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.