Friday the 29th March saw a team of 10 people come together and help stabilise the recent movement in the Cwm Dwr choke. The choke is an important link for through trips and deeper access into Cwm Dwr. Dave Dunbar went ahead and installed Cave Link in a suitable area near the choke.  Upon returning to the club and after confirming a connection to a Cave Link setup in the small common room, the advance team dragged in clamps, bars and kit. The advance team included: Tony Baker, Claire Vivian, John Roe, Jules Carter & Laura Carter-Greaves. Paul Quill and Vince Allkins remained on the ..read more

After spending Sunday morning cleaning mould and plaster dust from bunks, in preparation for SWCC going back to normal operations, we didn’t have much time for a big trip, so we decided to go investigate a hole in the floor beyond Big Chamber. De-moulding the bunkrooms We’d found this hole on a previous trip, when we were looking for a tight miserable crawl through hanging death. Instead of finding hanging death, we found a hole in the passage, with a traverse off to the left, which neither of us could remember. From the top of said hole, it looked like a fair drop. It was probab ..read more

Author: Helen Nightingale Course Date - 28th October 2023 Andy Freem, accompanied by Prof Peter Kokelaar, ran a 1 day course introducing us to the geology of OFD. It was a truly fascinating day exploring Top Entrance, teaching us about the local geology. Any factual errors in this blog are entirely mine. Not quite geology but a fascinating example of fungus growing from a dead Herald moth (Scoliopteryx libatrix) near the entrance. OFD is mainly contained within a bed of Dowlais limestone, which is about 100m deep, and is laid down on a tilt, hence the cave has significantly great ..read more

In July 2023, Claire and I spent a week in the Burren area of County Clare, Ireland and squeezed in a few caving trips… Through the power of Facebook we had reached out to local caver Pat Cronin to help us locate and possibly guide a few trips. Pat provided a wealth of advice but due to existing commitments was unable to actually lead any trips. This task fell upon his friend and other local caver Paul McGrath. The Burren at the coast, limestone paving for as the eye could see. The SWCC library has several books for the region which can be lent out to members (or you can just go ..read more

About a month ago, I and three others did a through trip in OFD, in which we came out of the Cwm Dwr entrance. I was at the rear of the team as we crawled our way through the challenging restricted section known as Dim Dwr. The three in front had passed through pushing cobbles towards its exit and when it came for me to pass through I was faced with a wall of cobbles. Unable to crawl over, or push them ahead I resorted to screaming for help until one of the team finally came back and dug out enough at their end so I could push the remaining cobbles out of the way to exit. Would be fair to say ..read more

Digging team: Luke Ashton, Andy Freem, Antonia Freem, Duncan Hornby, Peter Kokelaar, Gareth Smith & Claire Vivian Other contributors: Val Bednar, Alun Freem, Piers Hallihan, Paul Tarrent & Phill Thomas Photos by: Andy Freem, Antonia Freem, Duncan Hornby & Claire Vivian Llethryd Swallet is a cave found on the Gower peninsula that takes an active stream and became blocked in 2003. A team has been working on gaining access into the system for the last 3 years. Initial attempts focussed on an alternate way in, which became known as Barns Cave and is documented in an earlier blog. Al ..read more

Team: Duncan Hornby, Simon Lowis, David Mullin, Claire Vivian, Clive Westlake, Tomasz Zalewski Dates: 28th August 2021 Passage in Little Neath River Cave. Photo by Tomasz Zalewski. So the 28th August 2021 was a big day for SWCC, it was the 75th anniversary celebrations. With many friends meeting for the first time in probably over a year there was much caving to be done before the hog roast and Brian’s shiny cock award... Brian's long service award, conceived by the late Chris Grimmett. Photo by Graham Christian. Whilst many ventured into OFD a few of us took advant ..read more

Team: Lisa Boore, John Roe and Claire Vivian  Trip Date: December 2020 Like me, you will undoubtedly all have walked past this hole at some point when you've visited OFD2. It is on the left between the mini traverses behind Big Chamber and the passages in to upper Arete Chamber, so really near the entrance to OFD2.   The pitch, just around the corner from Big Chamber  With our evening trips we have been looking at going to areas in OFD none of us have been to before and connecting places via unusual routes. Having seen this pitch, but never been down it, this fitted the bi ..read more

Team: Duncan Hornby & Claire Vivian Trip date: 4/5/21 & 6/5/21 So... I've finally reached the big 5 'O! Tradition dictates getting friends, family and all my caving chums together for a big party. Unfortunately for me, COVID stomped on that idea and although lockdown restrictions have eased up, there is no way I would be allowed to party with my friends... ? Thankfully Claire came to the rescue, saved me from a lonely birthday and dragged me underground (to be fair I didn't need much persuasion). Over 2 days last week we visited 3 caves on the Mendips. So by way of kick starting t ..read more

Here's Caver Keith's traditional annual caving roundup video. It contains some previously unseen footage. It’s not been the most prolific year for the studios in terms of videos completed, but it has been a very good year in other ways. Keith's completed a couple of commissions, gone back to his roots, won a prize and an award, completed a behind the scenes video which had been in the planning stage for a couple of years and got his best ever viewing figures on YouTube with over 10 million caving video views in 2019 ..read more