ramblingon

6th October: with Jake. Tav took some members of the Axbridge Caving Group (ACG) on a tour.

Tom Chapman briefly appeared to show where the small mammal bones had been found and led us up to the main entrance. Jake and myself climbed up to the proposed adventure caving route while Tav and the ACG reverted to the more usual route into 20. The area where the bones were found has largely been cleaned and I suggest that they were either deposited by a predator (owl or other raptor?) some of the bones might have been carried in by nesting jackdaws, I have seen similar occurrences in caves in Yorkshire.

Anyway we continued through the show cave and up to the top of 20 where we put Tav’s new mattock quickly to work. We started excavating a trench in the area where the UBSS had shown some scant attention. The digging is mostly of fine sediment, silt and sand. Tav and Pete Flanagan (ACG) made a brief appearance giving Jake the opportunity to clear a skip run for later use.

It will require a few more digging sessions before we have a clearer idea of what lies ahead, although both Jake and I detected a very feint air movement low down at the current end of the dig.

As ever it was very warm, sweaty work and a thirst was coming on, we called it to an end and headed out of the cave to get some refreshment at the Hunter’s Lodge Inn.

29th September 2016: with Roz, Tav and Nick.

On arrival at the Wookey Hole car park we were greeted by Tom Chapman who presented me with a small box of animal bones and a single pot sherd recovered from a site within the cave. The bones, at first glance mainly rodent, will need to be cleaned and sorted and a visit to the site will be carried out soon.

At the top of Chamber 20 capped more rock and a better look at the prospects was possible. After some discussion and scrutiny of the area we decided to dig in the area that UBSS had previously been scratching around. We did some general tidying of the area mostly removing a dump of rocks to a safe place before exiting the cave. We will return to the site next week to continue the dig.

22nd September 2016: with Jake, Tav, Duncan P and Gary Jones.

Slight adjustment to the position of our dig in Chamber 20 away from the fractured rocks. A couple of the more unstable boulders were capped and cleared. With a bit of clearing, mostly cobbles, gravel and finer sediment a promising looking gap could be seen. Capped another boulder to uncover flowstone and an enticing small gap under what appears to be a solid roof. There are some boulders that require some more attention but that is a task for the next session.

15th September 2016: with Jake, Tav, Duncan P and Pete Hall.

While Duncan and Pete headed off to look at ’19’ before joining up with the rest of us later. Jake, Tav and Vince carried on to the dig at the end of ’20’.

A mixed bag of bucketing out sediment interspersed with the occasional capping of a rock obstruction. Downward progress was made but we still need to go deeper.

We might have to consider removing the fractured rock on the right hand wall, there is a lot of it, as we go deeper the fractured rock might be a problem.

All too soon time ran out and it was time to exit the cave and head up to the Hunter’s for the usual debriefing.

8th September 2016: with Jake and Nick.

More of the same at the end of Chamber 20. Drill hole, place cap and whack, result big boulder reduced to manageable pieces, repeat several times. Shifted a lot of rock and some sediment. Looks better but not deep enough yet. Work will continue next session.

1st September 2106: with Jake, Tav and Nick.

Capping boulders at the top of Chamber 20 new dig site. Some went, some needed more than one hole, some didn’t go at all. We shifted a lot of rock and more requires removing before a proper look can be had.

29th August 2016: With Nick Hawkes, Pete Bolt and Snablet.

L to R: Pete, Nick, Vince and Snablet almost ready to venture underground.

A great trip ably summed up by Nick in his report below:

“The trip was arranged amidst a birthday drinking session, partly as it was long overdue, but also as a one- off opportunity to get Snablet back into Wigmore during his brief visit ‘home’ to Mendip from his new abode in New Zealand. Apologies were received from Pete, Claire, Brockers and Duncan all of whom were unable to join in.

A jovial reunion crew of 4, Vince, Pete Bolt, Pete Mcnab (Snablet) and Myself met at 11am(ish) with Tony coming along to the entrance as official gate master. Vince brought the Hilti capping kit and drill which was shared between us for carrying down. Its inaugural run into HCH/Wigmore to prove its worth!

An uneventful trip straight to the Terminal Boulder Choke was interspersed with occasional grunts of appreciation of the ‘fine’ passages from both Snablet and Pete Bolt.

Once in the choke, debris from the previous ‘snapper’ set by Chris Jewel and myself several moons back was quickly cleared before unleashing the capping tool. Approximately 6 caps were set off over a period of 30 minutes to one hour or so with rocks being passed back gingerly. With each capping the boulders had a tendancy to shake more than felt comfortable so a tick box list of risk assessment was undertaken by those waiting at the back….The overwhelming conclusion being that there was no better way to spend a sunny bank holiday weekend than sitting underground inside a funnel of large loose muddy boulders with a group of old friends, a couple of crowbars, hammers and small explosive devices….this therefore equated to full mitigation of all risks to irrelevant status.

On reaching this conclusion Vince’s head disappeared through boulders in the floor. After a while a message was relayed from the lost head that another opinion was needed as to what to do next. It sounded tight. The way on drops and follows in the stream with a solid roof!….but after ~8m of low wet grovel turned left. A change of water noise levels was noted, as was a fair sized black hole, but a small rock lip prevented progress. After struggling to pass through and temporarily being stuck I extricated myself and tried hammering past. This failed and another Hilti cap was used which successfully opened up the way ahead. Vince’s head disappeared again but was soon heard making loud happy yelping noises …..something about a pitch….we all followed and looked in awe down a large open Pitch with a stream tumbling down and a walking passage heading off to the left below . We quickly realised we could free-climb down and that now there were no loose boulders!

“Crap” was the next cry….the adrenalin rush suddenly dashed as the first of us reached the passage at the bottom. It’s a sump!

Walking into the brown sump to brush away the foam and find an airspace revealed none, but did establish that the sump is deeper than a person over 1.5m wide and ~3m long. A fossil coral was noted in in the stream gravel.

Excitement over, we had had a good trip, and returned to surface and to the QVic. We think this may be the turnaround of the stream to head now towards Cheddar….if it wasn’t for that bloody sump!

Two glimmers of hope remain….a passage high up possibly bypassing the sump or the possibility that it’s just a short duck….

Ready for you Claire…..”

Snablet, Pete and Nick washing kit after a fine caving and exploration trip!

27th August 2016: with Duncan Price, Rick Stanton and Karen Dealy.

Trip to assist Duncan who was going to dive the sump at the end of the dig [not quite] to Wookey 24.

I hadn’t seen the passage beyond the inclined bedding as this had been opened while I was recovering from surgery on elbow. It is very Eastwater like, reminds of the West End but with a liberal coating of mud ending in a deep clear pool of water.

Duncan kitted up while balancing on some precariously wedged boulders and was soon in the water. Rick had come down to the sump while Karen waited at the top of Wookey 20, when DP had gone Rick went back up to join Karen. I waited for DP who wasn’t too long. De-briefed and de-kitted, it was time for us to head out, then you realise how steep the climb back up is and just how slippery, it is not a journey that can be rushed and slow progress was made. Then there is still the climb back up the rift I was glad when I had reached the top of Wookey 20.

There is still more to do in the sump but fresh bottles are required.

25th August 2016: with Nick and Peter ‘Snablet’ MacNab.

Snablet is over from New Zealand to visit for a week before heading onto China to meet up with Mad Phil Rowsell to go caving there, so I gave him a call at his parent’s to invite on this evening’s trip.

We headed up to the top of Chamber 20 and along to the high route in the rift to clear the bang I had placed a fortnight ago. As we intend to put this dig on hold for a while I wanted to retrieve the wire as well. Snablet and Nick cleared the debris while I sorted out the wire, a good pile of rock was shifted and there is a decent face to continue the widening process when we return in the future.

That job done we headed back up to Chamber 20 and on to the area where the UBSS had been looking some while ago and there we did some furtling about.

Before deciding to have a poke at a different site in the same area. We cleared a large pile of loose rock from the spot until we were left with a number of much larger boulders that will require capping to reduce them into more manageable pieces.

We then had reached a natural pause and it was time to depart. A steady trip out of the cave, got changed and headed up to the Hunter’s Lodge Inn.

A fine way to spend my 60th birthday – caving with my friends!

23rd August: Dolebury Camp. NGR ST 4500 5895

The hill fort is dated to the Iron Age and is bivallate on three sides but here on the south side there is a single rampart protected by the steep slope.

Heading up the eastern rampart. There are extensive views from the top of the rampart.

The original entrance is suggested to be from the west side. The ramparts define an interior c.20 acres. There are a number of pillow mounds (medieval rabbit warrens) that overlie a pre-Medieval field system.

22nd August 2016: Cheddar Gorge. NGR ST 475 543 [centre]

Perhaps one of the best known limestone karst features in the country with many excellent exposures of the Carboniferous Limestone, including Clifton Down Limestone, Cheddar Oolite, Cheddar Limestone, Burrington Oolite and Oxwich Head Limestone.

The cliffs have many valuable semi-natural habitats and are home to a wide range of plant species, many of them rare, for example the exclusive Cheddar Pink. There are, of course, lots of caves formed within the limestone during early interglacial periods.

Over the years the origins of Cheddar Gorge has been the subject of many debates and is now suggested to be a fine example of a gorge cut by a surface river, rather than a collapsed cavern. The gorge has long been left high and dry as the drainage went underground.

Although the gorge is dry now surface drainage occurred in the past particularly during the many cold periglacial periods over the last 1.2 million years. Meltwater floods during brief summers flowed on the surface carving out the gorge.

Reference:

Western Mendip: A walker’s guide to the geology and landscape of western Mendip. British Geological Survey, NERC 2008.

11th August 2016: with Roz Simmonds. Duncan Price and Tom Chapman were in the also cave surveying from Chambers 9 to 20.

Tried out the new camera – Olympus TG-4 – but only quick point and shoots, it really requires a dedicated photo trip to try it out properly.

At the dig with Roz we cleared enough of last weeks effort to enable more holes to be drilled. The rock is not good – there is too much calcite including flowstone, it’s fractured, there are voids and mud filled cracks. It was difficult to get 4 hole drilled and those weren’t brilliant, there were some failed attempts too. Charged the holes I had and the evenings task was completed from a safe distance.

Exited the cave and met up with DP and TC who were just leaving Chamber 9.