Part of the attraction of caving for me is pitting myself against nature and these 5 caving trips are amongst the most technically difficult trips I’ve done in my thirty plus years of cave exploration.Completing each trip in the knowledge that I’m one …
The Caving Corset
To celebrate 25 million views of Caver Keith Videos on YouTube I have uploaded a shortened version of one of my most talked about films.The Caving Corset
A DCC Christmas Adventure…..Nothing but Coal in the stockings for those on the naughty list!
After much debate it was decided that The Dudley Christmas trip would be in Agen Allwedd this year. As we had all been such good boys and girls we were fortunate to have none other than Santa himself lead our trip…..or at least that’s what we thought…
Dudley Caving Club 2019-11-17 18:13:00
I entered this short video in the Art Salon at Hidden Earth this year and to my complete amazement I git a prize for the best work produced digitally.And here’s my prize, a hand-crafted statue of a caver made by Ceris Jones.It’s now proudly displayed i…
Wild Wookey Adventure Caving 2019 – It’s not just walking around a bit!
Wild Wookey is a three hour ‘adrenaline-fuelled, high-octane, exhilarating Adventure Caving Experience’ in the largest and most spectacular cave complex in the UK. Hidden deep below the surface of the rolling Mendip Hills, Wild Wookey at Wookey Hole Ca…
Navigating The Deepest Cave In Britain
Some Route Finding and Learning Surveys.Having been with Dudley Caving Club for around 5 or 6 months, and getting plenty of trips under my belt, I recently decided its time for me start learning some of the main cave systems with the hope of starting t…
50K Subscribers
Earlier today I gained the 50,000th subscriber to my YouTube channel at youtube.com/keithedwardscaver. Channels with more than 100,000 subscribers are awarded a silver wall plaque.In January my subscribers went up by 2,448 – my largest monthly rise, if…
A Year in the Life of a Cave Videographer 2018
The traditional annual roundup video from Caver Keith Studios. 2018 was an eventful year in which I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my first upload and had many more views than any other year, but amongst the highs there was one slight disappointmen…
Bolting in OFD Big chamber
After being rocked gently to sleep by the horrid weather Jess and I awoke refreshed and ready to rumble.We were designated Duty officer this morning and so begun gently with a cuppa and taking the hut fees.Once all had paid up we begun the search for t…
Dudley Caving Club 2018-11-29 00:01:00
Shatter photo trip 28th Nov 2018We met up in the priddy good farm shop after the night before having a few pints at the Hunters for the digger awards. There was myself, Tash, Kermit, John and Bev were heading down shatter in fairy quarry, Mark, Jess, P…
Rhino Rift
Continuing our our recent trend of visiting caves new to us we decided on something a little out of the norm for the Mendips with an SRT trip in Rhino rift.Our weekend begun in the Hunters Inn where we met up with Mike, Paulina, Tash and Kay who had sp…
Fenix FD65 Rotary Focusing Flashlight Review
Good caving videos need great lighting. My grateful thanks to MyFenix (www.myfenix.co.uk) for supplying these amazing torches.Thanks also to Mark Burkey, Kayleigh Wood, Bill Nix, Clare Warwick and Graham Fentham for their help and assistance in making …
It was 10 years ago today
10 years ago today that I uploaded my first caving video to my YouTube channel. It now has 130 caving videos and is the most popular caving channel on YouTube.In the first twelve months I had 1.5K views.In the last twelve months I’ve had 9.3M caving vi…
Keith’s Cavers in The Search for the Missing Potholer – Part Three
I guess I could be described as a lifelong learner. I enjoy setting myself challenges, acquiring new skills and working outside my comfort zone. I also take pleasure in problem solving. Making videossatisfies my creative urges, and allows me to experim…
Keith’s Cavers in The Search for the Missing Potholer – Part Two
In part one I wrote about how the idea for Keith’s Cavers was born and how it was key to get the opening credits sequence perfect, but at that stage I didn’t have an idea for the video. It was just like being a kid at school who has spent weeks creatin…
Keith’s Cavers in The Search for the Missing Potholer – Part One
In 2017 at Hidden Earth I won the video salon competition, although the Hidden Earth website still credits my video to ‘The Dudley’. As a winner I was asked if anything needed changing and I requested that the correct credit to be given, but that was o…
The Wild Wookey Experience
Back in June a team from Dudley Caving Club was invited to try out the adventure caving experience in Wookey Hole, Somerset, England. It was brilliant and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute. It is easily the best show cave adventure in the country. My …
A Weekend in Wookey
Back in February Mark and I were invited by Chris Binding to spend a weekend in Wookey Hole to take photos and video. With Mark and Chris jet-setting around the world it wasn’t until last weekend that we could find a mutually convenient date.Chris said…
Caver Keith Videos Four Million Views
21st May 2018 and Caver Keith is celebrating clocking up 4,000,000 caving video views on YouTube, as awell as 20,000 likes 👍, 2,000 dislikes 👎, 13,000 shares and 3,000 subscribers.A huge thanks to all my viewers and an enormous thanks to Brendan, Jess,…
Fenix Lighting The Way
A product review from Caver Keith Videos. We’ve always struggled to get good video in large cave passages so we tried out some 3800 lumen FD65 focusing torches from Fenix. The torches were able to light up some of the largest passages and they are abso…
Caver Keith on the Radio (and TV)
I’m Nearly Famous 3Following on from the Birmingham Mail article and my not so modest success on social media I was invited to appear on the Danny Kelly Show (which was being hosted by Rachel New) on BBC WM 95.6FM to talk about my caving adventure…
Caver Keith Videos on Social Media
I’m Nearly famous 2Back in October I received an email from an intern working for Extreme on Facebook asking if he could use clips from Caving Claustrophobia Kill or Cure.ExtremeI said yes and a shorter edit was uploaded to the Extreme Facebook page on…
Daring cavers delve into UK’s tightest, deepest and darkest spaces – Could you handle it?
I’m nearly famousOn 30th January I got an email from Newsflare who thought they might be able to sell one of my videos – Caver Stuck in The Lobster Pot, Sidcot Swallet. It sold twice, to Right This Minute and MSM. The videos did the rounds of soci…
Best Extreme Caving Video Moments 2017 with Dudley Caving Club
I had uploaded 16 videos to YouTube this year, 17 if you include this one. Six of the videos uploaded this year were filmed in 2016 or earlier but only got edited this year. Another four of the videos are compilations of old clips combined with some ne…
The Story of The World of Caving
Hey Hey We’re The DudleyIt seems that my opening video for Hidden Earth this year was quite well received as I was approached by Andy Eavis during the conference to make an opening video for A Golden Age of Cave Exploration, an event organised to celeb…
The World of Caving
Coming shortly to a computer/tablet/mobile phone screen near you a new film by Caver Keith – ‘The World of Caving’. Release date Monday 4th December 2017 after its premiere at the Royal Geographical Society. Starring members of Dudley Caving Club with …
Alum Pot – A Classic Yorkshire Pothole
Alum Pot is a pothole with a large open 100 metre deep shaft on the eastern flanks of Simon Fell, North Yorkshire.The beck which cascades into it appears quite insignificant and the surface of the shaft is clothed with trees, yet it contains one of the…
2,000,000 Caving Video Views
A huge thank you to anyone that has ever watched a Caver Keith caving video.It is with pride and amazement that I can announce that my YouTube channel now has more than 2 million caving video views
Hey Hey We’re The Dudley
Here we come ab’in’ down a pot.We get the funniest looks, well ever such a lot.Hey Hey We’re The Dudley,And people say we’re not quite sound,But we’re too busy caving to put anybody down.(Theme from) The Dudley
Hidden Earth 2017
Hidden Earth is the name for the British Cave Research Association’s (BCRA’s) annual caving conference and Dudley Caving Club had some modest success in competitions at the conference last weekend.
Mark Burkey won several photo categories. Well he would, wouldn’t he!
Jess Burkey won the caving cartoon competition.
Keith Edwards’s Hidden Earth opening video won in the video salon. Oh and he also got a prize for the best artwork produced digitally.
And finally Mark Burkey was presented with the prestigious Giles Baker Award which is given to a person connected with any aspect of cave photography in recognition of his or her excellence and contributions to the field. Incidentally Mark is the second Dudley member to receive this award. Brendan Marris was awarded it in 2011.
Hidden Earth 2017 Opening Video
Pwll Dwfn
I got up on the 17th Sept expecting it to be raining due to the fact it had been forecast to rain so it was a pleasant surprise when it was just overcast, but even so i put on my waterproof hi-vis jacket and trousers and loaded my motorbike ready for the 3 hr ride to South Wales Caving Club.
Phil gets a little hotter in Otter
Phil requested a trip in to the stunning Otter Hole a while back and so a trip was booked. The team would comprise of Jess, myself, Phil, Mike & Kay. We met our leader, Adrian at the car park at 7.15am kitted and ready to go. Jess had sent out a co…
Alum Pot……a Sunday trip?
After a good nights sleep we headed to Inglesport for a full breakfast to start the day and also to pick up some 60m of club rope.I had chosen a real classic for the day’s play, Alum Pot.
A rather wet Swinsto Pull Through Trip
With only Kay and I available for this weekend away I decided to head up to Yorkshire to introduce Kay to a couple of the Yorkshire classics.As it was to be just the two of us we had a leisurely 9am start and arrived in Kingsdale at just before noon …
Photography beyond the sumps……gotta get there first!
What have the CDG let themselves in for! |
Rocking the look! |
Apeks Kit Talk |
All dressed up and nowhere to go! |
Feedback time |
A days photographic play in St Cuthberts Swallet
Mr Marris has been absent for a while having moved a little further afield so we were chuffed to have him on a photographic trip in to St. Cuthberts hole this weekend.Martin Grass was to take us in and a couple of trainee leaders (Luke and Ollie) would…
The Top Five Things I Learned While Going Caving With the Dudley Caving Club by Sarah Lotz
I did get to smell what the air ‘really’ smells like. That and much, much more.
The trip wasn’t easy, but it was bloody brilliant. And I got the inspiration for half a novel out of it (the other bit is set on a mountain), even if I did get some of the caving terminology wrong.
Sarah and Charlie the start of their adventure |
1) A sense of humour helps
And you have to have one to take a neurotic writer and her gung-ho husband under the earth for five hours. It was a big ask, especially as I had zero caving or climbing experience (I have a condition commonly known as laziness), and Charlie is at the other end of the scale – he has no fear.
Keith, Brendan and Mark told us exactly what to bring, were endlessly patient, and at no point, not once, did they ever lose their cool. Brendan even took a photograph of us balancing on a pipe on top of a churning pool, which took a great deal of setting up and generosity.
They are exactly the kind of people I would want by my side in a zombie apocalypse. And they’re also what my brother would call ‘as funny as fuck.’
Sarah negotiating the Letterbox |
2) Claustrophobia was the least of my worries
In one of Keith’s Cwm Dwr videos there’s a moment where Mark gets stuck in a pipe (I can’t tell you exactly where on the vid it is – I have only managed to watch it once). Those few seconds of footage made The Descent look like Bambi and gave me nightmares. This trepidation was fuelled by Capetonian friends who, on learning I was going down a big hole, all had horror stories about people getting stuck in the notorious Cango Caves, trapped in a funnel for hours with nothing to look at except an American tourist’s giant arse.
But when I was actually underground, the squeeze bits were my favourite – I loved every second of corkscrewing our way through a boulder choke and scrabbling along a squeeze the height of a microwave. And I didn’t experience one second of claustrophobia. I put this down to the head-lamps, which were far brighter than I expected, and the fact I was being shepherded by the best in the business.
I’ll put my hands up and say that I fudged this in the book and made it a thousand times scarier than it actually is. (I’m a horror writer – if I don’t tap into people’s fears then I’ve failed). But I have told everyone I’ve met since writing the novel that claustrophobia really isn’t an issue and was the least of my worries.
And when I say it was the least of my worries, see below.
Sarah on the Diver’s pitch |
Sarah said it was more frightening than being held up by four armed men and being attacked by lions |
3) Screaming doesn’t help
There was one point (shortly after we were posted through the letterbox) where I had to be winched over and down what looked to me to be a bloody great sheer cliff (and what everyone else termed a ‘small ledge’). I did have a bit of a cry on the way down (especially when I realised Keith was filming me). Keith, Brendan and Mark lowered me down inch by inch, never once losing patience or calling me out for being pathetic. Charlie showed me up and crawled down there like a monkey.
I did things on that trip I never thought I would do: reaching for a chain and dangling backwards over the unforgiving stone floor; being shoved up a slippery pipe; being hauled across the yawning maw of a plummeting ravine (more a crevice, but still). And although I couldn’t have been further out of my comfort zone (and admittedly had a bit of a meltdown) I never once felt unsafe.
An expression of pure enjoyment |
4) Leave it to the experts
At one stage I remember looking up and seeing Mark scooting up a rock face like Spiderman, and then peering down at us from what seemed to be a huge height. I still have no clue how he got up there.
Charlie practically had to be held back bodily from having a go at this. As Keith had just explained to me in detail how difficult it was to get an injured person out of a cave (and we’d passed a crevice in which a young woman had been trapped for hours), we wisely dissuaded him.
Glad to be out |
5) Sometimes you can depend on the kindness of strangers
But most importantly, that the people who make up the caving community are generous, funny and pretty much unshakable.
Keith, Mark and Brendan have a cameo in the book as the rescuers who show up and risk their lives to pluck Simon out of his fictional cave when he runs into trouble (inspired by Keith telling me that only cavers can rescue cavers). I thought this was fitting, as I could picture them doing that.
Thank you, Dudley Caving Club. The novel couldn’t have been written without you.
You all rock (no pun intended)
A Short Video from the Trip
The Book
A North Wales Mine Exploration Weekend
With Dudley Caving Club it’s not just about underground exploration, our weekends away are packed with subterranean shenanigans and other fun activities like eating ice cream, walking along a seaside pier, geocaching and hanging about in karaoke bars.M…
A trip to the airlock in Tunnel Top
After a much better nights sleep we chose Tunnel Top Entrance for our relaxing Sunday trip. I had done this years ago with Andy G & all I could remember of the trip was that navigation wasn’t always straight forward and that it was quite physical.W…
A trip to The Far North. Dan Yr Ogof
Kay and I headed down the SWCC on the Friday to get a decent nights sleep before our big trip on the Saturday. Unfortunately Plymouth Uni had other plans and were outside partying till 4.30am, at which time they decided a spot of naked caving was on th…
Day 3 Hendre Spa Mine
For the last day of the club meet Ex member Heather Simpson kindly offered to lead us on a trip in to Hendre Spa Mine.
Day 2…. The Great Orme Mine
Day 2’s adventure would be a led trip in to the Great Orme Mine.
Eastwater Cavern & The 13 Pots
For Sunday we had been slated to lead a trip in the fairy quarry, but as most of the gang were rather either hung over, heading in for the short round trip or off to do some family caving in Burrington, Jess and I took a day off to play with the camera…
Duck Hunting In Upper Flood Swallet.
Dudley members were invited to attend the first ‘Cave Fest’ event being held in the mendips with Jess, myself and Loz signing up.Jess and I headed down on the Friday evening. Loz had put her name down for a trip in to St Cuthberts on the Saturday but f…
3rd Time Lucky, An OFD Through Trip
For Ollie’s 3rd ever caving trip he was keen to try something a little more ambitions I suggested a through trip and told them to decide which one.As Kay and Ollie discussed which through trip to do, Clive Westlake wandered over and introduced us to a …
A Run Around Top….More Like A Marathon!
Ollie’s first outing last week to Bagshawe Cavern hadn’t put him off and he turned up on Thursday evening keen for more and so a weekend at South Wales was arranged to try and beat the enthusiasm out of him!We stopped off for the usual breakfast to sta…
Dudley Peaks Weekend: Peak Cavern to Titan….and back!
As Jess and I had to work on the Saturday we arranged to meet the gang in Castleton early evening for a meal.The others had been in Bagshawe Cavern earlier that day with a good turn out of: Ian, Mike, Lucy, Kay and our latest recruit Ollie.For a surpri…
Behind the locked doors of Bagshawe Cavern
Highlights of the Caving Year 2016
Dudley Caving Club 2016 Round Up. What another eventful year it has been. Join us on our underground adventures.Photos: Brendan Marris and Mark BurkeyVideo: Keith Edwards
Potholing – Where Big Men Get Into Small Holes
The Dudley visit Eldon Hole in Derbyshire. With apologies to the Fast Show circa 1993 from which we stole the script, to the Buttered Badger Potholing Club, and to women cavers who everyone knows are equal to or if not better than their male counterparts.
This is a work of fiction and the Buttered Badgers mentioned bear no relationship to the actual Buttered Badgers. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s fevered imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The video was taken on 13th November 2016.
Lionel’s Hole
This was on the list of caves for our pre-Christmas trip on 10th December but after messing about in Goatchurch (see Caver Keith Goes In Search of the Real Santa Claus) and Sidcot Swallet (see Caver Stuck in the Lobster Pot) we ran out of time.I’d done…
Withyhill Cave
On 1st November 2015 Dudley Caving Club members Phil, Ian, Brendan, Mark and myself set off for the Mendips to visit Fairy Quarry to explore Fernhill and Withyhill Caves. We explored Fernhill Cave but never got to see Withyhill. In fact I didn’t get home until 18 days later and didn’t see the inside of a cave for another 6 months. Last year I got to do Withyhill twice (15th May & 27th November) and managed to take some video. It’s a bit rubbish but the cave is fantastically decorated and hopefully the video gives a flavour of its beauty.
Caver Keith Caving Videos 2016
It has been a very successful year (2016) for my caving videos.My 1st caving video was of Eldon Hole in 1990. Recorded on VHS.My YouTube channel was created on 9th October 2008.My 1st YouTube video was of Ogof Pasg and Ogof Foel Fawr using a …
Caver Stuck in the Lobster Pot, Sidcot Swallet
We all have bad days, days where nothing seems to go right, days when things that are usually easy such as a particular obstacle in a cave become next to impossible. These incidents always provide great amusement for the spectators and over the years t…
The Dudley, Caving and Cakes – The Box Set
As the Yuletide offerings on TV are a little disappointing this year I thought I’d treat my fans and upload the full series in one easy to watch package complete with the added bonus of outtakes (or should it be outcakes?). So why not sit back, relax a…
The White Road
Release date: 4th May 2017Adrenaline-junky Simon Newman sneaks onto private land to explore a dangerous cave in Wales with a strange man he’s met online. But Simon gets more than he bargained for when the expedition goes horribly wrong. Simon emerges, …
Caver Keith Goes In Search of the Real Santa Claus
X Certificate RatingWARNING: This video contains highly disturbing images and should NOT be watched by children or anyone of a nervous disposition.Before his big day Santa has to practice coming down chimneys. Recently The Dudley embarked on a highly c…
The Dudley, Caving and Cakes – Episode 5
The 5th and final episode. Watch to find out who never makes it out of the cave and who has eaten all of the cakes.
The Dudley, Caving and Cakes – Episode 4
Here is part 4 of Dudley Caving Club’s five-part subterranean serial. Last week we left Kayleigh battered, bruised and broken.Is there anything cake can’t do?
The Dudley, Caving and Cakes – Episode 3
How is Chunky going to get out of last weeks predicament? Who’s going to end up in trouble this week? Watch episode 3 to find out.