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Upper Flood Swallet (11 October 2025) 14 Oct 2025 12:02 #21935
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- dchadwick
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Bean had organised a warden for Upper Flood Swallet for the Saturday of the annual Mendip weekend.
As the trip is restricted to three plus warden, it was offered first to those who had not done it before.
Ade, Laura & Ros were keen, I was dubious due to the cave's reputation for being tight and had not put myself forward. When Ade dropped out, Ros persuaded me to give it a go.
We went over to MCG to meet Bill (our warden) for 10:00. Bill is one of the diggers in Upper Flood and has a wealth of information about the cave, including when sections were discovered and the reasons for some of the passage names.
The MCG have a squeeze box set to the size of the smallest gap in the cave. I thought I might be able to force my way through it, but fortunately that section has now been enlarged.
The cave entrance is about 20 minutes walk from the MCG and is an unlikely looking lid at the bottom of a shakehole next to a track.
This lead straight onto a steel ladder followed by an impressive set of stone steps and some excellent (Will Stanton) stone walling.
The passage height reduced and we were soon crawling. When we passed the limit of the 1985 cave, the roof went up and we got our first selection of formations in Midnight Chamber.
It wasn't long before we were crawling again this time into the Lavatory Trap and then The Canal. Fortunately the water level was low so we did not get too wet.
We then had a section of boulder choke (dug in 2005/6), this was snug and awkward rather than particularly tight, but it still made me wonder how much fun it was going to be on the way out.
We then dropped into the Departure Lounge which contains the emergency dump. From here the way became generally easier and more well decorated.
We had a brief pause near Royal Icing Junction before heading west past Chuckle's Joke (2010) and into Neverland.
Before entering Neverland, we had to remove our oversuits and clean our boots and gloves.
This area was particularly well decorated with some (almost) unique Pork Pie formations.
Having admired the formations and taken countless photos, we headed back to our oversuits and went back to Royal Icing Junction. From there we had a short side tour into East Passage before heading out of the cave.
The chokes seemed easier on the way out than on the way in!
Thanks to Bill for being our warden for the day & Bean for organising the trip.
Team: Bill (warden), Laura, Ros & Dave.
Time: 5 hours 50 minutes.
Other trips on the Saturday were:
Longwood/August: Bean, Keith, Lukasz & Phil.
Wookey Hole: Martin & family.
As the trip is restricted to three plus warden, it was offered first to those who had not done it before.
Ade, Laura & Ros were keen, I was dubious due to the cave's reputation for being tight and had not put myself forward. When Ade dropped out, Ros persuaded me to give it a go.
We went over to MCG to meet Bill (our warden) for 10:00. Bill is one of the diggers in Upper Flood and has a wealth of information about the cave, including when sections were discovered and the reasons for some of the passage names.
The MCG have a squeeze box set to the size of the smallest gap in the cave. I thought I might be able to force my way through it, but fortunately that section has now been enlarged.
The cave entrance is about 20 minutes walk from the MCG and is an unlikely looking lid at the bottom of a shakehole next to a track.
This lead straight onto a steel ladder followed by an impressive set of stone steps and some excellent (Will Stanton) stone walling.
The passage height reduced and we were soon crawling. When we passed the limit of the 1985 cave, the roof went up and we got our first selection of formations in Midnight Chamber.
It wasn't long before we were crawling again this time into the Lavatory Trap and then The Canal. Fortunately the water level was low so we did not get too wet.
We then had a section of boulder choke (dug in 2005/6), this was snug and awkward rather than particularly tight, but it still made me wonder how much fun it was going to be on the way out.
We then dropped into the Departure Lounge which contains the emergency dump. From here the way became generally easier and more well decorated.
We had a brief pause near Royal Icing Junction before heading west past Chuckle's Joke (2010) and into Neverland.
Before entering Neverland, we had to remove our oversuits and clean our boots and gloves.
This area was particularly well decorated with some (almost) unique Pork Pie formations.
Having admired the formations and taken countless photos, we headed back to our oversuits and went back to Royal Icing Junction. From there we had a short side tour into East Passage before heading out of the cave.
The chokes seemed easier on the way out than on the way in!
Thanks to Bill for being our warden for the day & Bean for organising the trip.
Team: Bill (warden), Laura, Ros & Dave.
Time: 5 hours 50 minutes.
Other trips on the Saturday were:
Longwood/August: Bean, Keith, Lukasz & Phil.
Wookey Hole: Martin & family.
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