HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
It seems like no time at all since we
started 2021 in lockdown, after a very simple evening outside at the hut
with just four people, to ensure the rituals were performed and that
the tradition remained unbroken. This year we had more people, but stuck
to the 'meal in a bun' format as it worked well last year and took a
lot less mental effort.
We've now produced a newsletter every month for three years, without
missing a single issue! And it's (mostly) not been difficult to find
enough content. Inevitably, all editors end up writing a fair bit of it
themselves, as well as doing some nagging, but as a club, we are
incredibly lucky to have a lot of people who are happy to turn their
hand to a trip report, or other write up, and we're always open to more!
Despite the Plague, 2021 was a great one for the club in turns of
recruitment. We ended the year with 71 student members, which is
probably an all time record, and large numbers of those sign-ups are
actively caving, with 20 people attending the last CHECC event, and lots
of mid-week and weekend caving.
The museum suffered another upheaval due to wet rot in the floor joists
of the library stack, but thanks to a herculean effort, everything is
now ready for Estates to do the work once they can get contractors in,
but the double whammy of Brexshit and the Plague mean that there are
simply too many jobs for too few contractors at the moment, so we have
no timescale as yet for the work.
Here's hoping for a happy, healthy and safe year for us all with lots of underground fun. YAY, CAVING!
Back issues of the newsletter can be found here.
Zac and Linda
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WE GOT IT RIGHT, THE SUN CAME UP!
Probably not in the right order, but
present were: Helen and Richard Rossington, Liz and Peter Green, Clive
and Wanda Owen, Graham Mullan, Linda Wilson (behind the camera), Zac
Woodford, Jan Walker, Adrian Wilkins, Chris Pepper.
In the absence of more covid restrictions,
we went ahead with the traditional new Year's Eve gathering at the hut.
Everyone who came was asked to do a lateral flow test first as a covid
precaution and we were all relieved to come up negative.
Zac was the first at the hut after caving in the afternoon and was
furious to find the key absent from a smashed key safe. Fortunately, Liz
was at home and able to open the hut for him. He got a fire going and
settled down and read his book for the few hours it took the others to
arrive. The hut was very atmospheric by candlelight!
Firsts, or maybe seconds, or maybe even thirds.
After entertaining attempts (eventually
successful) to light the oven, roast spuds and parsnips (thanks Aunt
Bessie!!) were kept warm and a bonfire (not so) quickly lit, with the
aid of Chris Pepper's blowtorch, we might add (good fun).
We started the meal with Wanda's incredible tomato soup and followed on
with turkey sandwiches stacked as thick as a brick. At midnight we
welcomed the New Year, sang happy birthday to Clive and performed the
rites to raise the sun in the morning. We even did some singing, with a
rendition of Zac's Down and Away to Mendip (for the words, see last year's January newsletter.)
Wanda and Clive celebrating!
We were even joined before midnight by Liz
and Peter who walked up the track from home with a lump of coal for
first footing! There were twelve of us for the rituals, Aunt Bessie
having retired to bed for a well earned rest after cooking lots of
roasties for us.
Zac and Linda
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CHRISTMAS DINNER AT THE ELDON
The traditional Christmas dinner, held this year at the Eldon in Clifton, saw a large turn out of members, new and old.
The dinner was expertly organised by Imogen and the secret santa gift
exchange was slightly less expertly organised by Sam. A minor
organisational glitch ended up with Linda being the recipient of two
gifts (she wasn't grumbling!) while Imo appeared to have been left out
(everyone grumbled on her behalf!). Sam's comment along the lines of
'It's a good job it was you, not anyone else" earned him minus points on
the boyfriend scale and resulted in him having to pay a forfeit
involving shots.
And on the subject of shots, the club appears to have gained a new
tradition ... drinking shots out of Yorkshire puddings and then eating
the Yorkshires afterwards. Someone was even seen to tip some gravy out
before tipping the shot in and then drinking it.
The food was good, the pub looked festive and it was a great way to
start the Christmas season. Thanks to Imo and Sam for all the
organisation!
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AGM AND DINNER
For illustration purposes only! Not actual size or content.
The aim this year is to hold an in-person AGM and dinner, and a booking has been made at The Square in Berkeley Square, Clifton.
The provisional arrangements are as follows:
Date: Saturday 12 March 2021
Time: AGM 10am for coffee/tea etc, followed by the AGM and talk starting
at 10.30am. This will probably finish around 12 noon, allowing time for
a quick caving trip somewhere before the venue.
Venue: Geography Department, University Road.
Pre-Dinner drinks somewhere at 5pm then on to The Square at around 6 - 6.30pm.
The price will be in the region of £50 for a three course meal and will
include a glass of prosecco on arrival and half a bottle of wine per
person. The cost is likely to be cheaper for students and recent
graduates. Details will be confirmed in the next newsletter.
To register an interest, please contact Social Sec Sam Bowers. And if you have any ideas for the traditional awards ceremony, please let Sam know!
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BURNS' NIGHT AT THE HUT!!!
The actual meal almost certainly won't look like any of these, but don't let that put you off.
Haggis, neeps and tatties!! And yay, caving!
We will be
holding burns night on the 22/23rd January at our hut on Mendip. There
will be plenty of caving as well as the burns night traditions in
between. Dinner will be Haggis, neeps and tatties! Bring your own
whisky! (We also ask that you take a COVID test before attending).
An event will be posted on Facebook in due order!
Let Zac Woodford know if you'd like to attend.
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TRIP REPORT - GB CAVERN
Helictites and flowstone, GB Cavern
To blow the Christmas cobwebs away, Zac had a pleasant womble down GB with his aunt the afternoon of the New Year's Eve Dinner.
Having been unable to cave for most of
December owing to coursework and then spending Christmas with the
family, I wanted to get at least one more cave in before 2022. Happily,
the opportunity presented itself when my aunt came to visit and asked to
go caving having not been underground herself for a few years. As her
local caving region is Yorkshire, she hasn’t spent much time on Mendip;
so, I wanted to take her to an impressive Mendip cave. Naturally GB
presented itself! So we decided to meet on New Years' Eve for the last
cave of the year.
Our trip started slowly when she had to do a bit of route finding to
locate the parking (to be fair all I gave her were longitudinal and
latitudinal coordinates). Then suited, booted and permits signed, we
delved into GB. She was absolutely blown away by all the pretties: the
massive stalactites, flowstone cascades metres high, helictites,
forests of straws and all the others ones I can’t name. She was also
impressed by how much cave could be traversed without rope!
We made our way down to Ladder Dig, meticulously analysing all the stal
on the way. This was made difficult in the main chamber where the excess
water vapor in the air blocked a lot of our light. The stream way was
also the highest I’ve ever seen it, and where I’d only known trickles of
water before, now huge cascades thundered down pots.
In Ladder Dig, we stopped to examine the pretties and then made our way
back out. Despite entering quite late we were still able to get out for
the last light of day before going our separate ways. It was a great
trip and really wonderful to cave with my aunt again. And it was a great
way to end the year!
Zac Woodford
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WATERWHEEL SWALLET GATE VANDALISED
Waterwheel Swallet, Velvet Bottom. Survey by Willie Stanton, taken from UBSS Proceedings, 18 (1), pages 3 - 19.
The following note has been received from the CSCC Conservation and Access Officer.
"Waterwheel has recently been broken into and the gate vandalised. The
gate has been removed for repair/replacement and the entrance has been
secured with a non-removable grill. Everyone will appreciate that it is
not possible to leave the entrance unsecured due to the cave's high
profile location on a popular nature reserve. Repairs to the gate will
be carried out as soon as possible. Until the gate is replaced the cave
is not available for trips."
Graham Price
Conservation and Access Officer,
Council of Southern Caving Clubs
If anyone has any information on the persons responsible or would like further information, please contact Graham Price.
When access is restored, if you haven't visited Waterwheel yet, it's well worth a trip.
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OFD ACCESS
Attempts to grow carrots in OFD have been met with modest success. Photo by Linda Wilson.
The access arrangements for OFD in
South Wales have recently been updated and the following information has
been received from Gary Vaughan of the South Wales Caving Club (SWCC).
"SWCC
has navigated a difficult course through the pandemic and still remains
in a state of development and change with respect to its systems and
protocols. Due to the Pandemic, it has not been possible to administer a
duty officer from the HQ to administer cave keys and thus an
alternative system is in development. This system has been in place
since the end of the March - June 2020 lockdown. In simple
terms it is an extension of the old midweek access system.
Any permit holding caver can simply request a cave key by e-mail, text
or phone. Codes are issued which enable the caver to access the changing
facilities and showers at the SWCC HQ and to retrieve a cave key 24/7.
The use of the key is logged on user sheets designed to keep records
sufficient to comply with any usage statistics that may be required in
future and with SWCC’s legal responsibilities as a manager of premises
under current Covid related requirements. Advanced levels of skill are
expected from members of Annual Permit Holding clubs when filling in the
key user sheets.
The
original system had five keys available and this worked well until
recently. Late summer and Autumn 2021 has seen a massive surge in caver
activity and as a result SWCC has expanded the system to twelve visitor
club keys. It is now practical to issue visiting clubs with more than
one key. Further development of this system is
on-going.
The
Digital Destination Board is now up and running and monitored around
the clock by a team of SWCC members. This app can be downloaded from
Google Play and runs currently on Android systems. It is hoped to extend
this to IOS in the near future. This App will enable SWCC to offer call
out cover for cavers visiting OFD without having to place a duty
officer at the HQ. Users of the App are to be reminded that
incidents of overdue parties arising on the App are reported directly to
the appropriate Police force. Abuse of the App could lead to
circumstances which result in a waste of Police time."
Further details regarding access to the cave can be found on the SWCC website. UBSS has an annual permit for OFD for use by members.
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JUDGING THE JUDGE - THE WINNER!
The Trident. Photo by Linda Wilson.
While we're on the subject of
caving in South Wales, the votes are in and have been counted in our
recent poll to decide between the Judge or the Trident in OFD Top. So
.... drum roll ...
The long pointy thing wins hands down. Sorry, Judge, you've been judged.
The winner, by popular acclaim is the Trident! Penis envy, anyone?
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THE RESCUE
The Rescue is a National Geographic
film of the Thai cave rescue. Linda Wilson reviews the film, which is
now available on the Disney+ channel.
“Hope
isn't an abstract theory about where human aspirations end and the
impossible begins; it's a never-ending experiment, continually expanding
the boundaries of the possible.”
Paul Rogat Loeb, The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear.
In October, several UBSS members were lucky
enough to go as a group to a screening of the National Geographic
documentary, The Rescue, in Bristol and found themselves there at the
same time as cave diver John Volanthen who, along with Rick Stanton, was
one of the key figures in the astonishing rescue of 12 children and
their football coach that had the world on the edge of its seat in July
2018 after the group became trapped by flood water in the Tham Luang
cave in Thailand. All the early reports of the film were great, but I
was in France at the time of the release, so had to wait a while before I
could see it. However, the documentary is now available on Disney+ for
those who have access to that channel.
I spent a long time working with Rick on his autobiography, Aquanaut,
and have heard him talk about the events in Thailand several times,
including at Hidden Earth and also last year after the UBSS AGM, when
the Q&A was as long as the talk. With that background, I will admit
that I approached the film with some trepidation, despite National
Geographic's established and impressive reputation, we all know how
capable film makers are of mangling a story in the interests of drama
or, worse still, presenting their own view of events, that all too often
bears little resemblance to inconvenient reality. Those fears were
quickly laid to rest by the utterly straightforward storytelling, and
faithful chronicling of events that at the time seemed 100% likely to
end in unmitigated tragedy.
The film uses a skilfully stitched together mix of contemporary footage
from a wide variety of news and other sources, coupled with superbly
filmed reconstructions of events, so cleverly done that it was hard to
tell one from the other except by some occasionally deliberately
pixellated faces and the sometimes grainy quality of footage taken at
the scene in often difficult conditions in teeming rain and the jostling
chaos of hundreds of people working in the cave. Interviews are mostly
shot in semi darkness, with the focus on the subject without the
distraction of any bright backdrop, evoking both the darkness of the
cave for the boys, trapped for days with no food, little light and only
muddy brown cave water to drink, and the dark shadows lurking in the
minds of those working tirelessly in a rescue attempt that most of the
lead rescuers believed to be entirely in vain.
That exhausting lack of hope comes over very viscerally in the almost
deadpan interviews with Rick and John as they relate events from their
perspective, never sugar-coating their feelings. They were there to do a
job, but it was almost impossible for two scruffy, middle-aged Brits to
make themselves heard in the chaos of the rescue camp, with the Thai
military running the show and controlling who dived in the cave.
The headcam footage of the moment the boys were found alive that went
viral even before Rick and John had left the cave is shown in full and
the look of hope and joy in the faces of those boys is still as much of a
gut-punch as ever, knowing what might have come next. I wonder how many
of the people who saw that footage at the time actually realised that
joy was only a cat's whisker away from despair as the real work of the
rescue had only just begun and that neither Rick nor John had any idea
how a seemingly impossible task could be accomplished.
That visceral despair comes over like a punch to the gut when it became
clear in the narrative that both Rick and John reached the point that
they felt there was no way they could do what needed to be done and that
they had no even potentially workable plan. In many ways, key to the
success of the rescue was a bunch of splendidly down to earth Americans
from the 320th Special Operations Group of the US Air Force, including
Captain Mitch Torrell and Master Sergeant Derek Anderson. For someone
brought up on a diet of old war films that always bigged up the US
military role at times to the point of absurdity, it came as a pleasant
surprise to see a bunch of equally competent people who had the distinct
advantage of military rank and uniforms when it came to dealing with
the very hierarchical set up in Thailand.
Aquanaut quotes an email in which Rick describes the US military
personnel as 'realistic, profession and excellent.' That comes over
superbly in the film especially in the interviews in which it is clear
how instrumental they were in providing motivation at a time when both
Rick and John had lost hope, challenging them to envisage what the
impossible might look like. And so a seemingly impossible plan to dive
the boys out whilst sedated to the point of unconciousness was born.
The development of that 'impossible' plan was fascinating and even
though I knew the 'spoilers' for the story I was still completely
captivated by the entire thing. The interviews with Australian
anaesthetist Dr Richard 'Harry' Harris and Aussie vet, Craig Challen,
brought home exactly how crazy the sedation plan seemed, with Dr Harry
stating bluntly just how many ways it could have gone wrong. But the
impossible plan was the only plan and the rest, as they say, is history.
A particularly poignant part of that history is the desperately sad
footage of former Thai navy SEAL Saman Gunan, who died diving in the
cave as part of the rescue attempt, and interviews with his widow. He
went with such courage and hope into an environment that no special
forces training in the world could have equipped him for, but he
certainly didn't die in vain, as out of that tragedy came the
realisation that it would take the scruffy, laconic Brits and their
friends to pull this off.
The underwater scenes, expertly filmed at Pinewood Studios after some
establishing shots at Wookey Hole, were superbly convincing, especially
during the tense scene when Chris Jewell lost the line whist carrying
one of the boys through the first sump. The only difference, according
to Rick in a Facebook chat afterwards, was that the conditions in
Pinewood were 'warmer and more controlled'. The graphics throughout are
excellent, complimenting the narrative and making it easy to visualise
the extent of the problem the divers faced and the distances involved.
Rick won a Cinema Eye award for an 'unforgettable' performance and it'll
be fascinating to see how well Viggo Mortensen manages to portray him
in the upcoming Ron Howard film of the rescue!
The Rescue does full justice to an amazing story. It's a well-paced,
beautifully arranged and absolutely enthralling documentary of how the
impossible became possible through a mix of skill, unparalleled
experience, immense courage and sheer bloody-mindedness to succeed
against all the odds.
Linda Wilson
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THE EVEN SHORTER WRITE-UPS OF WHEREVER
One of the mystery caves mentioned below. Photo credit to follow in the next issue.
Thank you to all the people who
rose to the challenge laid down in the last newsletter to describe a
cave or a caving trip in no more than 20 words! The next challenge is to
see how many of the caves you can correctly work out or guess based on
these descriptions!
1. It’s like being a slice of ham sliding out of two buttered slices of rock. (Guy Maloof)
2. Popular cave, very slick entrance rocks. Not the longest or most
fascinating, lets newbies get their oversuits dirty (or not). (Jan
Walker)
3. Pitch, Pitch, mud, climb, crawl, crawl, squeeze, tight rift, flat out
crawling, squeeze, squeeze, crawl, turn around and go back. (Ash Gregg)
4. A metal door, a memory of waving grass, opens a long drop and three hours to daylight. We didn’t rush. (Dick Willis)
5. Rock Cathedral, parishioners tumble under bridge, the choirs covered
beneath flowing white blankets that drape from roof forested in straws.
(Zac Woodford)
6. Wet, getting wetter, nose scraping the roof, eyes and mouth
underwater now, no choice but to keep going straight on. (Linda Wilson)
7. Pools, short pitches. Just Linda and I loaded with tackle. Got
further than any UBSS party for next ten years. (Graham Mullan)
Entries on a postcard (or by email!) to your lovely editors! One point per cave correctly named (not including your own entry).
Please keep your short reports coming in!
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COUNTDOWN TO CAVING WITH .... JACOB PODESTA
Former Hon Sec Jacob Podesta (the even taller blond one in the
crappy photo!) kindly allowed himself to be cajoled into our Countdown
slot. For those curious about 'that photo', there's still a copy out at
the hut!
Ten words to summarise your caving career …
One for each year since I started caving, with an optimistic bonus prediction for the future:
2012 - Novel
2013 - Fun
2014 - Wet (Ireland trip was a bit of a wash out that year)
2015 - Distracting (dissertation year…)
2016 (actually 2015b) - Cold (first time I caved in Austria)
2017 - Abundant (lost some wages because I took too much holiday for caving)
2018 - Inadequat (I didn't cave enough in Catalonia)
2019 - Inadecuado (ditto Central America)
2020 - Anticippointing (Moved to Yorkshire, then we all know what happened)
2021 - Regular (at last)
2022 - Excellent
Nine cavers (living or dead) you would like to go for a drink with ...
1 - That person that fell down Pen Park Hole
2 - The dogs of Wolves Hole
3 - The Krubera bloke
4 - Mr/Ms Swildon
5 - Some Kentucky cave goblins
6 - Smeagol - the most committed caver in fiction
7 - The blind cave spider
8 - A Neanderthal
9 - Whoever’s at the UBSS pub next time I am down
Eight things you never want/wanted to hear underground …
1 - "I thought we could do a 22m pull-through on a 30m rope" which led
to some very creative rigging in Magic Roundabout and a very red face.
2 - "Below!" said quietly 36 times.
3 - “I brought my camera”
4 - “Would you mind holding this flash gun”
5 - The sound of an oversuit tearing arse to shoulder
6 - The sound of a SRT kit suddenly and dramatically re-adjusting itself mid-pitch
7 - “This cave is a bomb-proof wet weather option”
8 - “I think we’ll miss last orders at the Hunter’s”
Seven public figures you'd least like to go caving with …
The Seven Dwarves - nothing worse than being the tallest on a trip with a
long stoop (query: has someone beaten me to this joke?) {Editors’ Note:
Probably!]
Six of the weirdest things you've done, seen or heard of in connection with caving …
1 - “Andy Murray”
2 - “Shit Football Banter”
3 - A book of poems surrounded by candles in Lady’s Buttery
4 - A Scottie dog in Pigeon Hole
5 - Eaten a phenomenally well packed boiled egg
6 - That photo.
Five of your favourite caves …
1 - Coolagh River Cave, merely for number of hours spent in there.
2 - Pen-y-ghent Pot
3 - Ease Gill
4 - I dunno, Bos Swallet I guess
5 – Er…
Four pieces of gear you've fallen in love with …
1 - Wellington boots - the Duke of outdoor shoes.
2 - a ridiculously long sling - prevented many a potential farce, including on the previously mentioned Magic Roundabout trip.
3 - a good breakfast.
4 - Ikea Kit bags
Three of the best caving books you've read ...
1 - Caves of Co. Clare (especially the bit about the eels)
2 - Not for the Faint Hearted (though I have visited pitifully few of them)
3 - Mendip Underground
Two of your favourite caving regions ...
1 - Mendip
2 - Dales
One thing you'd tell yourself as a fresher …
Shut your mouth and go caving.
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A GERT BIG 'OLE
Gouffre de Padirac. Entrance. Photo by Linda Wilson.
A visit to the Dordogne or the Lot
isn't complete without a trip to one of France's most spectacular
showcaves, the Gouffre de Padirac. Linda Wilson says it's a great day
out for cavers and non-cavers alike, and if you want to walk out from
the bottom of the doline up the 461 metal steps, you can get a fair bit
of exercise, as well.
Although the cave must have been known to the locals since the area was
first occupied (after all, at 103m deep and 33m wide, it's pretty hard
to miss!), the first recorded descent was by Édouard-Alfred Martel in
1889, who climbed the shaft on rope ladders. The cave was first opened
to the public 11 years later in 1899.
People, for scale. Photo by Linda Wilson.
There are approximately 40km of passage in
the system, of which 2km can be visited by modern tourists. The cave is
France's most frequently visited undergound tourist attraction. Visitors
can choose to descend by stairs (if it's not too wet) or by a series of
lifts, which take you down to the top of the walkway that snakes down
into the cave via a series of ramps and steps. Once out of sight of
daylight, you enter a tall, canyon passage with a small stream that
gradually deepens until progress can only be made by boat along a long
and impressive flooded section and around a huge Medusa-like formation
hanging from the roof that positively teems with water in wet weather.
There's no shortage of stal. Photo by Linda Wilson.
After that is a large, wide passage that
leads down alongside a series of huge gour pools to a tantalising view
of the continuation of the streamway. The temptation to hop over the
rail and keep on going was enormous. After that glimpse of the wild
cave, the visit takes today's tourists up into an absolutely massive
chamber with a climb up next some humongous stal flows and then down the
other side and back to the boats for the return trip.
The flattened formations are caused by
water droplets falling from a great height and causing a splat when they
land. Photo by Linda Wilson.
The trip is self-guided, so you can wander
around at your own pace with an audio guide in English, if you like.
Photos are allowed. Prior booking is essential and the online system is
efficient and easy to navigate. Allow between one and two hours for the
visit and in high season there are likely to be queues for the boats. In
very wet weather, anoraks are a must, as otherwise, you'll get soaked
to the skin as there are never enough oilskins in the cave for the
tourists. Graham and I once visited on an incredibly wet day that
drenched ever single visitor and outraged a bunch of American tourists
who exited the lift in high dudgeon (and wet clothes) declared loudly:
"In a well-ordered country, this would not be allowed!" They're probably
right, but it was a hell of a lot of fun!
Yep, 461 metal steps! Jan and I were stubborn enough to walk up. Photo by Linda Wilson.
The cave is now closed for the winter and will re-open in the spring. Full details can be found on their website.
Linda Wilson
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MUSEUM UPDATE - READY FOR THE BUILDING WORK
Yep, we're going to need to do some
redecoration, as well, once we get the use of the rooms back! Photo of
the emptied library stack room by Jan Walker.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of Jan
Walker and Tony Boycott, the final work needed before we could turn the
Stables over to Estates for the work on the upper floor joists was
finished in December.
The library stack room is now empty and everything from there and the
museum display area has now been moved into the other two rooms. The
whole move took many hours of hard labour, and it'll take many more to
get things back to how they should be when we get use of the rooms back.
We're going to take the opportunity to re-do the museum displays when
that happens and will hopefully also be able to make progress with our
long-term goal of gaining Arts Council Accreditation for the museum.
Linda Wilson
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THE GREAT UBSS SPARROWFART SWIM
Clevedon Marine Lake. Photo by Linda Wilson.
Enthused by Elaine's article in the
last newsletter about cold water swimming, the UBSS wild swimming group
decided to attempt a dawn swim at Clevedon Marine Lake. Naturally, not
everything went quite according to plan, and faff ensued!
Yes, I know, it seemed like a good idea at the time... How many trip
reports start with those words? Well, swimming trips are pretty much the
same. According to the tide times on the relevant Saturday morning in
December, high tide at Clevedon was 6.30am with dawn somewhere between
7.30 and 8am. To allow for travel time, I set my alarm for Absurd
O'Clock to pick up Guy from the bottom of Park Street, then over to
Leigh Woods to rendezvous with Zac, then on to Clevedon.
On arrival at the Marine Lake at about 7.10am, the waves were still
lashing over the sea wall surrounding the swimming lake. Ooops. It's
definitely not safe to swim in those circumstances as there's a hell of a
tow from the tide and you'll quickly end up in the Bristol Channel by
accident, which is not safe, either. So we stood and watched the water
gradually recede as we waited for the others to arrive.
Absolutely, definitely no screaming. Photo by Graham Mullan.
Lured by the promise of breakfast (rather
than the prospect of cold water), Graham came along with Trigger the
Lurcher and Gwen the Greyhound, but by 7.15, we were still lacking the
carload of Sam, Henry and Merryn who were all being driven by Imogen.
Facebook messages bouncing back and forwards finally ascertained that
Imo had managed to sleep through her alarm. Cue a mad scramble that saw
them arrive just as dawn was thinking about making an appearance. Elaine
and Brian arrived as well and we were soon ready to venture into the
water, which by 7.30 was safe and already contained several other hardy
souls.
Cold? Surely some mistake? Left to right:
Brian Goodman, Merryn Matthews, Elaine Oliver, Linda Wilson, Imogen
Clement, Zac Woodford, Sam Bowers, Guy Maalouf, Henry Morgan. Photo by
Brian Goodman.
The arrival of the UBSS contingent at the
water's edge promptly raised the noise levels by a vast order of
magnitude. Quiet and decorous, us? Nope! Noisy and sweary. Imo claims
she was only screaming to cover the noise of Sam yelling "Fuck! Fuck!
Fuck!" Despite the traditional levels of faff, we were all in the water
as dawn rose over the Mendips and despite an unpromising weather
forecast of cloudy and possibly rainy, we actually got a gorgeous clear
sky and a genuinely rosy dawn!
Just to prove we really were there at dawn. Photo by Linda Wilson.
Everyone stayed in for at least five
minutes with some (notably Guy) very happy to stay in longer. We then
got changed and headed off for hot drinks and breakfast at one of the
seafront cafes, with a hot water bottle being passed around to keep the
shivers at bay.
If you'd like to be added to the UBSS Wild Swimming Group on Facebook, let me know! We're planning another swim soon. Maybe even the Friday or Saturday of the Burns Night Dinner weekend.
You can find out more about the Marine Lake here. There's even a 24/7 live webcam linked from the main website.
Linda Wilson
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AN ENTIRE FAMILY OF BEARS READ TO THE END! DID YOU?
Those who read to the end last
month will have seen Bootle Bearkins, adopted from Ailwee showcave in Co
Clare (famous for its cave bears) many years ago. His twin, adopted a
few years later by Steve Cottle was mentioned and, lo and behold, Steve
kindly sent in a photo of his bear adopted 30 years ago, along with two
friends!
Steve said: "All three have been keeping me company in my home office
during the last year or so; sat next to my monitor to remind of good
times." Don't forget, you're never too old for a bear friend, so please
send in photos of yours!
Our winners in last month's hotly contested read to the end were (after
disallowing Paul Savage's out of office) were.... wait for it, wait for
it... Eve Gilmore and Guy Maalouf!
- Yes! Cold, wild swimming? Who goes cave diving? {Eve Gilmore]
- Great newsletter, and I get tired every time I remember the
moving days! Best line ever: “ever-so-slightly lost”. Loved it. [Jan
Walker]
- What do deadlines even mean? The UBSS newsletter is out so … [Guy Maalouf]
- Needed something to do while waiting for my shower to work again... [Zac Woodford]
- Let the record state that whilst the group photo at CHECC was
taken I was busy dutifully taking down a tent :( [Megan Malpas]
- How can i be fastest to read to the end when it is released at 7:30! a bias against lazy students!!!! [Imogen Clement]
- Great photos! [Bob Churcher]
- I read to the end! But don't tell my students; they think I'm working. [Kat Osei-Mensah]
- It’s taking me longer to read to the end each month. Either my
brain has gone soggy or the newsletters are longer. I fear for the
answer. [Chris Howes]
- I read to the end! Yay caving! [Ash Gregg]
- Jolly good to see the club continuing to be so active. I wish
we'd had CHECC back in days of yore- it would have provided a nice
sociable focus to at least one northern trip, rather than just going to
get shitfaced. [Dick Willis]
- Nice again! [Hans Friederich]
- Yes, I did, Caving Dog, I read to the end! [David Hardwick]
[Editors' Note: David wins the prize for the last person to read to the
end of the October issue! Only two more to go, mate, and you'll have
caught up!]
- I have to admit, I’ve only just had time to sit down and read
the December newsletter (but was of course drawn in and read the whole
thing at once!). [Lucy Dufall [Editors' Note: No worries, Lucy, at
least you read it in the right month!]
I did it, family of bears, I got there, me, me, me! May I have some porridge?
THE END
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