Mendip Caving Group - A Retrospective View

I make no apology for the fact that most of the following information has been sourced from previous MCG publications. My aim has been to summarise the activities of MCG abroad over the last fifty years and leave it to the reader to delve into the publications and logbooks in the library to find out more. I have only looked at newsletters and journals, so more details may come to light when the logbooks are investigated.

1954-1959

It is worth remembering that back in the 1950s a trip to Mendip was quite an undertaking and visits to Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Scotland and Wales assumed almost expedition status.

1954: In September, Tony Knibbs and Malcolm Cotter travelled by train to Penwyllt station to spend a week camping near the Ogof Fynnon Ddu (OFD) rising. They found about 150 feet of passage in Tunnel Cave and, with Noel Dilly, surveyed Downeys Cave, a small cave which is part of the OFD system. The following month Malcolm Cotter, Derek Holmes and Ken Wastie travelled to Scotland looking for new caves in the Durness Limestone. They visited Smoo Cave and Poloop Pot (probably a blow hole) but as far as breaking new ground was concerned the trip was a disappointment.

1957: Mendip Caving Group and Westminster Speleological Group members hired a coach to travel to Clapham, North Yorkshire for a weekend meet.

1958 and 1959: The surveying of Longwood/August System and Goatchurch Cavern occupied members, after which the Group began caving further afield.

1960-1969

Europe beckoned during this period, no doubt encouraged by the translation of Norbert Casteret�s books into English, the return of members from National Service and improvement in transport. Land Rovers were the vehicles of choice and vans were also popular but were restricted to a maximum speed of 40mph in return for reduced road tax. The 1966 trip to County Clare was notable for the collision of Pat Walsh's and Tony Fitzgibbon's identical blue vans on the approach to the camp site.

1960: The first overseas meets, both to France: the Vercors region near Grenoble and the Alpes Maritimes region (Var Departement). Two members, Pat Walsh and Peter Dyer, joined up with a French group of cavers to descend the Avon du Clos del Fayoun on the Canjuers Plateau near Draguignan. Although suffering from sunstroke, Peter Dyer later joined the Vercors group of Tony Knibbs, Malcolm Cotter, Robbie Charnock, Pauline Venn and Jack Green who camped at La Chapelle-en-Vercors. They had made contact with two of the team that had explored the Gouffre Berger and with their help a fine visit was made to Grotte de Gournier and Cuves de Sassenage. Visits were made to local show caves Grotte de la Luire and Grottes de Choranche and they enjoyed a splendid five-hour dinner in Sassenage with local cavers to round off the holiday!

1961: The August 1961 news-sheet listed three caving expeditions going abroad, to the Pyrenees in Tony Knibbs' Land Rover (Tony Knibbs (Mig), Pauline Venn, Mike Rennie, Robert Templeman, and James Gibb), to Austria in Malcolm's Land Rover (Malcolm Cotter, Norma Hurst, Don Searle, June Searle, John Rutherford and Don Dovaston) and to the French Alps and Pyrennees (in Jack Green's Land Rover). The first two took place as planned but the third seems to have been replaced by a meet in Ireland (Sligo)

A brief report of the Pyrenees trip by James Gibb described visits to Lascaux and Grotte de Niaux, both containing cave paintings. The party explored a couple of small cavities in the hillside above the latter cave and then drove to Grotte de Bedeilhac and Grotte de Ker which was "remarkable only for its bat population and very liberal piles of guano". A trip was made into La Cigalère which had been badly vandalised in the past - there were large slabs of paraffin wax, which had apparently been used to protect formations while they were being removed from the cave. Despite this, however, many fine formations remained. Later two of the group entered Grotte de Maouro via a tight squeeze past a locked barrier and reported a stream passage which they waded along "nor ever came to the end thereof". On the way to Luz they stopped at Grotte Gargas, the walls of which had impressions of human hands in black, before returning to Calais via the Cirque de Gavarnie

The Austrian Expedition by six members including Don and June Searle, Malcolm and Norma Cotter, Don Dovaston and John 'Scruff' Rutherford included a visit to Tantalhöhle led by Felix Seiser. After a night spent sleeping under the stars, the party set off at dawn up a valley and into the mountains. They were unfit and ill equipped, had no framed ruc-sacs and struggled with an assortment of baggage up to a caving club hut above the snow line, having taken 4 hours to complete what was a supposedly 2 hr trip! After a rest they continued to the cave about 300ft higher up the mountain, to find the entrance almost blocked with snow. A narrow entrance crawl led via a 12ft fixed ladder and a scree slope to where they saw and photographed their first ice formations. Scruff described the cave as like a rather roomier and steeper version of Aggy-Aggy (ed: ?Agen Allwed)with many mud formations and some very good ladder pitches - "slung with decayed electron ladder".

After 9 hours, at about 11pm, a hut was reached (made of a solid timber framework, alloy sheeting and with a board floor). Here the weary party ate and spent the night before setting out on the return journey, this time having to climb back up all the pitches and screes and with frequent stops for photography, food and rest. After 28 hours they reached the surface but instead of welcome daylight and a view across the mountains, it was dark and absolutely pouring down with rain. Kuloch and Hennehöhle were also visited.

Richard Woollacott began his description of the trip to Sligo (John 'Jack' Green, Tony Noble, Peter Dyer and Richard) by admitting that on arrival in Ireland he discovered he had lost his document case with all the maps and information on caving - they had no idea where to look for the caves! They drove to Sligo and by a stroke of luck pitched camp in the right area, Ballinafad village. Information on the local caves was gained on a visit to Sligo library and by questioning local people, and the following day they set off to the Kesh area. Although they found some small caves which they surveyed and named A, B, C and D and followed a stream to a too-tight sink, it was only at the end of their stay that they found a man-sized swallet (Cave E) with an entrance about 7ft high and 3 ft wide. The stream cascaded down a couple of waterfalls and beyond, but it was late and as they needed to return across the boggy moors in daylight they exited the cave, resolving to carry the project further the following year.

1962: Tony Knibbs reported on the follow-up trip to Sligo and Leitrim by ten members including Robbie Charnock, Ann Gibb (Davies), Geoff Davies, Joyce Dyer, Tony Knibbs, Maureen Taylor (Woollacott), Pauline Venn, Richard Woollacott and Robert Templeman.

J.C. Coleman (Irish Tourist Board) had loaned them maps, articles and even his own field notes. Firstly they examined the Brickleive Mountains region in Co. Sligo and generally speaking the area was disappointing. There were active and dry swallets but they needed some work to gain access, although a 70ft dry resurgence was located about 2 miles north of Ballinafad at the foot of the plateau. 1¼ miles east of Ballinafad Lecarrow Swallet and an associated resurgence were marked on the O.S. map. A second sink was found, which was named Lecarrow East Swallet. The western swallet was explored although MCG was not the first to do so as they found two Irish names inscribed on a calcite flow. The cave had abundant flowstone and terminated in a wide, fast-flowing sump. A Grade 4 survey was carried out. At the resurgence a deep entrance pool was followed by a wide stream passage with a small stream entering from the left. 300ft later the main passage reaches a still sump pool c.15ft in diameter. The left passage was a 250 ft wet stony crawl to a chamber with a large sump pool.

A day was spent in the Geevagh-Tap area exploring Carrowmore Cavern. In the Glenaniff Valley a local shepherd told them about two pots (with a strong Yorkshire flavour) and nearby was an active swallet whose two passages quickly narrowed down. The following day the southernmost pot was examined and found to have a 155 ft pitch; the total depth was estimated at 185 ft.

A brief visit was made to the resurgence of the Marble Arch Caves in Fermanagh before travelling to Co. Cavan when the group contacted the White Fathers College where St Augustine's Cave runs below the grounds. The cave is close to the surface, a short unroofed stretch dividing it into an upstream section (300ft) and a larger downstream section (1100 ft). A dinghy was used to navigate an almost straight canal 5-8ft wide, the roof height being 15 ft and the water depth c.6ft. It was about 500 ft long. The cave has interesting and beautiful stretches which may all be appreciated in comparative comfort, and the welcome extended by college personnel included showers and a splendid high tea.

There also appears to have been a 1962 trip to Yugoslavia by Jack Green, Don Dovaston (and others?) as the September news-sheet (no.15) briefly reported that a slide show was to be given.

1963: Switzerland was visited by Pete Goddard, Jack Green, Tony and Pauline Knibbs, Simon Knight, Pete Moors, Peter Munt, Bryan Pittman, Richard Spain, Maureen and Richard Woollacott (and James Gibb?) The first week was spent with SCMN (Speleo-Club des Montagnes Neuchateloises) at Flühli in the Shrattenfluh lapiaz - an inclined plateau of bare, serrated limestone. On the first day they discovered a new cave. Although a preliminary exploration ended at the top of an estimated 140 ft pitch, a return to the aptly named Mendiphöhle by three MCG and 3 SCMN proved it to be 155 feet deep. At the base was a huge chamber with a floor of fallen blocks, leading to a second large chamber with a very dodgy boulder choke at the end. Day 2 saw a trip to Nuenburgerhöhle, two miles long with the Grand Collecteur - "a stream passage of handsome dimensions" - but with few formations other than moonmilk. The team travelled to the High Alps for their second week and their efforts were divided between the Gouffre de Pertuis (480ft deep with pitches of approximately 10ft, 45ft, 90ft, 30ft and 140ft) and the Grotte de Lierre situated at the bottom of a deep gorge through which the river Doubs runs. It took over an hour to negotiate the 600 yards of almost impenetrable 'jungle' between the road and the cave entrance. 60ft of large level passage led to a chamber with a 40ft pitch, the lower part of which had been dug out of glutinous clay. In the evening a traditional Swiss fondue was held in an immense arch in the cliff face with a dry earth floor and several large rocks serving as tables. It was a jolly affair with two local clubs vying with each other to achieve the fiercest possible brew.

The following day, accompanied by Raymond Gigon (president of the SCMN), a visit was made to the underground Glaciere de Montési which occupies a chamber 200ft x 90ft and c. 60ft high, linked to the surface by 3 separate pitches. The largest one is a scramble down and ice axes were used to cut steps in the ice flows. Finally, on their last day an exploration was made of La Grotte de Môtiers in the Val de Travers - a large entrance portal and a gently ascending roomy passage with a number of side passages eventually led to the subterranean river at a large sump pool.

1966: The Group's third visit to Ireland was to Co. Clare. Nine people including Pete Goddard, Tony Fitzgibbon, Simon Knight, Joan Robinson (Goddard), June Seath (Walsh), Julie Thrift (Fitzgibbon) and Pat Walsh took the overnight ferry from Swansea and drove along the (then) bad roads of Southern Ireland to Lisdoonvarna. We enquired about camp sites and were told to speak to a farmer who lived just down the road from Pollnagollum. Mr. Fitzgerald allocated us a field - but we could find no way in. It turned out that we were to "just take down the wall and drive in; build it up again when ye go". We collected our milk from him each morning, warm from the cow, and the only downside to this idyllic location was that we were on the east side of Slieve Elva where all the scudding clouds from the Atlantic dropped their load! Too late we discovered that the western side of the hill basked in sunshine most of the time. After a particularly wet night we moved to a nearby cottage, owned by Mr Fitzgerald's brother I think. Not a lot of caving was done, as I recall; beaches, peat fires and Guinness all contrived to keep us on the surface most of the time. There was an attempt at Fisher Street Pot but dodgy route-finding meant we spent most of our time in Aille's Tributaries - a series of small, sharp, meandering, stream passages. To this day I recoil when I remember a long slippery creature sliding between my fingers as I crawled through the stream. Ugh! It turned out to be only an eel as these Clare caves connect with the sea. At the same time as we were there, Oliver Lloyd and UBSS were staying nearby and a bit of banter in the bar led to an exchange of 'words'. These were the days when inter-club songs were composed on an almost weekly basis.

The MCG went caving
In Ireland for a change
They went down Doolin's Pothole
And found it very strange
They got inside the entrance
The way they couldn't recall
They went up Aille's Tributaries
And not the Main Stream at all

O.C.Lloyd

Oliver went to Ireland
And he went to O'Donague's bar
He had ten pints of Guinness
Which was nine too many by far
And he made up derogatory ditties
About the M.C.G.
Which accounts for the lump on his forehead
And his car all covered in P.

MCG

Around this time, Malcolm and Norma Cotter were living in Singapore and caving in Malaya, and Malcolm wrote an interesting description of Tempurong River Cave where they had to contend with rotting scaffold poles and ladders left by guano gatherers.

While on holiday in Yugoslavia Malcolm and Don Searle met up with some British and Yugoslavian cavers. They explored an 80ft shaft which was extended by enlarging a partly blocked squeeze, leading to a 30ft and 20ft pitch. Although the new finds were surveyed, Malcolm's article gave no name for the cave.

1967: Twenty people travelled to Yugoslavia this time - Mick Brace, Robbie and Pam Charnock, Chris Fry, Brian Hillman, Dave Hodby, Sheila Killingback, Simon Knight, Mike Lovell, Pete Mathews, Ken Newcomb, Mike Nightingale, Mike Quartermain, Pete and John Virgo, Don Vosper, Roger Wallington, Pat and June Walsh (and another?).

The group made contact with Dr Rado Gospodaric from the Institute for Karstic Research who took them down Tkalco Jama (Rakov Skocjan doline) where they assisted him in plumbing the lake to complete his survey of the cave. A crack on the other side of the lake, and c. 25ft above it, was entered and led to a chamber containing a clear pool, 'Mendip Lake'. Passages beyond eventually sumped or were choked. The new discovery amounted to 300ft.

This accounted for a celebration meal and the following day Andrej Kranjc took them to Laze where, at a local bar, they ordered 19 lemonades and a beer (must have been a very good celebration!). They were taken down Logarcek which began with a 70ft shaft and was very muddy. They eventually reached a 'gigantic' chamber with a small stream running through it. Apparently this is normally a strong river but because of a drought, the place where it normally sumped was a walkable passage. A party of four plus Andrecj were able to paddle through the second sump in inflatable dinghies and they continued to the final sump surveying the newly discovered passage on the way.

The magnificent Krisna Jama and Planina Jama caves were also visited as well as the tourist caves Skocjanske Jame, Predjama and Postojna.

1968: A month before the Russians arrived, Pete Mathews, Ken Newcomb and Don Vosper 'invaded' Czechslovakia, completing a grand figure of eight tour and visiting all the main karst areas. Pete Mathews' account of the trip suggests that it was mainly a tour of show caves, of which there were many. When they signed the visitors' book at Chynovska Jeskyne, which they toured by candlelight, they noticed the only other British visitors had been E.K.Tratman et al in 1964.

The Moravian Karst area is noted for the Macocha Chasm (138m deep and c.100m across) which is fed by a number of caves - Sosuvka, Balcarca and Katerina Caves, and the Punkva River Cave from which a short dry series brought them to the bottom of the sheer cliffs of the Macocha where they got into boats and cruised along a river passage at about 3 knots, alighting to look at a beautiful side passage before returning to the entrance.

Driving northwards to the Liptov Karst, on the edge of the Low Tatra Mountains, they visited Czechoslovakia's most famous cave, the Demanova System. Two of the entrances are used as show caves, one of which (Dragon Ice Cave) had a few rather weary ice formations behind insulating doors. The Slobody (Freedom) Cave had fine examples of active stalactites and deep, crystal clear pools. Next on the programme were the High Tatra Mountains and Belanska Cave near the Polish Border. Then to Dobsina, which Pete reckoned to be one of the finest ice caves in the world. The South Slovakian Karst provided trips to Gombasek Cave, Domica Cave (which connects to the Hungarian Cave of Baradla from which it was separated by a heavy iron gate to prevent through trips), Ardova Cave, Isbica Cave, Hranice Aragonite Cave (entrance impassable because of the swollen river) and Mladec and Javoricko Caves. For a 12 night tour, Pete, Ken and Don managed to visit an amazing number of caves.

1969: The Group's second visit to Austria was undertaken by twelve (not so) hardy souls (Joan and Pete Goddard, Dave Hodby, Pete Pierce, John Pudduck, Marion, Pete Mathews, Bill Scrace, Greg Smith, Roy Stephens, Don Vosper, Roger Wallington). We met up with Felix Siezer again and after an impromptu slide show, Felix explained that he was going to show us Eis Kägel Höhle (entrance 2250m ASL) the following Friday. We drove the vehicles some way up the mountain and then continued on foot. We climbed 500m that evening to a mountain hut at 1526m, leaving the remaining 700+m until the next day. In the morning we changed into caving gear, set off - and the rain turned to snow. The snow got deeper and the wind got windier and Felix kept shouting "Only 15 minutes more to ze cave entrance". Time went on, there was no sign of the cave entrance and the weather was deteriorating. Felix fell into a waist-high snowdrift, promptly followed by Greg who was also complaining of altitude sickness - or was it the result of imbibing too much alcohol the night before? At the same instant a thunderous roar was followed by a minor avalanche which landed on two of the party. Reluctantly we decided to abandon the trip. An ice packed traverse on the way down required a lifeline at one point, but the remainder of the descent turned into a romp and slide in the snow!

The following day, Joan and Pete Goddard, and Pete Mathews went to Eisriesenwelt Ice Cave (tourist trip) whilst the rest of the group accompanied Felix to Hennerhöhle which sported a stream reminiscent of OFD 2

1970-1979

During the early 1970s walking, climbing and caving trips to Scotland and Yorkshire were a regular occurrence for many of our members. MCG News 101 referred to "MCG Northern Branch Activities" - John Miriam, Greg Smith, Pete Mathews, Roger Wallington, and John Macmillan provided the core members with Allan Wicks, Mike Lovell, John Evans, Don Vosper, Bill Jones, et al being frequent participants. From 1976 caving took second place to the building of the first Nordrach Cottage.

1970: There was a visit to the West Tatra region of Poland this year, apparently by ten from MCG and two from Chelsea SS. Roger Wallington and Bruce Bennett were there but apart from a short piece in Newsletter No 86 entitled "A Trip that Never Was", I have been unable to find a report of the trip or a list of those participating.

1972: A four day visit to Mallorca with SMCC was written up by Tony Knibbs but with no details of participants - it was mainly a reconnaissance and show cave trip.

1973: Bill Jones, Pete Mathews and Don Vosper travelled to Czechoslovakia, visiting the show cave Konepruska, near Beroun, while en route to Moravsky Kras where they met local cavers they had contacted prior to the trip. They camped at the Skalni-mlyn field centre where they were looked after by Mike, head warden of Moravsky Kras National Park. As he put it when asked what his job entailed, "I look after conservation... the best way to conserve the countryside is to do nuffink, and all day long I do nuffink, so they make me head."

"Time at Skalni-mlyn often stood still. During lulls everyone waited around, looked out of the window or up at trees and then at their watches (if they had them) as if something important was about to happen, but it never did. Then suddenly everyone would leap up and rush around, tackle and odd items of clothing would be thrown about. We would be late, we must meet our friends and off people would rush in all directions."

A tour of the local show caves was arranged, starting with Sloupsko-Sosuvske System beyond the show cave, Balcarka Jeskyne and Katerinska Jeskine. Punkevni Jeskyne was the finest one we visited - 800m of passage led out into daylight just above the lake at the base of Macocha Chasm, from where the cave tour continued, mainly in battery driven boats.

Visits were made to some numbered caves; Cave 13C was a series of pitches in a 100m dry shaft leading to the Bila Boda River streamway down which the group paddled in inflatable dinghies. The streamway is about 1½ km long and disappears in a sump. The next destination was Rudicke Propadani, a large cave where a trip to the end and back would take two days. The cave contained numerous slimy wooden ladders and jammed baulks of timber and every so often we cavorted from a pair of steel wires slung across a black bottomless lake (later found to be knee deep). The cave was arranged more on the lines of an army assault course with timbers and wires on every stretch which might otherwise have been a bit too easy! Byci Skala is really two caves, a dry roomy cave where archaeologists during the 19thC discovered some magnificent bronzes and remains of mass human sacrifices. The other cave contained a deep lake about 100m across which we crossed on a large steel boat to dry passage ending at a dig face 6ft high and 5 ft wide, about a kilometre from the entrance. The ready drilled shot holes were 9 feet deep and wide enough to load with your arm. Then on to the Tatras where two caves were visited, Demanovska Slobody Jaskyna and an ice cave, Dobsinska L'adova Jaskyna

1975: In August/September a larger group returned to the Moravian Karst, Czechslovakia, travelling in Dave Hodby's minibus. The trip does not seem to have been written up but Don Vosper recalls that the high spot was a visit to Amaterska (Amateurs) Cave. Rudicke Propadani and Cave 13C were also visited.

	Czechoslovakia, 1975 Photo taken or contributed by Wayne Hiscox (Click to enlarge) Standing: Bernard Reeves, ?1 , Neil Brooker, Wayne Hiscox, Bruce Dean, John Miriam, Warden, Bill Jones, ?2 , Don Vosper, Dave Hodby. Sitting: Pete Mathews, Tricia Wallington, Ann Hiscox, ?3 , Henry, Greg Smith, Roger Wallington
If you can identify the un-named people in the photo please contact MCG	?1 ?2 ?3

1976: Spring Bank Holiday week saw a contingent of MCG members, including Bill Jones and Greg Smith, caving in County Clare, but the only article to be published referred to Pollcan, Doolin, - a dig which was discovered, explored, surveyed and returned to its original condition in under four hours!

1978: Presumably a visit was made to Switzerland as Greg Smith gave a talk on it at the "Beehive" in 1979. (also on the trip: were Bill Jones and Tony Knibbs) and in 1979 several members including John Miriam joined an NPC trip to the Gouffre Berger.

1980-1989

With the destruction of the new cottage in the early hours of 1980 and its subsequent reconstruction by a firm of builders, caving again became the major focus of the club. Regular visitors to the North now included Geoff Barton, Adrian Duckett, Roy Kempston, Neil Hutchinson, Ian McKechnie, Ian Parry, Martin Rowe, Steve Taylor and Alan Mellon. Weekends in South Wales regularly featured on the meet programme. Armchair meets at the Mawson Arms, Chiswick, became a regular feature and often took the form of slide shows of expeditions and holidays. By 1985 Wednesday night sessions (caving and digging) were in operation and Somerset membership was thriving. Caving in Mallorca was popular during the Christmas/New Year holidays between 1984 and 1987. In September 1987 the first 'Fragments from France' appeared in the newsletter. This feature by Tony Knibbs continued for the next twenty years and described a large number of caving trips in France.

1980: John Miriam, Don Vosper and Greg Smith joined 10 NPC and CPC cavers for an expedition to Kephallonia, Greece, where they hoped to discover caves in the central part of the island between a known sink to the west and known risings at the east. Unfortunately no caves of importance were found other than eight previously known ones around Sami, near to where the waters rise just off the coastline.

1981: A family holiday in Virginia, USA, gave Ian McKechnie and Geoff Barton the opportunity to visit Luray and Skyline Caverns in Virginia.

1983: Arbas, Pyrenees (August/September). People stayed at various places in the locality but the only time they all met together was for Adrian's birthday! Trips were made to Trou Mile, Trou du Vent, Goufre Raymonde, Gouffre Pierre and Pène Blanque (all part of the Réseau Trombe System) and they are described in Neil Hutchinson's excellent article in MCG Journal No.8. This was the first major MCG expedition for a number of years; many lessons were learnt and valuable experience gained within an enjoyable two week trip.

Staying at Arbas camp: Adrian Duckett, Neil Hutchinson, Roy and (Mandy) Kempston, Tony Knibbs, John and (Helen) Miriam, Mike Mintram, Ian Parry, Martin Rowe, Denise Samuel, Steve Taylor, Dick Housego and (Penny) and (Barbara).

Staying in gites: Ian McKechnie, Geoff and (Morag) Barton, (Kathleen Gardener), Clive Towner, Jill Attwood, Mick Lowe and (Sue) and (Lucy), Arthur Spain and (family), John Pudduck and (family), Steve and (Kate) Taylor.

Staying 'elsewhere': Pete Harvey and (Wendy), Mike Haselden and (family). (Names shown in brackets were not caving).

Preparations for the trip included a Whernside Manor training course and weekly SRT practice sessions up a tree in Ian McKechnie's garden.

1984: A planned trip to Ireland was cancelled but at Easter six members visited Assynt, staying at the old Grampian hut.

Alan Dougherty and Mike Haselden were part of a 30-strong Whernside Manor expedition to to the Gouffre Berger in July. Alan returned to the surface after problems with some of the rigging but Mike solo-ed to the bottom. They also had time to visit Scialet de Malaterre (400ft shaft) and Grotte de Gournier.

Over the Christmas / New Year period Andy Beare, Adrian Duckett, Neil Hutchinson, Ian Parry and Martin Rowe flew to Mallorca for the first of the club's many visits there. They concentrated on the Pollença area and the Plateau of Escorca where difficult ground conditions and dense vegetation led to a routine of one day spent finding an entrance and the next day exploring the cave. Virtually all the caves were dry and very warm, many with 100m+ pitches and some with fine formations. Caves visited were Avenc de la Pla de Bassas, Cava Campana, Cava Cornavaques, Avenc D'Escorla, Cava Cal Peso, Avenc Comi and Cava Coma Freda. Much information was gathered about the islands caving potential and useful contacts made.

1985: Second Christmas/New Year trip to Mallorca (Andy Beare, Neil Hutchinson, Ian Parry, Martin Rowe, Kate Taylor, Steve Taylor, Joy Merron, Paul Merron, Paul Craig plus 3 more). In addition to the six caves previously explored, they went down Avenc d'Escorca, Avenc s'Aigo, Avenc Femenia (all with 100m+ shafts) and Cova de Can Sion (a predominantly horizontal cave where Andy Beare pushed a small squeeze through boulders into a new, large, superbly decorated, steeply inclined chamber).

1986: Spain. Sima GESM was the highlight of the trip to Ronda, Malaga region, in September. There were 18 expedition members and John and Helen Miriam, the Kempstons, the Bartons and the McKechnies stayed at the coast. A brief log of the trip can be found in NL 190. Seven different caves were descended, at least two new entrances were discovered and three separate parties descended Sima GESM (to 200m, 500m and 950m respectively). Mike, Ian, Neil and a Spanish caver Pepe were the ones who reached 950m but, unfortunately, they ran out of rope there. Mike 'the Whirling Dervish' Haselden described descending one of the pitches:

I arrived at a pitch head as Neil was going down, clipped myself to the traverse line and made ready to descend. I waited for the signal and as I watched Neil's light become more and more distant I knew this was the big one. Eventually a faint signal told me the rope was free. I checked it for slack, loaded the descender and carefully swung over to hang on to the main rope. I started the descent and looked all around me as far as my light would reach to take in the feel of this huge pitch of about 700ft (213m). I passed a rebelay and continued the descent when I felt something wrong about the rope passing through my right hand. I stopped immediately and to my horror only inches away from the descender the rope was badly damaged. Before you could blink there was a jammer on the rope above and I was ready to prussik. The others were too remote for communication and there was a conflict of decision in my mind. My first reaction was to abort and make good my return to the surface but then I felt I had to effect a repair to the rig for the sake of my good friends below. I hung there for a while sorting things out in my mind and then prussiked up to the last rebelay to rearrange it with some spare slack, then abseiled down close to the damaged rope and tied it off with a figure of eight. Having made safe the rope I passed the knot and continued the descent at a steady gentle rate. My left hand got tired of holding the brake in and the bottom was nowhere in sight. But I went on, observing a trail of steam coming off the damp rope generated by my very hot descender. Eventually the pitch bottom was discernible but even so it seemed an eternity before my feet touched down, much to my relief. There are times in life when words are inadequate for the expression of one's feelings. This was such a time.

For many the Hundidero - Cueva del Gatto through trip (approximately 4km) was the highlight of the holiday and it was completed by most of the group. The other caves visited were Cueva Libar, Sima de la Ventana, Cabo de Ronda, Cueva del Chapi and Sima de Villaluenga.

Mallorca was again the winter destination of Andy Beare, Neil Hutchinson, Ian Parry, Leslie Robbins, Martin Rowe, Richard Stansfield and Yvonne Ward. A set of 1:25,000 maps was purchased, making cave location much easier than in previous years. This was the holiday when seven people plus caving gear had to fit into a hired Ford Fiesta - not easy, but proved possible. As well as caves visited on previous trips, four more were located, together with the latest MCG discovery, named Avenc Banc de Llorer - a 60ft shaft found by Martin Rowe and almost descended by Ian Parry in 'free fall mode' when the ground on which he was standing disappeared off down the hole!

1987: In September Mike and Sue Haselden and guest Peter Eckford met up with Tony Knibbs, Denise Samuel and Pete Harvey in Vercors. Mike and Peter descended Scialet de Malaterre, a 120m daylight shaft, and Tony, Denise, Pete Eckford and Mike tackled Scialet du Trisou, the latter two bottoming it. Pete Harvey produced an inflatable boat from the boot of his car which enabled everyone to explore 4km of fossil passage in Grotte de Gournier and on another day Mike and the two Peters visited Grotte de Bournillon.

The usual Christmas visit to Mallorca was by Andy Beare, Mike, Sue and Oliver Haselden, Neil Hutchinson, Lesley Robbins, Martin Rowe, Yvonne Ward and three non-cavers. Caves found or descended for the first time were Cova de Muntanya, Avenc Fonda, Cova de Llenaire, 'Five-to-Three' and Avenc de na Blanca.

1988: During the early part of the year Vince Simmonds and John Beauchamp visited Niah caves in Sarawak, Borneo (Great Cave with its guano covered 'plank-walks' and population of swiftlets, and Painted Cave - a large through-cave with interesting paintings thought to be up to 4,000 years old).

1988: Later in the year Vince Simmonds and John Beauchamp went into Lawa Cave in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand.

In August there was a second MCG expedition to Sima GESM in Southern Spain. Ten MCG members (Mike and Oliver Haselden, Lesley Robbins, Andy Beare, Martin Rowe, Yvonne Ward, Neil Hutchinson, Pat Newman + ?) and 6 Northern cavers (Dave Elliott + ?) camped near the Refugio Rodrigues de la Fuente. Two teams, the Northerners and MCG (Neil, Mike, Olly and Andy) rigged alternate sections, with Lesley, Pat, Yvonne and Martin acting as sherpas. They reached a depth of 800m - at which point they realised that unfortunately there was insufficient time to reach the bottom (1074m) and derig in the time available. To break the long drive back home the group stopped in the Picos and visited another system, Sima de la Cueto. As this cave is 30km long and 600m deep they only had time to explore the 'ends', the 302m entrance pitch and the resurgence as far as the third lake.

Carl Wright spent his annual holiday in Ireland travelling from County Clare (where he worked at Aillwee Caves) to County Fermanagh to visit the Marble Arch show cave. Colleagues there took him to the Cuilcagh, a massive flat-topped mountain from which numerous streams disappeared into swallet holes, and they descended a flood-prone cave (which he didn't name). Carl was sufficiently impressed by Fermanagh to write "For my money this is the finest caving area in Ireland and Britain".

1989: Dordogne. Brian Murlis, Steve Redwood, Vince Simmonds, Nick Geh, Digger Hastilow, Pete Harvey and Tony and Denise Knibbs were MCG members in a joint CDG/SWCC/MCG party camping at Gramat. The first cave to be explored was Gouffre de Reveillon where a huge entrance chamber (c.45m x 450m) narrowed down to a fine stream passage. A decorated upper series led to a 10m drop with a fixed handline and a notice at the top which nobody understood, leading to a miserable section of wet and muddy crawling. Brian wrote that on their return, "back at the fixed rope, we think we worked out what the notice at the top said - something like: DON�T GO DOWN THIS ROPE BECAUSE IT�S BLOODY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET BACK UP AGAIN ! ! ! And it very nearly was." Returning to the stream passage they continued down a couple of pitches to a point where there is usually a sump, but due to the very dry conditions they were able to progress further to the final sump. The same day they visited Gouffre de Roque-de-Corn situated in a large doline (45m deep) and consisting of about half a mile of dry stream passage with some good formations.

The small entrance to Perte de Thémines is located at the end of a deep, blind, very flood prone valley near the centre of the village. Brian, Steve and Vince explored the main streamway to two sumps bypassed by well decorated fossil passages, the second of which was extremely muddy - mud up to 1.2m deep and innocently overlain by 15cm of water. The passage before the first sump led to a complex of small crawls which branched and branched again. When they were just on the verge of turning back they investigated a hopeless-looking crawl - which suddenly opened into a magnificent gour passage leading after several hundred feet to an immense and beautiful chamber 30+m high and c.60m long, then on to a continuation of the huge gours and finally a 10m drop down to the main streamway. They had an exhilarating trip and wrote: "The beauty and immensity of these chambers left us feeling very insignificant and totally spellbound".

Igue St Sol is a shaft of approximately 65m deep leading to over half a mile of horizontal passage containing a multitude of magnificent formations, huge bosses and columns, stalagmite forests up to 3m tall, beautiful curtains, crystal grottos, etc.

Gouffre du Saut de la Pucelle has an impressive streamway, reached via a duck followed by a climb to a huge fossil passage. The stream was followed for several kilometres down numerous short pitches and cascades, with many deep pools to swim across and some fine formations. At the terminal sump there is a plaque in memory of E.A. Martel who first explored the cave in 1889. Newsletter 208 gives more detailed descriptions of the caves visited, and is well worth reading especially if you are contemplating a visit to the Dordogne.

Italian Alps. Three MCG members, Pete Collings-Wells, Rich Hodgson and Dave Little and two members of WUCC travelled to the Margaureis Region where they met with local cavers who first took them to see a couple of newly discovered caves. Their next objective was Gouffre Scarasson which had a beautiful underground glacier (sadly spoilt by the remains of a 1962 camp now embedded in the ice - left from M.Siffre�s 'beyond time' stay in the cave). Three days effort and a major bolting exercise was needed to rig down to the glacier. Straldi cave was difficult to find and the 90m entrance shaft (with a perched crows nest 40m down, complete with four or five tiny occupants) needed a few attempts at rigging. Further down the cave an impressive 80m pitch dropped through the ceiling of an immense chamber. Piaggia Bella is the largest system in the region and in spite of warnings from the CAF (Club Alpine Francais) cavers that they would get lost, Pete, Rich and Dave entered via the walk-in entrance, through stream and fossil passages to the enormous Paris Cote d'Azur chamber 200m x 100m x 40m before returning to the surface. Piaggia Bella has 11 entrances, 10 of them vertical, and is 25km long and 1108m deep. Other caves visted were Gouffre Pentothal and Gouffre Fera.

1990-1999

Some of the members whose kids were now off their hands were able to participate in club holidays again. Mallorcan Christmas trips once more became popular but with a different set of people, notably the MCG Moles (Royal Holloway and Bedford New College Caving Club).Pete Hollings moved to Canada in 1994 and embarked on a series of trips to Mexico. Fragments from France continued (Nos. 7 to 23)

1990: The advertised trip to the Vercors was attended by only two members, Brian Murlis and Steve Redwood, who camped for a week at Villard-de-Lans near the head of the 15km long Bourne Gorge. A visit was made to Grotte de Gournier (near the Choranche show cave) which is a major horizontal system consisting of about 4km of fossil passage with the main streamway running directly below. Scialet de Malaterre is a large daylight shaft with a metal footbridge over it - ideal for tourists to drop things on to cavers below! No trip to the Vercors is complete without a trip to the Grotte de Bournillon which has the largest known entrance in Europe (200m high) and is a major tourist attraction. On the day that Brian and Steve were there it was full of Frenchmen carrying torches! Next visit was to Grotte de Favot high up on one flank of the Bourne Gorge - the 'Goatchurch' of the Vercors but with a 70m pitch at the end of it. Scialet du Toboggan was their final cave and had a free climbable 30m entrance pitch leading down to a streamway. Apparently, although the cave was only discovered in 1975, the devastation in the first part of the cave was unbelievable - virtually every formation was either broken or covered in mud - fortunately, beyond the streamway the damage was much less.

1991: In July Yvonne & Martin Rowe, Joan and Simon Goddard, and the Pittmans (Bryan, Ann, Mike and Sian) joined up with Tony and Denise Knibbs in Thil before travelling to a campsite at Mâne (not far from Arbas) in the Pyrenees foothills. The first day we walked up to view the entrance of Gouffre Henne-Morte, on the way passing a 'trou souffleur' (blowing hole) where we took turns to cool-off in the ice cold air blowing out of it. The following day a visit was made to Trou Mile and later in the week we descended Grotte Francazal. The day before the Pittman family left, we tackled Grotte d'Alliou which is a half mile long river cave. We made our way upstream using a couple of dinghies, inflated inner tubes and flippers. If you swam on your back you could appreciate the fine formations overhead and also view a colony of large bats. Unfortunately there isn't much dry cave at the end of the swim, so no opportunity to warm up before the return - which was quicker and easier as we swam with the current. The obligatory holiday tourist cave was Grottes de Medous, Bagneres-de-Bigorre - a beautifully decorated cave and not too spoiled. It was quite a long excursion, the return route being by boat.

Also in July a party of eight set off to Czechoslovakia. Three days after arriving they met up with local cavers who took them to Kerjstein (Carlsteyne) Caves - the largest in the area and very 'Mendips' in character. On leaving Prague they drove to Brno and met the caving group with which they had arranged the exchange visit. Unfortunately it turned out they didn't want an exchange - just funds for their next expedition to Greece! New arrangements had to be made, which were to donate £200 to their expedition fund and pay our own expenses in exchange for accommodation and guides to caves in the Moravian Karst. Accommodation was a somewhat primitive caving cottage near Rudice - the latrine consisted of squatting over a precipice and being eaten by killer ants from behind! The caves visited included Bulls Cavern (Byci Scala), Amiscar Cave (Amaterska Jeskyne), Sedmnactra (also called Cave XVII) and Pustozlebska Zazdena.

A visit was made to Macocha Gorge (530ft Deep), the remains of a huge collapsed chamber reached by walking through Punkva show caves; the highlight was the boat trip back to the entrance via beautiful unspoilt passageway.

1992: In May, Charlie Allison, Tim Francis and Ralph Diment used a long weekend to recce the area around Rochefort, Belgium. They had arranged to meet someone from Speleo Club de Gerny, in Jemelle but in usual speleo-style the message hadn't been passed on. However, another caver at the hut pointed the way to Puits aux Lampes which they descended - basically a 180ft pitch, the bottom 130ft being a free hang. The following day they visited Trou Maulin and the next day La Laide Fosse, a 'Mendippy style' cave with a short pitch and a few climbs.

In late June Tim Francis joined the Hades expedition to the Gouffre Berger, Vercors. His first trip was to porter two tackle bags from the entrance to the Balcony (-580m). In NL 224 Tim describes descending the pitches and then the breathtaking formations in the Hall of the Thirteen before dumping the gear at the Balcony and returning to the surface. He wrote:

"Unfortunately as we made our way back up the Grande Gallerie water seemed to be appearing from all over the place... A dry hang [Aldo's] had suddenly become a roaring torrent. Returning to the lake we negotiated a tricky traverse to reach a safe(ish) pile of boulders. Grabbing a Mars bar we dived into survival bags - two people per bag for extra warmth... We estimate the water rose fifteen feet in under an hour... After ten long hours we were able to pass the lake and headed out after a 26 hour trip, much to the relief of the others at the campsite."

Tim's second trip proved to be as eventful as the first. His party decided to call it a day at the head of Claudines (-720m) as more rain was forecast. They returned to Camp 1 for the night and in the morning Tim set off on his own at 6.00am, catching up with two Belgians at Aldo's to find it again very wet. Not wanting to get stuck again he decided to 'go for it'. He didn't want to hang around at the top, because he was so cold, so he started to race up the relays.

"Halfway up the second I noticed a disconcerting rumble upstream. Realising it to be a flood pulse I quickly snapped my tacklebag onto the rope and jammed myself in a crack. I yelled a warning in French to the Belgians but fortunately the last man up had passed the point at which the water hits the pitch".

After the water subsided the Belgians decided to continue out but Tim found a relatively dry ledge and waited (in his wet sleeping bag) until the following party caught up with him, and they headed out together. The Belgians had had one hell of an exit - one had huge lacerations on his hands which he had been unaware of because his hands were so cold. Tim made further trips into the cave and assisted with derigging.

Martin and Yvonne Rowe, Tony and Denise Knibbs, Geoff and Pat Beale, Joan Goddard and Pete Harvey headed for the Burren, Co. Clare, for a walking-caving-archaeology sort of a holiday Caves visited were Cullaun Two, Doolin Cave (St Catherine's One to Fisher Street Pot), Faunarooska Cave, Poulnagollum / Poulelva Cave System, Polldereen (we were looking for Polldubh!).

Mallorca was the Christmas destination for Tim Francis, Julie Hesketh, Pete Hollings, Malcolm and Norma Cotter. Much of the time was spent cave hunting but trips were made into Penya Rotja, Cueva Coma Freda and Cuevas del Pirata (the cave consists of a couple of chambers descending to a blue sump which connects to Cova des Pont, making it the second longest Mallorcan Cave). Also visited were the show caves of Drach and Hams.

1993: Tim Francis and Julie Hesketh joined a Hades expedition to the Apuan Alps, Italy, which also included Pete Collings-Wells and Dave Little of MCG. They divided their time between two caves, Complesso Fighiera Farolfi Corchia (a 50km long system) and Abisso Paolo Roversi with a 1000ft (300m) pitch. Tim describes the challenges of helping to rig and de-rig the caves in NL 230.

Also in NL 230, is a report of Tony and Denise Knibbs' descent of the Berger with the SWCC expedition. They reached the Hall of Thirteen at -495m and pronounced it an unforgettable trip.

Malcolm and Norma Cotter, Ralph Diment, Tim Francis and Julie Hesketh returned to Mallorca in February and began by revisiting the well decorated Covota de sa Penja Rotja. Other caves on the agenda were Cueva de Ca'l Pesso, an impressive show cave north-east of Arta, and Cova de Can Sion (site of the 1985 MCG extension - further extended this time into an 80ft deep rift with 100ft of passage with helictites, straws and gour crystals). This holiday was notable for two attempted break-ins by car thieves, resulting in the final day being spent at the Justice Courts to identify the miscreants.

In March, Andrew Bellamy, Julian Flavell, Tim Francis, Julie Hesketh and Pete Hollings left for the San Antonio Valley, Belize where they found over 2km of passage.

Eighteen members travelled to the Haute Savoie in August where they had been invited by the local Annemasse Caving Club (via Ralph Diment) to look for new cave entrances in "Area D" near Samoens. Joel Corrigan drummed up support, Ralph liased with SCA, organised permits, and booked the refuge, Charlie hired the Royal Holloway minibus, Julie made up the first aid kit, Tim organised equipment and at the eleventh hour Joe stepped in to replace Joel when he left to work in Hong Kong. "Area D" was made up of razor sharp limestone pavement and "Top Camp" was set up by the serious cave hunters further up the valley from the bunkhouse.

No significant caves were found but a good time was had by all. Participants were James Allen, Charlie Allison, Andy Bellamy, Ralph Diment, Joe Frampton, Tim Francis, Linda Gates, Joan Goddard, Lee Hawkswell, Tim Haynes, Julie Hesketh, Denise and Tony Knibbs, Mike Pittman, Martin and Yvonne Rowe, Dave Tooke and Marcus Ward.

Pete Hollings spent a total of 7 days surveying and exploring the deeper sections of Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico, and also joined an expedition to the Coahuilla Desert in Mexico where a few small caves were located.

1995: The dates of the Mallorca trip this year were dictated by a court summons to act as witnesses in connection with the car break-ins on the previous trip. The team was Malcolm and Norma Cotter, Joe Frampton, Tim Francis and Julie Hesketh and explorations were made of Campana (the deepest cave on the island and very well decorated), Cova des Diners, and Cova de les Rodes.

Meanwhile, Pete Hollings was on the Tequila Expedition, in Veracruz, Mexico. The expedition was cut short when their permission to cave in the area was withdrawn due, it seems, to local politics. It all got rather nasty when a party of cavers were stranded at the bottom of a 100m deep pit after locals untied their rope and chucked it down the pitch! A change of plans saw them caving elsewhere and by the end of the expedition over 50 caves had been mapped.

In August James Allen, Charlie Allison, Joan Goddard, Tim Francis, Zoe Hammersley (Ward), Lee Hawkswell, Julie Hesketh, Reggie Pain, Martin and Yvonne Rowe and Marcus Ward travelled to the Chartreuse Massif where a Trou de Glaz - Guiers Mort through trip in the Dent de Crolles system was the ultimate goal. Initial sorties were made into the system from both ends to ensure smooth route-finding. However one of the through-trip parties was astounded to find their way barred by a sump where there had previously been a large draughting passage. After a couple of hours in bivvi bags watching the water level fall VERY slowly Lee and Reggie set off to look for an alternative way out. Hey presto! They did and finally exited at 2.10 am.

1996: The plan was to visit Piaggia Bella System in the Alpes Maritimes (Italy), but due to lack of personnel we ended up at Tresviso, in the Picos de Europa. Earlier in the year, instead of the regular Mallorcan trip, Tim Francis and Julie Hesketh had volunteered to assist SWCC members with transporting their diving gear into Cueva del Aguaand they felt the cave had the making of a good venue for MCG's summer expedition. Tim, Julie, Martin and Yvonne Rowe camped while Joe Frampton and Joan Goddard stayed in the bunkhouse attached to the local bar. The cave is located at the bottom of a 500m deep gorge and once reached is entered via a Tyrolean traverse rigged across the deep entrance pool. The stream passage is exhilaratingly active but there are dry passages as well. Eight trips were made into the cave with the aim of consolidating leads made with SWCC. Tim, Julie, Joe and Martin cleared up some inconsistencies in the survey they were using and some new passage was found and surveyed. De-rigging the cave was a challenge as heavy rain meant that the river was in spate.

During the year Pete Hollings caved in Virginia, Montana (the Silvertip Cirque) and in Northern Mexico where they targeted The Angel's Staircase in La Sistema Purificación; 2300m was surveyed pushing the system to over 87km. A return trip was made in March 1997.

Mallorca this year concentrated on the more unusual sites - Cueva Tancada the entrance of which overlooks the sea and has a fantastic view, Avenc de Fra Rafel with pitches of 61m and 117m and Cueva Sa Forodada which is unusual in that it contains two small streamways.

1997: May in Mallorca - Charlie Allison, Andy Bellamy, Tim Francis, Julie Hesketh, Kerry Howard and Reg Pain plus James Allen portered for Joel Corrigan and his gang who were diving in Font des Vergers. They also visited Penja Rotja, Cueva Sa Foradada and Cueva Sa Campana.

The Royal Holloway summer trip to Matienzo included MCG members Malcolm, Norma and Sonya Cotter, Lee Hawkswell, Kerry Howard and Reg Pain. They explored Cueva de Carcavuezo (Four Valleys System) which was a bit disappointing, Cueva del Agua where progress was halted by a torrential stream, Simas del Picon, and Cubija which Malcolm described as:

"probably the most unstable cave I have ever been in... a humungous boulder came hurtling downslope. Reg performed a Herculean boulder pushing trick, so avoiding being squished and the possibility of the boulder trapping everyone inside the chamber."

Also visited were Torcon de la Calleja Rebollo (Toad-in-the-hole), Cueva de Cordisera and Torca de Mostajo (Cubija System) which was the voted the best cave, due to having a huge well-decorated chamber and many formations.

A planned Group summer expedition to the Picos didn't materialise so Pete Bennett, Joe Frampton, Tim Francis, and Steve Jones squeezed into a hideously overloaded Ford Fiesta and drove to Doolin. Julie Hesketh flew to Shannon for the first week to be replaced by Cara Allison for the second week which was spent in Fermanagh. In Clare they did the St Catherine's - Fisherstreet Pot through trip, Pol-na-Gcéim and Faunarooska. In Fermanagh, from the luxury of Aghnahoo Cottage rather than sodden tents, they first visited the excellent Tullyhona Resurgence which develops into a well decorated streamway. Because of high water levels Marble Arch show cave was closed to tourists but it was possible for the party to travel upstream to the rest of the cave, finally swimming out of the Lower Cradle entrance. Poor weather meant they had time on their hands so they investigated Springwell Rising just downhill from the hut. By digging a choke and pushing onwards Pete and Tim extended it from 15m to 50m where it was completely blocked by a choke.

In March Tim Francis, Peat Bennett and Steve Jones joined Duncan Horne and three from CUCC for a return trip to Fermanagh. On Day 1 they started a small dig in the Marble Arch system but it only opened up a pointless loop of passage. Cascades Rising provided an excellent trip where the Boulder Series leads to a fantastic piece of streamway, the Brandywine River, with fine yomping passage and deep water. The next day Noon's Hole, with its 81m entrance pitch, was visited and then back to Springwell Rising which refused to yield any worthwhile passage. The last cave was Prod's Pot, with a tight entrance series of five pitches down to stream passage and an inlet with a delightful series of cascades leading to a perched sump.

In September 1998 a team of five MCG cavers (Ben Cooper, Tim Francis, Yong Shik Park, Letti Patte and Dave Tooke) embarked on a six-week light-weight reconnaissance expedition to the sparsely populated and remote Tsingy de Bemaraha World Heritage Site, Madagascar. The purpose of the visit was to locate, explore and survey caves close to the village of Bekopaka, Antsalove district. The team visited two distinct areas during the expedition. The first was some twenty kilometres on foot to the North of Bekopaka, close to an area known as Andamozavaky. The second was an area of limestone just to the South of the Manambolo Gorge four kilometres upstream on the Manambola river (East of Bekopaka).

The first area was chosen because of the promising nature of the topography apparent from aerial photographs of the region. In addition a small spring at the base of the limestone cliffs provided a supply of fresh clean water: surface water is a rare commodity within the Tsingy in the drier months. The team had not planned on camping, and so without tents slept under their mosquito nets in the jungle. Two weeks were spent exploring a complex of cave passages at the base of a large doline. This cave was named Hunny Pot. Due to its importance within the local hydrology, and shortage of time, exploration concentrated upon this system. A few other small caves were briefly looked at but none were extended for any considerable length. The most significant of these lesser sites was a small resurgence, Source D'Andamozavaky.

The second area was chosen to provide a broader overview of the spelaeological potential of the Bemaraha. As before the availability of water was paramount so this necessitated camping close to the Manambolo River. A rock overhang in Vazimba Canyon provided welcome night-time shelter. A group of caves was explored half a kilometer to the south of the camp under a huge rock arch, and became known as Arch Caves. None of the caves appeared to have been entered previously and all were surveyed to BCRA Grade 3C. While both areas were left with un-explored leads, Arch Caves appeared to be the most promising.

At all times whilst in the National Park the team was accompanied by a guide provided by the Association Nationale pour la Gestion des Aires Protégées (ANGAP). In addition, the team employed a number of local villagers from Bekopaka to act as camp guards and porters. Whilst there, a large region of the Tsingy de Bemaraha around Bekopaka was being opened as a National Park and, half-way through the expedition, the team was required to return to the village for the grand opening celebrations, attended by the deputy prime minister. The team had front row "seats" for a ritual slaughtering of a Zebu, the local cattle.

1999: Julie Hesketh and Tim Francis joined a Wessex weekend excursion to Belgium in March. They stayed in a castle at Assese near Mont-sur-Meuse - excellent accommodation but rather cold (mattresses on the floor in the grand hall!).- and began by visiting Trou d'Haquin (1704m long) where they did the round trip. The following day they descended Trou Bernard, Belgium's deepest cave (140m), and finally a small cave, Grottes de Floreffe, which was entered via an impressive wrought iron gate in the footings of another castle.

Also in March Pete Hollings accompanied 12 Americans and 3 Mexicans for a 6-day camp in Cueva del Tecolote (Owl cave). 4km of passage was surveyed making a total length of 36km. and many more leads were found.

The Mallorcan jaunt this year hosted eleven people, three of whom had to sleep outside due to shortage of space in the villa. Caves visited were Cova de sa Campana, Cova sa Foradada, Cova Tancada and Avenc del pla de les Basses. On the trip were James Allan, Andy Bellamy, Dave Cooke (Wessex), Ben Cooper, Ralph Diment, Tim Francis, Julie Hesketh, Rupert Knowles + 3 'Old Moles'.

Mike and Sue Haselden, Tony and Denise Knibbs and Pete Harvey joined SMCC in Laze, Slovenia.

A return visit was made to Madagascar by Pete Bennett, Ben Cooper, Tim Francis and Julie Hesketh. They camped at Vazimba Canyon on the banks of the Manambolo River and 'tidied up loose ends' in the Arch Caves explored the previous year. They found some new passage, completed surveys and made a photographic record before moving on to a large doline which they had identified on maps and aerial surveys. Unfortunately the cave at the bottom closed down. On returning to Arch Caves a bypass to a 15m pitch led to the discovery of hundreds of metres of passage, but lack of time meant that only 800m+ were surveyed.

2000 - 2004

Three of the club's 'tigers' set their sights on the New World, specifically Argentina which they visited 5 times, while Julie travelled eastwards to India. No 'official' MCG trips were arranged until the 50th Anniversary holiday to Slovenia in 2004. 'Fragments from France' continued with Nos 21 to 24.

2000: Pete Hollings had moved to Tasmania where he was re-introduced to the 'joys' of cold wet caving after his recent years of caving in warm Mexico. He visited Milk Run, Cyclops, Mystery Creek Cave (with its glow worms "lighting up the cave ceiling like a starry night"), King George V Cave and Kazad Dum which was apparently very wet.

Julian Flavell, now living in Chiapas, Mexico, visted Rio la Venta canyon. It runs through the limestone highlands of Chiapas for 90 km and in places is almost 1000 metres deep. Most of its route passes through the El Ocote Biosphere Reserve, an area of thick rainforest which is home to endangered species such as the Quetzal, Jaguar, Ocelot Spider and Howler monkeys. There are proposals to make the reserve a World Karst / Limestone Protected Park within UNESCO. Karst pillars protude out from the inpenetrable jungle like castle towers creating a remarkable landscape. The area is full of caves, the longest explored so far being the La Venta System, a river cave which resurges in the canyon floor.

The First National Argentine Caving Conference took place in February at Malargüe, Mendoza Province and was attended by Richard Carey and Tim Francis. Visits were made to two lava tubes before proceeding to limestone country where they went down Caverna de las Brujas which was impressively decorated. Nearer the Chilean border La Cueva de san Agustin, formed in gypsum, was visited and a nearby new cave was pushed by Tim to 80m.

Later in the year Tim Francis joined the Dachstein expedition. (Austria) He spent the first few days 'furtling' on the surface for cave entrances. Then hard pushing in C33 led to some desperate new passage. G5 (Eisturnenhöhle) was the main target cave and an underground camp 4hrs into the cave enabled a pushing trip to be attempted the next day. However, the hoped for connection of G5 with the Hirlatzhöhle was not to be.

Christmas with relatives gave Geoff Beale the opportunity for a show cave extravaganza tour of Australia (Wombeyan and Jenolan Caves) and New Zealand (Waitomo and Aranui Caves).

2001: Julie Hesketh joined the Abode of the Clouds Expedition to Meghalaya, India - an international team of Brits, Germans, Swiss, Indians and an Austrian, in conjunction with the Meghalayan Adventurers Association. She was in a team of six who made a recce trip to Borsora, a politically unstable area close to the Bangladesh border. Borsora was coal mining country and one of the miners told them of a large cave entrance Krem Khlieh Kherthang, (the Bat Cave) in a spectacular limestone amphitheatre with a huge dry river bed running through the centre. In fact there were two entrances, one 12m x 20m and the other 40m x 40m, the latter with a refreshing entrance pool fed by a waterfall cascading over impressive limestone cliffs. Five days of exploration resulted in the entrances being linked via 3km of passage. Large tree trunks wedged in the cave were a reminder of the phenomenal Monsoon floods. The group then moved to the village of Kunjoy where they surveyed Ronga River Cave (almost 2km of passage, some of it well decorated) and Rongbaljojg Cave (620m). On leaving, the shy but friendly villagers gave them a wonderful send off. They rejoined the main team at Sutgna who had clocked up around 15km of passage, the major find being Nonglhlieh Cave which Julie described as probably one of the best and most beautiful caving trips she has ever done - beautiful cascades, deep pools and glistening flowstone formations. In all, Meghalaya 2001 discovered >35km of new passage and 30 new caves.

Richard Carey and Tim Francis were joined by Peat Bennett for a second visit to Argentina (Malargue). Their main objective was to survey the gypsum cave Cueva del Federacion (350m) discovered the previous year. They investigated numerous other small holes and also returned to Cueva del Tigre, one of the lava caves where a huge draught led to four hours of frenzied digging - but no breakthrough.

Tim again joined the Dachstein expedition. The team�s first challenge was in Schönberghöhle where there was known to be an undescended 200m pitch which turned out after a difficult rig to be blind, as was a 25m pitch at the end of another passage. Second challenge was a pushing trip to a little known area in the Hirlatz - three new pitches were found but lack of rope meant the cave was exited with an open lead for the following year. The trip out was exciting due to heavy rain which threatened to sump a section of the cave.

After a year's absence, Mallorca was again on the agenda for Peat Bennett, Ben Cooper, Tim Francis, Julie Hesketh, Rupert Knowles James Allen plus four others. They visited Cova Tancada, Cova Cornavaques, Cova de ca L'Herou and Avenc de na Maria. Cova Cornavaques required a two hour trek through dense pine forest, leaving time for only a short trip - and an eventful return in darkness to the car, which included having local farm dogs set upon them when they approached too close to a farmhouse.

2002: The Jurassic Gypsum of the Poti Malal valley, Argentina, was this year's focus for Peat Bennett, Jules Flavell and Tim Francis, who were joined by local cavers. Avoiding sunburn and heatstroke was the main problem especially when looking for caves on the reflective gypsum. They visited Cueva Federación (but found no new passage) and then made a systematic but unsuccessful walkover of an outcrop of gypsum on the left side of the valley. Dona Palmira, a previously known 20m cave with a sump immediately inside the entrance, was pushed by the group resulting in some new tight passages and another cave entrance (named Burning Man Dig) was opened up but didn�t go.

Some of the local cavers recalled a couple of small caves 15 miles away and almost in Chile. Seven horses were hired from a local farmer and a two hours trek led to the Green Lakes; Cueva de los Cangrejos is a walking sized entrance which soon closes down and sumps. Cueva de la Gotera is an impressive sink above the lakes but again sumps. There was a large entrance across the other side of one of the lakes which was not investigated. Tim�s write-up includes a useful sketch map showing the locations of cave entrances.

In July Tony and Denise Knibbs donned their Shepton fleeces for a foray into Eastern Europe, to Slovakia (Low Tatras) where they visited the Demänova show caves (Demänovská Jaskyne Slobody and Demänovská l'Adora Jaskyne), Bystrianska Jaskyna and Harmanecka Jaskyna. A detour was made to Poland to join a tour of Wieliczka Royal Salt Mine with its amazing sculptures created by the miners through the centuries; then back into Slovakia(High Tatras) where they gave Dobsinská Ice cave a miss (as it was too crowded) but stopped at Domica Cave which forms part of the Baradla System which runs beneath the frontier and is 25km long. Baradla Cave in Aggtelek National Park, Hungary, was the next port of call where a visit had to be pre-booked and was led by two 'professional' guides. Eventually, some 8km from their starting point they entered the Josvafö show cave which was impressive in its own right. The following day they were taken to the nearby worked-out Rakocki iron mine which had broken into natural cave. Tony and Denise's return home was via Austria where they took in the Eisriesenwelt (Cave of the Ice Giants), the world's largest ice cave.

Roy and Fiona Kempston's family holiday in August was to Western Ireland where they visited Crag Cave in Co. Kerry (explored by Martin Farr in 1983) - 3.8km long although the show tour was only 350m. Later, they visited the better known Aillwee Cave in Co. Clare.

In November Peat Bennett, Ben Cooper, Tim Francis, Julie Hesketh and Rupert Knowles were met at Athens airport by three car loads of cavers from the Hellenic Caving Club, who provided surveys and arranged a permit. One of their members, Georgia, agreed to accompany the MCG cavers for their two week stay, making the holiday much easier than it might otherwise have been. First cave was Baroutospilia which has the largest cave entrance in Greece but soon closes down. Tim was keen to visit the impressive entrances of Epos Chasm and Provatina, which entailed a seven hour drive to the Pindos Mountains and a couple of days walking up to see them, and back. A member of the Hellenic CC, who lived nearby, gave them some information on local caves and TZ14 was chosen and partly descended before running out of rope. Moving south again to the Peloponsis they visited Ermis Cave (a Greek version of Goatchurch!) at the end of which a strong draught encouraged them to persevere into some tight passage and a couple of new pitches. Armitza had been discovered recently during excavations for a new mountain road and few cavers had been down its 50m entrance pitch. Formations were pristine and, true to form, a some new passage was entered. Selenitza was a dry 'storming walking cave' located right on the beach - must have been an enormous phreatic resurgence at one time. Their final cave was Tripa tou Voria - in which they found a carefully placed cluster of World War 2 hand grenades!

2003: Richard Carey and Tim Francis returned to the Malargüe, Argentina, where permission had been granted to INEA and MCG to explore Caverna de la Brujas beyond the show cave. In the event they made only two trips into the cave, to Arcita Fossilizada and Sala de la Madre, described by Tim in his article. [Photos by Richard??] A search of the limestone around Brujas yielded no new caves, apart from an 80m remnant of an old system. On their return to the Poti Malal valley (where they had camped the previous year) they first visited two new impressive chambers in San Augustin, discovered by Croatians, before returning to a small resurgence near the Miranda farmhouse which they had looked at previously. Only 20m away from it they were surprised to find a cave entrance (Cueva Miranda) leading to a long, low, crawly, wet, muddy passage which eventually popped out at the top of an aven down to the stream. Further exploration resulted in more high level and stream passage.

Bill Chadwick, Doug Harris, and Mick Norton (MCG/BDCC), Biff Frith (BDCC) plus 2 other BDCC spent two weeks in September in Cantabria, N. Spain. Bill's write-up described their trips into Cueva Canuela or Cayuela (6hrs, spectacular formations and enormous passages), Torcal del Carlista (11 hrs, largest natural underground chamber in Europe with an awesome free hang pitch into it, lower part of cave well decorated), Cueva Coventosa (one trip along a splendid streamway to the first lake and another to view formations near the entrance) and Cueva Fresca (7hrs, sporting cave with a number of traverses and bold steps).

In the autumn Pete Bennett, Tim Francis, Julie Hesketh, Louisa Minahan and Duncan Horne returned to Mallorca where they met up with local caver Tony Merino. They revisited Cava de Les Rodes which at this time of year had poor air quality making the trip quite an uncomfortable experience. Tony took them down Avenc de S'Embut near Genova and they also bottomed Cova de Cornavaques.

2004: The main club trip was the 50th Anniversary bash in Slovenia which is described elsewhere, but there were other trips too:

Peat Bennett, Richard Carey and Tim Francis saw in the New Year on a fifth Argentina trip. They explored Las Salinillas where they found some interesting cave paintings, then on to Poti Malal where their first task was to survey last year�s discovery, Miranda (560m). Next area visited was Las Lenas near the Chilean border where they found many resurgences issuing very cold meltwater due to their proximity to the snow line. Most of them closed down almost immediately but 12 caves were found, including Cueva Naranja (Orange Cave), Cueva Langosta (Lobster Cave) and Cueva de la Nieve (Snow Cave).

During the summer Roy and Fiona Kempston visited the show cave Grotta del Vento (Wind Cave) while on holiday in Tuscany.

Also in 2004 Cara Allison, Martin Peck, Louisa Minahan, Tim Francis and Julie Hesketh went to cold, blustery Mallorca where they visited the following caves: Penja Rotja, Cova Sa Campana, Covata des Puig Gros near Genova (a really worthwhile cave which is home to a colony of bats) and Avenc de Llorer which was a great cave to end the holiday � fine view of the sea from the entrance followed by a series of pitches.

Mendip Caving Group. UK Charity Number 270088. The object of the Group is, for the benefit of the public, the furtherance of all aspects of the exploration, scientific study and conservation of caves and related features. Membership shall be open to anyone over the age of 18 years with an interest in the objects of the Group.

MCG Occasional Publication No. 5

Expeditions and Holidays - the first 50 years

written by Joan Goddard