20 December 2003

Just Doug and Mick today, the cave is dripping wet, the little pools at the head of the Wise Crack Pitch have returned.  We descend to the October Chamber and start to dig but there was no draught at all this time.  After one and a half hours, we didn’t like the look of the water issuing from the choke, so we left it and then reverted to excavating in the aven above FRI.  We have made over a metre of tunnel here.

01 January 2004

In Biff’s living room, while recuperating from our New Year’s Party, Doug came up with a suggestion, that we excavate new ground, upslope, in Fools Rush in.  This he said, “Should connect with our original Carcass Shaft, enabling spoil removal right out of the cave and maybe improve air flow down the bottom”.  We agreed to give Doug’s idea a six month trial.

10 January 2004

Just Biff and Mick in the minibus from Bracknell.  Doug and Bill were already waiting for us.  We spend most of the day clearing the upslope of Fools Rush In and dragging drums up Pneumatic Squeeze and right out of the cave: this was very hard work.  About three o’clock, while perched at the top of the Carcass Shaft, Biff and I could hear Doug and Bill banging through the cave wall, so we were in the right place. By the evening we had broken through.  We now have a through trip but more importantly, spoil can be hauled out of the cave via this new exit.  Well; once we make the hole much larger!

06 February 2004

Hugh, Elaine and Doug have gone up for the evening and set off a few snappers successfully opening up the new exit.

10 February 2004

Biff, Duncan Harbour and Mick in the minibus with lots of gear.  Doug was waiting for us; firstly Doug and Mick took up two seven metre scaffold poles, Duncan pushes a fully laden wheelbarrow up the hill (I don’t know how he managed that); Biff fought his way up the hill with the newly modified self-drive compressor chassis. Then back down the hill, get changed and drag even more stuff up that hill. Biff used his newly acquired, pneumatic, rotary, scaffold pole, sized drill to bore holes in the rock face to insert a short lengths of pole. Then a couple of scaffold planks from the original miner’s entrance were laid over the poles making a walkway to the new exit from Carcass.  This is our temporary work platform.  We then hung a pulley from the old blue farm rope, suspended between two ash trees.  Duncan then tied the hauling rope to his belt and charged down the hill dragging the big drum up the Carcass shaft.  Success; our new system works. Doug has started to build a new drystone wall to neatly retain our digging spoil. Today we got a ton of rocks right out of the cave in one operation.

18 March 2004

Hugh, Elaine and Doug have set off a couple more snappers for us enlarging the new exit.

20 March 2004

Martyn Bisby, Biff and Mick, in the minibus down to Axbridge were met by Bill.  Took up the new big drill, small drill, petrol disc cutter and compressor.  Rigged up a large builder’s pulley on the blue rope, then all the loose rocks were hauled up and stacked for Doug by the wall. The new Fools Rush In exit is nearly four feet high and two feet wide.  We think it will be possible to make a straight run down into the cave.  Today we have spent loosening the floor and getting everything we dig, out of the cave via the new exit in one go.  We have put some scaffolding in the shaft to make it safer. Doug got to us at six o’clock, we left at seven.

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