Vince, Nick, and Jon
Arrived early at the farm, got changed, and wandered up to the cave. There were no bags to pack up so added a few stones to the spoil heap extension wall before going underground.
Into Can of Worms to see last weeks progress and, while I was there, decided to remove a large lump of calcite-cemented conglomerate on the southernmost side of the current end “chamber”. This lump was then reduced to smaller pieces. Got to work to define contact between sediment infill and the underlying calcite layer that, in turn, seals accumulated ‘roof-breakdown’ and other material. It was at this point that Nick arrived, accompanied by Jon. I continued digging away using a mattock to loosen the very dry and compact sediment, it’s like ‘concrete!’ I put the mattock down to place the loosened material into bags, Nick could not resist the temptation and picked up the mattock and continued to dig away, I carried on filing bags. Meanwhile Jon hauled away the skip and very tidily stacked the filled bags (and stones) on the ledge. That’s how the morning progressed, two of us digging, Jon hauling away, until all the available bags in the “chamber” had been filled. It was time to clear the cave.
50 bags had been filled, hauled, and emptied plus three skip loads of rock added to the extension wall. A good session by a small team. Time to refresh at the Hunters’ Lodge Inn.