With Tav, Alex and Nick.
Collected empty bags from the surface and set off to dig. Tav and Nick to the end, me in the pot and Alex doing the shuttle again. Just purchased a 28 LED torch for a fiver in a well-known supermarket that I thought might be useful when taking photos. Below is an image from the pot looking up to T Junction along Toil and Trouble.
After an initial speedy turnover of filled bags there was a slowing down, the message came back that solid rock had been reached with a narrow rift about a metre deep and a draughting, although faint. after clearing the loose spoil went up to have a look. A discussion followed the outcome being that we needed to clear all the sediment from around the rift and to assess how the passage might develop, it may be that we resort to a more advanced technology to progress further downwards.
Image above of Nick looking down into the dig, T Junction is about 3 metres behind him.
Image above of the narrow rift looking southwards, the bar is c. 300mm long. What you can’t see are the rounded cobbles coated with black manganese so typical of Mendip cave streams just off the top of the photo.
After the talking was over we made our way back to clear the filled bags from the base of the entrance and empty them out on the surface. It was then time to retire to the Hunter’s, although Tav had to miss the usual refreshments to attend to a plumbing problem at home. Our regular meeting place, the Hunter’s Lodge car park had been, and still was, over-run by caving politico’s attending a CSCC meeting to discuss a load of issues of their own creation!
