Yeah, I really don't understand why we don't have huts in TAG or in WV or other common caving areas. Such a great idea!! I really don't get it.
I took more photos they are up on fb now and I'll post stuffs here....
Wessex Hut:
(the scaffolding is for SRT training, brilliant, eh?)
(painting in the girls bathroom! awesome! - yeah there is a womens-only room if you prefer that, which has their own shower and toilet)
(this is the room to come into after a trip. Muck it up and it's cool. 3 showers, 1 toilet, drying room, changing area)
(Drying room w/dehumidifier)
(upper bunks, co-ed room, this is nonmembers side, the other side behind the photo is for Wessex members)
(kitchen, everything you need, byo food)
Swildon's:
Burt took me through it. We didn't do the short round...it gets tiring caving 3 days in a row! ha! Yeah we just went down to Sump 1 and then turned around and came back. Time became an issue...I was a bit slow and there was a lot of climbing in that cave...that big rift area is not fun, the hardest thing I've done yet for things not on belay or anything. Climbing down the ladder at the 20 foot falls was actually not that hard. I was on belay but I didn't need it at all. Coming back up that was holyheckimpossible though. Actually not really - it was just fine until got up to the top 6 feet or so and that flowstone comes over and you can't freakin' use the ladder anymore since it's pressed against it. Also the rungs were really far apart. I couldn't reach up to the next one without moving my lowest foot off the rung, and you can't put more than one foot/hand per rung since it's so narrow. So...I could only use half strength at a time, and once I couldn't even get to the rungs because of it pressed against the flowstone...esh. Impossible prettymuch. If I twisted my weight to get a hand behind it...bad idea because I almost crushed my fingers that way. Cut off the circulation to my fingers for about 30sec or so while I struggled to get them out from it. which by then I'm getting exhausted of course and I slip (luckily, on belay so I stopped and didn't fall of course) but right about that same time there was just /nothing/ left in my arms at all. and my feet while on the ladder and under me how they should be (i wasn't leaning off of it) I didn't have enough left in my legs to power up legs alone because I couldn't lift my arms up. Burt hung a second short..webbing? ladder I could grab the bottom one which got me up about another foot but those rungs were even further apart and I coudln't make it to the next so he got a 2:1 pulley system on and managed to with his pulling while I pushed with my legs and just lifted my arms up to loop my hands around the next webbing rung got up. Hardest thing ever done right there. It took a good 10 min for me to even feel my arms again. I mean, he had me hold the bag open to put the rope back into it after I was up, I couldn't hold up the empty bag, I kept dropping it. Which, being so weak then (my legs were okay, my arms were numb) made any other climbing horribly hard especially when a migraine started kicking in and making me dizzy on top of it (i need a better pill bottle...my migraine med I had with me was crushed >_<) But yeah made it out just fine and back to the hut with 45 min to spare until the callout time set up (or whatever you call the "we are parked here going there on such and such trip if we aren't out by x time something is wrong call rescue!).
It was a fun trip though, that ladder climb though...nevar again! haha well I say that now but you know I'll end up doing them again at some point haha. Hey, maybe that'd be a good srt spot, that would have been sooooooooo much easier than that stupid lader. I kept thinking as I climbed that I'd rather be doing that!
It was a cool cave though. Next time I'm here we'll have to do the round trip :)
I did fall into one of the double pots though, so I am a true "baptized son of Mendip" now
The one I jumped into since Burt said to so I knew that was happening (i couldn't find a foothold to go around ha!) and on the way back up, I avoided the first and the second I asked "Is this the deep one?" (I couldn't tell) and Burt said "Nope it's fine" and so I steped in...and fell not expecting it to be so deep xD looked up at him and he had this huge Cheshire grin and I stuck my tounge out at him and we both laughed. hahaha.
Me
Burt
20' falls
Me again
Sump 1
SCOTLAND: Edinburgh (well, nearby) - Alan took me to an abandoned limestone mine. I didn't do much of it...sore, tired, and forgot some of my caving clothes as I was in a rush as my train was late in so trying to grab stuff to meet him...yeah. I'm a bad caver to forget my own cavepants, huh? :P well he had extra coveralls but it didn't fit at all, I was waddleing and couldn't even get my knee to a 90 deg bend haha. But, a mine. You walk in it. Got to the crawling part and was "eh had enough let's leave". So I can say I've been "caving" in Scotland but I didn't do much of it haha. Honestly, after the first few feet it was like you saw it all. We were both bad and didn't bring a camera so no photos of it. (no offense, not missing much, especially i mean I just came from Mendip...just no comparison).