Evening light on Blackdown, taken on the August Bank Holiday wood chopping weekend.
With the cautious restart of caving activities during Plague Times, we're able to bring you some trip reports in this edition to show that we haven't all just slumped into a coma brought about by too much gin, beer and chocolate. In fact, we've been pretty busy, as an August bank holiday wood-chopping weekend proves!
At the time of going to press, we still have no clear idea how the first term will pan out in terms of caving activities and the recruitment of new student members. The usual Welcome Fair on the Downs has been replaced by an ambitious digital event and we'll no doubt have to be creative in our approach to unprecedented times.
Tuesday socials have continued, with a mix of quiz and chat and if you'd like to join in, keep an eye on the club's Facebook page. but if you're not on there and would like to join in, let us know and we'll get the links for the video calls sent over to you. It's rumoured that there was even one social where the ever-popular subjects of poo and dolphin sex didn't get a mention, but your editors are as yet unable to verify that.
On the second day of the woodchopping bank holiday weekend Zac, Merryn and Si with Andrew leading ventured out to Velvet Bottom for an Upper Flood Swallet adventure. Zac describes their exploits.
After changing in a lay by and strolling through the woods on what was a beautiful sunny day, we arrived at the cave entrance, just off the path under a heavy steel manhole cover in a small divet.
Merryn led the way, and set a high pace, with me second, then Andrew followed by Si. After a descent down some carved stairs the cave becomes a gravel-floored crawl, which I had prepared for by getting a pair of plastic capped knee pads, however the straps weren’t tight enough so the top of the pads would drag, digging the bottom edge into my shins. Occasionally the passage would open up so you could stoop, if you’re not a giant, not because the roof was low but because of the forest of straws and stals that grow from the ceiling.
Eventually it opened into a large chamber where we met a more sizeable streamway which we followed into a very wet canal crawl. It was then we reached the boulder choke, a network of tight hard angled squeezes through cracks, sometimes held open by metalwork, and down climbs. However half way through, in the centre of the choke it opened into a large chamber filled with straws and stal but even those weren’t the most beautiful part, just on the left as you entered the chamber a large bowl shaped shelf extended from the wall. Inside, it is lined with pure white crystals, like some city from another planet.
Upper Flood Swallet, photo copyright Kay Wills, from the MCRA collection.
Exiting the boulder choke, we came to the red chamber, a large chamber with incredible red flowstone. Beyond that there was a tight squeeze back into the stream way which then entered the Departure Lounge, a giant chamber where the left-hand wall is coated in titanic formations of flowstone, a petrified cascade wall. After the Departure Lounge, the cave passage becomes a rift that broadened and thinned, filled with flowstone, stal and straws. After another water crawl and past a ‘plank’ (a calcified protrusion covered in orange tape) we entered a huge chamber completely covered in a blanket of calcite which took the form of flowstone, stals, straws, curtains and other formations I don’t know the name of. It was then a further hike through a long streamway passage to the junction, a giant chamber with a boulder floor that connects the three lower passageways.
We crawled between boulders to gain access to a sloped chamber covered in curtains, stal and straws. It was here we turned around after poking our heads in a now prohibited crawl completely lined with straws. It was a shame, as only a little further on was the pretties parts, Neverland and the pork pies.
I led the way out with Si behind me; I took a much more leisurely pace, enjoying the pretties on the way and only went the wrong way twice. Going back through the boulder choke, I destroyed one of my knee pads and had to retire it, just before the gravel crawl as well. Let’s say it took my knee a while to recover. The stairs at the entrance were a welcome relief and after a moment of me faffing with the gate we were back under the blue sky and summer sun.
It is an incredible trip and I would love to go back some time to see the pretties at the bottom after hearing so much about them. I would recommend it to any competent caver.
Zac Woodford
STACKED!
The end of a long day, Imogen (left), Mia (right) Merryn (front) proud of their efforts!
After a fairly busy year at the Hut, even with the challenges of lockdown, our wood store was looking somewhat depleted, so Sioned Haughton and Andrew Atkinson kindly organised a wood chopping and stacking weekend on the August bank holiday, providing food and beer (courtesy of the Oliver Lloyd Memorial Fund) in return for a day of hard labour, as Linda Wilson reports.
Hmm, there's not much here! The mice must have been at the place. Or else people burnt it. How strange. We'll have to cut some more.
We started the weekend with very little wood in the store, but there was plenty of fallen wood on the ground nearby, and in addition, we had the wood from a branch of an ash tree outside the gate that we'd arranged to have taken down, with permission from the Wills Estate, as it had already shed some wood onto Henry's car. I'd also got permission from the Estate to take down a dying tree that had been vandalised a couple of years ago at the same time as a hut break-in, as well as a couple of smaller standing trees, one of which was dead, and the other was affected by ash die-back, which is now very prevalent on Mendip.
Socially distanced wood chopping. Ben (left), Henry (right).
Andrew and Chris Pepper very ably put their chainsaws to work during the day while Henry and his friend Ben from Durham Uni Caving Club did a heroic job of axe-wielding to reduce a vast pile of logs to sensible sized pieces of firewood. Wood was ferried to the store by Zac, Sam, Ash, Sioned and Si, while in the store, I gave Mia and Imogen a crash course in the noble and arcane art of wood store stacking, life skills they later passed on to Merryn. In the course of a long day's work, we achieved four full stacks at the back of the store and one and a half along the left-hand side, together with two full packing cases of kindling.
Left to right: Ash, Zac, Sam, Merryn.
This was followed by Sioned's excellent vegetarian chilli and rice accompanied by copious amounts of garlic bread and washed down by beer (and prosecco for the wood-stacking team!). A camp fire enabled us to get rid of the large amounts of brush wood generated by the work, as well as dealing with anything deemed too old and awkward for chainsaws and axes.
A weekend at the hut isn't complete without a bonfire sacrifice!
The rest of the weekend was devoted to caving and survey training, which is all still going on at the time this report is going to press, so you'll hear more about that next time.
Yes, I know, I have an unhealthy love of stacking wood. It's a fetish. I admit it. So sue me.
In what will ultimately be a vain attempt to get out of writing a memory of his own, Ash Gregg kindly submitted this trip report from a few years ago written by Elaine and reproduced here with her permission...
A joint report from Caving Pig and Captain Underpants, in which we demonstrate that even Sunday hangover trips offer plenty of scope for cave conservation.
Two of us found ourselves surprisingly not too hungover to go caving this Sunday after CHECC and decided to have a look at Lionel's Hole. We didn't get as far as reading the description, but took photos of the survey. We made initial excellent progress past the spiders at the entrance and were soon investigating polished-looking locations around the boulder chamber, until the squeezes became too committing and rough to seem reasonable options for onward progress on the round trip. We found a loop and thought we might have discovered The Pit (it wasn't), where looking down the ~2.5m hole we saw a wet rag and what looked like a bit of deviation tat. We joked that it might be a pair of pants, and conservation-minded individuals that we are, decided that pants do not belong in a cave unless worn on a person. They had to come out. Ash inserted his legs down the hole but decided that although he would probably just about fit, the vertical return might prove more difficult. I'm narrower and would have slipped down, but there were no visible footholds and I didn't particularly trust my arm strength to get me out. So we invented the game of Underpants Fishing.
Ash fashioned some tackle by knotting a sling around the gate of a krab to hold it open, then wedged himself in the hole and started dangling. After some concerted waving efforts he actually managed to hook the material and excitedly reeled it in. THEN DISASTER STRUCK! Ash's hand was mere inches away from grabbing the offending item when it slid off and assumed a new position that was both further away and flatter, and therefore much more difficult to hook. We took it in turns for a further ten minutes or so before accepting that this method would not work. By this point, we had invested well over half an hour in trying to get the material, so there was no way we were going to give up now.
Ash decided to brave the squeeze, which was a helmets-off endeavour. After some (different) tackle adjustment accompanied by chants of encouragement we'd learnt from SUCC over the weekend, his feet finally touched the floor and he was able to pass up both the mysterious tat (a rubber seal) and the object of our obsession, which was revealed to actually be a ripped pair of Y-fronts! The thrutch out went better than expected and in the end Ash did not even need the sling I lassoed him with in case hauling was required.
Ash striking a pose!
Further "route-finding" brought us rather close to dinner time, and although we'd have had plenty of time on our call-out if we'd successfully navigated the round trip, we didn't actually want to return home at 2am after a long drive back, so we took the decision to turn around after finding the streamway and having a look at the sumped bypass to Junction Chamber. Throughout the trip, we kept noticing more and more bits of things that shouldn't have been in the cave, so it became a bit of a competition as to who could yell LITTER! the most times. (obviously we brought out everything we found!)
We remain puzzled as to why there was a torn pair of pants down a small hole in this cave. Did someone get a little bit excited after Rostam's rousing rendition of Lay Me Down in Mendip's Pastures at CHECC? Or had they simply shat themselves at the loose boulders and didn't wish to carry the evidence out? I suppose we may never know, but at least the cave is a bit tidier now.
The litter haul.
Elaine not wearing the rescued underpants.
Cave conservation is something we really emphasise in both the clubs I cave with, and right from the first novice trips, we try to instil good habits. Here's a small effort from a Swildon's upper series trip the other week, where we had two freshers on their very first underground trip helping to spot and reach batteries and wrappers after I found some cans with rancid cider, strimmer cord and gear tape. Obviously these trips are nothing compared to the effort put in by many others, but I hope they will remind people that every little helps!
Elaine Oliver
LIONEL'S HOLE, AGAIN
You'd think we were lion, but it's the hole truth. Here's a slightly more recent trip report for you to enjoy, be it when lion on the sofa or holed up in an office. Zac's on a roll. This is Lionel's Hole. I've lost control. Over to Zac for the (w)hole story ...
On Bank Holiday Monday morning a group of us went for a bimble down Lionel’s. The night before, while sitting around the fire, Sam, Imogen, Mia, Merryn and I came up with a rudimentary plan to attempt the cave. I say attempt as it is notorious for being difficult to navigate, or even find as we soon discovered.
Zac's the guy in all th'ole kit ready for a Lionel's Hole trip. If you read that in a certain way it rhymes.
After several conversations I learnt that it was mainly one big boulder choke and that the entrance was on the roadside but not visible from the road. With that information we set off, down by a Mia but still strong, down into the Combe. Our first traverse came at the bottom of West Twin Brook past the sink where a giant tree had fallen, and we had to clamber between the branches to get past. We then strolled past Pierre’s up the Combe scanning the left-hand side of the road for the entrance.
After some time, I found one, but the lack of a rescue plaque made me sceptical. Sam decided to explore it while I continued up the Combe to see if there was another entrance. I found one, and it had a plaque, which said Lionel’s. Sam took his time to crawl out of the gravel shoot I had found previously but after that it wasn’t long before we were delving into the actual Lionel’s. Merryn initially lead the way and pointed out the entrance to the boulder choke which I then crawled into with Imogen close behind. However, she didn’t feel too well and soon turned around and went back to the hut.
After making sure she got out safely, Merryn, Sam and I continued on with Merryn finding a tight squeeze which we had to back track on before following the polish into a large mud coated chamber. From there I led us into a rift for a traverse before climbing back into the choke and finding our way back to the mud chamber. Sam then explored some of the side passages before we both followed Merryn down a well-polished slot, a large gap between boulders where we had a short rendition of We Will Rock You. We then climbed back up a little into another large gap before dropping down into a huge chamber which had a wonderful calcite shelf. It was then another tight drop down to a streamway. It was here both Sam and Merryn stopped but I went on a belly crawl up the streamway through a narrow arch. I stopped after finding the passage very tight and very flooded and, not wanting to bother with that on a Monday, we turned around and clambered back out. It is a cave I would certainly like to visit again for another bimble but maybe not the day after a trip down Upper Flood.
Zac Woodford
MAPPING IRISH CAVES
Map screenshot of parts of north-west Clare.
Following the publication of “The Caves of Mid-West Ireland” last year, UBSS & SUI are working on a further volume which will cover the southern counties of Ireland, having agreed a demarcation with those working on the forthcoming northern counties book, as Graham Mullan reports.
I found that I needed a way to visualise the distribution of caves in Co. Cork in a way that was not laborious and could be fairly quickly amended as I improved the data and so investigated using a GIS program, specifically the open-source QGIS. This worked really well, once I received some helpful advice and a couple of email lessons from Bob Jones, a friend in the GSG in Inverness, and solved some of my problems.
However, I also found that it was relatively quick to add further data to the map and in no time at all I had a working map covering the entire area of the new book. Getting delusions of grandeur, I then started to add the data from “The Caves of Mid-West Ireland” and this is where the project now stands. (I have added the single site in Co. Wicklow, although that’s not part of our area.)
The map can be seen and interrogated at https://qgiscloud.com/Graham/Irish_Caves_Project/ The base maps used are OpenStreetMap, Open Topo and Bing Aerial, simply because they are available without a licence. It’s possible to toggle between them by turning the relevant layers on and off in the drop down layers box. There are problems displaying some of these, especially the OpenTopo map so visitors to the site might find that the available options change as I experiment with the settings. On some, the maps can take a very long time to load. Each county has been added as a different layer (except Offaly and Laois which have been combined) allowing them to have different coloured dots.
Clicking on the location of any cave brings up an attributes table for that site. This contains basic data including ITM, length, altitude and, if appropriate, reference numbers for both the archaeological Sites and Monuments records and for the GSI’s karst database. My data is not entirely in agreement with the GSI’s data, owing to the different sources from which they have been compiled. This is something which I hope to work on with them over time.
One result of being able to view all the data on a map is that errors in locations become obvious. Some were obvious typos (Oughtdarra West Rising really isn’t just off the coast of Inis Mor) but others were more minor, just a matter of a few metres and probably resulted from using less accurate GPS data or from older records that had been through several transformations before reaching ITM coordinates. I have corrected many of these and if there is a difference between the location on the map and that published in “Caves of Mid-West Ireland” then the map should be more up to date. If anyone spots any more errors, please let me know and I can check them and correct as necessary. Similarly, if anyone has updates to the data, I can edit it as required.
In time, I hope to produce a fully searchable Irish Caves Database linked to both map visualisations and a comprehensive bibliography. This map is not it, but until I can coerce volunteers with the required skills and time to do the necessary coding and data entry for that, it is a useful update, for the areas which it covers, from the 2006 version, which is still available.
Graham Mullan
FIVE GO TO G.B.
Bank robber chic underground in the first grotto. Left to right: James and Helen Rossington, Jan Walker, Tony Boycott.
On the Tuesday after the A level results came out, James Rossington got the chance to celebrate getting into uni with a long-promised trip to GB in company with Helen Rossington (proud mum!), Linda Wilson, Tony Boycott and Jan Walker. James and Jan had both completed enough trips to take them beyond novice status, so two households and a bubble went on a covid-compliant caving trip, as Linda reports.
On our way to look over into Main Chamber.
Yep, it took so long to get the patient James to GB that we no longer needed to get a parental consent form signed, as he turned 18 in May. Actually, he wasn't that patient, but it just took us a while to get around to things! We all met up at field gate (no parking at the farm in plague times by request of the landowner) and after the usual amount of faff (that included me putting my back out doing nothing more strenuous than bending down to pick up my car keys) we headed underground.
James in White Passage.
We bimbled down the Gorge and Main Chamber, then came out via the Loop and White Passage, taking in the usual sights on the way. I was playing with my latest acquisition, a waterproof case for my relatively new phone, which meant I could trust myself with it underground. It turned out to be a really good buy, with the touch screen even working without the need for me to take my gloves off, which speeded up taking underground snaps immensely, no doubt to everyone else's irritation when I yelled: "Stop just there!" when someone was in the middle of a precarious move.
James and Jan, who'd both done Wild Wookey on the Centenary weekend as well as the usual array of Burrington caves, took to the larger environment like ducks to water. We quickly discovered that the upside of caving in masks was that the usual clouds of breath didn't fog up the photos, but for Jan the downside was that her glasses kept steaming up instead.
Jan proving it's sometimes easier to go down the rift climb than it is to go back up it.
Although she makes it look easy on the way down, some creative combined tactics and the deployment of a sling to grab hold of helped Jan back up the rift climb on the way out (the disadvantages of being shorter than everyone else!). OK, at one point, she almost ended up with her feet higher than her head, but in Tony's defence, she was standing on his shoulders at the time, proving that he still provides a remarkably good and stead foothold! We tried to promise her that it would be easier next time! She might even have believed us...
GB was as beautiful as ever, and remains one of my favourite caves.
Linda Wilson
SOUTH WALES WEEKEND - TRIP REPORTS
In lieu of any caving phtoos, here's one of Zac with his spirit animal, the llama. Editor's Note: Thanks to Zac I was introduced to the concept of a gay llama mass murderer called Carl, in the utterly surreal Llamas with Hats. So if you ever here me yelling Carl! it's actually Zac I'm after (Linda).
A group consisting of Zac Woodford, Elaine Oliver, Haydon Saunders, Charlie Harding and Dickon Morris spend a weekend in South Wales at the Dan yr Ogof camp site. Zac reports on their exploits.
Llygad Llwchwr
Ash, Dickon and I went out to the cave early on Saturday after Dickon suggested it might be a good trip to do in wet weather. It’s located on the west slopes of the Black Mountain and is a stream cave which ends in a resurgence. The entrance is next to this resurgence, a short way up a rock face and leads into a short crawl. There’s then a series of short tight rifts and crawls that largen into a couple of lake chambers before entering the base of a boulder chamber.
Ascending the boulder chamber, you enter into a large series of passages big enough to walk in, pocketed with lakes and connected by smaller crawl tubes. Each of the larger passages end in a large chamber that the main streamway passes through the base of giving some excellent views. Each of the stream chambers starts and end in sumps due to the near forty-degree incline of the rock (according to Dickon). We all had a bimble around finding all the streamway chambers and the small tunnels that connected them, eventually deciding that it would make a good freshers’ cave.
We then wandered over to the second entrance which enters the upper streamway from the base of a shake-hole via the most horrible grotty dig. We had to climb over a rotting dead mole and after that squeeze into the low ceiling streamway. Following it leads to a sump but on the way is a steep passage into an unstable boulder chamber, past which are some nice lake passages a few formations.
Overall Llygad Llwchwr One is a very good trip with lots to see, but Llygad Llwchwr Two is a little underwhelming for what you have to go through to get to it.
Elaine performing her pre-caving exercise routine.
Pant Mawr
The Saturday of the Wales trip Dickon took off early and the rest of us, after packing up, left for the SWCC. After a protracted changing period (thanks Haydon) we began the hour-long hike through the OFD nature reserve to the Pant Mawr entrance.
The entrance itself is a large crack at the base of a shake hole which leads into a giant chamber via a 16 metre ladder pitch which took all six of us (me, Haydon, Ash, Elaine, Si and Charlie) half an hour to descend, during which Elaine made friends with several newts and frogs living at the base of the pitch.
Following the streamway through another large chamber lead to a boulder choke which when traversed leads to another large chamber which ends in another boulder choke that can be bypassed through a side passage. This leads into another giant chamber which ends in yet another boulder choke. Climbing over this last one we entered into a titanic passage that just seemed to keep going and going through boulders and mud over the top of the streamway. This passage eventually narrows down into a tunnel akin to a Yorkshire stream cave which terminates in a sump.
It wasn’t long getting back out and the hike back was a little more than gruelling. However, it was well worth it, the cave was absolutely incredible.
Zac Woodford
DUCT TAPE AND STRING - SAMPLING IN ST VINCENT'S SPRING
Jan in St Vincent's Spring.
On the Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend, Graham Mullan, Tony Boycott, otherwise known in newsletters as AB (Dr), Jan Walker and Linda Wilson were roped in to help David Richards (aka Intrepid Scientist) take some water samples from St Vincent's Spring, a little known hot spring in the Avon Gorge, once used as spa waters. Linda Wilson reports.
I first got acquainted with this site last year, when we helped to get a bunch of David's students underground as part of an undergraduate science project to sample the thermal waters. Behind a small ornamental fountain beside the Portway lies a short climb down into a section of dug tunnel that leads to a circular five metre deep well shaft.
Science stuff.
The aim of the trip was to check the depth of the water at the bottom of the well shaft and take a water sample. As ever, the water bottles always float, so a rock was pressed into service and securely duct-taped to the plastic container. Then David amused everyone but himself with his efforts to unravel some orange twine. It's clear he's never done any knitting. In best Blue Peter fashion, he then manufactured something with more than a passing resemblance to a large phallus, or maybe I've just got a dirty mind. A water sample was successfully obtained, then it was time to get AB (Dr) wet, which is always an amusing hobby.
AB (Dr) at the bottom of the well shaft.
The ladder was rigged to two old but very serviceable iron bars across the passage and Tony was life-lined down. A yelp told us that the water had reached a crucial depth, but its temperature (around 21 degrees) meant that he didn't moan nearly as much as he usually does when water reaches his groin! Tony deemed water levels were slightly too high to make it through to the small chamber off the bottom of the well-shaft, or rather I vetoed the idea as any mishap would have meant me getting wet as well.
Intrepid Scientist on the ladder while the Hired Help make encouraging noises.
Then it was David's turn to play the intrepid explorer and get a closer look at what he'd been sampling. Graham lined him down and back up again so he could get wet as well, while the rest of us stayed happily dry.
There's always a lot of fascinating scientific talk with David underground, but as ever, the trip reinforced my view that cave scientists rely heavily on duct-tape, string and convenient rocks. On this occasion, though, there was no need to deploy that other scientific staple, the cable tie! Clearly we weren't being scientific enough for that!
Linda Wilson
CONGRATULATIONS!
As everyone who read our last issue (Jacob, high time you caught up, being busy is no excuse!!) will know, The Caves of Mid-West Ireland, edited by Graham, won the prestigious Tratman Award for 2019, which was great, as it was our centenary publication, and had involved a huge effort by a large number of UBSS members.
Naturally, I took the opportunity to blow our trumpet widely around the university and the union, and got some lovely responses. This is what people said.....
"That is really great news. Thanks for letting us know. What a fantastic society UBSS is!" - Ben Pilling, Chief Operating Office, University of Bristol Union.
"Fantastic news Linda, congrats to you, Graham and the UBSS! If you are sent a physical award at any point, please do send in a photo of UBSS members with it, we’d love to show off a photo somewhere on our office wall." - Christy O'Sullivan, Interim Associate Director of Student Opportunities.
"Many thanks for flagging this excellent news to us, and congratulations to all involved. I think the age of the Society, and indeed the way that alumni have collaborated so well with students throughout its history is such a wonderful and positive story. And as you, the way in which the success shows students, staff and alumni working together, and is supported by such great volunteering as well as by gifts such as Professor Tratman’s incredibly generous legacy shows the full breadth of how we can work together." - Andrew Monk, Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations. [Note: The legacy referred to is the one Trat left the university, that funds the Tratman Scholarship and the Tratman Award.]
"That’s excellent news. I think it's especially important because of the nature of the UBSS, that it claims to have had 100 years of scientific contributions (not just diving down old holes), and the journal and other publications are testament to this. Also of course, I’m sure this is just what Trat had hoped for from his legacy." - Professor Mike Benton, Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. [Note: Mike is the point of liason for the Tratman Award.]
"That is such brilliant news -many, many congratulations and it's so wonderful for that to have happened in your centenary year of all years. You should definitely celebrate this and make a splash of it.... I will also report it at Heritage and Public Art Committee (it does no harm for the DVC to know about such achievements!)." - Jo Elsworth, Director of Cultural Collections (Library Services).
MAMMOTH IN THE MEDIA
Student Museum Curator Nathan Cubitt is keeping our hairy superstar busy on social media.
The winner of last month's competition is Tim Hill, who correctly identified this as a photo of Ian Standing. Elaine Oliver was runner up, thinking this might have been Pete Standing.
Tim's winning response appears below in our Letters to the Editors section.
LETTER TO THE EDITORS
Hi Editors,
Fascinating!
Unmistakeably Ian Standing whose surname actually appears on the attached note.
I expect that I was not at the hut at the time as that date was a Wednesday and I wonder how they had managed for transport as I do not recollect Ian had any but Julian Clokie had a motorcycle to which was attached the frame for a sidecar thus meaning - as I recollect - some relaxation on the licencing requirements.
Whatever, it would have been very very cold outside. I note that Ian is on the seat beside the fire.
Do you have any contact with Clokie? A look at the internet suggests that he might very recently no longer be with us if that was him but the face and birth date look about right.
Best Wishes!
Tim
[Editors' note: if anyone knows anything about Julian Clokie, do pass it on to us.]
FICTION CORNER
Linda's offering this week is part of her continuing efforts to produce a drabble (a 100 word piece of fiction) for each of the Fellowship of the Ring characters in the Mines of Moria. This one looks at Legolas' reaction to the mines.
Legolas walked with Aragorn at the rear of the sombre group.
Ahead, the steady tramp of Gimli’s iron-shod boots echoed in the dark as he walked at Gandalf’s side.
Unlike the dwarf, Legolas saw no beauty in the carefully hewn tunnels nor in the cavernous halls where unfriendly eyes could watch their progress through the depths of the Misty Mountains.
He longed for a cloudless sky, green trees and the smell of warm earth, not the dank reek of black rock.
For once, the long knife at his belt and the slender bow in his hand gave him scant comfort.
I READ TO THE END! I DIDN'T CHEAT, HONEST!
In the reading photo shoot today, we have the very erudite FT bear, long-time companion of Sharon Wheeler and avid reader of the UBSS Newsletter. FT was a present from a friend when Sharon went off to uni. The friend's mother was shocked and didn't consider this a proper present for someone as sensible as Sharon. She clearly didn't know her very well! His initials stand for Furry Teddy (or Furry Testicles, on account of his cotton wool balls!). Pick which you think suits him best! He is a well travelled bear and has has an unrivalled repertoire of early 1980's New Zealand cricketer impressions! Thanks to Sharon for the photo and his backstory. It's also fitting that Sharon and FT were the winners of last month's Read to the End competition. Here we go with the results ...
- Me ’n' FT are checking in. Great issue - and the special instructions at the end for Dr B made me laugh! Pic of FT coming soon. He’s looking a tad threadbear (!). (Sharon Wheeler)
- Such a nice lot of news! Best wishes as usual. (Chris Howes)
- Don’t disrespect the rules of dibs >:( (Megan Malpas, coming in a very respectable third, but proving that some students still aren't out of bed even at 11.30am on a Saturday!)
- Terrific drabble; gave me chills! And our dear Whatley really needs a custom-made mask! (Jan Walker)
- No where near first but tried (In car back from eastbourne)! (Zac Woodford)
- Excellent issue - you're an inspiration! (Martin Joyce) (Editors' Note: We've never been called an inspiration before!)
- Thanks very much, Linda and Mia, Much of it made me laugh and brought back some great memories! (Eve Gilmore)
- and I read to the end as well! :) (Elaine Oliver, after being told she hadn't won the photo comp)
Hint for the lovely AB (Dr), who still hasn't managed to get to the end yet .... to send an email to say you read to the end, click on the words below in blue!
Come on. folks, let's have lots of love for your harassed (or rather, harassing) editors and all our wonderful writers, with a rousing cheer for Zac for all his excellent trip reports!
