Trips & Reports

High scum rating due to it smelling of sewage in the function room (surprising how quick you get used to it!). Our tent tried to blow away several times, and our air mattress blew over a barbed wire fence and popped :( which made for a very lumpy night as it wasnt so much a campsite as some grass outside the pub! The band (The Tetleys) were actually quite a good covers band, and once they stopped playing songs we'd never... read more

Another fantastic trip! Got up nice and early :( as we thought we had to be in the cave by 10, to be told we were going down and kent up, so we didnt :) not sure how we managed to get the good way (down hill all the way) but quite pleased about that! Only a 5 min wait for my toastie then off of TSG for some tea :) we changed to undersuits there, then drove up to... read more

I felt dead all of yesterday which was partly due to the cave. It was a really fun trip though. Me, Kevin and Andy got up at 6am having set alarms for 5.45 (hitting snooze just the once) and after a quick brioche we headed to Castleton where we surpised Martyn at the TSG by turning up before Kent Uni had got up! The descent down JH went surprisingly well and I even managed the deviations without much difficulty. All 9... read more

A fantastic trip! Due to the really varied, interesting route we took and a crack team :) Water levels were quite high-ease gill beck was flowing which i've never seen before! We stayed fairly high up, with many alternative escape routes though so not too scary! We went via the alternative route in via upper trident that misses the second pitch, and so used a ladder for the first pitch so we could go sans SRT kits. This is also a... read more

Gover and Andy T rigged the main drop whilst Adam, Chuck and I went into Long Churn where Adam started rigging and then they caught us up. We had to wait a bit as there were two other groups down there but there were plenty of different routes for us to go down so it was pretty efficient. On the way out I followed Andy T out the main drop (and then Chuck changed his mind and went that way too).... read more

Yay after many months I finally get to do the trip I've wanted to do since learning to rig. Well the half I wanted to rig anyway. It was far to wet to do Diccan. Happily I rigged the route down dolly tubs and to the bottom of Alum Pot. Did get stuck waiting behind two groups though, but that's life. Got to the bottom and went to look at the raging waterfall coming down Diccan, so glad we... read more

Down Lancaster Hole to Bridge Hall, onto Montague West, into Waterfall Passage, ooops there's a pitch and loads of water, back up Waterfall Passage into Wilf Taylor's, down Double Decker into Main Drain, upper stream until it gets scary, down to the sump, up to the Waterfall Passage pitch, up Fall Pot, Montague Cavern, Lancaster Hole, back home. Ce Tout.

Lancaster Hole was once again fun! The original team (Nikki, Gover, Andy T, Jess and Me) all gave each other fat names which started because Jess' harness didn't fit on one leg hehe. Jess was fat leg, I was fat face, Andy T- fat foot, Nikki- fat ass and Gover was just fat. The muddy slopes were scary especially as Andy and Gover repeatedly told us we were going to die. It was more scary for Nikki though as the... read more

Another trip into lovely easegill. This time exploring wilf taylors passage, waterfall passage and various other bits. Good to get to know new bits! The fat team set off for waterfall passage while the others did some other route, and we went via ade's crack (hehe) into the waterfalls. Quite high water levels made this bit a tad exciting on the climbs, but you can see how it'd be really fun in lower levels (like a waterpark!). Eventually it got too... read more

We spent quite a while trying to figure out where the entrance was, and finally stumbled across it in a nicely fenced off square just outside the foresty area. We asked a nice bnb lady to borrow her phone to set callout, but when nobody was answering, she offered to leave it with her, so we did. The entrance had p-hangers but the book hadnt described any ropes for this so we just climbed down. The first... read more

Woo Columns! they were most beautiful and it was fun holding up mean signs in front of them! Apparently theyre actually industrial pollution cos theyre caused by a lime kiln (i think) that used to be above them (hence theyre quite weak and funny looking) Also popped up to mini columns on the way out and went a nice salubrius streamway route (like white chocolate sauce with milk chocky cubes in it!) I love OFD! :) :) :)

Quite fun, relatively short trip. Everyone except rich wussed out of the horrible wet duck, but apparently it only led to more wetness and a sump so not too bothered! Lots of loose boulders in this cave though-not sure how long the entrance will stay in one piece for! :s not ideal just after reading about people getting crushed by boulders in caves and dying either! :s Oh and there was a dog eating a dead sheep on the way... read more

5 scummyness mainly for sheep eating dog. Also Fechan cave, how often do you get to say that and be right

A new cave for us, with a silly name. Decided on after lots of tea. The change was cold and windy, but the cave was a short walk from the car and was easy to find. The entrance was crumbly and unbalanced to say the least. A climb down led to lots of sheep bones in a crawl (pleasant!) The cave was basically following a trickle of water by crawling along with it, occasionally leaving it to scramble above it. There were... read more

Lovely fun relaxing trip. Very useful for future navigating, and several pretty bits. Lovely OFD :)

Take water into this cave! Its boiling hot and i almost passed out from dehydration! thank god for water dripping from the ceiling-yummy!

Despite turning out of the cottage the wrong way and going down loads of little windy lanes we found the place fine, had a great change in the sunshine and amazingly found the cave without any trouble (thanks to mark- the book had said its right next to a 1mX1m rock... yea like theres only one of them in a valley!!!). The leading and rigging was a joint effort between mark and I, most of it involved looking at the... read more

muddy faces te he!!! (welly water on head not so cool!)

Didn't like it :( Big exposed traverse with a fixed line you can't rely on. Free climbs over smooth calcite flows with water running over them and a big (mahoosive) drop below and nasty awkward overhanging exposed climbs around protruding obstacles. We didn't have enough rope either, so it was free climb time all over. We made it all the way to the uPVC patio door which goes through to Cathederal Show Cave, through which we could hear classical... read more

Never again....

i laughed for most of the trip and me and dom were being incompetent and behaving like children. I also learnt that i cant walk down muddy slopy hills on the way back from the cave.

Full report in Wales Log Book. We went to a dig we visited the year before. As the weather was nice we played at moving rocks, before deciding someone had spent alot of time backfilling the dig (which had been a decent size previously). So we stopped and refilled and headed back. Later found out that people had been digging in the sink for decades, but the limestone in the area is odd to say the least and impenetrable to cavers. An... read more

I've done Large Pot before but certainly don't remember it being quite such a struggle! Having consulted with Mark, it would appear that the first trip didn't go into the Red Herring series as I suspected but in fact did the route we did today, and went through Arcadia into Necropolis. On today's trip the entrance was vividly remembered but from Thornton Hall onwards it may as well have been an entirely new cave! As Andy G will attest to, don't... read more

How can Faff factor not be a 5? We were all meant to be caving! http://www.cefn-yr-erw.co.uk/index.htm

Daren on the first day of Wales. What a start! It was grim weather, cold, with rain in the air. And having not caved for a few months launching straight into Daren was going to be a 'hit the ground running' sort of beginning to the week. After getting changed Matt E started walking in one direction, but Gary, running on Ade's instuctions called him back for another direction. After a walk up the hill side and Gary incurring injury... read more