18th September

With Jake, Brockers, Jon, Tav Nick, and Duncan.

Another fine turn-out, the more the merrier!

Me and Jake were down in the deep Soft South to start the days proceedings, Duncan was on the edge, Brockers and Tav cleared the spoil along to the bottom of the entrance, Nick and Jon hauling the bags and rocks out of the cave and redistributing it onto the ever-burgeoning spoil heap.

Down in the pot, a decision had been made to remove a considerable quantity of fractured calcite and rock from the wall of the pot prior to further downward progression. And the area of interest that appeared last weekend was below it too. Jake got to work with the bar, I was putting the loose material into bags and hauling away. Then lots of stuff came crashing down so I got out of the way, the end product was a large pile of debris. Bags were filled and hauled away, along with smaller skip-size rocks, the larger boulders put aside to be attended to at a later date (probably an early start for me next weekend armed with a drill and plugs & feathers).

Duncan on the ‘edge’

By lunchtime most of the debris had been disposed of, and we needed a break.

The afternoon session, Brockers and Duncan headed off into the deep Soft South, Tav took position on the ledge to catch the bucket, Kick and Jon were hauling the skips, me and Jake were on the surface. Bags came out of the cave at a steady rate, were emptied and hung-up on the line(s) to air-dry, most of the rocks that appeared were added to the terrace wall. It was warm work. Some of the bags are beginning to look worse for wear and were assigned to the recycling pile.

It was another good productive session, apparently there is a very large boulder awaiting reduction in size, and photos/video clips were taken by Brockers (using my camera) to be edited later.

In the deep Soft South, essential stabilisation works as directed by our Health & Safety Advisor [rough cut]

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist