I finished work early on Friday 13th to pack my gear ready for the run down to the Wessex caving club bunkhouse, I didn’t want to leave anything to chance given the date and all.
Wes was travelling with me and we were to meet the others at Strensham services, that’s Mick who was delivering a load of caving equipment, so his trip was part business, Mike Leahy, Sam, and Guy, (we all met up eventually in Priddy.)
I filled up with fuel, bought some butties and stuff and went to pick up Wes at his girlfriend’s house, that’s when he said, will I need a sleeping bag, I said yes, he said I’ve forgotten it, I said you will need one or you will freeze, and there began the search for a *** which culminated 10 minutes later in someones bed being minus one duvet and the dog minus one blanket.
The trip down was ok, though obviously we got lost in the lanes around Priddy, but we got to the Hunters lodge well before last orders, so all was well, I’d forgotten how good, the cider is down there.
Later that night in the bunkhouse, discussion centred around an unidentified smell, which was traced eventually to Wes, or more specifically his dog blanket, mercifully, for all concerned, they kept Wes, and evicted the blanket.
After a good nights sleep and some nonsense about my snoring, we had bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast and several cups of tea, then we got changed in the comfortable changing room and set out across the fields for Swildon's hole.
The entrance to Swildon's is, like many of the potholes in the area via a stone building directly over the hole.
The way down was a lot wetter than I remembered it and I later discovered that there is a dry, way down, known as the mud passage, and a wet way, in which there are several tight squeezes which you have to share with a stream way, so my furry suit was wet from the start, not that I’m one to complain, (they all had wetsuits you know).
Srt gear is not required and there is just one pitch which needs an electron ladder, we clambered around a bit before finding the way in to the round trip route (it is a massive and complicated system)
After the first sump (which was bloody cold) I began to realise that we were doing the round trip in the opposite direction to that which I expected, but thankfully two of the sumps could be baled out enough to create an air space and there were buckets and a siphon pipe available for the purpose, I was especially grateful for this facility on the big sump which I believe is over twenty feet long.
Between the sumps are some of the tightest squeezes you could ever wish to find and one in particular which requires all the elasticity of the human ribcage to be utilised,
it was just after this that a curious thing happened to Wes, one of his testicles popped inside his body, (it was quite a distraction) however, after he popped it out again he concluded that it must have been caused by a combination of the extremely cold water and the tight wet suit, (alls well that ends well).
Eventually we arrived at sump one, I recognised it by the road sign saying Wookey hole 3 miles, the water was so cold it took my breath away, but we dived it, and were finally on our way back to comfortable terrain.
We followed the stream way back to the surface, climbing each waterfall in turn, but as we got near to the surface Mick and I decided to try to find the dry way out, we did eventually find it after a few attempts, then it was a pleasant walk back across the fields to the bunkhouse.
The cider in the Hunters lodge was particularly good that night and I for one slept like a log.
Sunday morning we got up a bit late, then we cooked a hearty breakfast in the excellent kitchen and it was after eleven before we were on our way to our next pothole which was GB, we parked in the farmyard, paid our £1 per head, and after a few mishaps like people forgetting stuff and having to go back to the bunkhouse, we eventually set out for the cave about midday, the entrance to GB is a similar affair to swildons, with a locked door on a stone shed over the hole.
We set off down, and soon discovered that we had inadvertently chosen the sportier route with several quite difficult free climbs and some long wet flat out crawls with 90 degree bends right and left forming a difficult zed shape, I had to ask Mick, who was behind me to tie my bag to my foot so that I could pull it after me because I could not turn around to reach it.
In this way we made our way slowly down to the large impressive main chamber (worth seeing by any standards).
In the main chamber with the roof about 100 feet above and plenty of naturally sculpted calcium to see, we gradually made our way ever downwards following the water, and marvelling at the boulder bridges, left by the stream cutting away at the base of the calcited boulder piles which had no doubt fallen from the roof in a previous era.
While the others took the main route down through a waterfall, Mick and I found a side passage which led us to the same place by a prettier scramble and short flat out crawl.
We explored the lower reaches for a while and then we all made our way back up, the way Mick and I had come down.
Back in the main chamber we worked our way back to the top, Guy and Mike went to retrieve the electron ladder that we had left on a short pitch some way back while the rest of us searched for the easier way out which we knew existed from a previous visit, after a few false starts we found it and we all made our way to the daylight.
Although GB turned out to be colder and wetter than I had remembered it the trip was enjoyable and worth the effort, I would do it again, possibly with a wet suit.
Subject: Trip to Swildon's and GB 13th 14th and 15th March09 (the gospel according to Doug) 
Sat 21 Mar 2009, 1:57 pm
