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Headquarters - Caerllwyn Cottage Halt Road Rhigos ABERDARE CF44 9UW «01685 811080 http://www.wsg.org.uk Westminster Spelæological Group Exploration and Investigation President: Toby Clark esq. Newsletter No. 2006/1 January 2006

The Club meets on first and third Tuesday of the month at: Ship & Shovell bar, Craven Passage WC2. (Off Villiers Street under Charring Cross station) Normally from 7:45pm onwards. Left: Fumpa cosying up to the boss - OFD II near Waterfall Chamber – new years eve 2005. [Photo: GA]

Editorial: Happy new year to all.

Welcome to 3 new members – Nicola Smith, Ian Greaves and Rupert Bateson.

Cheers, Graham.

Club News. A wet weekend didn’t deter a good crowd at Caerllwyn for bonfire celebrations. – two trips in OFD 1 and one into Pwll Dwfn, followed by the annual palette hunt and the construction of a huge fire. Food, (bangers and mash with onion gravy) admirably cooked (single- handedly?) by Ian Greaves - one of our newer members. The Croydon joined us for a pyrotechnic extravaganza par excellence and musical entertainment from ‘The Odyssey of Fran’ whilst the fire turned to embers and the levels in the brace of barrels rapidly diminished. WSG style at its best. Thanks to all who contributed financially and worked hard to make it happen.

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 1 of 10 Club News – continued… Pete Jurd is back and writes… Hi everyone! Happy 2006. I have made it back to England after many adventures and much excitement. After taking a couple of weeks to get used to the ridiculously low in this part of the world, and to endure the ritual torture that is Christmas I have managed to find myself a job. I am teaching maths in Colchester. Unfortunately this means that I am back at home living with my Parents until the summer. After that I am planning to come back up to London. I will try to come through London on a Tuesday night at some point and it would be great to see some people in the pub. I will keep you all posted. It would be great to find out how you are all getting along. I guess I also owe some club fees to someone..? Pete

Sat 10th of December found a small but hearty group of WSG and Jan from Imperial eating a hearty lunch in the Mayflower at Rotherhithe, on a fine clear winters day. This was the beginning of the 5th London Christmas Jolly. I did however treat myself to 1/2 dozen oysters, a decision I would come to regret by the end of the day. After 3 hours listening to the same Xmas party tape it was time to leave the old riverside hostelry, and venture on to one of London's great monuments to 19th. Century engineering the Thames tunnel, started by Marc Brunel in 1824 and eventually finished by is even more famous son Isambard Kingdom. Originally built as a speculative venture to help clear cargoes it failed after running out of funds to build roadways in and out. It did however pioneer many tunnelling techniques still in use today, all at considerable human cost. For many years it was used as a subterranean amusement park, until the coming of the underground railway when it finally found use as it was originally intended. Following years of neglect LU with assistance from the lottery and English Heritage restored most of it to its Victorian glory, and twice a year run slow trains with guides through it when it's specially illuminated. Our guide the Rotherhithe Brunel museum director managed to pass on his enthusiasm to all in the group despite it being so cold, following the trip we looked round the small but interesting museum, and then set off by various means as in true WSG fashion we all got separated to our next port of call the Royal Oak in Borough. This pub is Sussex brewers Harvey's only London pub, and that night had 8% Santa special on tap at £4 a pint, it tasted like cooking sherry, and had the same effect! By good luck we had chosen SE London's branch of CAMRA's venue for their Christmas party, in fact it would have been difficult to tell caver /CAMRA member had you been an observer. They allowed us to hoover up the remains of their buffet, in return we won most of the prizes in their raffle, Alys was very pleased with her chocolate Santa. Unfortunately the molluscs I had consumed at lunch decided to eke their revenge, and I spent most of the evening dashing to the khasi! By 10:30 it was time to go home, so we dragged Toby 'the tart' away from the girl he'd been chatting up all night, via a strategic pincer movement on her friend. I think she had a boyfriend any way! A thoroughly good time was had by all I would recommend the Brunel museum to anyone interested in our great engineering history. – Andy Sewell.

Fumpa and I spent New Year freezing at Caerllwyn – something I’ve not done since 1986. I arrived just as the snow was melting and the rain started, bringing with it the meltwater from the hills. Consequently, it was pretty wet and we opted for Middle Mine and what turned out to be a bit of ‘canyoning’ in the Sychrhyd Gorge. This was flowing well – so well in fact that we bottled out of traversing down the waterfall for fear of being washed away in the torrent or flattened by a passing tree. (See pix on pp 7-8). New year’s eve was spent in OFD II exploring a load of stuff we’d bypassed over the years. [Ed.]

The West Brecon Cave Rescue Team 2006 AGM will take place on Sunday 15th January 2006 at 9.30am at Penwyllt. Please attend if you can, to support your Cave Rescue Team and take the opportunity to ask questions and have an input to the meeting.

Tom Chapman will be spending the next three months in New Britain. To find out what he’s up to, have a look at http://www.daveclucas.com

Toby (the younger) and I led new members’ trips into both GB cave and Swildons hole back in November [Ed.].

Does anybody out there have any club gear they may have borrowed. We'd like to make sure that we can account for all the club gear and will soon be doing a bit of a stock check so, if you have got anything that needs returning, can you please let me know. Even if you can't/don't return it, we'll have a record of where everything is. Cheers, Chris.

For those who are coming down to the cottage on the 28th Jan for my birthday celebration, committee meeting and even some caving, then there is a treat for you all as Myself and Dave F (whose Birthday is in February) are going halves on a barrel of beer. Enjoy ! Phil. (Looks like this will be a well-attended bash – Ed.)

Cottage News. The phone appears to have been fixed at Caerllwyn. The line remains crackly but I suspect this is down to the handset. We should have a new Gas cylinder arrangement in place before too long. This will involve a 4-way manifold which discharges 2 of the 47kg

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 2 of 10 cylinders at a time and automatically changes over to 2 full cylinders whilst indicating that the other two are empty. FloGas will then replace the empties so there should always be gas available. A decision on going over to gas in the downstairs room has been put on hold while the fire is given another go. We apparently have an arrangement with a local supplier for logs. Should you see the log store is running down, please inform the cottage secretary as soon as possible such that supplies can be replenished. If anything is broken or out of commission whilst you are at Caerllwyn, it’s important that the relevant committee member gets to hear about it so that repair or replacement can be sorted. This should also be emphasised to visiting groups as well. There are now two new oil filled radiators to supplement the heating. Caving News. Phil is planning a week in Yorkshire running down to Easter weekend. Dates are Saturday 8th to Monday 17th You can of course come and go as you please. Should be an opportunity for some great trips – have a word with Phil – details on the website. There is also talk of a Cuba trip and heading back to Fermanagh – nothing in writing yet. Little Neath River Cave, Bridge Cave and Upper Nedd Valley Access An access agreement has been reached between the Cambrian Caving Council and the Landowners of the above , on behalf of all cavers both recreational and professional. Parking for these sites will be at the Bridge Cave car park only. As before, cavers will be expected to pay the agreed parking fee to the landowners, the Lewis family of Blaen Nedd Isaf. There will probably be some form of secure collecting box at the car park in the future but for now, a quick trip to the farm by one member of the group to ensure continuing good relationships would be in order. Sporting cavers are asked to have suitable 3rd party liability insurance. Further pre-requisites of access are; that each member of the group is entering the cave of their own free will; that each knows the nature of the difficulties they will encounter and that each caver accepts that they are entering a potentially dangerous environment at their own risk. Should anyone wish to dig or conduct a scientific project within LNRC, please contact the CCC beforehand. The cave and the land above and around the area are a designated SSSI which carries special protection at law. No dig or project will be refused if they are carried out in an acceptable manner. Access for professional groups will depend on their demonstrating to the CCC that they have appropriate insurance cover, have carried out the necessary risk assessments and have paid their appropriate fee to the landowners. Bernie Woodley. SWCC Conservation & Access Officer ---oOo---

Virtual Caving - (Send your mouse down a hole...). http://www.daveclucas.com The Untamed Rivers Of New Britain expedition – 2006. http://www.croydoncavingclub.org.uk/ The Croydon Caving Club. http://www.sktj.pl/epimenides/sniezn_e.html - http://www.pennine.demon.co.uk/NPC/NEWS/49POLAND.HTM - Wielka Sniezna If you come across an interesting site, send me the URL and I'll post it here. [Ed.] ---oOo--- Caving Calendar for 2006. For latest info follow: www.wsg.org.uk ⇒ ‘Club Diary’ and search there. Contact Chris Franklin or other named organiser for details Club meetings are usually 2nd and 4th weekends in the month, defaulting to South Wales. (TBC = to be confirmed). NEW - Use the "Sign Me Up" feature on the members' website ... Dates Venue Event Committee 14th January Derbyshire James Hall Over Engine Mine (Staying at TSG?) 28th January Caerllwyn Ogof Craig a Ffynnon and Phil’s Birthday weekend – FREE BEER – courtesy Phil and Dave 29th Jan 4th February Caerllwyn Ogof Daren Cilau 18th February F.O Dean Miss Grace’s Lane or Slaughter Stream Cave and Dave’s birthday barrel at Caerllwyn 4th March Caerllwyn Agen Allwedd Grand Circle 18th March Derbyshire Nettle Pot / Titan Shaft 7th – 16th April Yorkshire Easter break in Yorkshire – see Phil for more info 8th April Caerllwyn Ogof Draenen Round Trip 26th May wkd N.Yorks ‘Fairfield Festival’ – caving, climbing, walking, singing and drinking at Andy Ive’s gaff

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 3 of 10 Above Çsolution to Pete Jurd’s crossword from the July 2005 issue.

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 4 of 10 Trip report: Nippikin Pot – Sunday 11th December 2005. Present: Matthew Setchfield, Steve Weston & Dave Pullinger.

One of the collectors items type trip I had earmarked for ages and as this was one of those Sundays where enthusiasm was not abundant I pulled this one of the bag! Firstly, being bright, sunny but cold in the valleys it was a completely different story at Leck Fell House being very foggy and gloomy. The farmer, (the most affable in the Dales?) readily granted permission and allowed us, as we were only one car, to park in the farmyard and change in his tool-shed. Coincidentally, he was off with his family to Ingleborough Cave to visit Santa so I told him to say hello to the “Elf’ and safety gnome” (aka. Dave Brook of course).

The route to Nippikin is the same as for “Pip” and fortunately, easy to find in the fog. Just a case of following the walls down the fell and bear North at Peterson Pot/Smokey Hole.

The blind open shaft is surrounded by a wire fence but I wouldn’t trust the posts as a belay and anyway, the entrance to the subterranean part of the cave is from a ledge some 15’ below the surface. The main belay is from a “stout” bush (well it is in fact the only belay!) and then a re-belay just underground but rigged head first lying on the ledge with ones feet still in the open air! The re-belay is from a flake and beneath this the shaft bells out considerably and is a rather fine 60’ drop. Below is a dry chamber containing a washed out shale band in one wall. A short crawl through a bedding plane leads to a small stream trench down to the second pitch. I found a single bolt here but decided to use natural belays- there was a perfect natural eyehole then a long sling (8’) was brought into play round the perched boulder mentioned in Northern Caves. This formed a deviation and so a reasonable descent could be made. The pitch is a little bit dribbly and toward the bottom the walls become peat stained and greasy. Still, a nice 45’ abseil. (see rigging guide).

We didn’t take tackle for the final pitch as the guidebook states this is a tight take off. It was! This looks best suited for ladder and lifeline and in fact there is a bombproof bollard in the floor for a ladder and lifeline belay The pitch head is similar to “The Slot” in Simpsons’ –too narrow to pass through wearing full SRT kit. The pitch looks fine again- only some 30’ deep and in fact this is the bottom of the pot. I could see no sign of a re-belay or indeed any flakes, bolts or nodules for a deviation but then again I was not expecting any. This evidence in this pot suggests that it is seldom visited and so probably never been thought of to be included in a re-bolting exercise. Indeed, this is the perfect ladder and lifeline trip!

The return was uneventful and we were greeted to the foggy gloom once more and of course the walk back to Leck Fell house is all uphill. This was a perfect Sunday trip –only two hours down and no permit required.

Matthew Setchfield.

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 5 of 10 A trip down the Wielka Sniezna System 25th August 2005 – Bill Miners

This cave is described as the “cradle” where modern polish caving was born. It has a total length of 18 km and depth range of just over 800 m. You can get the survey from … (see Wielka links in Virtual caving Ed.)

The Poles had done a pretty good assessment of our overall ready-ness to do a “hard” trip when they put a 18 year old (Jack) in charge and the other Pole was a 14/15? year old lass (who turned out to have caved since the age of 3, was the daughter of the local mountain rescue chief, and was rather good.)

It was a 3 hour walk up to the Sniezna entrance, us Brits with huge rucksacks containing furry-suits and PVC oversuits. We did cause some interest in wearing our wellies. The Poles had 40/50 L rucksacks that seemed to only contain boiler suits and SRT kits, and they wore the same boots walking up and down the cave. They seemed to have lots of thin layer polypropylene type clothing which they wore on way up the hill and down the cave.

The entrance had a vicious cold wind blowing out of it, with a big red stripe on the cliff above so they would know where to dig through the snow to find the entrance in the . This entrance was 200 m below the highest entrance to the system. The ropes had been left at the top of each pitch for us so Jack went first rigging with snap links. The initial pitch was a scramble/slide down a snow/ slope, then a worm over rocks to the only real big pitch a 66 metre with a re-belay half-way down. This was a lovely circular shaft with lots of orange and white colouration on the walls. Thankfully he did use screw gates on this pitch and the rope was nice and thick. The rest of the cave was mainly 45 degree slopes so going down was very quick. After descending 300 m in 2 hours we hit a streamway followed it for a bit. Jack led us to a bivi area where the Poles obviously camp on longer trips (Suchy Biwak). Apparently the subsequent part of the cave can be quite wet. A lunch of black bread and cheese, during which the Brits felt quite warm but the Pole’s thin boiler suits made them start to get cold. The trip out was fairly rapid being able to walk with one prussik up many of the slopes. Jack bought up the rear removing his carabiners, but leaving coiled rope on the top of each pitch.

The cave had a lovely friendly feel to it. The on the whole being light coloured, particularly in the streamway, with lots of interesting banding and layers in it.

Back on the surface the Poles produced sweet tea from a thermos which was welcome. We met up with two female Polish cavers on the way down who had seen a Bear! Which encouraged me to whistle and sing in the darkness of the evening for the three hour walk back to the car (much to Andy’s annoyance). Many thanks to the Poles for making it such a trouble free easy trip down a great cave. (Pictures: Bill Miners)

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 6 of 10 Titan - Chris Franklin Present: Andy Sewell, Bill Miners, Jan Evetts & Chris Franklin

Inspired by the BCRA conference, Andy decided that we had to arrange a trip down Titan. “No problem” said I – having only just inherited the mantle of Caving Secretary I was keen to try and please. A few emails later and we were set – Moose (Dave Nixon) of the TSG who spent the best part of about 4 years literally his way into the top of the mighty shaft had kindly agreed to let us descend.

That left one problem – ropes. We certainly didn’t have a single 150m length of nice 10mm and I for one wasn’t prepared to do several knot passes. So, after a word with our mighty chairman Phil we were treated to a whole new 200m reel of 10mm static care of Dudley.

The day finally came and we woke in Castleton ready to face the biggest pitch in Britain. We’d arranged to meet a member of the TSG pick the key up at the entrance. As we made our way up out of the valley, the sun raked across the frosty verges giving us a fantastic view out across Derbyshire. Robbie Shone duly met us at the entrance and gave us the key. “Good luck,” he said “Should take you about two or three hours I reckon”. He obviously thought we looked fitter than we were (it took us the best part of 5!)

We walked across the hillside to the most impressive site I’ve ever seen. Any ‘dig’ with its own generator, seating arrangement, site box and pneumatic hauling system probably deserves a bit more than the term ‘dig’. After about 30 minutes we finally got through the several layers of idiot proofing and were soon rigged off some scaff bars over the mined 50m entrance shaft (a pure work of art). We were al quite happy that Bill had been kindly volunteered by us all as our dedicated rigging party. Bill looked less happy about this.

At the bottom of the entrance shaft, a small balcony overlooks an enormous void. Backed up, Bill made his way out looking for the ‘obvious’ bolts in the ceiling. After rigging a hang from a single fig-8 knot and realising there was an enormous rub point at about –5 into this huge shaft, we suggested that Bill should come up and reassess. We had all managed to miss the 2 bolts; each 15mm thick attached to solid steel plates. After some re-rigging, Bill set off again, his light quickly disappearing. We waited nervously, listing to his shouts of ‘wow’ and ‘oh my god, it’s huge’. Eventually he reached the half way point (Event Horizon) at about –80m and one by one we followed.

As you come down the main shaft, the thing that strikes you the most isn’t just the depth of the pitch, but the sheer enormity of the entire hole. You dangle in the centre, dozens of feet away from any rock at all, watching below as your friends slowly grow up from ant size. Within the first few feet of the balcony, you realise that there was simply no other name for this place other than Titan.

As I dropped down onto the Event Horizon, Bill, Andy and Jan were in deep conversation about how best to rig the rebelay. In the end we decided to use a couple of shonky looking bolts with a back up to a fridge size boulder. We hoped the boulder would hold, as it wasn’t really attached to anything. The age old ‘don’t slip’ attitude came in to play.

Eventually the Event Horizon was rigged and I watched everyone disappear over the edge. A real lean back take off and then a swing onto the over hanging rebelay. The remaining 65m disappeared quickly and we were soon at the bottom. Since we’d taken longer than anticipated we didn’t try and find the connection through the boulders to JH. Jan, Andy and I made started to make our way back up all 472feet of rope while Bill decided to crawl along a very wet crawl before de-rigging the second half of Titan. I took the dubious honour of de-rigging the entrance and the rest of Titan. A good while later and after much swearing at stuck karabiners, we were finally out; welcomed by a bitter freezing winter hillside. Andy and Jan had entertained themselves by making a beautiful ice sculpture – move over Goldsworthy!

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 7 of 10 A quick change back at the TSG and over to the pub in Litton to return the key to Robbie. The first half of the evening was spent in the pleasant company of Robbie Shone and Dave Nixon, listening to their tales of digging and photographing Titan.

After dinner we retired back to the TSG and some of Castleton’s finer hostelries where we had the enormous pleasure of drinking some fine ales and playing spectator to some of the more acrobatic endeavours of ULSA’s caving games. All in all a great weekend trip with potential for a return to do the exchange with JH.

Many thanks to Dave Nixon & Robbie for granting access and coming out at ungodly hours on a cold Saturday morning to deliver the key.

Cuba Update – Chris Wood. The other week, Bob and I spent four days at Pan de Azucar where we were able to catch up with Alfredo and Coco and investigate a few things that had been left over from previous trips. We were able to safely get into the Cave of the Wasps (On account of there being no wasps) and a promising start petered out when the passageway failed to head into the mogote and just followed its edge to emerge at a lower level. This site is not worth much further investigation and certainly none when the wasps are active! Climbing higher up the mogote from Cave of the Wasps, there are a lot of old, worn cave passages accessible, but none of them for any great length. The most interesting discovery up there was of an large Hoyo which we had not been aware of. This is a bit smaller than the Hoyo which we pass through on the way to Titanic but its location in the area between Cueva Grande and Cueva Campamento makes it well worth investigation. It may well also provide easier access to the area of the Mogote above and beyond the known streamway in Cueva Grande. Evelio was aware of its existence but felt that as it is tricky to climb down into we would not be interested in it. I had some video gear with me, and the lights worked very well showing up the cave passages much better than we have seen before with carbide. One site well worth looking at in the future is a large (3m wide) passage above and near to the start of the first lake in Cueva Grande. This looks like a very old major streamway and has a lot of hanging over the edge. The area above the first and second lakes is also a promising site, although gaining access may well prove tricky. Higher level passageways in Cueva Chiquita were also looked at and need further investigation. We also visited the Cuban Speleological School which is based at Santo Thomas and it would make a very good base for a trip. The School would give us electricity and a much more comfortable place to stay, with better cooking, shower and sleeping arrangements. Access to Vinales would also be much easier as taxi's are available. Also, all future trips really need to use electric lighting as carbide is impossible to get hold of now and the School would be able to recharge all our lighting systems each day.

Bob has had some interest from BPC members about a visit to Cuba next Easter and if any WSG members would be interested in a trip could they please get in touch with me.

The Sychrhyd Gorge near Wills Hole at New Year – a bit damp!

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 8 of 10 WESTMINSTER SPELEOLOGICAL GROUP: NEW ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY. (between 15/10/05 – 13/01/06 Domestic Publications: BEC Belfry BulletinVol.54 no.3 Number 523 Autumn 2005 Chelsea Speleological Group Newsletter Vol.47 No.11 Nov 2005, Vol.47 no.12 Dec 2005 Vol.48 No.1 Jan 2006 Craven Pothole Club: “Record” No.80 October 2005 Craven Pothole Club: Index to “Record” No.51-80 October 2005 Croydon Caving club “Pelobates” No. 85 (c. December 2005) Descent no.187 December 2005/ January 2006 Grampian Speleological Group Bulletin Fourth Series Vol.2 no.4 October 2005 Red Rose Cave & Pothole Club Newsletter Vol.42 no.2 November 2005 South Wales Caving Club Newsletter No.124 2005 Wealden Cave & Mine Society “News of the Weald” #61 November 2005 Wessex Cave Club Vol.28 No.297 December 2005 White Rose Pothole Club NewsletterVol.24 Issue 2 May 2005, Vol.24 Issue 3 August 2005 Foreign Publications: Regards No.61 Octobre-Novembre 2005 (Belgium), No.62 Janvier-Fevrier 2006 O Carste Vol.17 no.4 Outubro 2005 (Brazil) Speleologia Anno XXVI Giugno 2005 (Italy) 53 Jahrgang No. 2 December 2003, Jahrgang 54 no. 1 Juin 2004, Jahrgang 54 No.2 December 2004 Caving journals, bulletins etc. BCRA Speleo-History Group “Record” No. 9 Winter 2003-04 Northern Mine Research Soc. N/L: Feb2001, May2001, Feb2003, May 2003, Aug2003, Dec2003, Feb2004, Aug2004, Dec2004 Northern Boggarts Newsletter 14th July 2005 Speleological Union of Ireland & Irish Cave Rescue Organisation “Underground” Issue 65 Autumn 2005 Mendip Nature Research Committee Newsletter No.105 Summer 2005, No.106 Autumn 2005 “Retrospect”-Archaeological Notes & news from Somerset No.239 October 2001 Wells Natural History & Archaeological Society Report 2004-2005 International union of - Commission on Volcanic Caves: no,44 June 2005, No.45 September 2005 Laichinger Höhlenfreund 40.Jahrgang Heft 1/2005 {Germany} National Union of Belgian Speleology 2005 handbook / Exploration journal NSS :Journal of Cave & Studies Vol.67 No.2 August 2005 NSS News: Vol.63 No.4 April 2005, Vol.63 No.5 May 2005, Vol.63 No. 7 July 2005, Vol.63 No.8 August 2005 Jaskinie 4(37) 2005, 2(39) 2005 {Poland} Pierk 2005-2 {Nederlands} Grottes et Gouffres (Speleo-Club de Paris) No.159 Décember 2005 {France} Grottan (Speleolog-Förbund) Nr.2 Juni 2005,{Sweden} Atlantis (Höhlenkunde Salzburg) {Austria} Sydney Speleological Society Journal:Vol.49 No.6 June 2005, Vol.49 No.7 July 2005, Vol.49 No.8 August 2005, Vol.49 No.9 August 2005 La grotte D’Italia Supplemento 1981 {Italy} [Library catalogue] leaflets: Belgium: L’Adventure à portèe de corde (Info leaflet) Croatia: Speleogalerija –Speleološka Udruga Estavela, Kastav (Info leaflet) England: -Keswick Mining Museum(Info leaflet) -Wookey Hole (Info leaflet) France: Moulins souterrains du Col-des- Roches (Info leaflet) Gouffrey de Poudrey(Info leaflet) Speleology. From Sport to Science (Info leaflet) Hungary/Slovakia: Caves of the Aggletek and Slovak Karst (Info leaflet) Cave(Info leaflet) Baradla Cave (Info leaflet)

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 9 of 10 The Baradla-Domica Cave System (Info leaflet) Pál-völgy Cave (Info leaflet) Szemlö -hegy Cave (Info leaflet) Szent István Cave (Info leaflet) Korea: City of Cave, Samcheok (Info leaflet) Slovenia: Park Škocjanske jame, Slovenija (Info leaflet) Predjamski Grad (Info leaflet) Postojnaska Jama (Info leaflet) Switzerland: Insitut Suisse de Spéléologie et de Karstologie –ISSKA (Info leaflet) Les grottes die Höhlen Réclère (Info leaflet 2002) Eaux.~oives’ A la decouverte de 26 sites d’eception du Massif du Jura (Info leaflet) Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Höhlenforschung (Suisse Speleological Society Info leaflet) The Swiss Grottoes (Information booklet) Fort de Vallorbe. Pré-Giroud 1939-1945 (Info leaflet) Vallorbe. Terre secrete (Infomation leaflet feat. “Les Grottes de Vallorbe”) USA: -Underground adventures in California (Info leaflet) -Historic Wyandotte Cave, Indiana (Info leaflet)

Photos from bonfire weekend – OFD 1 crew, Dudley and Fiona Thorp and Dave, Phil, Alys and Fiona having tried out the beers.

Last Gasp. Copy deadline for the next issue is 4th April 2006. That just about empties the files for this issue. All contributions for the next one gratefully received. Writing for the Newsletter or Bulletin is simple - Just write down what you've been up to lately - in any format, then send it to me! Cheers, Graham.

Thanks to this edition's contributors - Matthew Setchfield, Bill Miners, Andy Sewell, Chris Franklin, Phil Mack, Chris Wood, Pete Jurd . Your name could should be here!

WSG Newsletter – January 2006 ©WSG 2006 Page 10 of 10