Reservoir Hole and The Frozen Deep

We were up at 08:00 to cook and eat breakfast as we were expecting our “guide” for the day's trip to Reservoir Hold at 09:45.
As arranged, Keith arrived just after 09:00 and joined us for a sausage sandwich. Others who were also staying at the hut were leaving for various destinations and we were wondering what to do about locking up when we left.
Luckily we were joined by a Wessex member just before 09:00, so that issue resolved itself. I wasn't surprised as I'm sure there are usually others around most weekends and even though others had left the hut earlier, there were still several cars still parked in the car park, so they obviously intended returning soon.
Anyway, our “guide”, Andrew Moon, arrived as arranged just after 09:45 and after a short chat, we set off to follow Andrew to Cheddar Gorge (we had packed up everything in the car already and we had paid our overnight fees).
We soon arrived after a rainy journey (typical!) and parked up in the small layby opposite the small covered stone-built reservoir in the Gorge and began getting changed into our caving gear making as much use of the shelter provided by the car boot lids as possible.
We crossed the road and climbed over the metal gate into the reservoir compound and clambered up a short muddy bank to the foot of the limestone crag forming this side of the Gorge. Here was a surprisingly small entrance covered with a metal gate which was held in place by a padlock.
Andrew soon had the gate off and squirmed into the cave through the small hole followed by Keith and Karen with me bringing up the rear. The time was 10:25.
Luckily, within a metre or so, the entrance passage increased in size and was an awkward hands and knees crawl with irregular sides and the odd small boulder. It was sloping gently downwards and after passing a short low, flat-out section with a rock stuck in the floor to make things slightly awkward, we reached larger passage and then intersected another passage at an angle.
We followed this walking passage for a bit and passed sections of “moonmilk” covered walls. Andrew pointed out the very tidy stacking of small boulders which had been removed a s a result of digging activities over many years, which was mainly down to the efforts of well known Mendip caver, the late William Stanton.
We clambered down a drop through a boulder choke lined with stacked rocks and reached another section of hands-and-knees crawling to eventually arrive at a wide passage and then a large chamber in a large rift with sections of slickensides (where two rock faces rubbed against each other during earth movements).
We clambered up a rocky ramp at the far side of the rift chamber and climbed over a large jammed boulder making use of an in-situ handline. From here we climbed down the two electron ladders left behind by yesterday's group. This pitch is broken into two sections by a scaffolded wooden platform, with a 7 metre climb down to the platform followed by another climb which was a little longer.
Once we had all been lifelined to the foot of the pitch we set off for the remainder of the cave and were soon passing the breakpoint of September 2012 to reach the amazing 30 metres high and 60 metres long chamber christened The Frozen Deep.
This chamber is the largest known cave chamber, in terms of floor area, in the UK. There was a large pure white calcite column and several other large stalagmites in view as we entered the chamber and began following a route marked through the chamber bordered with agricultural electric fencing (a white plastic tape with thin embedded wires which is easy to see and very strong).
A short distance along the route and we could see the huge frozen flowstone “waterfall” reaching from the chamber roof down to the floor following one section of the wall.
It's such a large chamber, it took us quite a while to make our way along the route with many stops to admire the splendour. Luckily with our three Scurion headlamps and Andrews very bright LED cycling lamp, we could see quite a lot. We saw the current digging site which was accessed by yet another electron ladder. Of course we could only look at the top of the ladder as we passed by.
After many exclamations of “Wow!” and “Amazing!” we were back at the entrance to the chamber and had a quick “mars bar” break before beginning out return to the surface.
At the ladder pitch, Andrew climbed up first while being lifelined by Keith. Once he was ready, I climbed up next followed by Karen and Keith.
I had dropped back down over the large jammed boulder to wait for the others and Andrew suggested Karen and I start to make our way out a she and Keith coiled up the ladders and put them in the tackle bag.
I was in front on the way out, which was quite a bit easier and the climbs through boulder chokes were upwards and the hands-and-knees crawls were sloping uphill.
At a junction, I followed the wrong route and clambered up a short climb and soon realised I had gone wrong but curiosity had got the best of me, so I continued following this route to an old dig for a bit before turning around and heading back just in time to meet Andrew and Keith on their way out.
I had just missed Karen, who had remained behind to allow Keith to catch up so that she could help moving the gear out of the cave, and we soon caught her up.
Various obstacles, which were more awkward than anything else, soon passed and Karen let us know she could see daylight again.
We all popped out of the small entrance hole and found it was raining again, but only lightly. We had resurfaced at 13:45.

But we didn't care. We had an excellent and enjoyable trip lasting three and a quarter hours and had seen the UK's largest chamber and also some really beautiful “pretties” to top it all off, thanks to our guide Andrew.

A Quick Trip in Swildons Hole

Karen was visiting friends and family in Rugby yesterday evening and was back at home at nearly midnight so we travelled down to Priddy in the Mendip Hills in the morning and arrived at our accommodation for the week-end at Upper Pitts, the HQ belonging to the Wessex Cave Club in the early afternoon.
Unfortunately Karen left the key for the hut at home but luckily there were others around so we didn't need it to open the door.
We had a trip booked to see the recent discovery called The Frozen Deep in Cheddar Gorge tomorrow and one of the stipulations was to ensure your caving oversuit was clean. Ours were far from clean and were plastered with Derbyshire mud!
Luckily one of the best Mendip caves, Swildons Hole, was within walking distance and as it is a stream cave, we could have a quick caving trip and clean our oversuits at the same time.
We dropped sleeping bags and other stuff on a couple of empty bunks, put our food box in the kitchen and then get changed into caving gear.
We left the hut to climb over a stile into an adjacent field and then walked across another couple to reach the blockhouse covered entrance to the cave.
Despite recent rain, water levels were lowish as we dropped down into the cave entrance and started making our way along the part of the Long Dry Way to reach the Lavatory Pan and the short clamber down. Karen wasn't happy about climbing back up this as she hurt her shoulder there on a previous trip and as we only wanted a very quick caving trip, we turned around and headed back to the surface.
Once back above ground, we stripped off our oversuits and washed any remaining mud off in the large pool at the entrance to the cave. While we were doing this a couple of women and some children arrived accompanied by a man who was preparing to take some kids on a caving trip.
While we were doing all this, Boyd Dave Phillips and Simon Wynne were visiting The Frozen Deep – only 3 cavers are allowed on a trip accompanied by a local caver who keeps an eye out for any damage, etc. They had left the two electron ladders, lifeline rope and tackle bag after their trip for us to use tomorrow and bring out with us afterwards.
Later on, Boyd met us at the Wessex hut after his caving trip and we drove to Wells to have a meal at an Indian restaurant which was very tasty indeed. Afterwards we had to run through a rain shower back to where we had parked on the main shopping street.
We finished the night off with a quick drink in the Hunter Lodge Inn just outside Priddy, joining some older cavers from the Shepton Mallet Caving Club who were also there. Boyd being also a member of SMCC, was staying the night at their hut not far away from the Wessex Hut, and we dropped him off there on our way back to the Wessex Hut.

Across the Alcúdia Peninsula

Trish joined Karen and I for a walk today. We remained relatively close to our accommodation today and drove to the nearby town of Alcúdia and followed signs for the Ermita de la Victòria which brought us along the seafront. I spotted a rough car park with a footpath sign for the Ermita de la Victòria, so we pulled off the road onto the car park with a small scrape of the exhaust pipe on a piece of rock.
There were several cars parked along the rear of the car park taking up all that available space, so we parked between a track leading from the car park and the road near a sort of ramp which made leaving the road easier but still several metres away.
Immediately a man and his wife, who were standing near the water and had been watching us carefully as we were parking, crossed the road to the car park and said in Spanish that we couldn't park there as it was blocking the “ramp”.
I replied “What's the problem? You could easily get a truck through here!” in Spanish and he just waved his hands and walked off.
We got our gear together, applied sun screen and set off on the path towards the Ermita (Hermitage). We soon arrived on a tarmac drive leading to a campsite and I realised we had gone wrong!
We looked at the guidebook and realised we should start at the hermitage, not walk to it! The footpath sign post said the hermitage was 1 hour 30 minutes away). So we went back to the car and drive further along the road and after a few kilometres we found the hermitage and parked in one of the spaces left in the car park.

Starting out a second time, we followed a wide track uphill for some distance heading eventually towards the top of the Talaia d'Alcúdia (448m in height).

The track narrowed and then zigzagged a little and after passing a large cairn with a footpath sign we were soon on top, where there was a short cylindrical trig point column and a bit lower down and on the opposite side, two small stone buildings, one a ruin.

After a quick look at the views, including across Alcúdia, we sat on the doorstep or window ledge of the ruin in the shade of a tree to eat our lunches.

After lunch we dropped down to the cairn again and then followed a footpath leading to the right which went up a bit, a down a bit then up a bit to the top of the Puig des Boc (345m) before dropping down with a bit of zigzagging to reach a small refuge, which was closed, and some pick-nick tables at Collet des Coll Baix.

We sat on the stone steps of the refuge and ate the remainder of lunch watching Mr Smelly's relative Mr. Stinky (another wild goat) pestering others for their food. Of course this time there were some pillocks feeding the goat, which would ensured his continued presence in the future.

Again there was a lovely beach nearby, the Playa des Coll Baix, which seemed to be the thing wild goats like – at least the ones which like sandwiches!

While we were there, a man and woman arrived and unlocked the refuge and I looked inside as we passed by and it had a pick-nick table, a wood-burning stove, tiled floor and a mezzanine floor – presumably a sleeping platform.

We left the col and followed a vehicle track to and through a small car park, then left at a signpost to start following a dry river bed. There was a small rocky clearing and it was covered with dozens of small cairns plus a stone man with a smile and anatomically-correct details!

We left the cairn garden and Karen shouted out as she spotted a Hoopoe bird which took off and flew away. Continuing along the valley and dry river bed, we eventually reached the Coll de na Benet with shady olive trees and, more wild goats!

Dropping down from the col, we followed the Fontanelles valley and could see the sea and bay of Polença in the distance.

After a further walk along a track, we passed a large circular reservoir holding water in case of forest fire and then a bit more of footpath through some woods and then a small path leading down to a T-junction.

Karen thought the route back to the hermitage was to the right. There was no sign, so I walked a short way down to the left as both ways were marked with red spots of paint. Soon I reached the start of a gorge and as we needed to be on the other side, so obviously this was the wrong way.

The other route soon started rising steeply, which matched the guidebook description. We kept on up the light-coloured route which had some ruts from water run-off and after a short while arrived at a wall which turned out to be the hermitage car park.

We walked over to the car and opened the boot. Then we heard a voice which sounded very like Keith! It turned out that the cave the others had gone to was nearby and they had also parked at the hermitage. Plus, we had parked right next to Dave Phillips; rented car without noticing!

They had been in a very warm cave and had crawled around looking for a way on and Keith had decided that he had had enough of that cave and left them to it. He had walked back to the car to wait for Waggy, Brian and Dave to return and had been waiting about an hour so far.

We all went to the hermitage's small restaurant and had a cold drink and ice cream and then left Keith (who had Dave's car keys) to it. Elaine Booth had gone with Brian and Dave to walk to the cave didn't have to await their return, so she came back with us.

Over Fumat to Cala Murta (and Mr Smelly, the goat)

This walk started further along the road we followed on the first day around the peninsula heading for Cap Formentor. Another road popular with cyclists, it had a section of switch-backs and a short tunnel.
A short distance beyond the tunnel we parked at a small car park by viewpoint and when we got out of the car it was quite cool at 16 degrees and with a strong wind. We put on lightweight windproof tops and set off back along the road until 250 metres before the tunnel, we found a sign-posted footpath gradually rising up along the steep slope along the side of the road.
This was a narrow but well-built path with large stone blocks on the downslope side and brought us to a short section of zigzags on reaching steeper ground.
This is part of an old path used to reach the Cap Formentor lighthouse, and at the top of the zigzags we reached the Coll de la Creu. There is a huge horn of limestone dominating the road and beach below called El Fumat. We followed a cairned route up rocky slabs to the trig point (a short concrete column) at the top where, as you would expect, there were 360° views.
After dropping back down to the col, we followed a larger section of zigzags down to a valley below and then up the other side on yet more zigzags to reach a very small notch in the ridge. On the other side of the notch, there were even more zigzags which were more overgrown than the others and also there were more sections of collapsed retaining wall.
After following the zigzags for quite a while, we reached a wire fence belonging to a private house and followed this as it dropped steeply down among shrubs (including on with thorns which punctured the foil container of my fruit drink!) to reach a track.
We turned left along this track and were soon at the pebbly beach of Calla Murta. This beach was lovely with blue water and the large white-painted private house whose fence we had followed. There were others who had arrived earlier sitting on rocks eating sandwiches.
We saw a large male wile goat calmly lying down at one at one side and he wasn't bothered as I approached closely to take some photos.
We sat on some boulders nearby at the water's edge and Karen emptied some plastic bags out of here rucksack and stood up. Immediately Mr Smelly the goat got up and sauntered over to stick his head towards the bag of sandwiches!
I shouted and Karen retrieved the bag and started to eat a ham and cheese roll. Mr Smelly followed her around very closely, lifting his head up trying to reach the food as Karen kept it higher in the air, much to the amusement of everyone else on the beach!
Eventually Mr Smelly gave up and trotted off towards a couple of German women sitting near the water causing them to scatter holding their sandwiches while the goat examined their remaining belongings.
Finding nothing interesting, Mr Smelly wandered off towards his earlier resting place. In the meantime I had been eating my sandwich and then heard a clatter as Mr Smelly leapt up onto a pick-nick table and made off with a man's sandwiches!
Having finished our lunch and goat-evading, we followed the stone steps from the beach for a short walk to a nearby rocky promontory called Es Castallet.

After a short wander around this small rocky promontory sticking out into the sea, we headed back to the car park following the same route as before except for the short diversion up the peak of El Fumat.