Gough's Cave, Cheddar UK - sump 3 progression

[Irnbru]

Hi there,

I was wondering if there had been any progression on the boulder choke reached by Rob Palmer in 1990

http://www.ubss.org.uk/resources/pro..._19_1_3-17.pdf

This PDF has lots of nice information but was wondering if anybody could point me towards something more up to date...

[deepunderground]

Somerset sump index has further info about more recent dives but I don't think they got any further through

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[bottle maker]

There is a film by Gavin Newman about diving Wookey have a look at that yes the line has been extended but they did not reach the end

Graham

[deepunderground]

There is a film by Gavin Newman about diving Wookey have a look at that yes the line has been extended but they did not reach the end

Graham

That would be wookey not goughs cave...

A sump has been recently dived to a large underwater passage in a cave further up the gorge, this maybe the master cave they have just found well upstream of the boulder choke

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[Irnbru]

Cheers - will get the index

The Gavin Newman film (that I'm aware of) features dives from 2005 that go past the previous Rob Parker 1985 limit at Wookey Hole - there is a film featuring Rob Palmer at Gough's, but judging by the footage I think this was closer to 1985 when Richard Stevenson first went to the bottom of Dire Straits

[MattJ]

A sump has been recently dived to a large underwater passage in a cave further up the gorge, this maybe the master cave they have just found well upstream of the boulder choke

Don't spose this is anything to do with the reservoir hole breakthrough?

[Chris Grosart]

Goughs was last seriously looked at by John Volanthen a few years ago.
I think recent flooding hasn't helped matters but the reservoir hole team are expecting a connection as the caves are not far apart.
I'll be around on Mendip next week and I'm sure to get some more info.
We plan to dive Goughs again this year but someone needs to switch off the tap in the sky of first.

[Duncan Price]

The river passage was surveyed from end to end during 2011 in order to provide accurate survey data for the revised survey of the cave (and entire catchment) prepared by the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society. See here. The upstream end was last visited by John Volanthen & Chris Jewell in May 2011 who found no way on above or below water. During this dive they took John's mapper to the end to collect survey centreline data in Sump 3. The sump found in Reservior Hole has been dived several times but no more than 20 m progress hass been made so far. The team are awaiting better conditions to re-examine the sump but there are other dry leads in the cave to look at as well. Given that Gough's ends in an impenetrable boulder choke and blind airbell, it would be optimistic to expect a connection. More survey work needs to be done in Gough's - specifically to get more data on the large air chamber between S1b and S2 and also to acquire accurate passage dimension data in S2 using a SONAR wand (as was done in S1).

There was a documentary produced by the BBC in 1988 featuring the late Rob Palmer (Irnbru refers). The current terminus was reached by Rick Stanton in 2002.