Report by Vince.
Vince, Jake, Jon, Nick and Duncan. Duncan had recruited some guest diggers from the North, Adele Ward and Lee Smith.
Initially, a trip to assess the water level in the dig as it has been raining quite a lot. I had my camera and UV light to take some fluorescence images, just in case. The flow of water in the cave was noticeable, the cascade was especially active.
At the dig, rather surprisingly the water appeared to have receded [slightly]. There had, of course, been some slumping, mostly clay/silt/sand but some boulders too. We decided that, as we were there anyway, we should clear some of the slumped material, and there was enough of us to get the buckets away.
There was an intriguing trickle of water coming down from the roof, this appears to have been the cause of the slumping. A cluster of fractured, loose rock was poked and became dislodged. A bar pushed into the wet, softer allowed an increased flow of water. Pushing the bar in further indicated there was some open space beyond. Some more poking resulted in more slumping, quite a lot of splashing and more space was revealed. It was getting exciting. The ladder was called for to make digging a bit easier, rather than being at arm’s length, and to remove a couple of obstinate boulders. Ladder in place the offending rocks were eventually prised free, more splashing and access into space beyond was opening. It looked enticing and there was fresh air movement too. Managed to wriggle up into the small “chamber”, sticky clay floor, some pools of water, the source of the trickle, but not quite enough space to see the full extent of what lies ahead. More digging required. Nick and Adele had a look too. Time had moved on quickly as it does when you’re enjoying yourselves, there were calls of “pub-time” from other team members, so we left it at that for tonight. Moved the tools and buckets to a safer location and departed. A very good and fun evening.
Didn’t get around to taking any photographs.
