Gough's Cave, Cheddar. Photo by Linda Wilson.
Say goodbye to February - the month of love, caving and socials.
The eager trajectory of caving has continued this month. We’ve had first-time SRT trips, alumni weekends, and the no-caving weekend of SCHECC. Not to mention hours dedicated to socials, from paintballing to pub, and to time spent in our carefully curated museum, with tales of expeditions and research days studying perma-frost movement. It’s been a busy one to say the least…
Thank you to all those who contributed their tales, gave input on surveys and helped organise all the activities and trips… As always, if you have done anything of recent or even non-recent note that you would like to contribute to the newsletter, please do not hesitate to submit your wonderful pieces, from writing to photography to art!
PS If anything is in blue and underlined, it's a clickable link!
PPS You can find all previous newsletter back to 1919 on our website!
The eager trajectory of caving has continued this month. We’ve had first-time SRT trips, alumni weekends, and the no-caving weekend of SCHECC. Not to mention hours dedicated to socials, from paintballing to pub, and to time spent in our carefully curated museum, with tales of expeditions and research days studying perma-frost movement. It’s been a busy one to say the least…
Thank you to all those who contributed their tales, gave input on surveys and helped organise all the activities and trips… As always, if you have done anything of recent or even non-recent note that you would like to contribute to the newsletter, please do not hesitate to submit your wonderful pieces, from writing to photography to art!
Grace and Linda
PS If anything is in blue and underlined, it's a clickable link!
PPS You can find all previous newsletter back to 1919 on our website!
IN THIS ISSUE
- Diary Dates
- Oops, the clause that got away
- Farewell to Andy Currant
- Mud and Padlocks don't mix
- A Very Happy Birthday!
- Sock Wrestling, Surveying and More ...
- Balls to the lot of 'em
- Expo Fever
- Expo Grants
- Go Touch Some Grass - A Completely Unscientific Survey
- Electric Saag-Aloo
- Lost Property
- The Great Weasels' Weekend 2026
- Something Weasely Different
- Love's Labours Won
- Museum News
- Diary Dates
- Oops, the clause that got away
- Farewell to Andy Currant
- Mud and Padlocks don't mix
- A Very Happy Birthday!
- Sock Wrestling, Surveying and More ...
- Balls to the lot of 'em
- Expo Fever
- Expo Grants
- Go Touch Some Grass - A Completely Unscientific Survey
- Electric Saag-Aloo
- Lost Property
- The Great Weasels' Weekend 2026
- Something Weasely Different
- Love's Labours Won
- Museum News
DIARY DATES
6 - 8 March - Bradford weekend, Yorkshire Dales.
10 March - Tuesday pub social at the Eldon House.
14 March - AGM. 10am in The Stables followed by dinner at The Square Club, prompt arrival at 6:30pm, please!
10 March - All Very FIshy. Come along to the Stables at 7pm for a talk on Fishmonger's Swallet in Sourh Gloucestershire by David Hardwick. Cave digs, police investigations and the possibility of cannibalism! Don't let anyone ever say digging is boring!
22 March - BCRA Cave Science Workshop, Poole's Cavern, Derbyshire. Places still available. See below.
9 - 10 May - BCRA Cave Archaeology Group Field Trip, Poole's Cavern, Derbyshire and nearby sites. Places still available. See below.
6 - 8 March - Bradford weekend, Yorkshire Dales.
10 March - Tuesday pub social at the Eldon House.
14 March - AGM. 10am in The Stables followed by dinner at The Square Club, prompt arrival at 6:30pm, please!
10 March - All Very FIshy. Come along to the Stables at 7pm for a talk on Fishmonger's Swallet in Sourh Gloucestershire by David Hardwick. Cave digs, police investigations and the possibility of cannibalism! Don't let anyone ever say digging is boring!
22 March - BCRA Cave Science Workshop, Poole's Cavern, Derbyshire. Places still available. See below.
9 - 10 May - BCRA Cave Archaeology Group Field Trip, Poole's Cavern, Derbyshire and nearby sites. Places still available. See below.
OOPS, THE CLAUSE THAT GOT AWAY
As part of the constitutional amendments needed to complete our amicable de-coupling from the Students Union, despite many, many trawls through the current constititution, we managed to miss one clause that needs deleting in entirety.
Existing clause 8c(iv) states "Present the accounts and estimates to the Audit Sub-Committee of the Bristol SU." To complete the raionalistion of the constitution this sub-clause needs to be deleted. As this direction of travel has been approved by the recent EGM, the committee feel that this deletion is in the spirit of the other amendments listed in the January newsletter and so the committee intend to include this in the amendments being brought to the AGM in March.
The proposed revisions to the constitution can be found here. Thank you to the eagle-eyed Mungo Palmer for bringing this to our attention.
Existing clause 8c(iv) states "Present the accounts and estimates to the Audit Sub-Committee of the Bristol SU." To complete the raionalistion of the constitution this sub-clause needs to be deleted. As this direction of travel has been approved by the recent EGM, the committee feel that this deletion is in the spirit of the other amendments listed in the January newsletter and so the committee intend to include this in the amendments being brought to the AGM in March.
The proposed revisions to the constitution can be found here. Thank you to the eagle-eyed Mungo Palmer for bringing this to our attention.
FAREWELL TO ANDY CURRANT
Andy Currant, the long-serving former Curator of Fossil Mammals at the Natural History Museum and, for many years, curatorial advisor to the UBSS museum, died on the 7th February 2026 at the age of 74. Linda Wilson, UBSS museum curator pays tribute to him.
I first met Andy in the 1980s through our then museum curator, the late Christopher Hawkes. Andy was a key member of excavation teams at various sites on Mendip including at Westbury-sub-Mendip and Gough's Cave. He was always willing to lend his expertise to the UBSS museum, where he spent a lot of time, often working with the late, equally great Roger Jacobi. Discussions with the two of them often involved copious quantities of red wine. Andy was a fan of fine wine and Roger loved a glass of Merlot. They were both great company.
The discovery of a large chamber in Charterhouse Warren Farm Swallet in 1984 was hugely exciting not only for the success at a long-standing dig but for the almost mind-boggling quantity of bone the cave contained. Sadly for Andy, he was too generously proportioned to allow him to descend the entrance shaft, as close to the bottom is a tight horizontal slot which has to be negotiated whilst still (sort of) on the ladder.
On my second trip down the cave, Andy sent his long-standing (and long-suffering) housemate, Mandy Holloway, down the cave as his proxy. Despite being hampered by a light that mostly didn't work on a helmet that mostly didn't fit (thanks, Christopher!), Mandy made it down into the cave. The object of the trip was the removal of bone for closer examination on the surface, however a very large aurochs skull didn't fit in any of the available ammunition boxes, so Mandy and I climbed the ladder (that somewhat awkwardly stopped two metres short of the bottom of the pitch (thanks for that, too, Christopher!) whilst manoeuvring the skull ever onwards and upwards, passed hand to hand between us. When we finally emerged on the surface, Andy received the skull reverently from us and sat cross-legged in the field, cradling it in his lap and crooning softly that it was 10% bigger than anything else he'd seen from this species. And I'll always remember the look on his face when the landowner. Bill Small, leaned over his shoulder and said, "You think that's big? You should have seen the one we buried under the barn a few years ago."
The last time I worked at length with Andy was on the faunal collection from Fishmonger's Swallet. With our then student museum curator Pippa Churcher and Tony Boycott, I drove over to Andy's home in Heath and Reach with several large boxes of bone where Andy proceeding to handle each in turn, calling out identifications ("sheep, goat, pig, sheeplet.. etc" while Pippa struggled to keep up with him on the spreadsheet and Tony marked up bags.
Spending time with Andy was always huge fun, including a memorable late night session at my house after a UBSS dinner knocking back some disgusting whisky that Tony had brought back from India. Andy certainly didn't let his passion for fine wine stop him from appreciating the truly dreadful booze called Officers' Choice.
I think that was the same evening during which Andy, the guest of honour that night as he'd given the AGM talk, watched gleefully as a student demonstrated his party trick of putting a condom over his head and then inflating it like a balloon from the inside.
Thanks for all the fun and all the good advice, Andy, you'll be very greatly missed!
Andy Currant, the long-serving former Curator of Fossil Mammals at the Natural History Museum and, for many years, curatorial advisor to the UBSS museum, died on the 7th February 2026 at the age of 74. Linda Wilson, UBSS museum curator pays tribute to him.
I first met Andy in the 1980s through our then museum curator, the late Christopher Hawkes. Andy was a key member of excavation teams at various sites on Mendip including at Westbury-sub-Mendip and Gough's Cave. He was always willing to lend his expertise to the UBSS museum, where he spent a lot of time, often working with the late, equally great Roger Jacobi. Discussions with the two of them often involved copious quantities of red wine. Andy was a fan of fine wine and Roger loved a glass of Merlot. They were both great company.
The discovery of a large chamber in Charterhouse Warren Farm Swallet in 1984 was hugely exciting not only for the success at a long-standing dig but for the almost mind-boggling quantity of bone the cave contained. Sadly for Andy, he was too generously proportioned to allow him to descend the entrance shaft, as close to the bottom is a tight horizontal slot which has to be negotiated whilst still (sort of) on the ladder.
On my second trip down the cave, Andy sent his long-standing (and long-suffering) housemate, Mandy Holloway, down the cave as his proxy. Despite being hampered by a light that mostly didn't work on a helmet that mostly didn't fit (thanks, Christopher!), Mandy made it down into the cave. The object of the trip was the removal of bone for closer examination on the surface, however a very large aurochs skull didn't fit in any of the available ammunition boxes, so Mandy and I climbed the ladder (that somewhat awkwardly stopped two metres short of the bottom of the pitch (thanks for that, too, Christopher!) whilst manoeuvring the skull ever onwards and upwards, passed hand to hand between us. When we finally emerged on the surface, Andy received the skull reverently from us and sat cross-legged in the field, cradling it in his lap and crooning softly that it was 10% bigger than anything else he'd seen from this species. And I'll always remember the look on his face when the landowner. Bill Small, leaned over his shoulder and said, "You think that's big? You should have seen the one we buried under the barn a few years ago."
The last time I worked at length with Andy was on the faunal collection from Fishmonger's Swallet. With our then student museum curator Pippa Churcher and Tony Boycott, I drove over to Andy's home in Heath and Reach with several large boxes of bone where Andy proceeding to handle each in turn, calling out identifications ("sheep, goat, pig, sheeplet.. etc" while Pippa struggled to keep up with him on the spreadsheet and Tony marked up bags.
Spending time with Andy was always huge fun, including a memorable late night session at my house after a UBSS dinner knocking back some disgusting whisky that Tony had brought back from India. Andy certainly didn't let his passion for fine wine stop him from appreciating the truly dreadful booze called Officers' Choice.
I think that was the same evening during which Andy, the guest of honour that night as he'd given the AGM talk, watched gleefully as a student demonstrated his party trick of putting a condom over his head and then inflating it like a balloon from the inside.
Thanks for all the fun and all the good advice, Andy, you'll be very greatly missed!
Linda Wilson
MUD AND PADLOCKS DON'T MIX
It may seem obvious that mud and padlocks don't mix, however it may not be so obvious how easily a padlock can be jammed and prematurely worn out by the ingress of mud, particularly cave mud which often contains very hard and abrasive calcite grit. Dave King, chair of the Charterhouse Caving Company Ltd (CCC Ltd) highlights the problem.
Recently a number of padlocks on various cave entrances have been replaced either due to wear or ingress of mud. Where possible padlocks are cleaned, lubricated with graphite and put back into service.
Bear in mind it could be your caving trip that's been aborted due to a jammed padlock.
There are a few simple but effective ways to reduce the ingress of mud into padlocks:
Before inserting a key, ensure it is clean paying particular attention to the grooves.
Have clean hands when handling a padlock (wiping hands on furry suit and/or rinsing in a puddle works well), particularly if it is a combination padlock where rotating the wheels will drag grit inside.
If you come across any issues with any cave entrances or padlocks please contact the CSCC Conservation and Access Officer or for caves under the Charterhouse Caving Company Ltd access agreement (GB, Charterhouse Cave, Longwood Swallet, Rhino Rift) please contact the CCC Ltd secretary asap and check an acknowledgement has been received such that the issue can be dealt with promptly.
It may seem obvious that mud and padlocks don't mix, however it may not be so obvious how easily a padlock can be jammed and prematurely worn out by the ingress of mud, particularly cave mud which often contains very hard and abrasive calcite grit. Dave King, chair of the Charterhouse Caving Company Ltd (CCC Ltd) highlights the problem.
Recently a number of padlocks on various cave entrances have been replaced either due to wear or ingress of mud. Where possible padlocks are cleaned, lubricated with graphite and put back into service.
Bear in mind it could be your caving trip that's been aborted due to a jammed padlock.
There are a few simple but effective ways to reduce the ingress of mud into padlocks:
Before inserting a key, ensure it is clean paying particular attention to the grooves.
Have clean hands when handling a padlock (wiping hands on furry suit and/or rinsing in a puddle works well), particularly if it is a combination padlock where rotating the wheels will drag grit inside.
If you come across any issues with any cave entrances or padlocks please contact the CSCC Conservation and Access Officer or for caves under the Charterhouse Caving Company Ltd access agreement (GB, Charterhouse Cave, Longwood Swallet, Rhino Rift) please contact the CCC Ltd secretary asap and check an acknowledgement has been received such that the issue can be dealt with promptly.
Dave King
A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
To break up the winter holidays and celebrate the most wonderful of cavers - Jess Brock and Joshitha Shivakumar - Grace Smith headed up north for some much-needed SRT fun!
Travelling from Halifax, I made my way, gear-ready, to meet Tom Headington who had kindly driven up from the Peaks to pick up me and Joshitha from the outskirts of Manchester. We drove up to the NPC in giddy excitement (pretending we had not been there a week earlier). Once we made it to the hut, we set up the birthday decor, cooked a hearty slop, ready to see Kenneth McIver, Dylan Toomey, Jess Brock, Billy Evans, Joe Bidie, Ben Marks and Leila Nicholson for an evening spent chatting and meticulous cave planning.
Joshitha, Kenneth, Tom and I had set our hearts on bottoming Lost Johns - a cave none of us have ever done, but a perfect chance for rigging and stamina practice.
We packed the car full of tackle sacks and set off…Taking the route via Centipede, I rigged the first five pitches, Hammer, Mud, Centipede - following on to Candle and Shistol pitches. The pitches were nice and gentle, leading with a 10m into about a 50m with a nice re-belay halfway - perfectly placed with the most beautiful hanging flowstone and stalactites for a viewing break, following onto two of 20m. Pretty perfect rigging practice, especially for shorter people, as the bolts were placed for taller cavers, so lots of wedging up to the bolts - great fun and practice.
Once I used all my tackle sacks I saw something strange. Two oranges, a sandwich, sweets? “A cave picnic” Kenneth had packed for us.. so good. Kenneth then rigs the Battle-axe Traverse - a 30m traverse with lots of hanging (again especially if you’re a bit shorter), over a huge drop. I followed behind Joshitha, both giggling when we reached the end… one of the moments when you look back and realise what you’ve just done, and must go back…
We head down the 40m to reach the last traverse and pitch where we follow the steamway before it gets a bit too wet. Ready to bounce back to the top… Once halfway, me and Kenneth get our tackle sacks and head to the top, tucked in the bivvy waiting for Joshitha and Tom to de-rig the last few pitches.
We then returned to the car, headed back to the hut to get some grub. There was still 2hrs until Joshitha’s birthday! Me and Joshitha showered, ate (lots of cake) and then we celebrated…21!!! The following day I headed off for work (boo) but then it was Jess’ birthday...23!!! They all went climbing and I said my goodbyes after a wonderfully perfect weekend.
To break up the winter holidays and celebrate the most wonderful of cavers - Jess Brock and Joshitha Shivakumar - Grace Smith headed up north for some much-needed SRT fun!
Travelling from Halifax, I made my way, gear-ready, to meet Tom Headington who had kindly driven up from the Peaks to pick up me and Joshitha from the outskirts of Manchester. We drove up to the NPC in giddy excitement (pretending we had not been there a week earlier). Once we made it to the hut, we set up the birthday decor, cooked a hearty slop, ready to see Kenneth McIver, Dylan Toomey, Jess Brock, Billy Evans, Joe Bidie, Ben Marks and Leila Nicholson for an evening spent chatting and meticulous cave planning.
Joshitha, Kenneth, Tom and I had set our hearts on bottoming Lost Johns - a cave none of us have ever done, but a perfect chance for rigging and stamina practice.
We packed the car full of tackle sacks and set off…Taking the route via Centipede, I rigged the first five pitches, Hammer, Mud, Centipede - following on to Candle and Shistol pitches. The pitches were nice and gentle, leading with a 10m into about a 50m with a nice re-belay halfway - perfectly placed with the most beautiful hanging flowstone and stalactites for a viewing break, following onto two of 20m. Pretty perfect rigging practice, especially for shorter people, as the bolts were placed for taller cavers, so lots of wedging up to the bolts - great fun and practice.
Once I used all my tackle sacks I saw something strange. Two oranges, a sandwich, sweets? “A cave picnic” Kenneth had packed for us.. so good. Kenneth then rigs the Battle-axe Traverse - a 30m traverse with lots of hanging (again especially if you’re a bit shorter), over a huge drop. I followed behind Joshitha, both giggling when we reached the end… one of the moments when you look back and realise what you’ve just done, and must go back…
We head down the 40m to reach the last traverse and pitch where we follow the steamway before it gets a bit too wet. Ready to bounce back to the top… Once halfway, me and Kenneth get our tackle sacks and head to the top, tucked in the bivvy waiting for Joshitha and Tom to de-rig the last few pitches.
We then returned to the car, headed back to the hut to get some grub. There was still 2hrs until Joshitha’s birthday! Me and Joshitha showered, ate (lots of cake) and then we celebrated…21!!! The following day I headed off for work (boo) but then it was Jess’ birthday...23!!! They all went climbing and I said my goodbyes after a wonderfully perfect weekend.
Grace Smith
SOCK WRESTLING, SURVEYING AND MORE ...
Despite having heard many stories about CHECC (Combined Higher Education Caving Clubs), when going for the first time, Marty Hebden still didn't quite know what to expect but it certainly didn't disappoint.
On entering the South Wales Caving Club cottages at Penwllt, we were immediately greeted by loud voices and the smiling faces of some very friendly (and already slightly drunk) cavers. UBSS did in fact emerge from our dorm room and we spent the first night mingling and tearing it up on the dance floor.
Thanks to the amazing chefs, who stayed up all night, we woke up to a hearty breakfast before the workshops began. Plenty were on offer including cave rescue, leadership and navigation, cave science and surveying. I'd signed up for the SRT training which was loads of fun (although tricky on a hangover!) and surprisingly tiring considering the amount of movement involved. The day ended with some brilliant talks and films as well as a delicious dinner. Then the night commenced!
The party began with a series of games. I must be more bloodthirsty than I'd thought because I could hardly look away from the sock wrestling matches. Competition was tough and each contestant fought valiantly. The rest of the night continued in the same way, with amazing music, lovely people and lots of body glitter and paint sparkling under the UV lights.
We had another great breakfast on Sunday morning, which was much needed after the night before, and more workshops were on offer for people who could keep their eyes open. I left southern CHECC and the beautiful Welsh countryside with fond memories, new friends and lots of new skills to try out!
Thank you to everyone who organised the weekend and kept it all running smoothly.
Despite having heard many stories about CHECC (Combined Higher Education Caving Clubs), when going for the first time, Marty Hebden still didn't quite know what to expect but it certainly didn't disappoint.
On entering the South Wales Caving Club cottages at Penwllt, we were immediately greeted by loud voices and the smiling faces of some very friendly (and already slightly drunk) cavers. UBSS did in fact emerge from our dorm room and we spent the first night mingling and tearing it up on the dance floor.
Thanks to the amazing chefs, who stayed up all night, we woke up to a hearty breakfast before the workshops began. Plenty were on offer including cave rescue, leadership and navigation, cave science and surveying. I'd signed up for the SRT training which was loads of fun (although tricky on a hangover!) and surprisingly tiring considering the amount of movement involved. The day ended with some brilliant talks and films as well as a delicious dinner. Then the night commenced!
The party began with a series of games. I must be more bloodthirsty than I'd thought because I could hardly look away from the sock wrestling matches. Competition was tough and each contestant fought valiantly. The rest of the night continued in the same way, with amazing music, lovely people and lots of body glitter and paint sparkling under the UV lights.
We had another great breakfast on Sunday morning, which was much needed after the night before, and more workshops were on offer for people who could keep their eyes open. I left southern CHECC and the beautiful Welsh countryside with fond memories, new friends and lots of new skills to try out!
Thank you to everyone who organised the weekend and kept it all running smoothly.
Marty Hebden
BALLS TO THE LOT OF 'EM!
Thomas DeAth tells the story of how UBSS were trounced on the battlefield by a bunch of kids ...
To kick off the month, UBSS decided to go paintballing. This was my first time, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the day. When I arrived at the meeting point, I was greeted by Billy wearing full camo and combat boots and armed with a smoke grenade. It was about this point where I realized I may have come under-prepared.
When we arrived at the farm, we were surprised to discover we would be sharing the battlefield with a children’s birthday party. I foolishly assumed this meant we might be in for an easy time. I could not have been more wrong.
Once separated into our teams, we were put into a team death match. Very simple rules - shoot the others and try not to get shot. As soon as the match started, I found myself surrounded by enemy children who had seemingly bought infinite pellets and decided to aim them all at me. I finished that round bruised and covered in paint. However, it was all worth it to watch Billy run and slip over, dropping all his ammo within the first ten seconds.
The next two rounds of capture the flag and defending a church followed a similar trend with me getting shot quite a lot whilst seemingly not managing to shoot anyone back. This problem only got worse once I ran out of pellets. I found myself in the middle of a bridge without any backup getting shot at from all angles.
Unsurprisingly the day ended in defeat for my team. Despite all of this though, I can confidently say I had a really good time and I will be going again.
Thomas DeAth tells the story of how UBSS were trounced on the battlefield by a bunch of kids ...
To kick off the month, UBSS decided to go paintballing. This was my first time, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the day. When I arrived at the meeting point, I was greeted by Billy wearing full camo and combat boots and armed with a smoke grenade. It was about this point where I realized I may have come under-prepared.
When we arrived at the farm, we were surprised to discover we would be sharing the battlefield with a children’s birthday party. I foolishly assumed this meant we might be in for an easy time. I could not have been more wrong.
Once separated into our teams, we were put into a team death match. Very simple rules - shoot the others and try not to get shot. As soon as the match started, I found myself surrounded by enemy children who had seemingly bought infinite pellets and decided to aim them all at me. I finished that round bruised and covered in paint. However, it was all worth it to watch Billy run and slip over, dropping all his ammo within the first ten seconds.
The next two rounds of capture the flag and defending a church followed a similar trend with me getting shot quite a lot whilst seemingly not managing to shoot anyone back. This problem only got worse once I ran out of pellets. I found myself in the middle of a bridge without any backup getting shot at from all angles.
Unsurprisingly the day ended in defeat for my team. Despite all of this though, I can confidently say I had a really good time and I will be going again.
Thomas DeAth
EXPO FEVER
This month, in our very own Stables, we hosted an expo talk night and it was a roaring success! Grace Smith tells us what went on ...
It was an evening filled with tales from far and wide, with speakers on Ireland, Matienzo, Austria, Ario, Meghalaya and Berger expos, alongside planning, logistics, kit and a fantastic highlight of funding offers from David Richards on behalf of the Tratman Fund and the Oliver Lloyd Memorial Fund.
A huge thank you to all our speakers they were all so fascinating and have certainly inspired an expo-bug in the club already. Another thank you to everyone who came! I already spy some group chat plans for 2026 Expos which is fantastically exciting.
As was said on the evening, if you want any extra advice or help planning, the offer of speaking to people who have been on that expo remains…
And do check out the funding opportunities available to UBSS members ...
This month, in our very own Stables, we hosted an expo talk night and it was a roaring success! Grace Smith tells us what went on ...
It was an evening filled with tales from far and wide, with speakers on Ireland, Matienzo, Austria, Ario, Meghalaya and Berger expos, alongside planning, logistics, kit and a fantastic highlight of funding offers from David Richards on behalf of the Tratman Fund and the Oliver Lloyd Memorial Fund.
A huge thank you to all our speakers they were all so fascinating and have certainly inspired an expo-bug in the club already. Another thank you to everyone who came! I already spy some group chat plans for 2026 Expos which is fantastically exciting.
As was said on the evening, if you want any extra advice or help planning, the offer of speaking to people who have been on that expo remains…
And do check out the funding opportunities available to UBSS members ...
Grace Smith
EXPO GRANTS
UBSS is lucky to benefit from two sources of funding only available to members of the society.
The Tratman Fund was set up by the University of Bristol from a bequest left by our late president, Professor EK Tratman, known to everyone as Trat. This supports UBSS members in travel abroad for expeditions.
The Oliver Lloyd Memorial Fund is an independant trust set up in memory of Graham's predecessor as Treasurer, Dr Oliver Lloyd, usually referred to simply as Lloyd. This fund has a wider remit and can be used by its trustess in any way that benefits the society and its members and expedition travel can now also supprt expedition travel.
A combined application form can be found on our website. For expedition travel funding it's appropriate to apply to both funds on one combined application form. The deadline for applications for 2026 is the end of April. Funding is done on an individual basis to support the member rather than the expedition as a whole, as often members are joining expeditions run by other clubs. The grants are personal to the applicant and not transferable to the expedition if an applicant has to drop out for any reason. The exception to this are the Irish trips which are very much organised and run by UBSS members and so are usually dealt with on a group basis and the application will be submitted on behalf of the participants by the organiser.
If you are going on an expedition prior to the grant submission deadline, please submit your application asap.
UBSS is lucky to benefit from two sources of funding only available to members of the society.
The Tratman Fund was set up by the University of Bristol from a bequest left by our late president, Professor EK Tratman, known to everyone as Trat. This supports UBSS members in travel abroad for expeditions.
The Oliver Lloyd Memorial Fund is an independant trust set up in memory of Graham's predecessor as Treasurer, Dr Oliver Lloyd, usually referred to simply as Lloyd. This fund has a wider remit and can be used by its trustess in any way that benefits the society and its members and expedition travel can now also supprt expedition travel.
A combined application form can be found on our website. For expedition travel funding it's appropriate to apply to both funds on one combined application form. The deadline for applications for 2026 is the end of April. Funding is done on an individual basis to support the member rather than the expedition as a whole, as often members are joining expeditions run by other clubs. The grants are personal to the applicant and not transferable to the expedition if an applicant has to drop out for any reason. The exception to this are the Irish trips which are very much organised and run by UBSS members and so are usually dealt with on a group basis and the application will be submitted on behalf of the participants by the organiser.
If you are going on an expedition prior to the grant submission deadline, please submit your application asap.
BCRA CAVE SCIENCE PROJECT WORKSHOP
Are you interested in undertaking a science project in a cave? Want to learn more about cave science projects, or have a project in mind and want to work towards making it happen?
Then come along to the BCRA cave science project workshop day on Sunday 22nd March. The workshop will be held at the British Cave Science Centre at Poole’s Cavern in Buxton, starting at 09:30am and finishing at 3pm.
Most of the underground will be on the showcave path so a helmet and light, warm clothing, and clean walking boots or wellies are the main requirement. However, there may be opportunies to visit areas off the paths and a clean oversuit will be needed.
We will have some tea/lunch breaks, there is a café on site where food and drinks can be purchased, or you are welcome to bring your own. Toilets are also available.
There is plenty of parking at Poole’s if you’re driving – but it is pay and display. For anyone wishing to arrive by public transport there is a train station in Buxton, which is about a 30 minute walk away.
BCRA are covering the costs of the event other than car parking and food and drink purchased at the café. For maximum benefit to attendees we are limitng the numbers to 12 so sign up quickly and note that priority will be given to BCRA members!
(If you’re not already a member then it’s not too late to join through the BCA website It’s free for students and from £18 for everyone else).
To sign up please fill in the google form and someone will be in touch to confirm your place.
Are you interested in undertaking a science project in a cave? Want to learn more about cave science projects, or have a project in mind and want to work towards making it happen?
Then come along to the BCRA cave science project workshop day on Sunday 22nd March. The workshop will be held at the British Cave Science Centre at Poole’s Cavern in Buxton, starting at 09:30am and finishing at 3pm.
Most of the underground will be on the showcave path so a helmet and light, warm clothing, and clean walking boots or wellies are the main requirement. However, there may be opportunies to visit areas off the paths and a clean oversuit will be needed.
We will have some tea/lunch breaks, there is a café on site where food and drinks can be purchased, or you are welcome to bring your own. Toilets are also available.
There is plenty of parking at Poole’s if you’re driving – but it is pay and display. For anyone wishing to arrive by public transport there is a train station in Buxton, which is about a 30 minute walk away.
BCRA are covering the costs of the event other than car parking and food and drink purchased at the café. For maximum benefit to attendees we are limitng the numbers to 12 so sign up quickly and note that priority will be given to BCRA members!
(If you’re not already a member then it’s not too late to join through the BCA website It’s free for students and from £18 for everyone else).
To sign up please fill in the google form and someone will be in touch to confirm your place.
GO TOUCH SOME GRASS - A COMPLETELY UNSCIENTIFIC SURVEY
Grace Smith recently asked some of our members what actually helps them when term gets heavy ...
Caving is, by any reasonable measure, the epitome of uncool. Dressed in a big red boiler suit and helmet. Voluntarily descending into a dark, wet, cold space. Crawling through mud for hours- sometimes days. No phone, no competition, no deadlines you can do anything about, and a Mars bar is our fine dining. And yet for me, crawling back to the surface, nose leading the way, feels like one of the most beautiful, clarifying insights. We all find joy in such a sport and we all have our reasons - from cave to pub - but why is that so important?
Over the last two decades we have seen an outburst in research on ‘public health, ecology, geography, forestry, physiology, education and sport science’, suggesting that physical activity in the presence of nature enhances health and wellbeing. Caving, speleology and outdoor sport included. The summary: outdoors good, phones bad. We’ve got it. The research is gold and not to be underestimated, but how can we apply it to our lives practically?
To find some answers, I sent a Google Form sent into our WhatsApp group chat. Here is what you said…
What do you do when you’re stressed and can’t get underground?
Balanced responses included both advice and relatability from… seeing trees, go climbing, hanging with friends to curling up in bed and watching films, or simply “run and cry”- I feel that. Many also just “go pub”. There are no wrong answers.
What's the smallest outdoor activity that has a noticeable effect on your health and well-being?
The consensus answer was 'quiet'… just “stepping out into some fresh air”, “feeling the sun” and noticing. One person brought our attention to bird watching, a quiet activity to clear the mind.
What would you tell a fresher who keeps skipping caving because of deadlines?
Advice was both honest and caring, from balancing your time wisely with helpful lists and schedules.
“Make sure you're balancing your time wisely - you didn't just come to uni to get a degree. On the flip-side, you did come to uni to get a degree so you do need to do some work.”
It all comes down to balance.
The answers to Favourite thing eaten underground were interesting, as you'll see from our header!
Here's my opinion on your answers to some of the questions …
I knew I needed to get outside when… The answers: “Everything feels bleak”, “I started dreaming about quantum physics”, “I felt the urge to eat mud” particularly resonated with me. And the one that I felt deeply was … “The cave felt brighter than my room”.
A massive thank you to all our contributors, anonymous and named: Mowgli Palmer, Tom Headington, Kat, Joshitha Shivkumar, Kenneth McIver, Emily Wormleighton and Tess Hopes.
Grace Smith recently asked some of our members what actually helps them when term gets heavy ...
Caving is, by any reasonable measure, the epitome of uncool. Dressed in a big red boiler suit and helmet. Voluntarily descending into a dark, wet, cold space. Crawling through mud for hours- sometimes days. No phone, no competition, no deadlines you can do anything about, and a Mars bar is our fine dining. And yet for me, crawling back to the surface, nose leading the way, feels like one of the most beautiful, clarifying insights. We all find joy in such a sport and we all have our reasons - from cave to pub - but why is that so important?
Over the last two decades we have seen an outburst in research on ‘public health, ecology, geography, forestry, physiology, education and sport science’, suggesting that physical activity in the presence of nature enhances health and wellbeing. Caving, speleology and outdoor sport included. The summary: outdoors good, phones bad. We’ve got it. The research is gold and not to be underestimated, but how can we apply it to our lives practically?
To find some answers, I sent a Google Form sent into our WhatsApp group chat. Here is what you said…
What do you do when you’re stressed and can’t get underground?
Balanced responses included both advice and relatability from… seeing trees, go climbing, hanging with friends to curling up in bed and watching films, or simply “run and cry”- I feel that. Many also just “go pub”. There are no wrong answers.
What's the smallest outdoor activity that has a noticeable effect on your health and well-being?
The consensus answer was 'quiet'… just “stepping out into some fresh air”, “feeling the sun” and noticing. One person brought our attention to bird watching, a quiet activity to clear the mind.
What would you tell a fresher who keeps skipping caving because of deadlines?
Advice was both honest and caring, from balancing your time wisely with helpful lists and schedules.
“Make sure you're balancing your time wisely - you didn't just come to uni to get a degree. On the flip-side, you did come to uni to get a degree so you do need to do some work.”
It all comes down to balance.
The answers to Favourite thing eaten underground were interesting, as you'll see from our header!
Here's my opinion on your answers to some of the questions …
I knew I needed to get outside when… The answers: “Everything feels bleak”, “I started dreaming about quantum physics”, “I felt the urge to eat mud” particularly resonated with me. And the one that I felt deeply was … “The cave felt brighter than my room”.
A massive thank you to all our contributors, anonymous and named: Mowgli Palmer, Tom Headington, Kat, Joshitha Shivkumar, Kenneth McIver, Emily Wormleighton and Tess Hopes.
Grace Smith
ELECTRIC SAAG-ALOO
Hunters' Hole entrance, stock photo by Jess Brock.
Sitting in standstill traffic attempting escape a drizzly, windswept Hotwells at around 5pm on Thursday 29th January ... yes, Sam Brace's first SRT trip down Hunters' Hole was off to a cracking start ...
After receiving the notification before we’d even left Bristol that Ben Morgan was already waiting for myself and Zaid Muna in the Hunters Lodge Inn car park, the general sentiment in the car was that a quick, hassle free trip was rightly in order.
Luckily for us, Ben’s spirits hadn’t quite hit rock bottom despite him having to wait about an hour for us to finally show up, and after some panic around Dan’s missing helmet, we set off for the cave entrance without any major setback.
Dan ran on ahead to rig the rope, and after a quick check of our SRT kits, Zaid and I were feeling that it was just about time to get out of the bitter wind and down a nice cozy cave. The descent went about as smoothly as we could’ve hoped and after making sure the various rocky ledges and the seat of my oversuit had become well-acquainted, we reached the bottom. A quick explore down the muddy and uninspiring ramp to the bottom of the cave was verification enough that Hunters Hole functions perfectly as an easy first SRT trip: no more, no less.
After a quick cave snack, we decided it was high time for some dinner and a pint of Potholer, so Ben, Zaid and Dan headed on up to the surface (watching Dan’s ‘French set up’ of an SRT kit fly up the rope like a salmon up a waterfall was certainly a sight to behold) leaving me in charge of de-rigging. The de-rig was relatively painless, and I even got to practice some half-decent down-prussiking after accidentally re-clipping the first deviation. After promptly resurfacing into the chilly Mendip night, we agreed that this trip was a resounding success and swiftly made a beeline for the pub.
Upon reaching the bar of the Hunters Lodge Inn, we were informed of a new addition to the menu: the brand new Saag-Aloo. Apparently it was being debuted today, and it felt necessary to swap out the usual veggie pasta in favour of this new concoction (although I opted for the cauliflower cheese, an equally hearty option). From the silence that ensued once food arrived, I can only assume that this new addition to the Hunters line-up is definitely one to try!
Hunters' Hole entrance, stock photo by Jess Brock.
Sitting in standstill traffic attempting escape a drizzly, windswept Hotwells at around 5pm on Thursday 29th January ... yes, Sam Brace's first SRT trip down Hunters' Hole was off to a cracking start ...
After receiving the notification before we’d even left Bristol that Ben Morgan was already waiting for myself and Zaid Muna in the Hunters Lodge Inn car park, the general sentiment in the car was that a quick, hassle free trip was rightly in order.
Luckily for us, Ben’s spirits hadn’t quite hit rock bottom despite him having to wait about an hour for us to finally show up, and after some panic around Dan’s missing helmet, we set off for the cave entrance without any major setback.
Dan ran on ahead to rig the rope, and after a quick check of our SRT kits, Zaid and I were feeling that it was just about time to get out of the bitter wind and down a nice cozy cave. The descent went about as smoothly as we could’ve hoped and after making sure the various rocky ledges and the seat of my oversuit had become well-acquainted, we reached the bottom. A quick explore down the muddy and uninspiring ramp to the bottom of the cave was verification enough that Hunters Hole functions perfectly as an easy first SRT trip: no more, no less.
After a quick cave snack, we decided it was high time for some dinner and a pint of Potholer, so Ben, Zaid and Dan headed on up to the surface (watching Dan’s ‘French set up’ of an SRT kit fly up the rope like a salmon up a waterfall was certainly a sight to behold) leaving me in charge of de-rigging. The de-rig was relatively painless, and I even got to practice some half-decent down-prussiking after accidentally re-clipping the first deviation. After promptly resurfacing into the chilly Mendip night, we agreed that this trip was a resounding success and swiftly made a beeline for the pub.
Upon reaching the bar of the Hunters Lodge Inn, we were informed of a new addition to the menu: the brand new Saag-Aloo. Apparently it was being debuted today, and it felt necessary to swap out the usual veggie pasta in favour of this new concoction (although I opted for the cauliflower cheese, an equally hearty option). From the silence that ensued once food arrived, I can only assume that this new addition to the Hunters line-up is definitely one to try!
Sam Brace
LOST PROPERTY
Have YOU! lost an item???
Missing that fave pair of bunny socks 🧦 and those wet pants you wore to SCHECC? Come and get your free items here! These have been left in Emily Wormleighton's house and stores after various club trips and it is a free for all now. There are tshirts, trousers, socks, pants anything a caver could wish for - please come and claim your items next time you are here (not even your own, it’s a free for all now) and tuck in to the lovely free clothes pile at your own will. Clothes will be imminently discarded at your own risk if not taken…. ⚠️
Have YOU! lost an item???
Missing that fave pair of bunny socks 🧦 and those wet pants you wore to SCHECC? Come and get your free items here! These have been left in Emily Wormleighton's house and stores after various club trips and it is a free for all now. There are tshirts, trousers, socks, pants anything a caver could wish for - please come and claim your items next time you are here (not even your own, it’s a free for all now) and tuck in to the lovely free clothes pile at your own will. Clothes will be imminently discarded at your own risk if not taken…. ⚠️
THE GREAT WEASELS WEEKEND 2026
Top left, Linda; middle, The Stump; top right (left to right): Imogen, Elaine, Tom, Megan, Andrew, Sam, Si; botton left (left to right): Jake, Elliott, Merryn, Gabriel, Andy; middle, Trigger (front), Gwen (rear); bottom right, Mini Columns.
At the end of January, a large group came together on a wet wekend in South Wales for caving, curry and good company, as Linda Wilson relates ...
Graham and I arrived in South Wales on Friday afternoon after a horrendously wet drive from Bristol. We were glad to pull up outside the Wealden Cave and Mine Research Society cottage, known as The Stump, connect the campervan up to the electricty supply, unload and then settle down for a hot drink with our friend Wealden member Peter Burgess, who kindly handled the hut booking for us.Over the course of the afternoon and evening, the rest of the group trickled in: Andrew Atkinson, Andy Farrant, Si Hadfield and his non-UBSS friend Tom, Haydon Saunders, Jacob Podesta, Imogen Clement, Sam Bowers, Elaine Oliver, Megan Malpas, Merryn Matthews, Gabriel Littler, Jake Reich and Elliot McCall, with Ash Gregg staying over at SWCC but socialising with us in the evening.
We catered for ourselves on Friday evening, but on Saturday morning, a team of industrious chefs whipped up an excellent fried breakfast before various parties went through the customary period of faff, before heading off separately up a very wet hillside to OFD Top entrance. Wet, did I mention it was wet? Good, I wouldn't want to miss out that detail!
Here's a few highlights from the weekend ...
Where: Midnight Traverses and Marble Showers.
Who: Andrew Atkinson, Jacob Podesta, Sam Bowers (related by Jacob).
When: Saturday 7th February
Andrew (left) and Sam (right). Photo by Jacob.
On the Friday night we had planned to do the Midnight Traverses and to go to the Marble Showers via a less often used series of pitches, rather than the Marble Showers Traverses. I could not remember if I had done the Midnight Traverses, and by the way that some of those who had done them seemed to be relishing making everyone else’s skin crawl with descriptions of serious exposure and terrifying drops, I assumed I would remember them if I had been that way.
We set off from the hut at about 11am and were underground in Top by 11.30. Aiming to head down via Edward’s Shortcut, we had the traditional conversation about navigation through the Brickyard, no route knowingly taken twice (at least by me) and so on, and made good time down the Shortcut, past the Shattered Pillar and into the top of Midnight Passage, leading onto the Traverses. A lot of this was familiar and, after the first of the Traverses, I had two realisations: firstly, I had definitely done the traverses at some point before, though probably long ago, and secondly, none of the ardent make-skin-crawlers of the previous night were taller than me.
Sam could not have the luxury of either realisation, but courage (and encouragement) eventually compensated for height, and we got to the end of the incredibly fun Midnight Traverses without incident. After the Brigadier’s Ladder, we were in the area around Great Oxbow. Our route on took an upslope dogleg off of the usual route to a series of climbs. The first, 6m, frontloaded all of the challenge with a move that required moderate hovering and was trivial beyond. The second, 3m, was similar but less so. The third involved a rather committing and airy (but gratifyingly short) traverse over a hole. The hand and foot holds were first rate, though, and so long as you don’t think about it too much it is over pretty quickly.
From here, we had a little bit of walking to the pitches. The first is a short, valley shaped traverse to a nice open pitch head and a 20m free hang. Immediately after, the next pitch (8m) is accessed through a tube slightly narrower than the sum of the diameters of my chest and a tackle bag. Here, Andrew introduced me to the benefits of rigging on clove hitches in certain circumstances, in this case to make it easier to adjust a bit of traverse that I had made a cock of on the first attempt while untangling myself after the tube. I was not the only one to learn something on this pitch; Sam, using a borrowed Simple for the first time, was able to familiarise himself with their particular disadvantages too.
The bottom of the pitch was a bit wet, and we went downstream for a while to reach a sandy tube and a confusion of high-level ways on. After some poking (including out over a traverse we were unable to identify on the survey but that had been left rigged) we did eventually muddle through into the Marble Showers. Nice.
We retraced our steps back to the pitch, but after ascending the pitches, we took an alternative route to Midnight Chamber that avoided repeating the traverses, dropping down near The Skyhook, via another short pitch. In the Cross Rift, we once again tried to repeat as little as possible and came out via Salubrious and the Corkscrew, Andrew encouraging us to learn the navigation out. Regardless, I still don’t think I have taken the same route through the Brickyard twice.
Editor's note: For the record, Sam stated afterwards that Andrew encouragement consisted of shouting, "Don't fall off!". There might also have been a few expletives involved.
Where: The Mini Columns (and the Bedding Chambers)
Who: Linda Wilson and Peter Burgess, joined en route by Elaine Oliver, Megan Malpas, Jake Reich and Merryn Matthews (related by Linda)
When: Saturday 7th February
Megan at the Mini Columns.
This was the 'limited mobility' trip, as I have a duff Achilles tendon at the moment and the Head Weasel aka Elaine Oliver has a broken leg! To make sure I didn't have the ignominy of being slower up the track than Elaine, Peter and I set off first. The walk up in freezing rain was possibly the most unpleasant I've ever had up that hillside and I was very glad to get underground. As we usually do, Peter and I wombled along taking photographs and finding interesting things to look at. The others caught up with us in the Brickyard which Elaine navigated with ease, despite having removed her surgical boot in the cottage, swapping it for a tight bandage and other padding. For me, the walking and clambering in the cave proved less challenging on the bad ankle than the walk up the squidgy hillside. I think I've mentioned it was wet, haven't I?
Just weaselling around ... left to right, Jake, Merryn, Elaine.
The Mini Columns were duly photographed and while the others carried on the the Bedding Chambers, Peter and I wandered slowly out, via more photo stops, until the others caught up with us on the way out for an even wetter walk down the hill in freezing sleet and a driving wind. The gulley we'd walked up was now a full-blown stream!
Where: OFD Top
Who: Andy Farrant, Si Hadfield, Tom
When: Saturday 7th February
All the side passages heading north from Big Chamber near the Entrance, including the top gate to the Columns (lovely bit of passage), and then over to Bagpipe Chamber and top of Arête Chamber, then back out. Lots of interesting bits of passage and plenty to see if you stop and look. (All photos in this section by Andy)
Where: Pendulum Passage and the Nave
Who: Haydon Saunders, Imogen Clement, Elliott McCall, Gabriel Littler
When: Saturday 7th February
Left to right, Gabriel, Imogen and Elliott celebrating their survival.
The full write up of this particular UBSS epic will follow when certain team members have emerged from therapy, for now, suffice it to say that in response to a request for where they went, Imogen responded: "We went to this bit of the cave which was adjacent to hell."
Saturday night saw us drinking prosecco, feasting on a collaborative curry with dishes devised and prepared by a wide variety of weasels, playing games and taking the piss out of each other.
Sunday dawned slightly drier and even the occasional patch of blue in the previously uniformly grey skies. Breakfast chefs set to work again, and leftover curry provided a surprisingly excellent accompaniment to more usual fare. Sadly, Graham and I had to head back to Bristol after that as - not so sadly - we were flying to Athens on Tuesday, so missed out on drier weather, more caving and even some wild swimming!
Where: Prokofiev Series, OFD3 Traverses
Who: Andrew Atkinson, Jacob Podesta, Simon Hadfield (related by Jacob)
When: Sunday 8th February
Andrew had identified a part of OFD that he had never been to before (a rare thing) and Si and I had not been there either (comparatively less rare), so we had made plans to visit the Prokofiev Series and tack on the OFD3 Traverses for extra interest and length.
Despite my best efforts, I was up fairly early for a Sunday so, after a short walk, I started making breakfast and contemplated the injustice of my unearned freshness. We found ourselves, therefore, entering Top at the moderately respectable time of 12.10pm, though Andrew did prophecise that I would eventually sober up and become unhappy.
Taking the familiar route through the Brickyard and as far as the Corkscrew, our route on was to continue past it into Chasm Passage and then left into the Chasm, requiring the descent of a 5m climb. At this point, Andrew and Simon FARTed (Falling Angel Rigging Technique © S.Hadfield 2026. All Rights Reserved.).
I was wearing my harness, as I was not sure what the pitches would be like and was aware that Andrew and Si are more confident climbers than me, but this didn’t prevent me from FARTing too. The Chasm itself was fairly linear, with a drop down off a traverse about halfway along, and an obvious left-hand route after about ten minutes of stomping led us to Timo’s Table. We were not entirely clear about the way on into Prokofiev Series, and initially investigated a route straight on past Timo’s Table, where it seemed like the Series could be gained by a series of short climbs. Before the climbs, though, was a deep pit that none of us particularly relished traversing around, with the wall at an unhelpful angle and the ledge of dubious integrity. We decided that we would only attempt it if we got desperate, and went back to investigate a way up directly opposite Timo’s Table. This was a fairly undignified 2m climb with exactly one hold and a sloppy mud bank for a landing, and none of us were able to avoid pinnipedian flop.
Beyond this point, the passage became narrow and stooping, briefly climbing up into a higher level only to regain the floor after a few meters. Eventually we had to climb up once again into a higher level of passage, putting us at the top of a narrow and thrutchy traverse. We put our noses to the stone and traversed away, through a tight right angle requiring a corkscrew motion to make best use of each joint sequentially, and on to a narrowing of the now very slippery traverse. It was fairly strenuous, but quite short, and popped us out in a bit of cave that was not Prokofiev Series. Not the bit that would lead us to Five Mile Chamber, the obvious turn around point, anyway.
Having confirmed that, indeed, none of the passages there that entirely overlap one another actually connect, we thrutched back the way we came and found a junction on two levels that we had either missed on the way in or ignored. Taking this way led to much more reasonable section of cave that eventually brought us to a 7m climb up with an in-situ rope of unknown quality. The climb was more of a challenge for the mind than the fingers, but the airy step around at the top is definitely more comfortable with the rope to grab, and Simon's slippery wellies gave him pause for thought. Onwards, we found that Five Mile Chamber has a pitch, not free-climbable, with nothing to rig off and we had no rope anyway. Contenting ourselves with having at least looked at Five Mile Chamber, we headed out of Prokofiev to go and look at the OFD3 Traverses.
Andrew’s prophecy was realised as we left the traverse, and my vision became a bit funny. No matter, it was still half an hour to the traverses so it would probably sort itself out. Passing Timo’s Table for the second time, we proceeded past Poached Egg and to the Crevasse, where we all had another FART, and then on to the traverses, where my vision did indeed sort itself out. The traverses were fun; we had Andrew to find the right level for us, but I imagine that it would be more intimidating if you picked the wrong ledges.
Shuffling along the Maypole, a scaffold bar propped across a hole to make a traversable bridge, provides an insight into what it must be like to make sail in a tall ship, and after that we were close to Niagara. Andrew provided me with useful information about the climb down here, as the easier route is not visible from the top. I failed to pass this on to Simon, who had to dangle a bit (sorry, Simon). We glanced at the waterfall before returning the way we had come. To take an alternative to The Chasm out, we returned to Timo’s table and the smaller route that leads into Arête, ultimately joining the top of Salubrious and placing us at the entrance at about 16.45.
Where: Powell's Cave
Who: Elaine Oliver, Andy Farrant and Peter Burgess
When: Sunday 8th February
European Cave Spider (Meta Menardii). Drawing by Elaine Oliver.
A quick jaunt into Powell's Cave. A low entrance on the righthand side of the road up to Penwyllt opens up into a roomy section of cave passage that can be followed to a higher level in the quarry, providing an interesting short trip with some interesting pencil graffiti dating to the 1930s and 40s, a plethora of spiders and a couple of photogenic moths.
Where: Llyn y fan Fawr
Who: Jake Reich, Sam Bowers, Gabriel, Elliott, Imogen Clement, Merryn Matthews, Megan Malpas
When: Sunday 9th February
Megan proving exactly how hardcore UBSS women are!
As the weather had improved from driving sleet to something almost pleasant, our intrepid party walked up a hill to the picturesque Llyn y fan Fawr where Megan, Imogen and Merryn went swimming while, in Jake's words, "the men sat and drank beer and complained about how cold it was."
Thanks to everyone who made this such a brilliant weekend, particularly our hardworking shoppers and cooks, plus our hosts Peter Burgess and the Wealden Cave and Mine Society!
And lastly, why 'weasels'? Sorry, none of us can remember, but the name seems to have stuck!
Top left, Linda; middle, The Stump; top right (left to right): Imogen, Elaine, Tom, Megan, Andrew, Sam, Si; botton left (left to right): Jake, Elliott, Merryn, Gabriel, Andy; middle, Trigger (front), Gwen (rear); bottom right, Mini Columns.
At the end of January, a large group came together on a wet wekend in South Wales for caving, curry and good company, as Linda Wilson relates ...
Graham and I arrived in South Wales on Friday afternoon after a horrendously wet drive from Bristol. We were glad to pull up outside the Wealden Cave and Mine Research Society cottage, known as The Stump, connect the campervan up to the electricty supply, unload and then settle down for a hot drink with our friend Wealden member Peter Burgess, who kindly handled the hut booking for us.Over the course of the afternoon and evening, the rest of the group trickled in: Andrew Atkinson, Andy Farrant, Si Hadfield and his non-UBSS friend Tom, Haydon Saunders, Jacob Podesta, Imogen Clement, Sam Bowers, Elaine Oliver, Megan Malpas, Merryn Matthews, Gabriel Littler, Jake Reich and Elliot McCall, with Ash Gregg staying over at SWCC but socialising with us in the evening.
We catered for ourselves on Friday evening, but on Saturday morning, a team of industrious chefs whipped up an excellent fried breakfast before various parties went through the customary period of faff, before heading off separately up a very wet hillside to OFD Top entrance. Wet, did I mention it was wet? Good, I wouldn't want to miss out that detail!
Here's a few highlights from the weekend ...
Where: Midnight Traverses and Marble Showers.
Who: Andrew Atkinson, Jacob Podesta, Sam Bowers (related by Jacob).
When: Saturday 7th February
Andrew (left) and Sam (right). Photo by Jacob.
On the Friday night we had planned to do the Midnight Traverses and to go to the Marble Showers via a less often used series of pitches, rather than the Marble Showers Traverses. I could not remember if I had done the Midnight Traverses, and by the way that some of those who had done them seemed to be relishing making everyone else’s skin crawl with descriptions of serious exposure and terrifying drops, I assumed I would remember them if I had been that way.
We set off from the hut at about 11am and were underground in Top by 11.30. Aiming to head down via Edward’s Shortcut, we had the traditional conversation about navigation through the Brickyard, no route knowingly taken twice (at least by me) and so on, and made good time down the Shortcut, past the Shattered Pillar and into the top of Midnight Passage, leading onto the Traverses. A lot of this was familiar and, after the first of the Traverses, I had two realisations: firstly, I had definitely done the traverses at some point before, though probably long ago, and secondly, none of the ardent make-skin-crawlers of the previous night were taller than me.
Sam could not have the luxury of either realisation, but courage (and encouragement) eventually compensated for height, and we got to the end of the incredibly fun Midnight Traverses without incident. After the Brigadier’s Ladder, we were in the area around Great Oxbow. Our route on took an upslope dogleg off of the usual route to a series of climbs. The first, 6m, frontloaded all of the challenge with a move that required moderate hovering and was trivial beyond. The second, 3m, was similar but less so. The third involved a rather committing and airy (but gratifyingly short) traverse over a hole. The hand and foot holds were first rate, though, and so long as you don’t think about it too much it is over pretty quickly.
From here, we had a little bit of walking to the pitches. The first is a short, valley shaped traverse to a nice open pitch head and a 20m free hang. Immediately after, the next pitch (8m) is accessed through a tube slightly narrower than the sum of the diameters of my chest and a tackle bag. Here, Andrew introduced me to the benefits of rigging on clove hitches in certain circumstances, in this case to make it easier to adjust a bit of traverse that I had made a cock of on the first attempt while untangling myself after the tube. I was not the only one to learn something on this pitch; Sam, using a borrowed Simple for the first time, was able to familiarise himself with their particular disadvantages too.
The bottom of the pitch was a bit wet, and we went downstream for a while to reach a sandy tube and a confusion of high-level ways on. After some poking (including out over a traverse we were unable to identify on the survey but that had been left rigged) we did eventually muddle through into the Marble Showers. Nice.
We retraced our steps back to the pitch, but after ascending the pitches, we took an alternative route to Midnight Chamber that avoided repeating the traverses, dropping down near The Skyhook, via another short pitch. In the Cross Rift, we once again tried to repeat as little as possible and came out via Salubrious and the Corkscrew, Andrew encouraging us to learn the navigation out. Regardless, I still don’t think I have taken the same route through the Brickyard twice.
Editor's note: For the record, Sam stated afterwards that Andrew encouragement consisted of shouting, "Don't fall off!". There might also have been a few expletives involved.
Where: The Mini Columns (and the Bedding Chambers)
Who: Linda Wilson and Peter Burgess, joined en route by Elaine Oliver, Megan Malpas, Jake Reich and Merryn Matthews (related by Linda)
When: Saturday 7th February
Megan at the Mini Columns.
This was the 'limited mobility' trip, as I have a duff Achilles tendon at the moment and the Head Weasel aka Elaine Oliver has a broken leg! To make sure I didn't have the ignominy of being slower up the track than Elaine, Peter and I set off first. The walk up in freezing rain was possibly the most unpleasant I've ever had up that hillside and I was very glad to get underground. As we usually do, Peter and I wombled along taking photographs and finding interesting things to look at. The others caught up with us in the Brickyard which Elaine navigated with ease, despite having removed her surgical boot in the cottage, swapping it for a tight bandage and other padding. For me, the walking and clambering in the cave proved less challenging on the bad ankle than the walk up the squidgy hillside. I think I've mentioned it was wet, haven't I?
Just weaselling around ... left to right, Jake, Merryn, Elaine.
The Mini Columns were duly photographed and while the others carried on the the Bedding Chambers, Peter and I wandered slowly out, via more photo stops, until the others caught up with us on the way out for an even wetter walk down the hill in freezing sleet and a driving wind. The gulley we'd walked up was now a full-blown stream!
Where: OFD Top
Who: Andy Farrant, Si Hadfield, Tom
When: Saturday 7th February
All the side passages heading north from Big Chamber near the Entrance, including the top gate to the Columns (lovely bit of passage), and then over to Bagpipe Chamber and top of Arête Chamber, then back out. Lots of interesting bits of passage and plenty to see if you stop and look. (All photos in this section by Andy)
Where: Pendulum Passage and the Nave
Who: Haydon Saunders, Imogen Clement, Elliott McCall, Gabriel Littler
When: Saturday 7th February
Left to right, Gabriel, Imogen and Elliott celebrating their survival.
The full write up of this particular UBSS epic will follow when certain team members have emerged from therapy, for now, suffice it to say that in response to a request for where they went, Imogen responded: "We went to this bit of the cave which was adjacent to hell."
Saturday night saw us drinking prosecco, feasting on a collaborative curry with dishes devised and prepared by a wide variety of weasels, playing games and taking the piss out of each other.
Sunday dawned slightly drier and even the occasional patch of blue in the previously uniformly grey skies. Breakfast chefs set to work again, and leftover curry provided a surprisingly excellent accompaniment to more usual fare. Sadly, Graham and I had to head back to Bristol after that as - not so sadly - we were flying to Athens on Tuesday, so missed out on drier weather, more caving and even some wild swimming!
Where: Prokofiev Series, OFD3 Traverses
Who: Andrew Atkinson, Jacob Podesta, Simon Hadfield (related by Jacob)
When: Sunday 8th February
Andrew had identified a part of OFD that he had never been to before (a rare thing) and Si and I had not been there either (comparatively less rare), so we had made plans to visit the Prokofiev Series and tack on the OFD3 Traverses for extra interest and length.
Despite my best efforts, I was up fairly early for a Sunday so, after a short walk, I started making breakfast and contemplated the injustice of my unearned freshness. We found ourselves, therefore, entering Top at the moderately respectable time of 12.10pm, though Andrew did prophecise that I would eventually sober up and become unhappy.
Taking the familiar route through the Brickyard and as far as the Corkscrew, our route on was to continue past it into Chasm Passage and then left into the Chasm, requiring the descent of a 5m climb. At this point, Andrew and Simon FARTed (Falling Angel Rigging Technique © S.Hadfield 2026. All Rights Reserved.).
I was wearing my harness, as I was not sure what the pitches would be like and was aware that Andrew and Si are more confident climbers than me, but this didn’t prevent me from FARTing too. The Chasm itself was fairly linear, with a drop down off a traverse about halfway along, and an obvious left-hand route after about ten minutes of stomping led us to Timo’s Table. We were not entirely clear about the way on into Prokofiev Series, and initially investigated a route straight on past Timo’s Table, where it seemed like the Series could be gained by a series of short climbs. Before the climbs, though, was a deep pit that none of us particularly relished traversing around, with the wall at an unhelpful angle and the ledge of dubious integrity. We decided that we would only attempt it if we got desperate, and went back to investigate a way up directly opposite Timo’s Table. This was a fairly undignified 2m climb with exactly one hold and a sloppy mud bank for a landing, and none of us were able to avoid pinnipedian flop.
Beyond this point, the passage became narrow and stooping, briefly climbing up into a higher level only to regain the floor after a few meters. Eventually we had to climb up once again into a higher level of passage, putting us at the top of a narrow and thrutchy traverse. We put our noses to the stone and traversed away, through a tight right angle requiring a corkscrew motion to make best use of each joint sequentially, and on to a narrowing of the now very slippery traverse. It was fairly strenuous, but quite short, and popped us out in a bit of cave that was not Prokofiev Series. Not the bit that would lead us to Five Mile Chamber, the obvious turn around point, anyway.
Having confirmed that, indeed, none of the passages there that entirely overlap one another actually connect, we thrutched back the way we came and found a junction on two levels that we had either missed on the way in or ignored. Taking this way led to much more reasonable section of cave that eventually brought us to a 7m climb up with an in-situ rope of unknown quality. The climb was more of a challenge for the mind than the fingers, but the airy step around at the top is definitely more comfortable with the rope to grab, and Simon's slippery wellies gave him pause for thought. Onwards, we found that Five Mile Chamber has a pitch, not free-climbable, with nothing to rig off and we had no rope anyway. Contenting ourselves with having at least looked at Five Mile Chamber, we headed out of Prokofiev to go and look at the OFD3 Traverses.
Andrew’s prophecy was realised as we left the traverse, and my vision became a bit funny. No matter, it was still half an hour to the traverses so it would probably sort itself out. Passing Timo’s Table for the second time, we proceeded past Poached Egg and to the Crevasse, where we all had another FART, and then on to the traverses, where my vision did indeed sort itself out. The traverses were fun; we had Andrew to find the right level for us, but I imagine that it would be more intimidating if you picked the wrong ledges.
Shuffling along the Maypole, a scaffold bar propped across a hole to make a traversable bridge, provides an insight into what it must be like to make sail in a tall ship, and after that we were close to Niagara. Andrew provided me with useful information about the climb down here, as the easier route is not visible from the top. I failed to pass this on to Simon, who had to dangle a bit (sorry, Simon). We glanced at the waterfall before returning the way we had come. To take an alternative to The Chasm out, we returned to Timo’s table and the smaller route that leads into Arête, ultimately joining the top of Salubrious and placing us at the entrance at about 16.45.
Where: Powell's Cave
Who: Elaine Oliver, Andy Farrant and Peter Burgess
When: Sunday 8th February
European Cave Spider (Meta Menardii). Drawing by Elaine Oliver.
A quick jaunt into Powell's Cave. A low entrance on the righthand side of the road up to Penwyllt opens up into a roomy section of cave passage that can be followed to a higher level in the quarry, providing an interesting short trip with some interesting pencil graffiti dating to the 1930s and 40s, a plethora of spiders and a couple of photogenic moths.
Where: Llyn y fan Fawr
Who: Jake Reich, Sam Bowers, Gabriel, Elliott, Imogen Clement, Merryn Matthews, Megan Malpas
When: Sunday 9th February
Megan proving exactly how hardcore UBSS women are!
As the weather had improved from driving sleet to something almost pleasant, our intrepid party walked up a hill to the picturesque Llyn y fan Fawr where Megan, Imogen and Merryn went swimming while, in Jake's words, "the men sat and drank beer and complained about how cold it was."
Thanks to everyone who made this such a brilliant weekend, particularly our hardworking shoppers and cooks, plus our hosts Peter Burgess and the Wealden Cave and Mine Society!
And lastly, why 'weasels'? Sorry, none of us can remember, but the name seems to have stuck!
Linda Wilson
PS Did I mention it rained a lot on Friday and Saturday?
SOMETHING WEASELY DIFFERENT
A gang of weasels, left to right: Linda Wilson, Si Hadfield, Graham Mullan, Ash Gregg, Elaine Oliver.
Or alternative something stoatly absurd, as Linda Wilson discovered when Elaine Oliver put a three line whip on pub attendance for those who weren't enjoying an evening of Ben Morgan's homebrew at Emily's house.
Thus summonded, a group of obedient weasels headed to the Ostrich in Redcliffe at the behest of the Chief Weasel, who had declared that we were going to do some crafting. The mention of crafts was enough to lure me out of the house in the dark. I can never usually be arsed to go out in winter, but then I've never met a craft activity I didn't enjoy, so that trumped miserable winter weather, and off we set.
Downstairs, the pub was packed as it was their quiz night, but the upstairs bar was quiet, so once settled with drinks, Elaine produced a Hobby Craft 'make your own felt weasel' kit for each of us and we set to the task with equal enthusiasm, including Graham, who I've never seen show an interest in crafting in all the time I've known him (except the time he wove a beautiful leather handle for a dagger my Dad made, but that's another story). Elaine and I read the instructions, while the men (Ash Gregg, Graham and Si Hadfield) dived in and muddled through. Stuffing our creations at the end was a bit of a challenge, and trying to find out how to stick the eye on was even more of a challenge, only circumvented by combined tactics and ruthless enthusiasm for completing the task. When Jacob Podesta arrived late, he also adoped the muddle through method, while we watched and offered sage advice (and helped him find the cheat method to attach the eye).
For those who might be interested, I looked up the collective noun for weasels, with this result:
Linda Wilson
A gang of weasels, left to right: Linda Wilson, Si Hadfield, Graham Mullan, Ash Gregg, Elaine Oliver.
Or alternative something stoatly absurd, as Linda Wilson discovered when Elaine Oliver put a three line whip on pub attendance for those who weren't enjoying an evening of Ben Morgan's homebrew at Emily's house.
Thus summonded, a group of obedient weasels headed to the Ostrich in Redcliffe at the behest of the Chief Weasel, who had declared that we were going to do some crafting. The mention of crafts was enough to lure me out of the house in the dark. I can never usually be arsed to go out in winter, but then I've never met a craft activity I didn't enjoy, so that trumped miserable winter weather, and off we set.
Downstairs, the pub was packed as it was their quiz night, but the upstairs bar was quiet, so once settled with drinks, Elaine produced a Hobby Craft 'make your own felt weasel' kit for each of us and we set to the task with equal enthusiasm, including Graham, who I've never seen show an interest in crafting in all the time I've known him (except the time he wove a beautiful leather handle for a dagger my Dad made, but that's another story). Elaine and I read the instructions, while the men (Ash Gregg, Graham and Si Hadfield) dived in and muddled through. Stuffing our creations at the end was a bit of a challenge, and trying to find out how to stick the eye on was even more of a challenge, only circumvented by combined tactics and ruthless enthusiasm for completing the task. When Jacob Podesta arrived late, he also adoped the muddle through method, while we watched and offered sage advice (and helped him find the cheat method to attach the eye).
For those who might be interested, I looked up the collective noun for weasels, with this result:
A group of weasels is most commonly called a sneak, gang, pack or colony. Other less common terms for a group of these mammals include a "boogle" or a "confusion". In our case, the latter was particularly apt!
And before of any of you say it, yes, we did think it closely resembled a dementia friendly group activity for those of advanced years ...Linda Wilson
LOVE'S LABOURS WON
Ben Morgan tells the epic tale of a Valentine's trip to the (soon not to be) end of Daren Cilau.
The Llangattock escarpment contains ONE cave system comprising three significant caves. Daren Cilau, Agen Allwedd, and Craig a ffynnon. Daren sits between Aggy and Craig tantalisingly close to each but without connecting. The system is majestic and there's enormous potential for their connection. It is unsurprising that significant digging has been undertaken in efforts to connect the system which has so far yielded no fruit. Craig is further but Aggy and Daren have been a year away from being connected since the early 90s.
This month, a UBSS team has helped prove that the connection is now imminent and we are in fact only one year away from the connection ;). (Anyone who has done any digging knows that really it is impossible to put a date on a breakthrough and it could be any time from six months to six years.)
Priory Road
In recent years the credible effort to link Daren and Aggy has been led by The Monks digging team. Stories of old smoke tests informed them to dig Donovan’s Grief in Aggy, believed to be heading towards Updweeb in Daren. They run productive digging weekends from the Priory Road camp which over the last year have progressed many metres towards Daren. A few months ago, we were thrilled to hear that a new smoke test had been conducted by The Monks from Daren to Aggy, and that diggers on the Aggy side heard banging on a rock from Daren. The team in Daren however were unable to hear noise emanating from Aggy.
Since then, the dig has progressed another three metres or so. We were challenged on the Valentine's weekend to travel to the far reaches of Daren and see if a full audio connection could be established.
The Trip
After a long Friday of the PhD grind and uni, I found myself with Daniel Rose, Billy Evans, and Joe Bidie standing outside Daren Cilau. We’d consumed a final dinner in Bristol with as much paella as we could cram into our stomachs and driven to Wales. Armed with two days' worth of camping kit, a drum filled with curry, and around one litre of grog, we began the crawl. Most UK cavers know the irritation of pulling a camping bag through these cold wet nasties. Fortunately, after 50 minutes all the bags had been pulled through and we were in Jigsaw Passage.
We had all trodden the march to Hard Rock plenty of times before and reached the café before midnight, happy to have the entrance series (as it has been poignantly dubbed by Tarquin) behind us. Like kids on Christmas we opened up our dry bags to find all of our layers and sleeping bags dry and settled into what, for me, was the warmest and most comfortable night I have spent sleeping in a cave (not quite as warm as Tenerife though – second picture below). Below we flaunt our generous rations. It also became apparent that we had been spending too long camping in caves as of late. I for one have now spent three days camping underground in Tenerife and two weekends camping in Daren in the last month and a bit.
When we took off our wetsocks at Hard Rock it turned out that a member of the group (who shall not be named to protect their dignity) had been struck down with the most horrendous of foot rot. The masses will be happy to know that since the trip extreme measures have been taken to cure this. I think we need Elaine to give us her foot rot prevention talk in the very near future.
For comparison, Ben Morgan and Seb McCarten in the Soft Dust Cafe in El Rio Tenerife.
The Trip to Spaderunner
After a shockingly restful night's sleep we feasted. Triple porridge and quadruple coffee rations were granted to all officers and enlisted men to prepare them for the task ahead. At 3:30 we set off and were amazed by the rate that the quadruple coffee propelled us through the system. After 15 minutes we were at the Samaritans’ sign where we took our annual photo.
Fifteen minutes later we were at the Micron where we turned into the beautiful Welsh Swildon’s that is Ankle Grinder Bypass. In just over 45 minutes we were at Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Years ago we considered this a liminal hellscape but now the restaurant felt like a lovely home away from home where we happily tucked into our cornucopia of snacks and filled up our bottles for the final dry section of cave.
Past Big Chamber
We passed through the lovely Cordillera Blanca chambers and soon reached Big Chamber. This ladder is always impressive as past this point you start to feel a little further from home. The passage from here was enjoyable and a nice mix of crawling and walking through surprisingly large passages. Before we knew it, we were back at the first aid kit & junction to the Bad Bat Choke (do not turn right here into what appears to be the obvious way on or you will be very sad).
We took the correct left hand turn and finally found ourselves on ground which none of us had trodden before. Fortunately, the gods of navigation smiled upon us and we made our way without trouble to the junction between Dweebland and Spaderunner. Finally our eyes graced the blessed dweeb box. Turn to Spaderunner we did not, for this time we had a higher purpose. Instead, we headed down the less travelled Dweebland, towards Updweeb and Aggy.
We had agreed with Mushroom Dave that we would be there at 19:00. We were slightly behind schedule but by 19:15 we had the lump hammer in our hands and began to bang on the right rock. Dave had sent us a photo of this and asked us to hit it. We took turns banging for a minute and then silently holding our breaths and listening for a response.
This quickly turned into disappointment: nothing could be heard. After 20 minutes, we started to get bored and dissent began. This was clearly a waste of time and Joe, Billy and I decided that we should head back and go to Spaderunner. Dan, however, said that we should give it ‘twenty more seconds’ of intent, silent listening. One second passed; then another; then – euphoric eruption ...
‘HMMMM______HMMMMMM_____HMMMMMM’. The sound was unmistakable. We could hear drilling. A few seconds later we heard ‘Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink!’ The sound of hammering. After sharing a few glances of astonishment, we started screaming with joy. These sounds were faint but loud enough that there was no question of what they were. Between 7:30 and 7:36 these sounds were heard with undeniable clarity. Now buoyed with excitement we banged the rock for another few minutes and then departed Dweebland grinning. We filmed lots of footage of this on the UBSS camera which we will edit into a video and post on MCCBTV in the next few months. You can't hear the sounds on camera but hopefully you will find our excitement infectious.
After the joy of the audio connection, finally getting to Spaderunner felt more like a self-indulgent victory lap than a caving achievement. After a bit of sandy hands and knees crawling, we were there. Below are some photos of us relishing the sight of the Mushroom Dave Tours sign.
The happy team! Top, left to right: Dan, Ben, Billy. Bottom: Joe, Dan, Ben.
From here we were so overjoyed that we felt like we were caving back to HRC on clouds. We stopped for some delightful peanut butter and nutella pittas at the Restaurant. The commute back to Hard Rock which in the past with tackle sacks had caused us such ire again took us less than an hour and before we knew it we were back in toasty dry kit. We heated up our curry and rice and tucked into what was nothing short of a feast. By midnight we had all eaten our fill. It was time to celebrate!
Martyn Farr's Party Palace
Those who remember our last Daren write up will surely remember the MCCB grog store. Last time we carried in five bottles of grog (recipe in last writeup) consisting of 700ml rum 700ml whiskey and 350ml vodka with copious brown sugar and lime. I am told by reliable sources that a recent UBSS trip to Hard Rock tried AND OF COURSE FAILED to locate and steal our stash… nice try, kids, but after dragging that much alco through the entrance crawl we buried it deeper than Andrew Mountbatten’s hard drives. To this we added an additional bottle of rum which we had saturated into a syrup with caster sugar and more lime leaving us with quite the little pile of drinkies. It was time to put Martyn Farr’s Party Palace to its proper use. Below you can see us rejoicing with the Hard Rock red nose that we have lovingly named “Kenny”.
Meet Kenny.
You can also catch a glimpse of the Hard Rock logbook (a rare luxury that you can do this from the comfort of your homes without traversing the horrors of the entrance crawl or Pwll y Cwm).
Due to an unspent anti social behaviour order His Majesty’s Constabulary have rendered it unlawful for Billy Evans to drink in the British Isles. We debated for a while whether terrestrial laws applied this deep underground but out of a sense of civic duty, Billy's grog rations were surrendered to the authorities and he instead satisfied himself by smoking most of a pack of fags. We even have a picture of a reformed, happy and sober Mr William Evans, should such evidence be needed in court.
Quite the gentleman I’m sure you’ll agree. We did wonder what the blue thing around his neck was. Rather than a buff Billy wore a pair of Emily’s knickers for the duration of the trip (Valentine's, I guess). We told him he should leave them by the Mushroom Tours sign at the end of Spaderunner but he didn’t like the thought of random cavers sniffing his girlfriend’s pants for years to come. After the trip Emily said he was a wuss for not leaving them there. We all agreed it would have been a brilliant addition to the lore of the end of the cave but alas they’re now back in Bristol.
With Billy's grog ration requisitioned, Dan, Joe and I were left with the enviable task of trying to drink all the booze. I am proud to say that we drank from 12:00 midnight to 6:00 AM leaving behind just one small 300ml bottle (now hidden in the deepest darkest depths of King’s Road where you’ll never get your nasty little hands on it). We decided to go for a nice family beach day at the terminal sump. The walk to and from King's Road in our condition was most definitely the most dangerous section of the trip. Fortunately no one fell in the sump.
At around 6:30 AM we were finally all grogged out and fell asleep. We woke in the mid-afternoon ready for the classic of dragging your hungover corpse and tackle sack back to the Welsh surface. This was not enough to lower our mood however and we sung some delightful renditions of Dream a Little Dream of Me, Rainbow in the Sky, and Dancing Queen as we made our way out. Before the trip we set an ETA of 10:00 PM with Merryn. They were as shocked as us to find that we in fact left the cave at roughly 10:00 on the dot and cancelled callout with her at 10:10 after walking down the hill.
Daren trips can’t ever go all right, however, and we were disappointed to find that in classic MCCB fashion the code to Whitewalls we had been given did not work. This time we did in fact have the correct code. John claims some freak event to do with water in the back door left the door impossible to open. This was unfortunate but we were happy enough with the trip that we didn’t mind a quick change in freezing conditions and getting straight back in the car to Bristol. It wasn’t snowing when we were there but here is a photo that another UBSS group who went to Aggy took the day after showing off some lovely Llangattock powder.
Left to right: Seb McCarten, Aki Kondo-Durthie, Tom Headington. Photo by Sam Brace.
It was a wonderful trip and we are all overjoyed to have had the honour of being the first people in Daren to ever hear sounds from people in Aggy. We are all done with Daren now for the time being and will instead invest any time we spend in Llangatock to helping out the Monks team digging at the Priory Road camps. I for one have decided that in lieu of extraordinary circumstances I will not set foot in Daren unless it is to complete the through trip all the way to Aggy – which undeniably will be one of the finest sporting trips in the country.
Ben Morgan tells the epic tale of a Valentine's trip to the (soon not to be) end of Daren Cilau.
The Llangattock escarpment contains ONE cave system comprising three significant caves. Daren Cilau, Agen Allwedd, and Craig a ffynnon. Daren sits between Aggy and Craig tantalisingly close to each but without connecting. The system is majestic and there's enormous potential for their connection. It is unsurprising that significant digging has been undertaken in efforts to connect the system which has so far yielded no fruit. Craig is further but Aggy and Daren have been a year away from being connected since the early 90s.
This month, a UBSS team has helped prove that the connection is now imminent and we are in fact only one year away from the connection ;). (Anyone who has done any digging knows that really it is impossible to put a date on a breakthrough and it could be any time from six months to six years.)
Priory Road
In recent years the credible effort to link Daren and Aggy has been led by The Monks digging team. Stories of old smoke tests informed them to dig Donovan’s Grief in Aggy, believed to be heading towards Updweeb in Daren. They run productive digging weekends from the Priory Road camp which over the last year have progressed many metres towards Daren. A few months ago, we were thrilled to hear that a new smoke test had been conducted by The Monks from Daren to Aggy, and that diggers on the Aggy side heard banging on a rock from Daren. The team in Daren however were unable to hear noise emanating from Aggy.
Since then, the dig has progressed another three metres or so. We were challenged on the Valentine's weekend to travel to the far reaches of Daren and see if a full audio connection could be established.
The Trip
After a long Friday of the PhD grind and uni, I found myself with Daniel Rose, Billy Evans, and Joe Bidie standing outside Daren Cilau. We’d consumed a final dinner in Bristol with as much paella as we could cram into our stomachs and driven to Wales. Armed with two days' worth of camping kit, a drum filled with curry, and around one litre of grog, we began the crawl. Most UK cavers know the irritation of pulling a camping bag through these cold wet nasties. Fortunately, after 50 minutes all the bags had been pulled through and we were in Jigsaw Passage.
We had all trodden the march to Hard Rock plenty of times before and reached the café before midnight, happy to have the entrance series (as it has been poignantly dubbed by Tarquin) behind us. Like kids on Christmas we opened up our dry bags to find all of our layers and sleeping bags dry and settled into what, for me, was the warmest and most comfortable night I have spent sleeping in a cave (not quite as warm as Tenerife though – second picture below). Below we flaunt our generous rations. It also became apparent that we had been spending too long camping in caves as of late. I for one have now spent three days camping underground in Tenerife and two weekends camping in Daren in the last month and a bit.
When we took off our wetsocks at Hard Rock it turned out that a member of the group (who shall not be named to protect their dignity) had been struck down with the most horrendous of foot rot. The masses will be happy to know that since the trip extreme measures have been taken to cure this. I think we need Elaine to give us her foot rot prevention talk in the very near future.
For comparison, Ben Morgan and Seb McCarten in the Soft Dust Cafe in El Rio Tenerife. The Trip to Spaderunner
After a shockingly restful night's sleep we feasted. Triple porridge and quadruple coffee rations were granted to all officers and enlisted men to prepare them for the task ahead. At 3:30 we set off and were amazed by the rate that the quadruple coffee propelled us through the system. After 15 minutes we were at the Samaritans’ sign where we took our annual photo.
Fifteen minutes later we were at the Micron where we turned into the beautiful Welsh Swildon’s that is Ankle Grinder Bypass. In just over 45 minutes we were at Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Years ago we considered this a liminal hellscape but now the restaurant felt like a lovely home away from home where we happily tucked into our cornucopia of snacks and filled up our bottles for the final dry section of cave.
Past Big Chamber
We passed through the lovely Cordillera Blanca chambers and soon reached Big Chamber. This ladder is always impressive as past this point you start to feel a little further from home. The passage from here was enjoyable and a nice mix of crawling and walking through surprisingly large passages. Before we knew it, we were back at the first aid kit & junction to the Bad Bat Choke (do not turn right here into what appears to be the obvious way on or you will be very sad).
We took the correct left hand turn and finally found ourselves on ground which none of us had trodden before. Fortunately, the gods of navigation smiled upon us and we made our way without trouble to the junction between Dweebland and Spaderunner. Finally our eyes graced the blessed dweeb box. Turn to Spaderunner we did not, for this time we had a higher purpose. Instead, we headed down the less travelled Dweebland, towards Updweeb and Aggy.
We had agreed with Mushroom Dave that we would be there at 19:00. We were slightly behind schedule but by 19:15 we had the lump hammer in our hands and began to bang on the right rock. Dave had sent us a photo of this and asked us to hit it. We took turns banging for a minute and then silently holding our breaths and listening for a response.
This quickly turned into disappointment: nothing could be heard. After 20 minutes, we started to get bored and dissent began. This was clearly a waste of time and Joe, Billy and I decided that we should head back and go to Spaderunner. Dan, however, said that we should give it ‘twenty more seconds’ of intent, silent listening. One second passed; then another; then – euphoric eruption ...
‘HMMMM______HMMMMMM_____HMMMMMM’. The sound was unmistakable. We could hear drilling. A few seconds later we heard ‘Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink!’ The sound of hammering. After sharing a few glances of astonishment, we started screaming with joy. These sounds were faint but loud enough that there was no question of what they were. Between 7:30 and 7:36 these sounds were heard with undeniable clarity. Now buoyed with excitement we banged the rock for another few minutes and then departed Dweebland grinning. We filmed lots of footage of this on the UBSS camera which we will edit into a video and post on MCCBTV in the next few months. You can't hear the sounds on camera but hopefully you will find our excitement infectious.
After the joy of the audio connection, finally getting to Spaderunner felt more like a self-indulgent victory lap than a caving achievement. After a bit of sandy hands and knees crawling, we were there. Below are some photos of us relishing the sight of the Mushroom Dave Tours sign.
The happy team! Top, left to right: Dan, Ben, Billy. Bottom: Joe, Dan, Ben. From here we were so overjoyed that we felt like we were caving back to HRC on clouds. We stopped for some delightful peanut butter and nutella pittas at the Restaurant. The commute back to Hard Rock which in the past with tackle sacks had caused us such ire again took us less than an hour and before we knew it we were back in toasty dry kit. We heated up our curry and rice and tucked into what was nothing short of a feast. By midnight we had all eaten our fill. It was time to celebrate!
Martyn Farr's Party Palace
Those who remember our last Daren write up will surely remember the MCCB grog store. Last time we carried in five bottles of grog (recipe in last writeup) consisting of 700ml rum 700ml whiskey and 350ml vodka with copious brown sugar and lime. I am told by reliable sources that a recent UBSS trip to Hard Rock tried AND OF COURSE FAILED to locate and steal our stash… nice try, kids, but after dragging that much alco through the entrance crawl we buried it deeper than Andrew Mountbatten’s hard drives. To this we added an additional bottle of rum which we had saturated into a syrup with caster sugar and more lime leaving us with quite the little pile of drinkies. It was time to put Martyn Farr’s Party Palace to its proper use. Below you can see us rejoicing with the Hard Rock red nose that we have lovingly named “Kenny”.
Meet Kenny.
You can also catch a glimpse of the Hard Rock logbook (a rare luxury that you can do this from the comfort of your homes without traversing the horrors of the entrance crawl or Pwll y Cwm).
Due to an unspent anti social behaviour order His Majesty’s Constabulary have rendered it unlawful for Billy Evans to drink in the British Isles. We debated for a while whether terrestrial laws applied this deep underground but out of a sense of civic duty, Billy's grog rations were surrendered to the authorities and he instead satisfied himself by smoking most of a pack of fags. We even have a picture of a reformed, happy and sober Mr William Evans, should such evidence be needed in court.
Quite the gentleman I’m sure you’ll agree. We did wonder what the blue thing around his neck was. Rather than a buff Billy wore a pair of Emily’s knickers for the duration of the trip (Valentine's, I guess). We told him he should leave them by the Mushroom Tours sign at the end of Spaderunner but he didn’t like the thought of random cavers sniffing his girlfriend’s pants for years to come. After the trip Emily said he was a wuss for not leaving them there. We all agreed it would have been a brilliant addition to the lore of the end of the cave but alas they’re now back in Bristol.
With Billy's grog ration requisitioned, Dan, Joe and I were left with the enviable task of trying to drink all the booze. I am proud to say that we drank from 12:00 midnight to 6:00 AM leaving behind just one small 300ml bottle (now hidden in the deepest darkest depths of King’s Road where you’ll never get your nasty little hands on it). We decided to go for a nice family beach day at the terminal sump. The walk to and from King's Road in our condition was most definitely the most dangerous section of the trip. Fortunately no one fell in the sump.
At around 6:30 AM we were finally all grogged out and fell asleep. We woke in the mid-afternoon ready for the classic of dragging your hungover corpse and tackle sack back to the Welsh surface. This was not enough to lower our mood however and we sung some delightful renditions of Dream a Little Dream of Me, Rainbow in the Sky, and Dancing Queen as we made our way out. Before the trip we set an ETA of 10:00 PM with Merryn. They were as shocked as us to find that we in fact left the cave at roughly 10:00 on the dot and cancelled callout with her at 10:10 after walking down the hill.
Daren trips can’t ever go all right, however, and we were disappointed to find that in classic MCCB fashion the code to Whitewalls we had been given did not work. This time we did in fact have the correct code. John claims some freak event to do with water in the back door left the door impossible to open. This was unfortunate but we were happy enough with the trip that we didn’t mind a quick change in freezing conditions and getting straight back in the car to Bristol. It wasn’t snowing when we were there but here is a photo that another UBSS group who went to Aggy took the day after showing off some lovely Llangattock powder.
Left to right: Seb McCarten, Aki Kondo-Durthie, Tom Headington. Photo by Sam Brace.
It was a wonderful trip and we are all overjoyed to have had the honour of being the first people in Daren to ever hear sounds from people in Aggy. We are all done with Daren now for the time being and will instead invest any time we spend in Llangatock to helping out the Monks team digging at the Priory Road camps. I for one have decided that in lieu of extraordinary circumstances I will not set foot in Daren unless it is to complete the through trip all the way to Aggy – which undeniably will be one of the finest sporting trips in the country.
Ben Morgan
MUSEUM NEWS
Top left: Mowgli Palmer and Grace Smith; top middle, Mowgli Palmer; top right, Mungo Palmer,; centre, Dan James; bottom left, a box; bottom middle, some bones; bottom right, Dan James.
A few days ago, we hosted researcher Daniel James from UCL for a day in our museum. Linda Wilson describes a hunt for bison and reindeer..
Dan James is a postdoc researcher at UCL working with Rhiannon Stevens who's been visiting the museum for at least the past 20 years on various research projects. I've sent many bags of unsorted/unidentified scrap bone to Rhiannon's team for Zooms (Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry) and received it back all individually sampled and bagged.
On 25th February, Dan brought back the last few bags of material, and discussed an exciting new project that he and Rhiannon wanted to trial. In Dan's own words:
"As part of the PalaeoThaw project, we are testing out how the chemical composition of animal bones and teeth (specifically the isotopes of sulfur within them) is affected by large scale climate change. We identified a major chemical shift in archaeological animal bones spanning the end of the last glacial period (ice age), which we propose was caused by environmental changes associated with the thawing of the permafrost that would have covered much of northern and central Europe in that colder climate. We now want to test if this chemical proxy has the power to record much subtler changes in climate, and the bones stored at UBSS from the site of Picken's Hole provide an exciting opportunity for us to do this. One of the stratigraphic units at Picken's Hole (Unit 4) was laid down during a relatively colder stage within the last glacial period known as Marine Isotope Stage 4, and by comparing the sulfur isotopes in Picken's Unit 4 with those above and below, we should be able to test how extensive the environmental change was at that time. If our hypothesis proves correct, it will expand the utility of sulfur isotopes to test for melting permafrost in a wide range of archaeological contexts and in modern threatened environments."
As part of project, Dan needed to find example of animals that were present through archaeological levels 3, 4 and 5 in Picken's Hole, so after a coffee break, his willing helpers Mungo and Mowgli Palmer and Grace Smith returned to the Stables to go on an enthusiastic hunt for bison and reindeer, being the animals that appeared in all three levels.
Cries of '"Got a bison!" or "Found a reindeer!" were soon echoing up and down the stairs. Dan had tasked us with finding five specimens of each animal from each of the three levels. We met the challenge, and Dan was able to carry out some sampling on site, whilst I booked out some other bags of material to him on loan for further sampling and analysis at the lab in London.
It's always a pleasure to host researchers in the museum and see the important part our collection plays in the wider world. This is a really exciting project in which Picken's Hole will play an important role. If you'd like to find out more about Picken's Hole, take a look at the resources in the UBSS website.
For the record, no bison or reindeer were harmed in the making of this article!
Top left: Mowgli Palmer and Grace Smith; top middle, Mowgli Palmer; top right, Mungo Palmer,; centre, Dan James; bottom left, a box; bottom middle, some bones; bottom right, Dan James.
A few days ago, we hosted researcher Daniel James from UCL for a day in our museum. Linda Wilson describes a hunt for bison and reindeer..
Dan James is a postdoc researcher at UCL working with Rhiannon Stevens who's been visiting the museum for at least the past 20 years on various research projects. I've sent many bags of unsorted/unidentified scrap bone to Rhiannon's team for Zooms (Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry) and received it back all individually sampled and bagged.
On 25th February, Dan brought back the last few bags of material, and discussed an exciting new project that he and Rhiannon wanted to trial. In Dan's own words:
"As part of the PalaeoThaw project, we are testing out how the chemical composition of animal bones and teeth (specifically the isotopes of sulfur within them) is affected by large scale climate change. We identified a major chemical shift in archaeological animal bones spanning the end of the last glacial period (ice age), which we propose was caused by environmental changes associated with the thawing of the permafrost that would have covered much of northern and central Europe in that colder climate. We now want to test if this chemical proxy has the power to record much subtler changes in climate, and the bones stored at UBSS from the site of Picken's Hole provide an exciting opportunity for us to do this. One of the stratigraphic units at Picken's Hole (Unit 4) was laid down during a relatively colder stage within the last glacial period known as Marine Isotope Stage 4, and by comparing the sulfur isotopes in Picken's Unit 4 with those above and below, we should be able to test how extensive the environmental change was at that time. If our hypothesis proves correct, it will expand the utility of sulfur isotopes to test for melting permafrost in a wide range of archaeological contexts and in modern threatened environments."
As part of project, Dan needed to find example of animals that were present through archaeological levels 3, 4 and 5 in Picken's Hole, so after a coffee break, his willing helpers Mungo and Mowgli Palmer and Grace Smith returned to the Stables to go on an enthusiastic hunt for bison and reindeer, being the animals that appeared in all three levels.
Cries of '"Got a bison!" or "Found a reindeer!" were soon echoing up and down the stairs. Dan had tasked us with finding five specimens of each animal from each of the three levels. We met the challenge, and Dan was able to carry out some sampling on site, whilst I booked out some other bags of material to him on loan for further sampling and analysis at the lab in London.
It's always a pleasure to host researchers in the museum and see the important part our collection plays in the wider world. This is a really exciting project in which Picken's Hole will play an important role. If you'd like to find out more about Picken's Hole, take a look at the resources in the UBSS website.
For the record, no bison or reindeer were harmed in the making of this article!
Linda Wilson
ANGELINO ARMADILLO MADE IT TO THE END, DID YOU?
This month's newsletter animal comes to you courtesy of Bing AI and the suggestion of an armadillo (and her name) comes from Grace's mum and her friends! We have a suspicion that alcohol might have been involved somewhere. If anyone has any suggestions for future animals, do let us know! As ever, this is your chance to tell us what you liked, or to shower us with rude comments, or just tell us that yes, you really did make it to the end! All editors are needy creatures and we're no exception, hence the offer of a prize for the first student to get to the end and drop us a line using the link. It makes our day, honestly it does.
So here goes with last month's comments and WhatsApp reactions.
- Great newsletter. [Mungo Palmer]
- BIG fan of cave snake! [Megan Malpas]
- Sounds like everyone’s been incredibly active. Good reports and excellent photos to go with them. Shame about the veggie choice for the AGM day meal - the next time someone offers me a cauliflower steak (it’s the successor to goats’ cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and butternut squash), I shall threaten to insert it where the sun don’t shine (and that’s not a cave on Mendip!) [Sharon Wheeler and a faintly affronted FT Bear]
- Thanks for another good one. Very interesting to read the work in Redhouse Lane Swallet. [Hans Friederich]
Hello Angelino, so lovely to meet you!
THE END
This month's newsletter animal comes to you courtesy of Bing AI and the suggestion of an armadillo (and her name) comes from Grace's mum and her friends! We have a suspicion that alcohol might have been involved somewhere. If anyone has any suggestions for future animals, do let us know! As ever, this is your chance to tell us what you liked, or to shower us with rude comments, or just tell us that yes, you really did make it to the end! All editors are needy creatures and we're no exception, hence the offer of a prize for the first student to get to the end and drop us a line using the link. It makes our day, honestly it does.
So here goes with last month's comments and WhatsApp reactions.
- Great newsletter. [Mungo Palmer]
- BIG fan of cave snake! [Megan Malpas]
- Sounds like everyone’s been incredibly active. Good reports and excellent photos to go with them. Shame about the veggie choice for the AGM day meal - the next time someone offers me a cauliflower steak (it’s the successor to goats’ cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and butternut squash), I shall threaten to insert it where the sun don’t shine (and that’s not a cave on Mendip!) [Sharon Wheeler and a faintly affronted FT Bear]
- Thanks for another good one. Very interesting to read the work in Redhouse Lane Swallet. [Hans Friederich]
Hello Angelino, so lovely to meet you!
THE END