12th July 2014

With Nick, Tav and Alex.

Nick and I headed along to the current dig, with Tav in Witches Cauldron and Alex hauling and shuttling the bags to the base of the entrance. At last the cave is almost dry so no need for the plastic oversuit just cotton overalls for me. I took the first digging shift and concentrated on making it a bit wider, swapping with Nick after a while. The west wall comprises blocks of flowstone, some quite degraded, and the occasional boulder of dolomitic conglomerate in a very dense matrix of finer sediment of reddish-brown sandy silt, although there are pockets/bands of yellow sand lower down in the exposure. Forwards, in a ~northerly direction, a small airspace can be seen and some of the air movement emanates from this. The plan, at the present, is to dig on downwards and forwards (north) and see how things develop. The digging is just too easy at the moment and the bags are quickly filled, however, we left the digging to clear out the bags and rocks to the surface. It was warm on the surface hauling the bags and, once again the flies were a nuisance. The bags were soon emptied and it was time to make our way off the hill and head for the Hunter’s, kit not quite so caked in mud today and too dry for sliding in the grass.

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist