Team: Rob and Jon (TAP)
I was reyt excited about tonight’s trip, feeling pretty confident we’d make new ground. Somehow, it was just TAP again—basically a repeat of last week’s attempt. But with water levels much lower, surely luck would be on our side. After some pre-beers and a bit of Fake Taxi in the car park, we headed straight down a much drier cave and directly to the 1st Reich. It looked unpleasant but was most definitely open—we’re on!
We put our slightly considered plan into action, with me pushing over the dodgy squeeze, turning around, and then Jon and I working together to install the two stemples (designed to prevent you from slipping down and getting wedged). This worked pretty well, though one of the stemples was a bit too long. It had to be installed higher than ideal, making the crossing harder than necessary. After 10 minutes of squirming, this became Jon’s excuse for not joining me at the exciting frontline. Instead, he decided to spend some time widening the squeeze. To be fair, digging here is really a one-person exercise anyway, so not a bad shout.
Two trips ago, Joe had left the dig face with a narrow slot at floor level that was waaaay too tight to pass but had a tantalising view through. He hadn’t realised that, above the slot, the rift was significantly wider and only filled with sediment. My plan tonight was to dig this out and see if I could fit. Feeling optimistic, I got my 360 selfie camera ready to film my one-handed, axe-wielding epicness.
After 10 minutes of hacking, I was through—and instantly surprised. The rift about 4m ahead simply closed up, totally. But a weird slot down in the right-hand wall looked like it dropped into a parallel rift. After five more minutes of digging, this looked passable but seriously committing. At the bottom, I’d have to lie down and squirm forward along this unknown rift. If I couldn’t turn around, reversing up and out of the slot would be totally impossible. With a mix of stupidity and the encouragement of a few followers inside the camera, I gave it a go—500% committed now—and slid down into the unknown.
Once down and into this parallel rift (Brooklands Narrow), the view ahead wasn’t very encouraging. It was indeed very narrow, but at least it continued. I soon managed to get up vertically, which, although more difficult for forward progress, felt a lot less committing. Hopefully, I’d at least be able to turn around if necessary. Helmet off and some bits so tight I had to adjust my breathing—this was pretty hardcore pushing, and of course, excellent for content!
After maybe 10m, the rift finally widened enough to stand properly. Some fine stal in the roof made it almost rewarding, but unfortunately, the way ahead was completely filled with sediment, floor to ceiling. Very strange indeed! Where does the water go? Where does the draught come from? And where is the river we hear during floods? Certainly not here, it seems.
After a final look around, I started heading back to Jon. I was cautiously optimistic about getting back through the slot, and whilst it was quite technical—requiring careful body and leg positioning throughout—it wasn’t too difficult. With sadness, I grabbed the digging tools on my way. Taking tools away from the end feels like failure, yet I reminded myself that we don’t really dig for caves; we dig for answers. And tonight, we quickly grasped an answer that now allows us to look elsewhere with newly found knowledge.
Traversing back over the stemples was a breeze compared to the manoeuvre without them there. Still, it may be that the new way on is actually the dangerous slot below. Maybe that’ll be the next chapter in this Awesome project!