Vince, Jake, Jon, Nick, and Tav
Went up to the cave early to add the rocks hauled out last weekend to the wall and a bit of levelling-up to create a bit more dumping space. There were not as many rocks as I had thought and soon ran out. Nothing for it but to head underground. Bundled up a pack of bags (x20) and headed off to the far NE extent. There I spent the next couple of hours or so loosening sediment and filling bags, prised a few rocks loose too. Cleaned around the ‘wobbly’ stal which is actually wobblier than expected – definitely requires some attention to secure it in place. On closer inspection, it is an interesting stalagmite in that it is a record of several growth phases (interglacials?). Need to get a good photographic record of it still in situ. The filled bags and rocks were regularly cleared away by the support team (Nick and Tav), Jake was digging in a Can of Worms with Jon in attendance there. Currently the progress in CoW is slower as digging is rather constricted – compact sediment overlies calcite flowstone.
All too soon it was time to stop digging and head towards the surface to empty the bags (and add more rocks to the wall). Jon had carefully carried the filled bags to the spoil dump and had arranged in piles of ten for ease of counting. Unfortunately, this well laid out plan fell apart when the rest of the team acted in an ad hoc fashion and the count reverted to the bags actually hung up. Eventually, a figure of about 70 bags was arrived at plus some skip loads of rock. Satisfied with the outcome we decided to go to the pub.
