scott, Tom, (Original) Sophie, James, Ami

I had enlisted my friend Wayne on the sunday as he is a guide on almost every cave in Somerset (many caves there require a Leader). After a bit of back and forth, he was very excited to see an opening in the generally restricted, and usually inaccessible, far reaches of Wookey Hole. It seemed like a serendipitous opportunity!

So we met in the car park under strangely strict instructions (which included not getting changed in the car park – an impossible feat) and set off through theme-park style gardens full of dinosaurs and singing pumpkins. Thankfully beating the first tour group of the day by seconds, we ducked under the tourist tape in Wookey 20 and off went.

The chambers in Wookey are numbered in the order they were discovered, which is why Wookey 20 is right at the entrance, and Wookey 24 was a 4 hour trip away. Until recently you could only access 24 by diving, but a connection was made for dry cavers, and after a lot of negotiations, the show-cave owners agreed to trips.

We set off through some beautiful passage up hill, soon reaching a T junction covered in some sparkly flowstone. Here’s where the work begins – a series of 7 rifts, descending 80 metres, with no SRT in sight. Each was varied – from slidey mud to squeezy traverses – but the whole team took it on like pros and soon we reached 24.

This is a huge chamber, with sumps to see on all sides where the divers access various other sections, including 23 3/4 underneath us, and 26 – where further exploration is currently halted due to dangerous conditions. We had been warned in the pub about the hairy staples that are simply ‘in’, not attached to, the wall – we headed up in trepidation, desperately trying to push down on them rather than lean back, which isn’t easy on an overhang.

They did lead us up to the incredible Conglomerate passage. Quite a thing to behold. We saw the divers camp and several digs – perhaps next time the round trip to Land of Hope and Glory might be complete. For now, we had to begin our journey back. Some returned to the base of the rifts via the sketchy staples, and some took a chilly dip in the river Axe for something different.

Now all we had to do was get back up those rifts to the junction 80 metres above us. No mean feat, but the KCC showed Mendip what we’re made of, even after a snapped ladder left poor Sophie and Scott to scale a very unfriendly rift unaided. For my money, lots of variety and fun in this trip, plus we were able to go to the ice cream parlour afterwards. Even the terrible Wookey theme music on loop couldn’t destroy our spirits. Thanks for the trip everyone!

Pics by Tom