17th December 2011

My turn to be the ‘mud monster’ and soak up all the water, get’s rather cool after a couple of hours. This kit was clean at the start of the session, note the ‘natty’ caving hat.

After a chinwag with the farmer and his son we wandered up to Hallowe’en Rift in bright sunshine but a rather chill wind. The spoil was all cleared last weekend so straight into digging mode, I went to the end of the tube, Alex settled in at the base of Witches Cauldron. Very moist along the tube so decided to load spoil directly into the skip, nice drip into the ear. Continued to work under the rift and pulled out a number of small boulders which is interesting, these boulders appear to be mostly conglomerate although there is some calcite present. Need a slightly bigger bar that will be more effective in working the compacted sediments. Meanwhile, back at the Witches Cauldron, Alex was busying himself by digging out the base of the pot after hearing a trickle of water. Digging was ended when all the stacking space was filled, another clearing session next trip. Retired to the Hunter’s Lodge Inn for a pint and a cheese and pickle roll, in my opinion the greatest hostelry in the land – marvellous!

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist