15/05/2025
Team: Joe, Jon & Chris
Following a trip into the Merlins 2 days prior Katie Eavis had reported that…
‘On the way out whilst crawling past the connection crawl to Gimli's dream/ through to Carlswark a microwaved sized boulder fell out of the roof and landed on one of our group. With some wriggling and assistance from the person behind we managed to get the rock off the caver.
However it was now blocking the crawl for the 4 people behind!
The only way to get past it was to drop the offending rock into the low crawl through to Gimli's dream, and it is still there.
It may be possible to wriggle it out of the hole, and back to the base of the climb or a couple of caps would make the problem more manageable.
So for now the way to the Merlins streamway is passable (keep an eye on the roof though!) however the way to Gimli's dream/ the Carlswark connection is blocked.
After getting passed the fallen boulder I had a reasonable look at the remaining roof, and in my opinion, it looks ok - this rock moving doesn't seem to have de-stabilised the surrounding rocks - however keep a close eye on if passing that way!’
Enter Team Awesome!!
Jon, Joe and I met in the Flower Pot layby at 6:15 with the plan to rectify the boulder issue then explore the upstream sumps at the end of Merlins. A quick fashion parade from Joe showing off his new furry suit and pre beers had us right in the mood and after kitting up and sorting the capping gear we were off.
Joe's new duck furry - Photo by Jon P
The route down to the connection was straight forward with Joe leading the way, he was soon into the thick of it trying to kick the large boulder out of the roof with great determination. After a couple of minutes and with some convincing from Jon and myself Joe admitted defeat and decided it needed capping. It really was a stubborn boulder taking 5-6 double caps to obliterate it into manageable chunks. Some of these were still rather sizeable and the electron ladder we bought had to be used to haul them out.
Now with only 4 caps left Joe had to take care of the rock that had previously fallen into the Crawl to Gimli’s Dream. Fingers crossed he could break it up enough to get it out as TA don’t do failure and a return trip would defo get some criticism from the rest of the gang. Joe drilled the hole set the caps and with a couple of whacks of the capping bar….. ‘one bombed it’!! “It was a good Job I put 3 caps in” Joe chirped up.
With the way on clear and impending doom removed from the roof we could now go and have some fun. The period of dry weather allowed us to pass sumps 1 – 4 and allowed us to explore some incredible passage in between, if felt very much like Carlswark in places and the shell-bed and formations were fantastic. We had a mooch up some small side passages which lead to nowhere, Joe tried to post himself up an extremely tight rift off to the left after sump 3, which looked to open up above, this turned out to be too tight and he retreated. Maybe a return with some caps could allow him to get through. We finally reached Sump 5 which Jon informed us was quite low but was not free diveable, so we turned back and took the opportunity to get some photos of the passage in between the Sumps (photo’s to follow).
Photogay done, if was time for the pub and with the route clear it didn’t take long to get out, even though I did have a bit of a wobble at the top of the climb up on the way out and had to be coaxed over the rift by Joe.
It’s always nice exiting in the warmer months and makes getting changed much more pleasant. Post beers and snacks (including the last bag of out of date display pork scratchings) were enjoyed by all in the Moon Inn.
