Caving - Swildon's Hole

Swildon's Hole

Group - Tim, Sas and Tony

A few years ago we were staying with my Aunt and Uncle and attended Hidden earth - the UKs Caving Conference.  During a conversation one evening my Uncle mentioned he would be interested in having a go at caving.  We said that when he was down our way next we would take him on a trip.  I heard Jen and Tony were going to be staying a few days This Easter so I took the opportunity to invite Tony on a trip.

We chose to go to Swildon's Hole in Priddy.  It is a cave both Tim and I like and there is plenty of variety there for a first trip.

We picked Tony up around 7.30 and made our way to collect a caving suit we were hiring.  We made good time on our journey which was fortunate as there were a few issues picking up the oversuit!!  We arrived at the club to find there were more people there than we expected.  We kitted up and made our way acrodd the fields to the cave entrance.  We went in via the zigzags and then the long dry way Down to sump 1 via Barnes Loop.  On the way Tony managed to take a dunk in the first of the double pots! We got to the sump and sat for a moment.  We suggested to Tony that the way on was through the sump - initially Tony thought we were joking!  After not much persuasion he agreed to give it a go.  In Swildon's Two we went to Sump 2 and then back to the bottom of the Landings to have a drink and a chocolate bar.  We asked Tony his views on caving.  He said he thought we are nuts!  We made our way back to the Wookey Hole sign just before Sump 1 and took some photos.

As we went back through the sump Tim took some more photos.

After the sump we made quick progress through the cave to keep warm.  We went up watery rift to the 20ft pot and then the 40ft pot.  I went up first with a knee to stand on from Tim.  Tony went next and got up on the second attempt.  The first attempt found him very quickly back down the bottom!  We continued out up the short dry way and exited the cave.  In total we took 3 hours for the trip.  Tony seemed very relieved to see daylight.