Vince, Brockers, Jon, Jake, Nick, and Tav
Walked up to the cave with Brockers who had also arrived early at the farm. We occupied ourselves with bundling up the dry bays until the rest of the team arrived.
It was good to get underground, much cooler. In CoW, Jon digging, I was clearing the filled bags and rocks. The spoil was hauled away by Jake positioned on the ledge, a spot once occupied by Nick, but he had slipped away, down into the pot to resume the ‘tidying’ project. Tav was at the bottom of the entrance. Brockers was up on the surface where the temperature was rising steadily – the current ‘heatwave’ continues (temps. consistently >30 degs C.)
In CoW, going ‘south’ under the calcite flowstone, progress is slower – very compact (and drying) purplish-red, with pale greenish-grey streaks/lens, silt and clay (reminiscent of ‘Keuper’ and ‘Tea-green’ marl, weathered Mercia Mudstone ?) The silt and clay interspersed with blocks of calcite and conglomerate. Meanwhile, down in the pot, Nick is busily removing anything that looks like ‘fill’ and maintaining a steady flow of spoil out of the cave to the surface. The application of induced rapid speleogenesis will benefit both dig sites and a plan has been put into action.
At the end of the session, 80 bags filled, hauled, and emptied plus about 15 skip-loads of rock for the wall pile – a sterling solo effort by Brockers on the surface.
Time for some refreshments at the Hunters’ Lodge Inn.