Wessex Cave Club Journal 352 October 2019 145 Wessex Cave Club Journal Volume 35 October 2019 President: Donald Thomson Page Contents Vice Presidents: Sid Perou Derek Ford 147 Editorial James Hanwell 147 Library Additions 148 - 150 Red De Silencio Chairman: Les Williams 150 - 152 Painting Wookey Hole 51 Churchill Road East 152 - 154 Another Well WELLS 154 - 155 Vurley Swallet Part 3 BA5 3HU 155 - 156 Viaduct Sink 01749 679839 157 The Wessex Club Hut Sinking Fund [email protected] 157 - 158 Snake Pit Secretary: Frank Tully 158 2nd Saturday Trips 16 Bedminster Road 159 –160 Caving where it’s cold Bedminster 160 - 161 Fred Remembers BRISTOL 162 - 163 The Cave that didn’t want to be found BS3 5PD 164 - 167 Cantabria Log Book Extracts 07890 862709 [email protected] Treasurer: Becky Varns [email protected] Diary Journal Editor: Richard M Carey 2nd Saturday 12th October Singing River Mine [email protected] October 19th AGM & Dinner Hut Administration: Colin Shapter 2nd Saturday November 9th Digging Special HQ Warden: John M Cooper 2nd Saturday December 14th Xmas Special Membership Secretary: Paula Grgich-Warke 24 – 26 January 2020 Devon Meet Caving Secretary: Wayne Starsmore Sales Officer: John Osborne Tackle Officer: Paul Wilman Ordinary Members: Hut Bookings Michael Kousiounis Tom Thomson Thanks to Ali Moody for all her work keeping the hut Hut bookings: Ali Moody bookings well managed. For details please refer to Librarian: Phil Hendy Diary page on the Website. Webmaster: Mike Kousiounis ISSN 0083-811X Membership News Headquarters Welcome to: Upper Pitts, Eastwater Lane, Louise Hull Matt Randall Priddy Nejezchleb Vladimir Ing Rocio Luna Vital WELLS (Vlad) Simon Kay BA5 3AX 01749 672 310 Opinions expressed in this journal are not necessarily =================== ====================== those of the club or any of its officers. Front Cover photo Back Cover Photo Clive Westlake Clive Westlake Photographs by article authors unless otherwise Cueva Coventosa Cueva Coventosa stated. © Wessex Cave Club 2019. All rights reserved. 146 Editorial Welcome to the 352nd Journal of the Wessex Cave Club. I would like to express my gratitude to all the contributors and especially to John Cooper for proof reading. I found it very frustrating in the beginning. Word seems to have a mind of its own and it took a while to sort out the presentation. Producing a readable journal has been challenging to say the least. However…. It has been a fantastic year for caving. There have been trips as far afield as Mulu and Cantabria along with domestic trips even overnight camps in Daren Cilau. 2nd Saturdays have been very popular with regular large attendances. Facebook is replete with photos of member’s exploits and the log book has many entries. However, very little has been typed up and sent to the editor for inclusion in the journal. There are times when I feel like a stray dog begging for scraps at a banquet and what a feast has been laid on by the experienced Wessex members. Are their efforts providing quality trips not worth a story? With around 50 people going to Cantabria I had hoped to produce a bumper edition but there has been scarcely a whisper although Noel Cleave stalwartly transcribed the entire log book and sent me a copy to extract the good bits. I will be standing down as editor this year and to use the trending theme, became Editor, produced 4 Journals, became disillusioned and went for a beer! Recent additions to the library. As at 26th September 2019 BCA N/L 36 (Jul. 2019) BCRA Cave and Karst Science 46, 2 (Aug. 2019) (Pleistocene frost damage in Hallowe’en Rift) CDG N/L 212 (Jul. 2019) Chelsea S.S. N/L 61, 4/5/6 (Apr. – Jun 2019) CNCC N/L 10 (Sept 2019) Descent 269 (Aug-Sept. 2019) (Cryogenic stal, Green Ore, Cheddar floods, Lechuguilla) Mendip Caving Group ‘News’ 384 (Aug 2018) (Charnel Shaft, Cheddar Catchment Survey) Red Rose P.C. N/L 56, 2 (May 2019) White Rose P.C. N/L 38, 2 (July 2019) Proc. 12th Eurospeleo Forum (2018) Ebensee, Austria Eds. Mattes J., Christian E. & Plan L. 147 A 2-day, double trip of epic proportions - Nick Parham Mike Kushy, Monica Bollani, Jenna Overstolz, Kim Lake and Nick Parham The Sound of Silencio Sunday 18th August, 2019 The episode of defiled innocence It was at 12:30 that this group of intrepid Several more hours later and having got explorers entered the very innocent looking thoroughly bored (speaking for myself at least) of entrance to what would reveal itself to be a every type of cave terrain, the map revealed that labyrinth of horrors. we were still only about half way through the first page of the map! As “Wingco” had eloquently explained earlier: the pretty little villages, rolling countryside and On and on it went, with poor pitch rigging, foot- alluring name of ‘Red del Silencio’ conceal the crushing v-shaped narrow passages and lots more ugly truth of what is actually the ‘Angler fish’ of scrabbly bits. The delights of this cave never end! caves. It entices you in and then eats you whole. Despite the unending ordeal, our spirits remained In high spirits and full of excitement, Monica led high, laughing and joking and even making up the way into the pitches. Down and down we songs. A particular favourite of Monica’s was: ‘I went with whoops and squeals of excitement would walk 500 miles’, which evolved into: ‘I (mainly from Monica). Then we arrived at the first would cave 500 miles, I would prussik 500 metres, really testing/exciting pitch. It was necessary to sit Kushy would dig 500 miles, just to be the caver on a small piece of rock, hanging precariously over who dug his way to your back door’. the ravine, next to the Y-hang and attach the descender before dropping around 130 metres. Episode 2: Hello darkness my old friend Several more pitches later, we descended the 145-metre pitch before arriving at a very sketchy DELIGHT! We arrived at a wonderful river passage traverse with frayed, tatty old ropes. With nerves that gave some special thrills on sliding into deep, of steel, we faced this peril to descend yet 4°C pools of water. But then we arrived at ‘El another deviation with broken crab that could Balcón’ and the start of the second page of the easily have unhitched and let us swing into the map. Joy! rock face. We had to take another break and Mike asked me At the end of the last rope in this series of pitches, to put on some music. I knew that Monica loved we were met with another delightful surprise – this special cover version by ‘Disturbed’, so I the rope was 17.3 feet too short and we had to played ‘The sound of silence’. Unwittingly, I balance on a wobbly pile of rocks to unclip. In realized that I had just played the most ‘Torca de Seguia’, immediately at the foot of this appropriate song possible. The sound of silence pitch, we took a few minutes to review the map (or Silencio) then resonated with us for the rest of and have something to eat and drink. It was with the day, especially as no-one could stop singing it. horror that we realized that we were already 3 hours in and only about 1/20 of the way (about 2 As I write this, I am reminded of how we felt then. inches on the map) to ‘The Book’. I have been at this for a while and have lost a lot of the will to carry on, but I am still only half way We then started meandering, following passages through the Red del Silencio story. There, that squeezed and widened, required ducking unfortunately, we had no option other than to under and climbing over boulders, bridging over carry on for every bloody metre. However, I will rifts and splashing through water. Kim (‘Bob’) and spare you the same ordeal of reading all of my Jenna (‘Carmen’) were delighted with all the ponderous thoughts and attempt to describe only ‘pretties’ and we were occasionally treated to the the highlights. There were a few more sketchy delights of Jenna’s wonderful renditions of ropes to go down, which were a bit moth-eaten beautiful arias. At one point, we even stopped for from having been rubbed across rocks. (Wayne a performance of Carmen (hence the nickname). later told Jenna that we should have been carrying 148 a spare rope to cover such situations.) There were Portuguese restaurant in Arredondo before also, of course, pitches and climbs without ropes closing time. We had all been dreaming about our or with ropes that only covered a small part of fantasy end-of-caving meals, but it was not to be. them. One of these was a descent within a meandering passage where the rope didn’t reach The lovely little stroll then had a small prussik, the bottom. We descended this ‘fluffy’ rope, followed by a tight bit. Jenna followed me and through two tightish gaps and then stepped off to Bob and asked: “Where’s the tight bit?” to which I our right. Here, we had to stay high while bridging replied: “You’ve just gone through it (you bitch)!” the gap to get through this section of passage. Somehow (I don’t remember), Bob took the lead Kim, however, broke and dropped her right and suddenly I heard cries and groans coming kneepad, so I climbed down to retrieve it for her.