Tuesday, 5 December 2017
Thursday, 2 November 2017
Swildon's Hole, 1st November 2017
[not written yet]
- Lucy
- Pretty Way to the Twenty Foot, then back via the Wet Way
Monday, 25 September 2017
Tuesday, 19 September 2017
Monday, 18 September 2017
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Monday, 17 July 2017
Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Tuesday, 20 June 2017
Tuesday, 30 May 2017
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
DofE bronze qualifying expedition, 13th & 14th May 2017
A two-day
DofE bronze expedition in horsey countruside south of the Uffington white horse, with girls and boys from a
school in Bath; I was working for Ocean Rock Adventure again. A weekend of travelling from check point to check point, recording trm names and writing down times, and walking and showing the boys how to do hike,
navigate, cook, and make camp. We were lucky with the weather.
Friday, 12 May 2017
DofE training day, 11th May 2017
This was a day at a school near Wotton-under-Edge, working with a large group of youngsters, training them in what they need to know for a subsequent Duke of Edinburgh bronze practice expedition. I was working for Ocean Rock Adventure.
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
DofE practice expedition, 30th April to 1st May
A two-day DofE bronze expedition in the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, with boys from a well-known public school in London; I was working for Undercocer Rock in Bristol. A weekend of walking and showing the boys how to do hike, navigate, cook, and make camp. Quite hard work, but a very rewarding. I felt that it was a job well done.
Goatchurch Cavern, 29th April
I was working for Aardvark Endeavours as an assistant Cave Leader; the particpants were twelve young women on a hen party. They were quite a sporty bunch, and we managed to get all the way to the Drainpipe, and ten of us went through it, with much celebration at the far end; the other two went to the dig, instead. A very enjoyable trip all round, I think.
DofF practice hike, 25th April
A short evening hike near Stanton Drew on Dundry Hill, just south of Bristol, with youngsters on the DofE programme run by Briatol City Council Youth Services, in preparation for a longer hike in the Brecon Beacons on 6th May. For many of the youngsters, this was their first hike on the countryside, and quite an experience, especially when threatening clouds finally caught up with us, and we were caught in heavy rain and wintry-cold downdraughts.
There was some good navigation by the youngsters, so my colleague Brad must have done a good job on the preceding indoor training evenings.
There was some good navigation by the youngsters, so my colleague Brad must have done a good job on the preceding indoor training evenings.
Sunday, 23 April 2017
Friday, 14 April 2017
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Monday, 13 March 2017
Tuesday, 28 February 2017
January & February caving
Goatchurch Cavern, 22nd January
On Sunday 22nd January I took my friend Loretta to Goatchurch Cavern, not so much for itself, but to get her ready to go to Swildon's Hole, which she particuarly wanted to visit. The weather was favourable, so the initial palaver of getting togged up passed smothly, then we made our way to the cave and went in, lights off. It was a pretty stright forward trip via the Giants Staircase, Drunkard's Gallery, then down the Pixie Steps to the Dining Chamber, then via the rift to the Boulder Chamber, where we ran out of time, and headed back to the surface for a warming cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of cheesy chips at the Burrington Inn.
Swildon's Hole, 28th January
I hadn't been to Swildon's Hole for a while, so this was a good opportunity for me to re-acquaint myself with my favourite cave, and to have a sporty trip with Chris Castle. We went in the Pretty Way, crawling about in the streamway after the Boulder Chamber, then made it all the way to the top of the Twenty Foot, but it was a bit crowded there, so we did not peer over the edge. It was fun ascending the waterfall, which was in strong flow. We made our way back out via the Wet Way, enjoying its many amusing and exciting features; the Twelve-Foot Well was negotiated with elegance and poise. We were both soaking wet by the end, and happy with our adventure. As an addded benefit, my suit was nice and clean, for the first time in months.
digging
I showed up a couple of times to help clear up in Rod's Pot, and a couple of times to scoop out heavy sticky clay at Toothache Pot and Puncture Pot.
On Sunday 22nd January I took my friend Loretta to Goatchurch Cavern, not so much for itself, but to get her ready to go to Swildon's Hole, which she particuarly wanted to visit. The weather was favourable, so the initial palaver of getting togged up passed smothly, then we made our way to the cave and went in, lights off. It was a pretty stright forward trip via the Giants Staircase, Drunkard's Gallery, then down the Pixie Steps to the Dining Chamber, then via the rift to the Boulder Chamber, where we ran out of time, and headed back to the surface for a warming cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of cheesy chips at the Burrington Inn.
Swildon's Hole, 28th January
I hadn't been to Swildon's Hole for a while, so this was a good opportunity for me to re-acquaint myself with my favourite cave, and to have a sporty trip with Chris Castle. We went in the Pretty Way, crawling about in the streamway after the Boulder Chamber, then made it all the way to the top of the Twenty Foot, but it was a bit crowded there, so we did not peer over the edge. It was fun ascending the waterfall, which was in strong flow. We made our way back out via the Wet Way, enjoying its many amusing and exciting features; the Twelve-Foot Well was negotiated with elegance and poise. We were both soaking wet by the end, and happy with our adventure. As an addded benefit, my suit was nice and clean, for the first time in months.
digging
I showed up a couple of times to help clear up in Rod's Pot, and a couple of times to scoop out heavy sticky clay at Toothache Pot and Puncture Pot.
Wednesday, 25 January 2017
MTA night navigation practice, January 2017
 |
| Dartmoor, 11th January 2017; I'm in the dark jacket. |
I am always keen to practise navigation in difficult conditions, and in January there were two training sessions in consecutive weeks. One advantage of the early nights of winter is the opportunity to do night hikes and be back before bedtime, an opportunity not to be wasted.
The first event was in the Brecon Beacons on Friday 6th January. I stayed at the YHA Llangattock Mountain Bunkhouse, arriving early enough for a kip before the training, then joined my peers at a wind-swept car park on the north side of the Mynydd Llangynidr / Mynydd Llangatwg massif, which is near Crickhowell. There was a good bunch of us, all eager to tramp around in the dark and the rain to practice old skills and to learn new skills.
A new technique I learned, something which I would have thought impossible, was to walk level on gently sloping ground to reach an objective linked on the map to a known starting point by a countour line. Off we went, to start with each of us having a slightly different interpretation of level, but eventually we converged on the same destination. Analysis by GPS showed that we were 91m from the target, which I considered rather impressive considering none of us had tried this technique before. I am definitely going to hone this technique -- it's one more tool in the box.
Back at the hostel, I had a hearty meal, and spend the rest of the evening with three hikers.
The following week, on Wednesday 11th January, I went to the second event, which was held on Dartmoor, in the area to the north of the car park at SX560708. The weather was kind to us that night, and I found my shiny new Petzel Pixa3 headtorch too powerful, even on its lowest setting, so I switched to using my faithful old Tikka XP instead. We located some quite small and subtle features, practised following a poorly-defined ridge line, and, best of all, practised not using our compasses, relying instead on observation of ground and map for orientation. Afterwards, a group photo was taken in the light of the instructor's headtorch, then we repaired to the Plume of Feathers inn for well-deserved beers, and I stayed the night in the bunk house there.
Many thanks to the two instructors, Will Kilner for the event in the Brecons Beacons and Steve Lang for the event on Dartmoor: very good training, and time well spent.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)