David Cooke, Lawrence Wilson, Seán Tidey, Will Puddy

An unusually small group of just four of us met in a cold, wet and windy layby just outside Cross, below Wavering Down. After gearing up with our SRT kit we headed off up the hill and across a couple of fields to find the small manhole at the foot of some rocks which is the entrance to Coral Cave. Seán rigged the entrance and abbed down to the first ledge and straight away saw the cave was full of lesser horseshoe bats, some sleeping some not. Seán moved on to the next set of bolts to rig the section down to the bottom of the cave, we didn’t do any of the traverse. Will, Lawrence and Cookie followed. It was quickly noticed the cave was flooded and only the first chamber was accessible without swimming. When the whole team was down there was the inevitable discussion about who was going to swim / wade through the crystal-clear water to the next chamber and join the elite club of cavers that have swum in Coral. The conclusion was none of us were brave enough / appropriately dressed so we all stayed dry. Cookie and Lawrence got their compasses and survey out to check on the orientation of the cave to see if it headed out to the fields or along the line of the hill as there has been some discussion about future, proactive exploration of the cave. The result was the cave ran parallel with the hill, as the survey states and is therefore not a good candidate for exploration at the moment. After inspecting the milk churn and all the other rubbish at the bottom we started making our way out with Will in the lead followed by Lawrence, Seán and Cookie. Overall a short but interesting trip. Good opportunity to practice some basic SRT, have a look at a cave in a state that it is rarely in and do some tinkering with compass and survey even if we only made about 6m horizontal distance!

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— Seán Tidey 13/12/2023