15th June 2013

With Alex, Tav, Jake and a visitor from Australia – Ray Deacy. As usual we all met at the Belfry; fair play to Ray arriving on a girls bicycle having pedaled from Bristol to get a trip into Hallowe’en, all aboard the Bongo and down to the farm.

At Hallowe’en I gave Ray a quick guide to the east extensions before we slid along Toil and Trouble to dig. I went along to the left hand rift while Ray settled into the snug T junction, Tav was in the pot, Alex shuttling along the approach passage from Stal Bend to the entrance, whilst Jake was on the surface hauling and walling. It wasn’t too long before Tav, having recently turned 50 and becoming grumpy with it, was getting rather snowed under with spoil, it didn’t help when the hauling rope detached from the skip a couple of times, a change of plan was required. With the ample space we have created at the dig face I decided to fill the bags at the end which seemed to work alright and the grumpy old git was appeased and we continued to dig until all the bags were filled and it was time to go to the pub. Emerged to find a rather damp looking Jake who, unfortunately had to endure some monsoon conditions, admittedly there was quite a strong drip of water coming down the entrance as I climbed out.

Tav had purchased a new lock at a car boot sale and has the advantage of having more than one key, the old one has now been replaced.

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist