Mega Mendip!

Team: Andy Freem, Antonia Freem, Tim Lewingdon, Andrea Lewingdon, Brendan Hoare, Chloe Taylor, Collin Hoare, Duncan Hornby, Liz Bristow, Mark Lee, Tenzin Lee, Matthew Jones, Jill Brunsdon, Paul Meredith, Haley Meredith, Phill Thomas, Sanita Lustika, Simon Protheroe, Steve Johnson, Clive Westlake, Claire Vivian

Trip Date: February 9th - 10th 2019

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With an astonishing 21 people meeting up on the Mendips there were trips for everyone. For a number in the group, it was their first away trip with the Club and it was great to see their enthusiasm! Most people turned up Friday with others arriving Saturday morning or Sunday for the Wookey Hole experience.

With so many people turning up we had a dilemma on how to assign people to appropriate trips. With some (beer powered) fast thinking on the Friday evening at the Hunters we worked out who should go with who balancing out experience alongside new trips for new people.

Curtain, back lit with lume cube, Upper Flood.

Saturday

Team SWCC split into 3 teams: a group visiting GB Cave, a team visiting Swildons Hole and the remaining visiting Upper Flood Swallet.

The GB Cave team (6 people) had a dodgy start discovering the key that had been provided to them did not extend to Charthouse caves and they made a mad dash back to the Wessex Club to pick the correct key. With the correct key they entered GB and made it all the way to the ladder dig extension and Bat passage.

The Swildon’s team (4 people) walked to the cave from the Shepton and got as far as the main pitch but were deterred by the volume of water. It had been raining quite heavily the previous day, so a smart move. They took the opportunity to explore the upper reaches of Swildons, sections that people often pass through without a thought as they head for Sump 1.

The Upper Flood team (4 people) were guided by Mike and Mike reaching the famous Neverland and Pork Pies. Due to the high water levels, sections of the trip required laying flat out in 8°C water for what seemed unnecessarily long periods making for a very cold and arduous 5 hours return trip. As always the formations make up for the misery!

The Pork Pies, Upper Flood.

Mike and Claire, admiring the main pure white formations.

Freem Productions were busily filming in Fairy Quarry with local cavers.

Everyone met up early evening for a meal at the Queen Vic then eventually head back to the Shepton hut were Mr P. Meredith showed off his caving skills using the awesome caving table!

New Club members: Steve, Sanita, Chloe and Simon

Paul, squeezing one out...

Sunday

Sunday was a bit unusual in that the organised caving trips were in Wookey Hole on the Wild Wookey experience. Again with so many members turning up we had to split into a morning and afternoon session. It was very entertaining, introducing people to abseiling, via ferrata, classic caving crawls, a short boat ride and even a zip wire! Whilst the more experienced cavers amongst us would have been familiar to many of these challenges there were members who had not done such things so for them it was blast!

With the trip integrated into the show cave there were classic crawls mixed in with show cave lighting which made for a surreal but entertaining experience.

Welcome to the underworld...

Traversing around a lake.

Andrea beginning her abseil.

Duncan climbing up ‘n’ out from the lake.

Stemple highway!

Formation in the part of the cave that was recently opened up to the public.

Our guides were Chris and Becca who were both professional and very knowledgeable about the cave, so many thanks to them!

Our newer members loved the trip and are now keen to try out SRT in caving as a result of it.

More trips than you can shake a stick at!

Team: Andrew McLeod, Bob Hall, Duncan Hornby, Helen Stewart, Jo White, Malcolm Stewart, Mason Davis, Morgan Specht,Trevor Rogers, Richard Sore, Tarquin Wilton-Jones


Date 18th November - 19th November

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A few of us arrived at the Shepton on Friday, unusually most of the team turned up on the Saturday morning. Claire [trip secretary] had done her magic and arranged multiple trips and even managed to get leaders for both Upper Flood and St Cuthberts. The people interested in SRT had planned to tackle Thrupe Lane Swallet but heavy rain came in earlier than expected so plan “B” was Rhino rift.

One downside of this weekend was 11 people turned up to cave but only 5 stayed the full weekend, with the others scattering after their trips. So those 6 missed out on drunken shenanigans and having embarrassing photos immortalised on the internet… :)


Saturday

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The 11 strong team split into 3 groups and below are their individual trip reports.


Rhino Rift - Duncan


Arriving at the spot where one parks up we changed and duly walked off in the wrong direction. Fortunately another caver pointed us in the correct direction and with the GPS we found the entrance of Rhino rift!

Duncan, Morgan and Bob at the entrance of Rhino

Having warned Helen that the St Cuthbert's entrance was a bit of a challenge getting out she warned us that the right hand route, a route using spits, was impossible to find and follow.

Morgan was keen to lead and build upon his existing rigging experience. At the top of the first pitch he found the first spit started out and then could find no more! So he had to de-rig and follow the p-bolts on the left hand wall. Helen was right… humph…..

Morgan abandoning the right-hand side of the first pitch as the spits mysteriously disappeared! You can see the p-bolts on the left wall.

As with many SRT trips it is a lonely pursuit with each of us keeping a safe distance. We eventually congregated at the top of the third and final pitch. An exposed traverse out to a Y-hang. The ropes had been packed in order for the right hand route so Morgan ran out of rope on the final pitch and had to set up a mid-rope knot pass. Bob passed this and then it was my turn. I was at the Y-hang on the final 20m. I could see the mid-rope knot. In all the years of caving I had never actually done a mid-rope knot pass and although I should have enough skills to “work it out” I did not feel confident and felt hanging around 20m above the ground was not the time or place to “have a go”. So I bailed out on the final bit and did not join the others at the bottom of the cave. So I (Duncan) have damn good reason to improve my SRT skills and visit Rhino again!

Bob descending the third and final pitch.

The ascent out was trouble free and we exited the cave into miserable cold and wet weather.

St.Cuthbert’s Swallet - Helen

Malcolm and I (Helen) travelled up from Cardiff on the Saturday morning arriving at the Shepton Mallet hut to find out that our original plan – Thrupe Lane Swallet - was cancelled due to heavy rain forecasted later that day. So we hopped onto the St Cuthbert’s Swallet guided trip with Richard, Mason and Trevor, thinking this would be a nice, easy option... Duncan’s passing comment as we left the hut was “great trip! But the entrance series is a beast…” humph…..

Mason and Trevor at the Belfry

We walked across to the BEC (just a few meters away) to be met by the smell of a huge fry up and a tonne of excited “new to caving” students from Nottingham about to be initiated by Swildons. Our guide for the day Estelle arrived with James, who was going to lead us as part of his training to become a leader. Our plan was to do one of the many round trips.

We walked to the manhole entrance which is in the scruffy ground only a few meters away from the Belfry. One by one we slid down the drainpipe and the following tight rift, which is part of the entrance series. Estelle warned us to save some energy for the rift on the way out. We carried on down through the entrance series via Wire Rift and fixed ladders.

Richard at the Railway Tunnel Curtain

Once on the main part of the round trip we negotiated a number of obstacles and mini challenges. There was plenty of fine stal such as the famous “Fingers” and fine curtains.

We noted the big slabs of rock of Everest and K2 and turned around at Gour Hall short of the downstream sump.

Mason nearly at the top of Everest

On the way back up the cave we visited passages such Plantation Passage and Harem Passage, remembered by two Madonna like breasts…the Railway Tunnel, a bold step in the Rabbit Warren, the Cascade and the Water Chute.

Malcolm at the Water Chute near Arete

The exit, although quick was in my opinion jolly hard work. We each took it in turns to head up the rift and when it was my turn I huffed, heaved and panted, bruising my knees and elbows, blaming my lack of upper body strength. Little sounds of encouragement by Richard at the top of rift finally ensured I was up and out.

Out to a damp, dank day, but duly rewarded by a welcome pint in the Hunters. Many thanks to Estelle and James our guides for the day.

Up and out… Malcolm, Richard, Trevor, James, Estelle and Helen

Saturday evening Richard, Tarquin, Duncan, Jo and Andrew headed over to the Queen Vic for some pub grub and Liz dropped in to say hello and update us on her chickens.

Back at the Shepton, Wealden members had arrived to bolster numbers; the evening passed with drinks and challenges set by Tarquin to get through that damn table!

Upper Flood- Jo

On Saturday morning Tarquin, Andrew and I met our guides Richard and Andy at the MCG hut. Usually there is only one leader but there were some ladders that needed checking so we had one extra. Once changed we headed to the cave, which soon diminishes to a mixture of hands and knees crawling and stooping, interspersed with the occasional damp bit (I was glad I’d brought my wetsuit!). This is soon followed by the boulder choke and then the canal (more wet crawling).

After this the streamway is followed for a while (with only occasional wet crawling) until Neverland is reached. The journey up to here took around 2 hours and was very pretty with lots of interesting features to look at along the way (despite it not being the 'pretty' bit)

Not the pretty bit…

Once you reach Neverland you have to take your oversuits off and wash your wellies to protect the formations. The passage up to the pork pie formations is covered from top to bottom in calcite is very stunning. Those in furry suits were feeling the chill so there wasn't chance to get many photos on this trip.

Morgan admiring the ‘Pork Pie’ formations with Richard supervising.

Next we headed to check the in situ ladders to see how they were faring. The first ladder was looking a bit worse for wear and plans were being made for its replacement. The second was faring much better. The formations in this section of cave, which I understand is rarely visited, were absolutely stunning and must be very old.

It was then time to make the return journey back out of the cave (back to wet crawling...) By the time we were nearing the exit my knees were feeling very sore, despite 3 layers of Neoprene! I was glad to finally reach the end by which time I was looking forward to a shower and a good pub meal.

The trip took us about 6 hours, much of which was wet crawling (in case I hadn't mentioned), but the formations we saw were amazing. Upper Flood is one of the most (if not the most) well decorated cave I've been in and was well worth the aches the following morning!

Thanks to our leaders Richard and Andy for a brilliant trip into a stunning cave.

Neverland

Sunday

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The remaining people split into two groups: Tarquin hooking up with Wealden club members to visit Fairy Quarry, the rest visiting GB cave.


GB Cave - Duncan


Sunday was a lazy start with Jo and Andrew rolling up at 11am. Whilst Jo and I have visited GB Cave before Andrew had not and with none of us desperate for a mega trip we opted for a short round trip in GB.

After picking up the key at the BEC, we headed over to Charterhouse area and parked up in the official parking spot. Changed, we stomped over to the cave entrance bathed in sunshine.

Duncan, Jo and Andrew wondering why they are going underground on such a gloriously sunny day!

Andrew took the lead and navigated the system with little intervention from me. Jo and I took several photos and below are a couple of the ones that came out.

We bumped into Clive Westlake and his team who were enjoying the system and I think getting roped into some photography… ;)

Jo and Andrew in the White Passage.

The round trip requires us to do an easy but exposed climb up the right hand side of the waterfall. Under these low flow conditions you just get a quick soaking as you cross over at the top of the waterfall. Under high flow conditions, probably not so easy [or smart]...

Climbing the waterfall allows for a round trip.

2½ hours later and we were out! Back at the hut, a quick cuppa then the inevitable soul sucking travel home.

Fairy Quarry - Tarquin

The caves in Fairy Cave Quarry have a special place in British caving history; some of the best decorated caves in Britain, found by quarrying, then progressively destroyed by the quarrying, with the quarry master torn between protecting the caves, and maintaining the quarry's output. (See the film A Rock and a Hard Place for more on that
story.) But while taking away, the quarry also exposed further caves, including ones with even better decorations. And so far, a set of caves on my wishlist that I had never visited, despite a long history of Mendip caving.

It wasn't on the SWCC plan, but there were not enough SRTers of us left on the Sunday for a Rhino Rift bag retrieval trip, and I was offered the chance to join another club's led trip to Fairy Cave Quarry. Scheduling restrictions meant the trip could not start until midday, which left little time for caving, with us all needing to get away before evening. The main destination was Shatter Cave, one of the finest in the quarry. A photographic trip would take forever here, as there is simply so much to attract the camera, so we intentionally left them behind.

After a fight with the padlocks, we gained access to the cave and its collection of cave spiders and peppered moths. The early passage is full of recent breakdown, caused by the quarry works. Remnants of stal were scattered everywhere, with deep scratches on the flowstone caused by the falling rocks. The blasting damage abruptly ended, and the formations returned in their glory, chamber after chamber of stunning decorations, more like a conceptual painting than a real cave. The most memorable sets are Tor Hall, with its helictites, curtains, and a large stalagmite boss reminiscent of Glastonbury Tor, and the Leaning Tower of Piza, a leaning stalagmite surrounded by helictites.

An awkward squeeze then brought us to a final chamber, with ludicrously large crystals growing from a dried crystal pool, and immaculate calcite pillars. At this point, a short loop returned us to the Leaning Tower. A chance sighting of a rather special formation mandated the use of a camera, so I left the party and sped (carefully - the cave is precious) back to the gate. Several minutes fighting with the padlock, I returned to the car, collected my phone, and sped back to the cave. Returning through the system, I reached the formation and took out the phone, snapped my pictures, and hurried back to the others, who had just reached the old gate part way into the cave.

We were hoping to visit W/L cave as well, but the padlocks were determined not to open. Despite several attempts by a few of the team members, proper use of the keys (which is rather more difficult than might be expected) resulted in the padlocks remaining firmly shut. They won this fight.

We resorted to exploring some of the remaining fragments of Balch cave, whose interconnecting decorated chambers were lost to the quarry.
Avoiding the fragments that are used by greater horseshoe bats, there were still enough hints to show what the formations would have been like in the chambers, but without much left to actually admire. Several parts had obvious tar infiltration from the quarry, and odd dry rot branches sprawling through the cave. The greater horseshoes, which hang together in clusters with their wings only partly covering them, apparently use certain parts of the cave, now it has been opened to the surface, but seem not to mind the tar pollution.

Then a visit to Hilliers (again, there are parts of the system used by the bats, and these parts are simply avoided, treated as "closed"). This was a complete contrast to Shatter. Dropping down below the quarry floor, we entered a flood-prone passage with a very clear mud tidemark above our heads. This led for a considerable distance to its junction with Fairy Cave. Beyond here, the passage became well decorated, sadly marred by the occasional piles of spent carbide, dumped liberally over the formations. Occasional crawls and chokes increased in frequency, until a squeeze spelled the start of the lengthy choke. This terminated in the Red Room, where red and orange stained stal gave the impression of standing inside a surgical procedure.

On our return, we paid a visit to the non-bat-colonised parts of Fairy Cave, passing through a duck (half way up your face when crawling through), with me trying to keep my poor phone dry in my hand. A few oddly placed signs (eg. "Straw stalactite") gave hints that this was once a show cave of sorts, though the crawls made it far less of a show cave than one might imagine. Tree roots spelled the start of the bat area, so our trip ended there, with a sight of the lesser horseshoe bats hanging on to the tree roots like clothes on a washing line.

3 caves, 4 trips. Stunning place, and definitely deserving of return visits. Thanks to our trip leader for showing us around, and my hosts for allowing me to join their trip.

You have to work for these formations!

Trip date: 3rd-5th February 2017

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Team: Steve Hepple, Duncan Hornby & Claire Vivian


The team arrived Friday evening, we stayed at the Shepton. An obligatory pint (or two) was consumed at the Hunters.

A curtain in Upper Flood Swallet

Saturday

We drove over to the MCG hut and met up with Peter Bennett who was to be our guide into Upper Flood Swallet. I had been forewarned that this was not a trip for beginners due to the arduous nature of the trip and extensive formations. Over a cup of tea Peter declared we just might be crazy enough to do it…

Having changed we headed for the cave which was a short walk from the hut. The entrance is a gated concrete tube leading into stooping passage. It was not long before we started to see many straws and stals.

We eventually arrived at the “lavatory trap” which is about a 2 metre crawl in chest deep water. This was comparatively pleasant compared to what followed, a flat out crawl in a low lying section of streamway named the canals, now that was grim!

We then hit the choke, this did not have the polished feel of say cwm dwr choke in OFD. It was much longer with several squeezes that were not desperate but did require you to attack from specific angles. If you can get through that squeeze on the short round trip in Swildons then you should be able to do the Upper flood choke.

Eventually we popped out into significantly large passage, the landing, and were immediately rewarded with many formations. With occasional crawls and dunking in streamways we passed through passages adorned with many formations, often delicate and stunning white.

We arrived at a section of the system known as Neverland with such spectacular formations that we had to remove our oversuits and scrub ourselves spotless before we could continue. At the bitter end, a section where the unusual “pork pie” formations were, we even had to remove our boots to avoid damaging the crystal floor.

Claire admiring a pure white curtain

Upper flood was packed full of formations including delicate crystal pools, long straws and fantastic curtains all just inches away.

A crystal pool

Claire and Steve admiring yet another spectacular curtain

The limit of our trip, Steve, Claire, Duncan. Photo taken by Peter.

With Neverland behind us, back in our oversuits we visited a current dig in West passage, a grotty and some what dangerous dig up into a muddy boulder choke.

We then headed out and eventually exited the cave around 5:30pm, we had been under ground about 6 hours.

An amazing cave with amazing formations. One bit of advice is if you do visit bring decent knee pads because the crawling is going to destroy you knees!

The evening was spent at the Queen Vic pub eating and drinking cider. Steve had never been to the BEC so on the way back we popped over and needless to say a party was in full swing!

Sunday

Claire and I visited GB cave with the specific intention of visiting the great chamber. After bailing out the ladder dig duck we failed to find the way on through the boulder choke. We needed Colin Hoare who had previously found it! So no photos and damn good reason to go back! Grrr….

Upper Flood Swallet

This is a report for an Upper Flood Swallet trip on 6.8.16 written by SWCC provisional member, Chris Taylor. The full team were: Celestine Crabbe, Kevin Speight (MCG), Chris Taylor and Phill Thomas. All caving photos are by Phill.

Chris Taylor

After a few trips in the Streamway and Top Entrance at OFD, I was starting to feel a change of scene might be nice, maybe more of a challenge. In hindsight the phrase 'be careful what you wish for', comes to mind when I received a kind invite to visit Upper Flood Swallet a few weeks back.  I recall packing my gear the night before with the same excitement a small child might feel if leaving a mince pie out for Santa on Christmas Eve. On the morning of the trip I bounded excitedly downstairs at 6:00am to a cool and dewy August morning.

Fast forward to about 8:30am and after some rendezvous miscommunication, I'd met up with Phill and Celestine, and we were well on our way along the M4.  Phill's SatNav impressively guided us through the West Country until we arrived at MCG where our guide, Kevin, was waiting.  Shortly after arriving, we're changed, and walking down the dirt track and towards the modest little hatch covering the entrance to Upper Flood - at this point I've noticed that everyone else has double kneepads, elbow pads and gloves - I was starting to feel my single pair of kneepads might be a bit inadequate. Kevin had unlocked the padlock and down we went one by one, then scurrying downwards and onwards through Upper Flood Passage, with plenty of hands and knees crawling across rubble. After a final fairly narrow crawl we emerged into Midnight Chamber which contained a fine array of flows, stal and long straws. Kevin was fairly eager to press on, and much of the inward trip would consist of me gawping at what I considered were breathtaking formations, while Kev would assure me that the best was yet to come and it would be all worth the effort to see Neverland.  I held that thought in mind, particularly while wriggling through a long flat, and wet section aptly named The Lavatory - a 50 metre wet crawl. 

Then began 'the' boulder choke. Even in my limited caving experience I have heard of this choke.  A few really uncomfortable twists and turns later - that I knew it be bloody well feeling bad the following morning - and we arrived in a small chamber, where I remarked "well, that wasn't so bad, just a bit awkward". With a smile our leader informed me we had got the first bit out of the way, and there was plenty to go, but afterall, it was going to be well worth it.  I can recall around 11 particular sections to the choke that were not individually difficult, but strung together, they do eventually become an endurance test.

Eventually Kevin announced we had arrived at the old entrance to Neverland. Apparently it was taped off to protect the formations, and a bypass was dug.  Anticipation was now running high among the group.  Eventually after one final push through a gloriously muddy crawl - I let gravity do the work at that point - we arrived at a small chamber containing  a shallow pool.  Next to the pool were a small bucket and a brush, and it was here that we were advised to remove our oversuits and wellies to avoid spoiling the formations.  It felt criminal walking through a crystal pool and hearing the faint 'crunches' under our feet as we took extra care to walk on already damaged parts of the floor, but there was no other way on.  As we turned right and walked up the flows into a large chamber, pure white flows, curtains and stal surrounded us.  Everywhere I looked, the walls and floor glistened yellow-white.  I've struggled to write this piece, as a written description does not do Neverland justice and neither do photographs really, the passage has to be seen to be experienced.  Further up the top of the flow, a low passage contains a pool and the Pork Pies - large blobs of pure white calcite shaped just as their name implies.

Chris in Neverland

Celestine in Neverland

After we had wandered around all that was not taped off, Kevin managed to persuade us to make the return trip back by reminding us of the Hawaiian night barbecue that was in preparation above us. The return trip was a very tiring one, and I think we all found the 'upward' journey through the boulder choke a very different beast. Eventually I got my second wind after receiving a facefull of muddy water reminding me that I was part way through The Lavatory. Blindly stumbling along the entrance passage and up the hatch, I fell on to the grass, and lay in the sunshine while I recovered. Upper Flood is a strenuous cave with plenty of challenges, sharp edges and pebbles that take their toll. It really is another level up from the well travelled passage of OFD and has the feel of virgin cave.

Mendip Caving, 17-18 Oct. 2015

SWCC: Bill Buxton, Chloe Francis, Laurence Brown and Claire Vivian

MCG: Ben Cooper

For a change, I'll start at the end. The moral of the story is that if you haven't been to Upper Flood Swallet, you should go. But it all began because we'd been lax and hadn't visited the Mendips to go caving for a number of months as no caving was managed on the Hidden Earth weekend.

For those who haven't been there yet, the Mendips are a great place to go caving. There are loads of caves to explore. Some are shorter ones, where you can do several in a day and others are bigger systems such as Swildon's Hole, St. Cuthbert's Swallet, Charterhouse and Upper Flood where you can while a day away and only see a small section of the whole. When coupled with an excellent social scene with a mix of cavers from many different Mendip clubs mingling together, frequently at the Hunter's Inn, it makes for a good location for a caving weekend.

We stayed at Larkshall, home of Cerberus Speleological Society; a first visit there for us. We shared this with Cardiff University who proved that university caving is still going extremely strong by fielding a group of around 35 for a Fresher's caving weekend. The strong support network provided by the Cardiff alumni team was also readily apparent as were the high spirits of the new cavers who had some first visits to Swildon's, GB and Fairy Cave Quarry and came back very excited by their new experiences. They also learned some new caving games, including the broom handle one and paper picking up game and upheld some old traditions - one of their members has a cream pie in the face on every away trip (which is welcomed by everyone as all get a share of the dessert afterwards!).

Larkshall, home of the Cerberus.

Saturday was a bright and fairly early start. We had tried to have an early night to be ready for the trip but, as with most best laid plans, that hadn't happened. Nevertheless, we were up and ready in plenty of time to meet Ben at the MCG hut at 10am. The weather was looking good and it was not a long drive to get there. Having never approached the MCG from this side of the Mendips we decided to use Chloe's sat nav. When we passed the same cyclists and group of horses for the second time, there was some minor cause for concern expressed, but nothing more. When the sat nav suggested a decidedly dodgy looking track as being the quickest route there, fresh scepticism emerged. However, not enough to deter us from following the track and having to reverse around 1/2 mile back when it was discovered to be a dead end. Even after this we were only 5 mins late for our meeting, which was perfectly within the boundaries of acceptable cavers' 'faff time'.

Upper Flood is not a walk in the park. Those expecting to just head straight in and see the formations in Neverland without putting in too much effort will be sorely disappointed. The cave makes you work for it and guards it's spectacular formations well. The trip to Neverland and back takes around 5 hours at a fair pace and is a committing one. An injury beyond the choke would be an incredibly serious situation with, I'd say, zero chance of a stretcher being able to be taken back through the choke. There are 13 squeezes and innumerable contortions needed throughout - there used to be a squeeze box test at the MCG hut to see if you could fit through the tightest part. Despite being a 'dry' cave, you get fully wet within the first 30 minutes of the trip thanks to the Lavatory Trap, Canal and Puddle Lake. But it is undoubtedly worth it. This was my second visit to the cave within the past 2 years and I'd happily go back any day. It's a sporting trip coupled with some of the prettiest formations I have seen. What more could you want from your Saturday caving trip? You feel like you've done something worthwhile.

Lawrence on the way to Neverland

Chloe admires a huge curtain

There is a lot of crawling and squeezing through the choke to start with until you break out in to the Departure Lounge, so-called after one of the original diggers almost missed her flight because of the breakthrough that was made at the dig that day. From there a streamway is met and a faster pace can be sustained. But the cave is pretty throughout. Royal Icing junction is passed later on, along with Plank Chamber and Duck Under Boss (above which is the Duck Pond). The piece de resistance is Neverland. This is spectacular. Mark Burkey has some first rate photos of this area and Andy and Antonia Freem's video is also a must-watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMulwo1EexM 

Neverland. Photo: Mark Burkey

Even more Neverland. Photo: Mark Burkey.

The Pork Pies. Photo: Mark Burkey.

Lawrence, Chloe and Claire managing to stand in descending height order.

Whilst the three of us had been having fun in Upper Swallet, Bill had been off walking around the Fairy Cave Quarry area. We all met up in the Hunter's for food, a drink and a meet-up with local member Lizzy, and Seb. 

Lizzy and Seb at the Hunters.

Sunday saw us wake up aching after our trip the previous day. Consequently, Chloe and Lawrence decided to go for a walk along Cheddar Gorge whilst Bill and I headed to Fairy Cave quarry for a trip in to Hillier's and Fairy Cave. There was an art exhibition on in the quarry, so we got plenty of stares walking in to this in full caving kit and then disappearing through the gated entrance of Hillier's! It was intended to be a through-trip, but we didn't quite make that as my knee was not happy. We did manage to get through most of Hillier's and then had a go at part of Fairy Cave before I called it a day. Bill, however, was still going strong at this time.  Trip time: 2.5 hours.

Bill trying out one of the 'upstream' crawls in Hillier's

Bill in Hillier's and at the entrance to Fairy Cave.