After a couple of weeks being distracted by other things, last night saw myself and Chris back at Rowter farm enjoying a pre-beer in the sun. Just the two of us, ideal for what we had planned.
Cave exploring can be dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as walking to the entrance through a field of protective cows. Thankfully for Chris I was there so he could hide behind me during the various stampede episodes.
Always watching....
Once at the shakehole Chris drew the short straw and nipped down to the dig face and loaded all of our gear into the bucket which I hauled out the pipe. Not saying we’re done with that lead for now, but we fancy a change. The draught results from the last trip, whilst partially inconclusive, were still enough to spread sufficient doubt regarding whether the dig simply heads back to the surface. So we figured lets just start again at the surface, but this time at the bottom of the shakehole.
Breaking ground
So we picked a spot and started digging. The first 30 minutes was the worst as we each got thistle and nettled, but eventually we were in good, reliable rock and mud and were making good progress. After about an hour we were a metre deep and probably already deeper than the main cave. Here we started intersecting more classic, brown cave mud instead of the darker, biological mud, but progress was still sound. The occasional black gap between boulders was all we needed to keep spirits high, well that and the beer and tunes.
An hour later we were forced to don a helmet and lamp and decided that was probably as good as any sign to call it a night and head to the Anchor. A short stampede run later we were back at the cars, content with how this new project has gone so far. A few more trips and we should have a clearer picture about whether we are yet again wasting our time or whether this is actually a proper option for us.
