With Duncan, Brockers, Jon, Nick and Tav
I had to collect some supplies at 09:00 and then met the team at
the Hunter’s 10:00. From there we drove down to the farm. I stayed behind for a
while at the farm to prep things, the others got changed and made their way up
to the cave to get digging underway, they carried some of my stuff up to the
cave with them. When I had thing sorted I made my way up to Hallowe’en Rift to
join the others.
The digging team had decided to dig in the Soft South, I picked up
my bags and other gear and headed to the Cold Gnarly North. My plan was to
apply some induced rapid speleogenesis and enlarge the next pinch-point and so
ease progress towards our objective. The puddle wasn’t quite as dry as had been
predicted and there was still some slurry in places, nothing to worry about too
much. Dragged the kit through the constriction and drilled 4no. holes, 12mm
dia. x 550mm length. There wasn’t any sediment around suitable for tamp so
decided to make my way up to the terminal [at
least for now] aven. Looking around I found a ‘ball’ of mud, Trevor’s ‘ball
of tamp’. I returned to the focus of today and completed the next phase, and
then, pushing all my kit ahead, made my way south, unravelling the wire as I went.
The digging team were just finishing up, 100 bags and a rock, the
tally for this session. When all were out of the cave, the proceedings were
brought to a satisfactory end. The cave entrance secured, we made our way back
down to the farm in the warm sunshine, got changed and up to the Hunter’s for refreshments.
Some of the afternoon was spent cleaning kit.