Student Prezz Mia Jacobs in Operation Clean-Up 2023. Not strictly May as
this happened on 3rd June, but as it's before we go to press it counts!
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We've
wrested control of the editorial from ChatGTP despite the temptation to
feed in the prompt 'write us a caving club newsletter including trip
reports, humerous anecdotes and other bits and pieces' and see what it
churns out ... maybe next time.
For now, we've got plenty to report, so thanks to everyone who has been
cajoled, threatened and bribed into putting pen to paper to give you
something to procrastinate with over morning coffee, breakfast or
whatever. The big news this month is that the building work in the
Stables is finally over and we have access again so see later for some
riveting piccies of our DIY efforts.
We're always at home to suggestions, trip write ups, memories of times past and photos old and new, so do get in touch!
We do occasionally have to hold a piece over to a later newsletter, as
has happened here with a write-up of some Super Secret activities in
bygone times in Cornwall. We have that to come next time ... but once
you've been told the story, we'll have to kill you, so be warned.
You can find all the back issues of the monthly newsletter online.
Worm wishes, Linda and Alex
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THE BIG CLEAN 2023
Left to right: Jess, Merryn, Dan, Imogen, Mia, Megan de-moulding.
Or, how many cavers does it take to
plug bath? Read on for the answer to this and many other great
questions of life in the story of our annual post exams hut maintance
party, kindly funded by the Oliver Lloyd Memorial Fund, who provided
food and drink for the workers.
The day started with the usual faffy at the tackle story, followed by
various people making their way out to the hut, including Imogen and
Merryn who cycled out. The first job to be tackled was brushing the
roof, ably tackled by Mia, while Linda, Jan and Jess started to uncover
the patio at the front by sweeping this with one and a half brooms. They
then worked their way behind the hut to path at the side and the
concrete at the back leading to the drying room, now renamed the sauna!
The bath and shower also got thoroughly cleaned. You didn't know we had a bath? Prepare to be amazed.
The next job was clearing the gully that runs around the back of the hut
to keep the damp at bay. The existence of this feature came as a
surprise to many people, as the wiggly tin that stops it filling up
completely with leaves was pretty much covered by the sweepings from the
roof. Charmaine, Dan and Linda got on with that job, with two
wheelbarrows on the go to take away the vast mounds of leaves.
Yes, we really need to sort stuff out. Left to right: Merryn, Charmaine, Imogen, Jan, Simon.
While all that was going on, Imogen, Megan
and Mia has started the 11th Labour of Heracles, namely de-moulding and
cleaning the inside of the hut. They were later joined by the gully
clearance party and much cleaning spray was dispensed and many green
sponges and cloths met their fate. But things were starting to look a
lot cleaner and fresher. The seat covers and seats were scrubbed, the
floor was thoroughly brushed, thanks to Ben and Stanley, while Simon
started to strim the grass, as by now the generator was running and he
was able to use the electric strimmer.
Stu dealt with a large branch of one of the beech trees that had
partially dropped over the Married Quarters and he and Simon logged the
wood, with help from Guy who wandered around, axe in hand, in a very
buff way and made a reserve wood stock behind the hut under cover, as
the woodstore is still full from last year's massive woodcutting and
chopping session. Linda rearranged the stack at the back to brings some
wood forward so we use what's there evenly and then the cleaning party
moved on to wiping down all the mattresses followed by cleaning the pots
and pans and shelves in the kitchen. Others outside, including Ben,
Merryn and Felix helped with more cleaning. Yes, there was a hell of a
lot of cleaning to do. Linda complained that Stanley had failed to
bring moisturiser clean!
Obligatory photo of Guy looking buff.
With cleaning efforts finally winding down,
Guy started on the barbecue and Imogen produced the most amazing potato
salad! Recipe: Boil a metric fuckton of new potatoes then, when they're
still warm, pour over olive oil mixed with lemon juice and mix in huge
amounts of fresh herbs and chopped garlic. The herbs were mint, dill and
something else. This was consumed in prodigious quantities along with
burgers and sausage, tomatoes and lettuce.
Yes, of course we can seal the bath using a
candle and hot wax! Whatever made you doubt us? Haydon, supervised by
Linda, vying for a place on a reality TV show.
By now the fire in the hut was in operation
and we had hot water. Very hot water. Mia declared that she
wanted/needed a hot bath. The plan then hit a problem. We have a bath,
but no plug. Cue more and more people standing around coming up with
increasingly improbable (and ineffective) plans, including balled up
rubber gloves, tin foil plugs, tin foil plugs combined with rubber
gloves, tin foil plugs combined with (empty) dog poo bags and Haydon
trying to stuff every plastic cap he could find in the hole. A measure
of success was achieved by Linda's suggestion of putting a candle in the
hole and then melting wax all around it to seal the gaps. This allowed
Mia, Imogen and Jess to pile into a hot (very hot) bath, complete with
bubble bath and small plastic duck.
No bath is complete without sophisticated
cocktails,. But we didn't have them, so had to make do with tinnies.
Left to right: Jess, Mia and Imogen.
When a trickle of water started to emerge
from the bottom. Haydon had the bright idea of cable tying a rubber
glove tightly around the outlet underneath and the water level was
swiftly restored. As a team building exercise it was screamingly funny,
and our application for The Apprentice is in preparation. Alan Sugar,
prepare to be impressed!
The Bath Sceptics were forced to admit that whilst not necessarily being
the best use of water, that was more than made up for by the fact that
it is bloody hilarious and provides plenty of Wholesome, Good Clean Fun.
That's our story, and we're sticking to it. The Bath Sceptics are now
converts. And just to prove that we are a caving club, Merryn and
Charmaine went caving after dinner, with a trip to Rod's Pot.
Celebrating a job well done. Left to right:
Guy, Simon, Mia, Megan, Ben, Felix, Stanley, Graham, Imogen, Dan,
Merryn, Jan, Jess. Missing: Charmaine, who'd gone for a run, Stu who'd
had to leave early and Haydon who hadn't arrived yet. Linda was behind
the camera.
Thanks again to the Oliver Lloyd Memorial
Fund for food and drink and to the following for the hard labour and
ancillary assistance: Mia Jacobs, Imogen Clement, Megan Malpas, Jan
Walker, Charmaine Sew, Jess Brock, Merryn Matthews, Linda Wilson,
Simon Payne, Dan Hill, Stu Walker, Graham Mullan, Ben Alterman, Stanley
Lewis, Guy Maalouf, Felix Arnautovic and Haydon Saunders.
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BCA eAGM
All UBSS members are also members of the British Caving Association
(BCA). Insurance is one of the member benefits and something else we all
benefit from is the funding for regional conservation and access
projects. The BCA eAGM will take place at 10.30am on Sunday 11th June
2023. The following message has been sent out member clubs with a
request to pass this information onto their membership.
"This year the Chair would like to draw your attention to the vacant
posts that will be open to nomiations from the floor. These are:
- Treasurer: A member of the BCA Executive, responsible for the BCA finances.
- Publications and Information Officer: Assists the BCA with publicity, engagement, and media strategy.
- Youth and Development Officer: Works to ensure that the BCA provides support to young people and associated organisations.
- IT Working Group Convenor: Manages the BCA's IT Systems with support from a Working Group.
- Group/Club Representative: Represents the interests of Clubs and Groups with a vote on BCA Council.
The full message from the chair is available here. If you have any further questions please email the BCA secretary at [email protected]."
You can either watch the livestream of the AGM on Facebook or use the
Zoom link to participate live. Full details of how to watch or join the
meeting can be found on the BCA website.
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THE (NOT SO) LITTLE CAVE OF HORRORS
Glenn Hasbrouk (not a UBSS member and not
on this trip) at the inner end of the entrance seies, Little Neath River
Cave. Photo copyright Chris Howes (who is a UBSS Member) and used with
his kind permission. Check out Chris' website, Wild Places Photography, for more superb photos.
The
Little Neath River Cave in South Wales was discovered by UBSS divers in
1967 entering the system from Bridge Cave. It's a great trip, but
unexpected horrors lurk in its depth, as
Merryn Mathews, Ash Gregg, Dan Runcan and Ben Alterman discovered.
Those of a nervous disposition should avert their eyes from Merryn's
story.
Little Neath is a highly recommended dry weather trip for some wetsuit
fun splashing in a stream, and visiting a classic UBSS discovered and
surveyed cave. First we had a quick nosey down Bridge Cave, where
following the stream quickly leads to a sump that can be seen again in
Little Neath.
Then we pottered through Little Neath, visiting Sump 2 and doing the
classic loop through the Canals (crawling/floating in a bedding plane
vibe), with a short detour to UBSS Aven. My main memory of this trip
however, is one of being extremely sweaty and constricted in a too-small
winter wetsuit, that I took joy in complaining about the entire time.
Ben also suffered similar wetsuit sweats, as he hadn't yet recovered
from a week of food poisoning and dehydration.
We were so thankful to exit the cave that we immediately stripped off
the torturous neoprene garments and lay around in the shallow surface
stream to cool off. All was well until I noticed Ben's back covered in
small bits of river debris, and mine too. We quickly tried to brush it
off but horrifically realised they were leeches!!!!! TINY LEECHES! EVERYWHERE!
Tiny leeches everywhere, courtesy of Bing Image Generator.
I'm
still mildly traumatised. Both by the leeches, and by the image of Ash
checking Ben's butt cheeks for said leeches. Also saw a friendly fish
and a friendly frog down there. Note to self: buy new wetsuit.
Merryn Matthews
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A VISIT TO THE MOUNTAIN KING
Straw Chamber, Ogof Craig y Fynnon. Photo by Simon Payne.
Lured over the bridge by tales of
caverns measureless to man, Simon Payne, Merryn Matthews, Ben Alterman
and Dan Hill set out in search of the Mountain King's dwelling. Simon
records their adventures for posterity.
Our first visit to Wales of 2023 on 4th May 2023 saw us attempt the
legendary Ogof Craig a Ffynnon cave system in South Wales. A one hour
drive later and we’d arrived at 4pm, eager to traverse the depths, such
was our optimism and pioneering spirit, nothing could dissuade us from
our path, nothing, except the padlocked entrance…
 Cavers
waylaid at the entrance for approx 2 hours (left to right, Dan, Merryn
(aka Mirian, Mirran and Mirriam renamed courtesy of the Guardian of the
Keys), Ben & Simon).
And lo, the first two hours
of the expedition was spent wiggling the wrong key into some bullshit
padlock claiming the entrance against our cave. We not only wiggled the
key but wormed it, jangled it and fiddled with it furiously as only the
most stubborn cave explorers could. “You merely wiggled it wrong!”, “I’m
sure I could get it to fit!”, “My turn, my turn!”. Alas, the tenacious,
fearless, hole squeezing energy each caver held firm in their breast
did not translate well to opening locks.
Each and every moment of adrenaline-spiked key faffing was filled with
Dan and Ben throwing pebbles at each other and at 'Mirian’s' butt. After
several consultation phone calls on how key turning worked we made the
executive decision to spam call the warden until he picked up. A
prominent window display of fine art guided us to the warden's abode
then a menagerie of exotic birds free flying about his halls led us all
to a level of deep spiritual introspection, however none were more
changed than Mirian who had left, blessed with the correct key and a new
name…
Finally, at 6.30pm we entered the cave.
With time against us we plunged into the dark… Our first site of notice
was that of the straw chamber; hundreds of exceptionally long thin rock
stalactite “carrots” pointing down at us in accusation, as though
frowning upon the brevity of our sight-seeing appreciation, for we had
but one goal in mind, the Hall of the Dread Mountain King Himself.
Miran and Dan staring at Straw Chamber. Photo by Simon Payne.
We rushed the deep with such haste,
promptly ignoring the turn off towards the sumpy Northwest Inlet and
splashed eagerly on through Gasoline Alley; thankfully rain had been
absent the last four days and our chests were spared the freezing grasp
of the water table. The first test of our mettle came with a paired 7m
ladder followed by an 8m free climb, assisted by anchored in ropes and
metal foot holds, regardless, without a lifeline assist this ascent was
not to be taken lightly. Beyond the climb the passages were vast and
filled with exotic formations; conservation boundaries separated the
path from surface mud and formations untouched by humans for millennia.
Mirian spotting the team's climbing decent. Photo by Simon Payne.
After spitting upon death with the climber's mantra of “not today” did
we face the second choke, an approximate 30m session of worm up a steep
incline separated us from the King's Halls. I confess amongst the
excitement of our pace lay a stain of foreboding about my humors, lest
all the stories about this Hall and its King were steeped in anything
but a warning. A sense of hush and mild agrophobia settled upon the
expedition as we finally made it beyond the choke and travertine
passage.
Ben (at a suitably rakish angle) eying the formations in Travertine Passage. Photo by Simon Payne.
The chocolate river nearly devoured our
wellies but the Hall of the Mountain King stole our hearts. About us was
the single largest underground chamber I had ever born witness to, so
high was the central chamber that I couldn’t make out the ceiling and
thus marked our turn around point.
Ben making sure we knew where to look
within the heart of the King's Hall. Photo by Simon Payne (with
brightness/contrast altered in editing).
The King's Dangly Bits. Photo by Simon Payne.
“Oh am I interrupting something here?” Left to right: Dan, Merian, Ben. Photo by Simon Payne.
After some sightseeing we rushed for the
entrance to make time before call out, the descent back down the paired
climb was horrific but we didn’t die.
Proof that our intrepid team (left to right, Ben, Dan, Simon and Merriana) definitely didn't die.
After an exhausting trip we stopped off at
McDonalds Drive Through and after cleaning kit everyone made it back
home just after midnight.
Simon Payne
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PLENTY OF TIME FOR TIFFIN
Entrance series, Ogof Draenen. Still from a film of the Entrance series to Fault Chambers by Andy and Antonia Freem, used with their kind permission.
It's nice to know that UBSS
catering standards aren't allowed to slip even when underground, as Zac
Woodford and Merryn Matthews demonstrate on a rapid trip Draenan round
trip.
With my coursework over, it was time for some proper caving again!
Merryn suggested we take another stab at Draenen. Cut to the car drive
over and Merryn discussing the round trip route during which she reveals
that the expected trip time was seven hours. That would have made it
one of the longest trips I’d ever done. Thankfully – spoilers – it
wasn’t that long.
Having previously done the route from the main entrance to Megadrive, we
sped through there quickly. We then equally swiftly made our way south
with Merryn navigating from a survey borrowed from Henry. We took a
couple of wrong turns, once in St. David's Chamber and again just before
Squirrel Rift.
We continued towards the Sewers. However, just before them, we dropped
from a traverse over the stream into a small chamber where the stream
bends back on itself through an incredibly narrow rift. We refused to
believe that the rift was the way on so looked, desperately, for an
alternate route. But with all leads coming up blank we went through the
rift. Me first, headfirst, which Merryn later commented wouldn’t have
been her way of doing it.
The Sewers were very entertaining and eventually led out, via several
cascades, to the main streamway. It was at this point that we realised
the survey had gone astray. We knew the way on was relatively simple,
follow the streamway until you’re out. And so we decided to continue on.
The streamway was terrible. It was either too narrow or choked by
boulders. We were so disappointed that we considered lodging a complaint
with the committee. It was also here that we stopped for snacks. I’d
brought a packet of rice cakes and a tub of humous which had
miraculously survived the trip through the numerous rifts.
After tiffin we made our way out quickly with no navigational troubles,
despite the loss of the survey. With our speed we managed it in four and
a half hours instead of the predicted seven!
Zac Woodford
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MUSEUM AND LIBRARY UPDATE
Hard at work (left to right), Ben Alterman, Zac Woodford, Jess Brock. Photo by Linda Wilson.
Nearly 18 months ago, our museum
and library, housed in the building we know as the Stables (called The
Coach House on the university's property inventory), was closed when the
joists holding up one of the upper rooms slumped due to the ravages of
wet rot. Now, after numerous sporadic updates along the hopeful lines of
'work might be starting soon', musum curator Linda Wilson can finally
declare: "WE'RE BACK IN!"
It's been a hell of a long haul, and I must admit there were times when I
fully expected to get an email telling me that the university had
declared it uneconomic to effect the repairs, but against all the odds,
Estates were finally able to beg, steal or borrow the dosh to pay for
the repairs and work eventually started after Easter. The contractors
did an excellent job in the upper room, leaving us only the ceiling to
redecorate. Jess Brock, Zac Woodford and Ben Alterman retaped all the
joints and applied a coat of white paint and it was soon looking as good
as new.
Zac's height and long arms come in really useful!
The next job was to continue the nice new
magnolia paint down the stairs and then tackle the museum display room
on the ground floor, as the walls were looking looking distinctly grotty
by comparison with upstairs. Zac, Jess and Jan Walker started on that
while I kept out of their way and got on with applying the first coat of
woodstain to the bannisters upstairs.
Took me all bloody day to do this, so please admire!
They all seemed pretty cheerful, while I
chuntered and moaned about the contortions and bending I was doing on my
lonesome upstairs. In the afternoon, Charmaine Sew took over from Jess
and by the time I limped downstairs at the end of a back breaking day,
the first coat was on! I smiled approvingly and muttered that it needed a
second coat. To their lasting credit, they didn't dunk my head in the
magnolia paint.
Jan still looking cheerful. Zac looking like a plague doctor pretending to be a teapot.
The following day, Jan and Zac returned to
apply the second coat and even worked an amazing double act to get the
first coat of stain on the bannisters down the stairs!
Charmaine painting. Zac is still looking like a plague doctor. not looking much like a teapot.
The next phase of operations was to see how
we got on moving some of the bookcases back upstairs. The team
assembled: Tony Boycott (archivist extraordinaire and assembler of the
original library stack), Jan, Alex Blencowe, Dan Runcan, Ben, Stanley
Lewis and Zac. Sixteen Ikea Billy bookcases were heaved upstairs with
relative ease, proving that the more people you have, the easier some
jobs become! We were then faced with the job of starting to clear some
stuff out of the museum stack room. Sadly my plan of fitting the tall
(ugly) metal cabinets in there fell at the first hurdle (the low roof),
so it's back to the drawing board.
There's still a lot to do and work will continue for several months
completing the reorganisation so that everything is back in its (mostly)
proper place. If anyone would like to get involved with the work,
please let me know. There's plenty for everyone to do. Thanks to
everyone for their hard work over the past couple of weeks, and thanks
to everyone in the university who has helped us get to this point!
Linda Wilson
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THE SECRET OF THE CHÂTEAU
La Château des abbés de Saint Amand de
Coly, looking into the gates, with the remains of a round tower on the
right. Photo by Linda Wilson.
Secret tunnels are one of the most
pervasive of local myths. Nearly every town has one, in many cases
reputed to run from the castle to the nearby (or sometimes not so
nearby) church. Linda Wilson and Graham Mullan tell the story of the
secret tunnel in the village of Coly in the Dordogne region of France.
Secret tunnels. If we had a tenner for every one of these we've ever
heard of, we'd be rich. Very rich. The Folklore Society once devoted a
lecture to the secret tunnels of Sheffield. The researcher reported
that, unfortunately, even after extensive investigation into every
reputed lead to their whereabouts, they remained secret. Such stories
have universal appeal, discussed
by author, historic buildings' expert and all-round good drinking buddy
James Wright in a guest blog post for the site Voyager of History.
France is no stranger to such myths, but - unusually - they do also have
more than their fair share of genuine secret tunnels. Our region of the
Dordogne has three that we've visited and this is the story of the one
that's the closest to home for us.
Almost as soon as the ink was dry on our purchase of a plot of land in
the Coly valley (for cavers, most notable for the Coly river that rises
at the Doux de Coly, two kilometres away, the longest cave dive in
Europe), we started hearing stories of a secret tunnel that was said to
lead from the ruined château on the hill to the vast fortified abbey
church at St Armand. The original château was built at the same time as
the first abbey in the 12th century. The château, in common with others
at the time is likely to have been a wooden structure, later rebuilt in
stone. Eventually, it fell into disrepair, with the stone robbed for
nearby buildings. The current building, in the remains of the castle
walls, was built in the 18th century.
Excavated remains of earlier buildings on the site. Photo by Linda Wilson.
The mention of a secret tunnel was like
catnip to a pair of cavers and at the earliest opportunity, when having
aperitifs with our new neighbours, the then mayor and his wife, we made
polite enquiries about the stories. We received the vague (and expected)
replies that the tunnel did exist but was a) blocked and b) too
dangerous to explore. However, we were assured that it did exist. The
only detail we were able to obtain was that our neighbour had seen the
entrance, and the large fallen block that obstructed it. So near, yet so
far.
Years passed and we heard the story many times. Then a chink in the
armour surrounding the secret tunnel appeared when one of the elderly
residents of the village told us he knew the owner, who lives in Paris
but visits occasionally, and would ask on our behalf if a visit might be
possible. Unfortunately, his next visit was just after our return to
Bristol. More time passed and when chatting to our neighbour one day, we
were invited to dinner and, as it turned out, also invited were the
owner of the château and his wife.
Our interest in the caves of the region was a topic of conversation, as
was my interest in marks on old stone and wood (historic graffiti,
protective marks etc), and we were invited to visit the château. Without
wishing to look like rats diving rapidly down a drain, we casually set a
time for the following afternoon. We were given a thorough tour of the
new building and the ruins that surround it and then, still trying not
to look like our whiskers were twitching at the thought of a drain to
explore, we asked about the legend of the secret tunnel.
Entrance to the abris to the right of the main gate. Photo by Linda Wilson.
We were promptly shown to the entrance of an abris beside
the remains of the entrance gate tower. The old wall built against the
sloping cliff side formed a cave-like passage (now filled with a child's
trampoline and the sort of stuff that accumulates in sheds and
outbuildings everywhere) but at the far end of the rock shelter, I could
see a stone wall across the passage and, at head height, a black
body-sized triangle. We asked if we could take a closer look and were
waved on. Torch in hand, we clambered over to the end of the abris and
I shone my torch into what looked suspiciously like a genuine tunnel.
Whiskers now twitching furiously, we eyed up the wall for stability. The
owner, clearly less nervous about holes in the ground than the mayor
(who turned out to be his cousin), asked if we wanted a ladder. That
made life easier and we didn't have to test the stability of the wall
under the eye of its owner.
A rat about to enter a drain. Photo by Linda Wilson.
To our surprise, the triangular opening
looking into what was clearly a natural cave passage, not a man-made
tunnel, and the 'fallen lintel' that had given our neighbour the heebie
jeebies was a solid-looking roof. We scampered up the ladder in full
rats into a drain mode, and headed off down the passage! We were
subsequently told that it was fine to visit the cave again and that our
neighbour would open the gate for us if the owners were away. So on our
latest trip, we took advantage of that and went back to take more photos
and do a sketch survey. What follows is the only formal description and
survey of the cave that exists, as far as we know.
Grotte de la Château des abbés de Saint Amand de Coly
Length: 40 m (approx.)
Altitude: 139 m
Lat/Long 45.085466 , 1.266459
W3W: régnons.végétaux.dissuasif
The cave can be found in the courtyard of the Château des abbés de Saint
Amand de Coly. The entrance is located at the back of a partially
ruined 12th century round tower, the northern of the two gate towers.
The first 10 - 12m of passage comprise an abris, a rock shelter with a
natural wall on the left and a curved stone, corbelled half-arch on the
right. This passage is roomy, some 3 - 4m wide and 3m high and ends at
an artificial wall passable through a short crawl at the top.
Arch to second chamber. Photo by Linda Wilson.
The cave proper begins at the wall.
Crawling through the hole at the top of the wall leads to a slope down
into a roomy section of passage. The slope consists of rubble which
seems to have been ‘pushed’ into the passage, presumably when the rock
shelter was cleared for use as storage. At the bottom of the slope is a
circular chamber, some 4m wide and 3m high. After passing under an arch,
a larger, 6 - 7m diameter chamber is reached. A 2m climb up the far
side of this second chamber leads to a higher section of the chamber,
with a loose sloping floor. Here the cave ends, although there are a
couple of small alcoves that might yield to digging.
Second chamber looking down from the top of the final slope. Photo by Linda Wilson.
An interesting feature is a tree root
running amost the whole length of the cave on the left hand wall at
waist height. From the position of the root relative to the surface, it
is likely that this is from a large, old box tree that has (so far)
escaped the ravages of box moth in the region.
The tree root runs along a natural shelf and even turns a corner! At
first, we mistook it for a water pipe, and then realised that it was a
root.
A rat emerging from a drain. Photo by Graham Mullan.
We would like to thank the owners, Pierre
and Paul Joffre for allowing us to visit that cave, and Philippe Joffre
for facilitating access for the survey.
Linda Wilson and Graham Mullan
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WOLFIE READ TO THE END, DID YOU?
This month's image comes to you
courtesy of Bing images and the prompt 'a cheerful cartoon werewolf
wearing reading glasses in a cave'. This came out of a request from
Chris Pepper whilst we were lounging around outside the SWCC hut at the
bank holiday weekend. If anyone else wants to try their hand a making
images, please send them in! Or let us have prompts and we'll see what
can be done!
We had several eager beaver readers last week who let Herbert, last
month's guest reader, know they'd reached the end, and all emails are
very gratefully received!
- Herbert is rather spiffing! I am very pleased to meet him. Super
newsletter, and hello, welcome, and worm wishes to the new
officers. [Jan Walker]
- Excellent Newsletter. I will admit to having read it all, when
proofing it, before it was sent out, but I didn’t write this response
until well after it had gone out. Please congratulate Jess on her
impeccable choice of caves. [Graham Mullan]
- This is the last thing I needed with my dissertation due in 3 and a half hours! [Zac Woodford]
- Love that Guy made it back into the newsletter - better than any
chainsaw - also loving the deliberate mistakes :))) Best,
[Elliott McCall]
- “…headlamps always so finicky?” Are you still using a
stinky? And you might whisper to Jess that I have it on good authority
that although Steve Backshall visits caves for filming purposes, they
are not an environment he likes. [Dick Willis]
- I so enjoy seeing the old photos and reading the stories of
yore. Or perhaps that should be yore stories in that they aren’t
mine. [Chris Howes]
- My favourite newsletter so far because it contained the words ‘Steve Backshall’. [Megan Malpas]
- A very dull morning in a field in Pembrokeshire enlightened by
the newsletter and particularly the article by Hans, brought back a few
memories, not least sitting in the basement of the geography department
reading his PhD thesis! [Steve Hobbs]
- I did it!! Excellent newsletter as always. Sorry I never got around to writing a family caving trip article! [Cat Henry]
Hello, Wolfie, let's go caving I got to the end!
THE END
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