Below are a selection of photos from the amazing new camera the club has purchased with the incredibly generous grant we received from the Alumni Fund, which consists of donations from many alumni of Reading University. We are hugely grateful to everyone who made it possible for us to produce such fantastic photos!
Click on each photo to see a full-sized version. I am sure that this is just the beginning of a whole collection of brilliant photos during the years ahead, which will really bring the wonders of our underground world to life!
This Sunday, we took 12 newcomers to the Mendips to try out a spot of caving. One of them, Kenny, had a Go-Pro camera and chest harness mount for it, and this totally badass video is the result!
I think it really captures the ‘Nature’s Jungle-Gym’ aspect of the sport. Anyway, of the 9 newcomers who went down Swildon’s hole, only one didn’t make it to the sump, and she got pretty damn close! The group that went down GB had a great time too, apparently.
So, a successful day-trip, and a successful start to the term! If you’re thinking, ‘Good Heavens, that looks like a jolly good romp! What a pity I missed these wonderful people at the Freshers Fayre!’, then don’t fret; you can still join us in our exploring activities and social shenanigans. Just put your email address on our Mailing List, or Join us on Facebook, or pop along to The College Arms on a Monday night after 9pm! We’ve got plenty of weekend trips coming up; here’s a small selection:
Oct 12-14th – First weekend trip to South Wales – staying at the South Wales Caving Club (We’re sharing with Aberystwyth University, which should be a laugh!) (Also we’ve been given lots of FREE BEER which was left over from Amanda’s wedding!)
Oct 19-21st – Second weekend trip to South Wales – staying at Whitewalls, on Llangattock.
Nov 2-4th – Priddy fireworks trip – staying at the Cerberus. We’ll make an evening jaunt (in fancy-dress) to the annual fireworks display on Priddy Green, which is held in aid of the Mendip Cave Rescue Organisation.
Anyway, I need to stop writing blog posts and catch a train home, so hopefully we’ll see you soon!
So yeah, I’ve finally bowed to the pressure of my own vanity and got myself a Youtube account. Here’s a video from our just-after-the-end-of-term trip to Yorkshire this July. More shall follow.
It’s taken pretty much a whole day of work, but I’ve finally cleared the months-long backlog of photos waiting to be uploaded. Now the world can witness the glory that is our club!
Of course, if you happen to have any more photos that ought to be on here, then by all means find some way of sending them to me or Ben so they can stand proud in their rightful place, archived for future generations to gawp at and wonder.
Conversely, if you believe that a photo has been posted that might compromise your future job prospects or lead to you being placed on a register of some kind, please contact us and maybe, just maybe, I’ll do something about it if I’m feeling especially helpful and have absolutely nothing else to do.
Here’s what some of us got up to back in January! Aside from a tight situation with Big Ben’s bum (don’t worry about him; he’s used to it), all went well. Thanks to John W’s keen sense of cinematography and the ingenious invention of the ‘camera on a stick’, we can now appreciate the whole experience in visual form from the comfort of our sofas.
For any viewers thinking “Gosh! I could never find the strength of mind and body to accomplish a feat such as this!” I feel obliged to inform you that Connor, our token American, left for this trip not half an hour after waking up with a truly superlative hangover. Having fallen prey to Martyn’s skittle vodka he so closely resembled a comatose giant that even falling off a top bunk in the middle of the night could not disturb his slumber. Eventually woken by the wafting aroma of bacon, he stumbled downstairs and in an unusually distinct East Coast accent announced
“I HAVE QUESTIONS.”
What are we to learn from this story? That bacon is a panacea for all ills? That caving is more fun than it looks? That mind-over-matter is the best way to deal with a hangover? Nay, the lesson here is … Look at those smiles!
Welcome, to all you denizens of the Internet, and especially any soon-to-be students of the University of Reading!
After many moons of delay, faff and excuses, I am at long last uploading the enormous backlog of photos from all our trips this year. At the moment it looks like we haven’t done anything since October, but I assure you we’ve been very busy indeed, just a little lazy in the post-production stages!
Anyway, check back this afternoon to see what we’ve been up to all year.
I have now uploaded the photos from the 3 trips that took place in October – the fresher’s day trip, and the two weekend trips to South Wales. There’s a particularly diverse selection this time around, recording all our various exploits – from our crazy caving games (most notably the construction of our multi-story human ‘tower’ at the Whitewalls caving hut), to some spectacular photos of the Helictite formations in Pant Mawr – not to mention lots of pictures of the stunning Welsh countryside…
I would like to thank J, Ushana, and Henry D for taking these photos, and for making them available so that they can be displayed here. I’m very grateful! You can view the photos by visiting the following links:
P.S. Sadly life has (yet again!) got in the way of the maintenance of this website over the last few weeks… There should be plenty of updates soon though – including lots of new photos, and some brand new content sections. Watch this space!
I am happy to announce a lot of new photos have now been added to the site – these were taken during many of our club events over the past year… To access them all, either click on a thumbnail above to go to the relevant gallery, or visit our Photos section. Many thanks to all those who have taken them!
By the way, now that we have moved to a new system, it should hopefully be much quicker to add photos to the site in future, so from now on they should (finally!) be appearing far more frequently…! That’s the plan, anyway…
It seems like an age since any new photos have been put on this site, so I thought it would be an idea to add some of the ones that have been floating around over the past year or so!
Hopefully this will also give any new cavers an idea of the kinds of crazy things we get up to…You have been warned!
Here are the photos that have been added – many thanks to the people who created them:
I’ve just added LOADS of photos from the recent weekend caving trip to South Wales. View them here.
Many thanks to J, Chris and Thomas for making this possible!
The club is going on another trip to the Mendips this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Expect lots of caving, fireworks, fancy dress and alcohol. I’ll look forwards to seeing you all there.
There’s also an upcoming social on Wednesday 7th November at the Student’s Union with a ‘Caveman’ theme – if you need inspiration about what to wear, check out the photos from last year. Meet at the Upin Arms around 8.15, before proceeding to the Union around 9.15. For more info or union tickets, email Helen.
Reading University Caving Club 
