Team: Chris Hibberts & Rob Eavis
A few weeks had now passed since the last trip into the Far-left series of LWS swallet where a team had been in to open up the 3 squeezes that lead to the rift at the end. Tonight’s plan was to cap and dig the mud filled rift at the far end of the far left.
I picked Rob up on route to save taking 2 cars and after Pre caving Beers, accompanied by Mr Porky’s scratchings and nuts, we kitted up. Whilst discussing durability that modern caving suits seem to lack, Rob noticed, much to his amusement, that in the rush of getting his caving gear ready he had in fact picked up Katie’s over suit. Undeterred by Rob’s new fetish for cross dressing we head over to the entrance.
Beer and MrPorky's - By R. Eavis
It was turning out to be quite a leisurely affair as we made our way through the now very familiar parts of the cave. We stopped at the crawl that leads to the pitch head at the top of Brooklands to reminisce over the various trips that had made significant breakthroughs. It really was a team effort to get to where we had.
Chris H Brooklands Pitch - By R. Eavis
Down the pitch we ditched our SRT kits and made the climb up to what used to be the tight squeezes into the rift in the far-left series. After a short toilet break, we made our way to the end of the rift which was full of mud. At the bottom of the mud filled rift there is a hole which you can see on around 5m and down around 2m, down just gets way too tight. So, the plan was to use the newly acquired shovel to removed enough of the mud higher up, where it was much wider, to obtain a better view through the gap to see if the way on higher up opens up.
Chris 'the piss' Hibberts - By R. Eavis
Removal of the mud turned out to be quite easy at first, and after pushing some of the spoil forward through the gap at the bottom it just disappeared down the rift falling quite a considerable way. Rob commented that this was now like no digging that he had- done before, it was digging without having to worry about what you did with the spoil. Just the kind of dig TA are down for. Although the mud was coming out easily it was now body position that was causing an issue, and we had to keep taking mud out above. In essence we were now creating a coffin level through mud, the shovel marks on the rock looking like t’owd man pick marks.
Far left's new Coffin level - By R.Eavis
We took digging in turns of 5-10 minute stints, alternating the attack from the left side to the right side and after around 1hr we had made quite considerable progress of around 2m into the rift. Exiting the dig was getting a little tricky as some of the spoil had now turned into a thick gloop which tried to remove your wellies the second you stood in it. The top of the dig was getting wider, but the goal was to get the hole at the bottom opened up. With another 30 mins of digging Rob, lay down at the floor of the dig, finally managed to get far enough forward to get some of the mud to fall. Helmet off he managed to squeeze his head through….. “Oh No It doesn’t look good”. These were not the words I wanted to hear.
After looking through the gap, down just got tighter and tighter, forward looked like it hit a mud wall, and up was just full of mud. Looks like this is the end of the digging and the end of the road for the far-left. At this point we could both hear the faint calling of the Mechanics and decided it was time to exit and quench our thirst for beer. Rob had also now coined a new TA saying..."We know when to fucking give up...."
The end at the end - By R. Eavis
Such a shame that this cave looks like it’s not going to give up the miles of master cave that should be lurking below, it now looks like the only glimmer of hope is to carry on the arduous work of capping the floor in the Narrows in the far right….