A fine winters day on Dartmoor, good visibility but with a strong northerly wind reduced the sub zero temperatures with a significant wind chill factor. Starting from B3357 west of Merivale, trending north to Middle Staple Tor, through saddle to Great Staple Tor, and on to Roos Tor then routing north west past the corner of the boundary wall over the stream to the old tin workings. Through the valley up to White Tor (fort). East to the standing stone on the track then across the boggy Peter ...

Parting with some used bank notes, Mark stepped out from the Wessex with a broad smile and the smartest caver on Mendip sporting a new oversuit, with matching wetsuit socks, complimented by his first knee pads. With a whole new level of comfort he led Laura's first trip to sump one, and return via Barns Loop and the short dry. Laura did really well making good progress on the ladder and coping well with a healthy flow of water on the stream-way. With a sense of achievement we rounded off the ...

The annual Christmas party with a twist, someone stole the Christmas tree but the festivities went on regardless @MLeP: Why troughs are better than cranes... @MLeP: Good work Go Pro! :)

First of three consequtive trips. Interesting fairly vertical rifts terminating in a water filled dig

Second trip out of three into Box cave, much larger than the adjacent Reynolds rift. Finely decorated chamber off main chamber accessed through a window with small further well decorated chamber. Large wet aven accessed via old fixed ladder. Interesting slot in the floor adjacent to entrance

Third consecutive trip. After a precarious route to the cave entrance high in the quarry face via the roof of an old building. Small passages opening up into well decorated chambers ending in a dig and unstable Boulder ruckle.

A pleasant stroll around box retracing a previous route. Good fun and a good deed done @JonnyC: A little bit of a last minute plan came together to pay box a re-visit, not least as I needed to return some treasure underground. After digging out some old coordinates and deciphered text passages and a RV with a helpful Inkpen in a car park we headed toward Box. We ended up going in a slightly different entrance, but Rich's recognition soon got us on the straight and narrow. It was pleasantly surpri ...

A pleasant intro to the world of speleology Zig zigs, long dry to the twenty and exit via wet way

Quick dash down to sump one and back @JonnyC: After a mammoth drive across Bristol we headed to the comfort of the Wessex. We had a pleasant trip in via short dry overtaking a novice party who kindly rigged the twenty for us. Sump one was still technically a duck. Headed out via wet way. A very pleasant trip. A few pics but most didn't come out clearly.

A quick trip down as far as the singing stal - Jude led in Rich led out