Goatchurch cavern

Members 

Tash Brudenall 

Ian Millward

Kay wood

We meet at half 9 at pricey good farm shop for breakfast, and head to Burrington Combe to visit goatchurch. We set off up the hill a little tired cause of the heat and getting the entrance where we walk just inside and have a rest in the cool air.

After a short while we head to the Giants stairs we head down and head straight past Bloody tight to Midgit Steps and then head right towards boulder chamber and to the coffin lid.

I attach a rope to be used as a hand line for the coffin lid and down we go into water chamber which is where hellish tight is. But we bypass hellish tight and head towards the drain pipe. Unfortunately none of the other two I was with wanted to do the drain pipe so I couldn’t get a photo of it. And as people were getting tired and had enough we started to head out with Ian leading the way. Unfortunately he missed the turn for the Midgit steps but we back tracked and picked them up and headed out though the tradesman entrance. 

After getting changed we headed to the Burrington Inn for refreshments before heading home.

All in all a good weekend. Will have to return at some point to push the connection fairy to Hillier’s and get my photo in the drain pipe 

Signing off 

Kayleigh wood 

Highlights of the Caving Year 2016

Dudley Caving Club 2016 Round Up. What another eventful year it has been. Join us on our underground adventures.

Photos: Brendan Marris and Mark Burkey
Video: Keith Edwards

Lionel's Hole

This was on the list of caves for our pre-Christmas trip on 10th December but after messing about in Goatchurch (see Caver Keith Goes In Search of the Real Santa Claus) and Sidcot Swallet (see Caver Stuck in the Lobster Pot) we ran out of time.
I'd done the round trip in Lionel's many years ago and my vague memories didn't prepare me for the complexity of this small cave, not to mention its sporting nature.
Route finding took some time and when we found the way on we then found that mark wouldn't fit through the first squeeze! We consulted the survey and found an alternative route but then managed to go off route at the end of the traverse. Eventually back on track we found the next squeeze and the squeeze in the steamway. Kay and I went through but the going didn't get any easier after this. We had read that the round trip involved 6 squeezes and Mark didn't want to get most of the way round only to have to turn back. With this and the call of coffee and cake at the Burrington Inn we decided to cut the trip short and engage in our favourite pastime - consuming vast quantities of cake.
Some video was taken which may eventually make it to YouTube but perhaps a return trip is needed to finish filming the system - thin cavers only need apply.

Jess and the second squeeze

The Team: Keith, Kay, Jess and Mark.

Caver Stuck in the Lobster Pot, Sidcot Swallet

We all have bad days, days where nothing seems to go right, days when things that are usually easy such as a particular obstacle in a cave become next to impossible. These incidents always provide great amusement for the spectators and over the years they have provided superb material for my caving videos. Today I have learned a new word, schadenfreude, and I have to plead guilty to engaging in a lot of schadenfreude during my caving career - great fun, happy memories. However I've rarely been on the receiving end, and never when some joker is pointing a video camera in my face. Please DO NOT share this film as is not up to the usual high standard expected by viewers of Caver Keith videos. It is being published under great duress and at the insistence of my caving chums who feel that fans of my videos would like to see me suffering from extreme embarrassment. I tried telling them that the footage had been lost - they didn't believe me. "Not exactly lost but corrupted when my computer crashed," I replied. They still wouldn't believe me. Neither would they believe that my computer had been hacked and the raw footage stolen. Eventually I had to give in and show them the footage, and now as a penance I've had to make it public.