Vince was attending the BCRA 30th Cave Science Symposium being at the British Geological Survey, Keyworth followed on the 20th October by a field trip to Creswell Crags. This account of the activities at Hallowe’en Rift on Saturday was provided by Jon:
“The sagest of the elders took a leave of absence and a small turnout was expected. Jon, Duncan, Jake and Nick were preparing to depart when a storm arrived in the form of the hut warden, Paul, back from his sabbatical. At the farm, Mike was a late arrival, turning up after his preferred digging session was cancelled.
The team divided in two, based on the members’ dress sense. Jake was dressed in his pub clothes and Mike was dressed for a dig elsewhere. Nick brought a wetsuit in preparation for his expected position within his lake. The others were suitably dressed for underground activities. I won’t comment on frocks.
Initially, Paul and Nick went to the dig face and between them managed to stack bags and rocks back at the corner. The remainder of the team cleared the spoil from the previous digging session, which had been stacked at the junction. Mike and Jake then moved on to surface wall-building activities, while the others re-organised themselves underground.
Paul now took the lead, supported by Jon, and Duncan cleared the spoil at the corner. As the tide was high, wet-suited Nick gallantly stacked in the lake. Paul concentrated his digging efforts on the left-hand side, up towards the calcite feature. At close of play, this was clearly visible. Loose rocks and gravel were removed. The floor now needs to be lowered. A small entrenching tool or spade may be useful next time, but nothing more technical is needed at present.
Pub time approached and the team moved out to clear the lake of spoil. The water remains! At the dig face there are now a dozen or so bags stacked and ready for removal, along with half as much of rock.
57 bags and 25 loads of rock were removed to the surface before the team retired to a local hostelry for light refreshments.”