somerset – Kendal Caving Club

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

Team: Scott, Tom, Sophie, James and Ami (with guest appearance by Jerome)

Day one in the Mendips so it had to be the classic.

After journeying down in Storm Amy’s torrential downpour, I was worried Swildon’s might be too wet for the day’s plan. But apparently Somerset doesn’t work like that – with such a huge flood basin and a dry summer, Swildon’s was about the driest I’ve ever seen it. The wind however was really trying to finish off the long-sick Ash tree at the entrance.

In we went and straight down the Short Wet Way, through the various chambers to the main streamway. It’s a pleasure showing people this cave, as it is easy to forget how beautiful it is when you’re just trying to make it beyond the 20. Lots of appreciative noises echoed around the formations.

Scott’s expertise helped me rig the 20 (requires an 8 metre ladder climb or a totally disgusting free climb) with a life line for all and we were back to all the fun of Swildon’s – scrambling, sliding and getting soggy through various pots and water falls.

Taking the higher route we soon reached Sump 1. Despite having been through goodness-knows how many times, I still made James take the lead. But once he’d bravely taken the plunge, we all followed on with no issues, to see the various stolen road signs on the other side that show you the way on.

Today we opted for the Approach Passage round – an old favourite of mine and Jerome’s. The character of the cave changes completely beyond Sump 1 – and we set the team off up to the leap in to approach passage. This is a bit of a bold step, but what really makes it is that that step is in to an uphill mudslide. Thankfully these days there is an in situ rope to assist, but it highlights why we don’t go round this route the other way – ending with a downhill slide straight over a massive drop.

Approach Passage is a narrow and extremely muddy uphill crawl, followed by some downhill slides (cries of ‘Weeeeee’ from James). There’s some fun and challenging drops beyond to get you back down to the original sump level, and I think the whole team thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps next time we should go on to Blue Pencil.

Back up with a few variations, including the Rift, the Long Dry route and the Zig Zags. No exit through the tree as it really was trying to come down in the wind. James and Jerome even tried to give it a hand, but it is still clinging on.

Back to the hut for a hot shower, an incredible goat curry by James and a trip to the Hunters for a pint. The day was finished in style by some very fancy late-night cheese crumpets which were produced in their droves by Courtney and Monica. Team Wessex certainly treated us.

Tag: somerset