Provisional Members'/ Beginners' Weekend

Just a quick write-up here as a more detailed report will appear in the Newsletter. The 3-4 June weekend saw 14 people either new to caving, or SWCC, come and visit the club and go underground with current club members.

Morning briefing before heading underground.

We had a variety of trips suitable for all abilities on offer. Some of the more advanced cavers who were new to the club, rather than caving itself, visited Dan yr Ogof and Northern Lights in OFD on Saturday. Others had their first experience of a cave and visited Trident and Judge, Swamp Creek and the mini-Columns, or OFD1. These trips took them underground for around 4 hours and taught them some valuable new skills, such as traversing and crawling. The smiles afterwards showed that they all enjoyed their trips!

John, Paul, Steve and Tim get ready to go to Northern Lights

2 beginner groups get ready to go underground

Matthew trying out a squeeze

Lucy at Swamp Creek

James on President's Leap

Lucy at the Mini-Columns

Following caving and hot showers we then sat outside enjoying the sunshine and chatting in the early evening until it was time to go out for a curry. There were 17 of us who ended up eating out, so it made for a pleasant and sociable evening.

Dave, Paul, Nigel, Alex and Matthew enjoying the sunshine.

Sunday looked like a completely different month. The sun of the day before was replaced by heavy drizzle. Nevertheless, we still had plenty of people keen to get underground and we were eager to oblige with most of us visiting OFD1.

Alex, Matthew and Lucy in Roundabout Chamber, OFD1

Alex on Bolt Traverse

Thank you to our leaders for the weekend: Bill Buxton, Andy Freem, Antonia Freem, Chris Grimmett, Bob Hall, James Hallihan, Phil Knight, Tim Lewingdon, Malcolm Lloyd, Sam Moore, Chris Taylor and John Wellbelove.

Welcome to new provisional members: Lucy Archer, Mia Berwick, Paul Conboy, Dave Coulson, David Eason, Keeley Gordon, Petra Hajnal, Laurence Howells, Matthew Jones, Nigel Jones, Alex Nahmad-Rohen, Alex, Oliver Rathmill and Steve Rush.