Wookey Hole [July 10 2013]

Divers: Lamar Hires & Duncan Price
Support: Lee Ann Hires, James Hall & David Millin

Lamar was visiting the UK and due to present at TekCamp 2013. Since he was in the area he requested a cave dive at Wookey Hole. The team met up in the car park opposite the hotel at 6pm to collect the cave keys and fill in the appropriate paperwork before carrying most of the gear up to the cave via the ravine exit and leaving it in Chamber 9. The show cave lights were on at the time as the manager was showing a couple of people around.

The party returned to the carpark for the divers to change into drysuits and completed gearing up by the water in Chamber 9. The water levels were very low and the visibility exceptional. With Lamar in the lead the divers swam to the next major airspace in Chamber 20 via the Deep Route and thence upstream to Chamber 22 where the line belay was several feet out of the water and the usual beaching point high and dry. The visibilty was in excess of 50 ft allowing Duncan to make a number of original observations during the dive and locate a few spots which warrant further investigation. Lamar declined the chance to go caving as he wasn't wearing a helmet.

The return to 9:2 was made via the Shallow Route where there was minimal airspace along one point due to the low water levels. Regaining 9:2 an underwater loop around the chamber was made and a visual jump to the line downstream to chamber 3. In the poor flow, the divers encountered the silt kicked up in the upstream 9:2 pool at the start of their dive but this cleared and they met the surface party in Chamber 3.

There is no line out to the resurgence from this point but Lamar was happy to follow Duncan who knew the route to take - following power cables to Chamber 1 and then hugging the right hand wall out to daylight which could be seen from some distance away. The full height of the dam at the cave entrance was exposed suggesting that the water level is down by at least 3 ft.

As it was getting late the team made a beeline for the Hunter's Lodge Inn to dine on faggots & peas washed down with several warm pints of "Potholer" bitter ale. Unfortunately the Shove Ha'penny table was in use otherwise another trashing of our colonial counsins would have been dished out.

I want to go back!

Sounds like great fun!

I had to resort to Wikipedia to ascertain what "faggots & peas" might be. Faggot turns out to be miscellaneous pig scraps, offal, and fat mushed together and fried. Just the type of thing I like, especially with pints of ale.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MORGAN

Sounds like great fun!

I had to resort to Wikipedia to ascertain what "faggots & peas" might be. Faggot turns out to be miscellaneous pig scraps, offal, and fat mushed together and fried. Just the type of thing I like, especially with pints of ale.

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Yeah we texted a brit friend who said its kind of like a meatball of liver lung and other whatnots

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MORGAN

Sounds like great fun!

I had to resort to Wikipedia to ascertain what "faggots & peas" might be. Faggot turns out to be miscellaneous pig scraps, offal, and fat mushed together and fried. Just the type of thing I like, especially with pints of ale.

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Mr & Mrs Hires opted for the beef chilli. The faggots are indeed meatballs (though a faggot is also the name for a lump of wood to put on a fire) - their hosts from Sea & Sea tried the dish (which I described as ill-defined animal protein) and said it was a bit dry. The peas are "mushy peas" rather than garden peas. I had ham & mushroom pasta. We promised to take Lamar down Swildon's Hole the next time he's here.

And I thought a Faggot was also a cigarette? Or is that just a Fag?

I liked reading the dive report and did the necessary research to understand all that "funny" language.

I would like to point out that visual jumps and trust me dives should not be publicly condoned. I just do not want someone to get the wrong idea and pay the ultimate price for it.

Anyway, I am looking forward to further dive reports.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dsix36

I liked reading the dive report and did the necessary research to understand all that "funny" language.

I would like to point out that visual jumps and trust me dives should not be publicly condoned. I just do not want someone to get the wrong idea and pay the ultimate price for it.

Anyway, I am looking forward to further dive reports.

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When a visual jump is done is there a cookie to mark the location of the jump? I can't quite understand why anyone would try to pull off a visual jump unless they knew the system like the back of their hand.. Has their been a poll on how many people have or do visual jumps?

Before everyone gets a bit worried about safety -

1) The "jump" in question is in an area without overhead.
The common procedure is to surface in the pool and follow the other line. From the description I would imagine that they didn't bother to surface.. hence the "jump".
2) The exit route has power cables almost all of the way out that form a "gold line" for people that know the cave.
There is also a potential climb out and several air surfaces on the way. The final section of the cave to the resurgence is usually lined by the diver with a reel when entering the cave from that direction. However, it is a simple cave section and while it is not "best practice" to dive without a line even in these simple situations the visibility would make the daylight from the entrance/exit visible for some considerable range.

Sounds like a great day out.. I'll have to come play when I am back in the UK at the end of the month. I've been meaning to go visit the camp..