14th April 2016: with Nick, Brockers and Dunc.
I had amassed a pile of kit to go underground including 2no. BDH’s filled with cement, drill with assorted bits and hangers, new skip and a 1 ton dumpy bag, all to deal with the sloppy sediment issue. I was glad to see a good team to carry it.
On inspection at the end there wasn’t quite enough space to fix the dumpy bag in the side rift so a rapid rethink of strategy was needed. A wall was constructed in the larger rift, this meant a rearrangement of the rock-pile that was already there, mixing the cement with the sloppy sediment dried it and the mixture used as mortar in the wall, hopefully it will harden.
While this was going on Brockers had been digging away at the end, in a largely solo effort, he then called back ” I can see open passage” the question came, how much? “nearly 10 metres”. I went down to have a look and there was passage beyond although it, initially, didn’t appear too big and there was a lot of spoil in the way. Got to work with the spade, passing the sticky mud back to Brockers, then got to work with the feet pushing the spoil ahead, “he’s like a human bulldozer” Brockers exclaimed. The mud went and I went with it squeezing through into the passage ahead, ‘that’s going to be interesting on the return’ I thought to myself. I had entered c.10 metres of steeply inclined bedding with a vertical drop of c. 5 metres, it was relatively comfortable progress and there were a few formations. There is a continuation at the bottom that will require a bit more digging – encouraging though. After wriggling back up through the squeeze I suggested that someone else should take a look, second opinion and all that. Nick took up the challenge and he too was equally impressed.
Satisfied with our evenings effort we made our way out of the cave and, of course, up to the Hunter’s Lodge Inn.
