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Out and about with Dudley
Caving Club
Some
trips and events which took place in April, May and June 2007
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Smallcleugh Mine, Nenthead
Sunday 8th April 2007
 EmPo and MiCl joined a trip to Nenthead, near Alston,
Northern Pennines organised by John "Mole" Hine. Some of SCMC kindly
took us on an interesting 6 hour venture around Smallcleugh Mine, which
was originally worked for lead and later zinc, including visiting The
Ballroom.
The Team: EmPo, MiCl, Steve Holding (SCMC), Ian
Cooper (SCMC) and Mike Davis (SCMC)
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 Smallcleugh Mine to Rampgill Level,
Nenthead
Monday 9th April 2007
Four of us started in Smallcleugh and descended the
very approx 30m pitch, and exited via Rampgill.
The Team: EmPo, MiCl, Ian Cooper (SCMC) and
Mike Davis (SCMC) |
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Caving on the Gower
Monday 9th April 2007
The day started with a full
English cooked breakfast at Penwyllt promptly at 10:00am. The three then
embarked to the Gower in glorious sunshine for a fun packed action day.
We stopped off at the farm house to ask permission to visit Llethryd
Swallet and after a little searching found the farmer feeding his
pigs. We changed and headed for the cave.
We had found a classic........
Several minutes were taken to
dig away the winter flood debris from around the gate.
We then spent half an hour trying to open the cave without luck. In
final desperation we tried the key for the second location of the day -
Tooth cave, the keys were on the wrong fob and we were at last able to
enter.
A route down through boulders
(not unlike Eastwater) followed, until were were able to join the stream
and follow it in its route through large boulders. Finally in water
creeping with shrimp like creatures we reached the "duck" - impossible
to get through without treating as a sump.
I went first and check this was indeed the way on. Alas no one wanted to
follow me, and so we resolved to turn around and go on to the second
cave. Unfortunately the way back through the duck is much worse in the
reverse direction and required going through backwards, not very nice.
A short stroll in the
sunshine took us to the second target - Tooth cave, here we found that
nether key fitted the lock, so we had to abandon the days caving on
Gower.
To save the day we returned
to Penwyllt and did a quick round trip in OFD1 (1 hour 30 minutes)
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Llethryd Swallet Entrance |
Llethryd Swallet - The Duck |
The Team: BrMa, MaRo & ChWe |
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Skeleton Cave, Great Orme, Llandudno
Wednesday 11th April 2007
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A cave I've been trying
to find since I first saw it on a tourist map of the Orme in 1963.
This time armed with the "Concise Caves of North Wales" and a GPS
receiver I found it.
Only 30ft long, but it wasn't about the cave, it was about finding
it! |
The West Shore from Skeleton Cave |
The Team: KeEd |
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Ogof Arth, Great Orme, Llandudno
Thursday 12th April
2007
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A very small cave above
Invalid's Walk on the Great Orme. The cave consists of nothing
more than a small chamber which was once lived in. |
The West Shore from Ogof Arth |
The Team: KeEd |
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Brickworks Dig,
Penwyllt, South Wales
Weekend 14th/15th
April 2007
A busy weekend. On the Saturday we replaced two of the
wheels on the truck, pumped out the cave, removed the stacked bags from the
cross-rift, started to permanently install the yellow pipes, placed cup-hooks
down the main passage to hold up the cables and started to dig a 'sump pool'
below the cross-rift.
On the Sunday we completed the installation of pipes and cup-hooks and continued
to dig the sump pool.
More details on the
dig page.
The dig team: KeEd, AnGr (Sat only), BrMa,
GrSm, JoSm & ChWe
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Rescue Training, Ruiton Windmill,
Upper Gornal
Saturday 20th April 2007
A joint "above" ground cave rescue training exercise
at the Mill with 25 members of MCRO, Dudley Caving Club, GCRG and 1
guest. Three training sessions took place on communications, self-rescue
and stretcher packaging and hauling. The evening ended with a curry,
de-brief in the pub and a series of slide/video presentations. |
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Underground Rescue Practice,
Wolverley
Sunday 21 April 2007
  The practice from the previous day was put into use
underground, with three casualties being successfully rescued with 30
cavers involved and 1 non-caving volunteer.
Thanks to all who participated during the weekend. |
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Forest of Dean Meet
Weekend 05-07 May 2007
Numerous trips were undertaken during the weekend
including:
Westbury Brook Iron Mine
Saturday 05 May 2007
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Yet another visit to
Westbury brook for Peter and myself to try and find the way on past
the “railway tracks” this time we had the advantage of Gareth being
with us who had already been further than Peter and myself.
Although we had Gareth, we still spent a hell of a time poking our
heads into every hole we could find until Gareth finally found the
way on and we quickly progressed up into level one and along to the
“water hole” where we only turned back in case we missed our call
out time.
A big thank you to Gareth for his navigation skills.
The Team: PeAn, AnGr
& MeWa +Gareth, Tim and Faye |
A muddy team after the trip
L to R: Andy, Pete, Gareth, Faye, Mel & Tim |
Redhouse Lane Swallet
Saturday 05 May 2007
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My second attempt on this
collector's item - the first was two years ago. This time the
lock had to be broken off (which shows how often the system is
visited). I would not be surprised if no one had been in since
my last visit. Again it was necessary to dig to get through
the streamway, but this time we did get to the end of it. Best
summed up as - very muddy with lots of ducks.
The Team: KeEd +
Arthur Champion (Craven Pothole Club), Nick and John |
Wet Sink
Monday 07 May 2007
A trip down the main stream and into the rifts beyond.
We completed the trip by going up Coal Seam passage and coming back down
stream.
Rachael - Showerbath, Main Stream |
Richard - Main Stream |
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The Team: KeEd,
BrMa + Bill, Rachael & Richard (WMCEG) |
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OFD 2, Penwyllt, South Wales
Saturday 12 May 2007
This was to have been a dig weekend, but lots of rain
during the week before with a wet weekend forecast meant that the dig
was flooded up to the bottom of the main railway track.
The only trips possible in OFD were into top entrance. We covered
quite a lot of passage including: Salubrious and Lugubrious streamways
and the Maze.
Carol in the oxbow at the end of Lugubrious |
Carol above the Lugubrious streamway |
The Team: KeEd, BrMa & CaNo |
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OFD 2, Penwyllt, South Wales
Sunday 13 May 2007
A trip into the Nyth Bran series including Boulder
Chamber.
The Team: KeEd & BrMa + John Jones |
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Giants Hole,
Castleton, Derbyshire
Sunday 20 May 2007
Arranged as a taster trip for new member Russell
Allison. This was the standard round trip with deviations to the
top of Geology Pot, St. Valentines Sump and Poached Egg
Passage. The whole enterprise took around 3 hours 40 minutes
and in spite of not liking the look of the climb down into Crab Walk,
Russell is talking about coming caving with us again!
Chris Webb traversing above Crab Walk |
Steve Wallis climbing Garlands Pot |
The Team: RuAl, KeEd, BrMa, StWa & ChWe |
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Little Neath River Cave, Upper Nedd
Valley, South Wales
Saturday 26 May 2007
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Mel and Andy in the Canal Bypass |
This was not going to be a good day
for me. First I got lost on the way to the cave, then got the car
stuck turning it around, then to be helped by about 6 walkers.
Finally on arriving at the farm to pay the trespass fee was attacked
by a small snappy ankle biting dog.
Water levels were low so we went in via the Canal and covered the
main passage to sump two. We had a look at the Genesis Gallery on
the way out, will have to do more of this on a later trip.
The exit was via the Canal Bypass. |
The Team: AnGr, BrMa & MeWa |
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Photos of Chris Webb in Mazeways |
Dan-Yr-Ogof, South
Wales
Saturday 9th June 2007
A trip to Mazeways.
The place is super fantastic - totally out of this world, a maze of
phreatic tubes in beautiful limestone that meander, criss-cross and
go up and down. We took a picture or two, fortunately for
Chris I filled the memory card before hypothermia took over.
The Team: BrMa & ChWe |
Photos of Chris Webb in Mazeways |
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Sharon and a large deposit of green
ectoplasm |
Huglith Mine,
Shropshire
Saturday 20th June 2007
A rare trip into a mine
for Keith and Brendan using Silly Rope Technique. Thanks go to
members of SCMC who arranged and led the trip.
The Team: MiCl, KeEd, BrMa, MiNo, EmPo, GrSm & JeSm +
SCMC Members |
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Photographic Credits: All pictures
by Brendan Marris except Great Orme pictures by Keith
Edwards, Nenthead by Emma Porter and Mike Clayton, and MCRO Rescue by Arthur
Champion (Craven Pothole Club)
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