A little while ago the club was approached by the organisers of the (Bristol) Redcliffe Caves open day weekend, as part of the wider Bristol Open Doors weekend. The organisers were after cavers who could help out with running the event and a number of club members volunteered to take part …. Joe Duxbury, Malc White, Alex Moule, Tom Stickland, Jamie Morris and Jon Maisey. Prior to the w/e an number of prelim/recce visits were carried out by the volunteers and a suitable route was mapped out through the caves. On the friday the volunteers set up all of the tapes/barriers/arrows etc required for the public along the route …. not a 5 minute job! Later on the friday evening the local BBC film crew from ‘Points West’ were there to film a short item about the caves for the w/e.

The following Saturday & Sundays went very well, there were approx 800 visitors per day and everyone got a great deal out of the w/e. Talking to the public to explain the history of the caves (and nearby other underground sites) went down very well and we got a lot of good feedback, including info of other underground links to the cave etc.

Joe had also put together and brought with him the club stand in order to promote the club, raise its profile and hopefully get a few more members (time will tell).

Everyone had an excellent w/e & we’ll definaley be back in 2020 …. more volunteers required!

See the photos for a rough overview of the w/e.

Team : Jon Maisey (walk leader), Jann Padley, Alex Moule, Kev Stevens, Chloe Hitchings, Gareth Farrow & Jennie Lawrence (Photographer).

Cleeve Hill (also known as Cleeve Cloud) is the highest point both of the Cotswolds hill range and in the county of Gloucestershire, at 1,083 feet (330m). It is located on Cleeve Common a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) looked after by a small charity called Cleeve Common Trust. It has a clear view to the west, over Cheltenham and the racecourse, over the River Severn and into Wales; and to the north over Winchcombe. It is an outcrop on the edge of the limestone escarpment & crossed by the Cotswold Way footpath. It has Castle Rock, one of the few rock faces in the area used by climbers. The routes are short, difficult for their grade and highly polished.

It was a fabulous warm sunny evening a little cooler on reaching the top where we met Chloe & Gareth, getting ready to do some climbing on Castle Rock. After walking the ridge we dropped down & explored the rock faces, finding cracks in the rock and small caves. Not sure if we found the largest, Issac’s cave, we think it was at the far edge but decided to keep it fo another day as the sun was setting & we needed to set up the BBQ. Gareth gave us an entertaining demo on how to balance on a skateboard & I’d forgotten about the ‘bring food for the BBQ’ but there was plenty to go round, even beer!