Now then, Some might say that the photography seen in this trip report is AI. well, you should not believe everything you see and you are right to question things with a critical eye, but i can assure you, all Photography here is straight up legit. Now, join me for our journey....
“It’s dead easy, but don’t fall or you will have a bad time”
Its 30 degrees and l’m wrestling my oversuit up over my furry undersuit. Sweat is bucketing out of me and I laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Many people will be heading to the beer garden tonight, but they won’t be cracking open a bottle of cider down a farm track in the hottest clothing possible. They also will not get to experience that cool air of a cave.
Joe leads us down to the entrance of BWS. I get on my hands and knees and instantly get a blast of cool air in my face. I begin the flat out crawl incredibly excited about the trip ahead and keen to get to the site where I was digging last. Since then there has been significant gains in this cave. I climbed up into the narrow passage of the sump by pass, went around the corner and saw the point where I had capped up to. The end of the by-pass was literally a smidge further on. “FFS, If I had just capped a bit more rather than head to the pub I would have broken through and took the glory” I exclaimed to Joe.
We regrouped in a small chamber and Rob spoke to Ned and I about the climb coming up. “Now, it’s dead easy, but don’t fall or you will have a bad time” Jon’s voice echoed in my head at this moment. I sent him a message a few days prior to the trip. “Do I need my SRT kit?” He replied with “There’s no SRT, but there probably should be”
We dropped down a little more until a saw a rope drooping over a rock and disappearing. I peered over the edge to see a rift drop some 15m or so. I could see the first ledge straight ahead but it looked a reach. I sat down and reached my leg out as far as I could stretch, slowly I lowered and pushed it forwards some more, as long as I hit that rock I’m ok. Otherwise it’s going to sting a bit. Due to the stretch I couldn’t really look for my foot placement as I was leaning back, but I felt something solid and put my weight into it. A boost from my arms pushed me onto the ledge, safe. From there I could see Joe winding his way down the rift.
“Don’t pull on that”
I traversed across a little to where the rift narrowed and bridged across. Finding subtle foot holds I worked my way down, then had to turn back on my self and continue traversing downwards until eventually I was on the floor. Looking up into the rift it seemed like such a cool and mad jumble of rock that we had just played snakes and ladders on….without the ladders.
Quick regroup and then onwards. Things got tight again as we wound our way downwards. It was so physical, requiring every muscle to clamber, and contort your way through. Joe stopped to check the way on as we were at a fork. “This way and up…..don’t pull on that” he said to me quite nonchalantly. I look up and see the most precariously perched large boulder. Sliding around it and up I repeat the same message to Ned.
Ben in the Yoga squeeze looking for the stemple
“Ow my dick is trapped”
Clambering down and round and through small slots was so much fun. It bought us to what I can only describe as the crab walk in giants but tighter. It’s a narrow vertical slot that curves around with features that jut out. I can see that beyond the really tight bit it drops away into darkness, but I can see a wooden stemple. Joe explained that there was a technique and it was easier to watch him than explain. He dropped into the tight vertical slot at an angle, fishing for the stemple with his toes. He reversed back onto it with practically no room that he folding himself in half to do a Marilyn manson and then pulled his head around the corner and then disappeared forwards. Essentially the tightest hairpin in a cave. These features are what I look the most and I dropped myself into the slot, got halfway in and got pinned on the rocks as something bit into my gentlemans sausage. “are you ok” asked Ned. “Ow, my dick is trapped”. For a moment I couldn’t work out what was more painful, press on or try and reverse it. I wasn’t even on the stemple so I sucked in as hard as I could, happy that I wasn’t wearing a belt, and eventually gravity took hold and I slide onto the stemple. Now, im a little more broad shouldered than Joe so I had to twist my upper body to get into the gap, gave my ankles a close inspection as I tried to bend and pull my head around the corner. If this was a cartoon you would have heard a cork pop as my head came through to the gap.
We worm our way along some more until eventually we get to a small chamber. Joe and Ned head onwards through a slot called the void as Rob and I get the kit out to survey. I’m absolutely drenched in sweat; I really didn’t need the furry tonight.
“I think we need to call a committee meeting”
Rob checked out the data on his phone to see that the avens had been done on the last trip. “we need to do the bit beyond the void” he said as he slipped the disto away and headed feet first into a tight slot. Arms over head inching through. It looked tight and awkward. “Don’t rush through and look for your feet” Rob warned me. I lay back, pushed my feet forwards, arms over head. With no leverage anywhere it was a case of wriggle your way into the slot. My arms must have flailed too much as I pulled off a rock the size of a caving helmet which landed just above my head. Never what you want to see in a cave that is a whole boulder choke. I drop through after getting my shoulders pinned.
Rob and I began surveying the passage. I mark the stations and rob takes the lazer sights. He moves forwards to me and I move forwards to another feature to be a station. Eat sleep rinse repeat until at the end of the passage where Im handed the disto to do splays around the area.
Joe calling the committee meeting in the small chamber
We can hear the boys below us capping away, so Rob and I have a catch up in the rift. After some time Joe shouts up, “I think we need to call a committee meeting Rob” I sit down and slide into the small chamber like a tight slip and slide. The boys had dug a hole in the floor that had a strong breeze coming out, but the further I put my head in the sketchier it got. Rob checked it out as well and we all agreed it looked pretty awful and loose. Ned had been poking higher up at the back of the chamber. Joe appeared dejected about the whole situation, until Ned’s enthusiasm for his hole got us all having a look. Well, it looked slightly less deathy, so we dedcided to have a poke here for a bit. Ned first with the crow bar and some caps made some good progress. I then asked to have a go and got to the face.
“Golly Gosh!! F&%K sake don’t poke it”
I started by staying out of the hole and reaching in with the big crow bar, breaking bits up and pulling large rocks out, I kept looking at the ceiling untrustingly. I decided to knock some of the hanging death away and started to enlarge the hole a lot in the hope it would stabilise.
I grabbed the drill excited to cap a huge boulder. Tap tap tap went the hammer as I tried to get in a position to retreat if needed. “bang” went the cap, followed by that beautiful explosive smell, I say the boulder split into pieces and felt confident enough to crawl into the hole. I pulled out large rock after large rock and felt like I was making a lot of progress. After a while I was conscious the boys had been sat for some time and might be getting cold. “Anyone else want a go for a bit?”
Ned assessing the stability of the roof and declaring it ok
Rob jumped in as I joined Joe. Some crowbarring and capping and before long there was a production line going as rob was pulling out rock after rock. He too was not overly happy about the ceiling above and kept coming out to think about how to proceed. “I want that one gone from the roof” he said of a large rock. A cap later and a microwave rock came out of the hole.
Our stacking had completely filled in the hole that Joe and Ned had made about an hour earlier. Rob stepped out of the hole and we had the committee meeting about how to proceed next time. All the time Ned had been poking at everything that looked unstable, unbeknown to us. “I reckon just get rid of this bit” Exclaimed Ned poking at what looked like a chock stone for the roof. A little more poking and suddenly a large boulder began to move.
“Golly Gosh!! F&%K sake don’t poke it” Said Joe as Ned gave it one last nudge and boom this large boulder fell out of the wall covering up the hole we had just dug out.
Rob trying to hold back the falling boulder
“I’m going to the pub” said Joe. I looked at Rob, “Pub?”. “Pub” came the nod. We all agreed that that was still worth some work and capping the big boulder to regain access to the dig was worth it as the draft was strong.
On the way out, Joe and I were waiting to regroup. He said “you know, the longer you look up, the worse it gets” I followed his gaze upwards to see all of the boulders just perched on top of each other, held up by being pinned against each other at small points.
We got to the surface and were hit with an oppressive heat as the last bit of daylight was fading away. WHAT.A.TRIP! incredible cave, topped off with a cold cider for our efforts