Aquamud Sump November 27/28th
Party:— H .St.Lawrence,
J. Newton, B. Holden, K. Lewis, A. Walsh, V. Unsworth,
(Worm Brigade): P. Whiteside, P.
Jopson.
For some time now club members have given great
thought to the huge potential of passages at the end of Aquamud.
Quite a few trips have been made in the past to investigate the inlet in Newton
Hall & the low bedding crawl at the end. However none of the trips have
resulted in much success. Sometime ago the Ellwood brothers & myself forced
the bedding crawl to a calcite barrier where a continuation could be seen. As
excitement grew, Danny somehow acquired a load of sand in his eyes, in agony he
proceeded to thrash about, which resulted in my light being extinguished. The
trip was abandoned & the way out was quite hair- raising until clean water
was reached.
In July of this year a further party returned. The sump was bailed in record
time & we passed on through the dismal passage to Newton Hall. In the past,
access to the chamber was gained by scaling & then ladder down the other
side. However this is no longer needed as one now crawls under a large block,
part of which being removed by human efforts. The calcite barrier was reached and
Hugh with the aid of a chisel & lump hammer removed this. He gained a tight,
back-breaking, upward squeeze & reported that he could see into a chamber.
The draught was great and at last we thought we’d cracked it.
To our disgust both Hugh & myself found the squeeze much too tight. It was
going to need further persuasion or an extremely thin caver. "Thinks"
: - Fred, My hero! . (That’s not what you
called him, Ed.)
In November we returned once again. Hugh & myself descended on the
Saturday to bale out the sump to save time on the
Sunday. We found conditions much wetter than on previous occasions. Passing the
sump we found a forceful stream flowing, quite a volume of water was entering
through the inlet in the roof of Newton Hall, more than I had ever seen before.
So where is the surface sink, this has not yet been located, although attention
is being given. We built a dam across the passage in the hope of restricting
the flow of water into the sump, then made our way out thinking we’d done a good
job for the next day.
Sunday morning arrived & quite a few
members descended. The party included the worm brigade, just the men we needed
for the squeeze. On arrival at the sump, we found that our previous days work had been to no avail. It had filled up overnight.
Baling the sump with more manpower this time, it wasn't long before Fred & I reached the squeeze. Hugh
& Andrew proceeded to start another
dig in the bedding crawl whore a
stream could be heard. This will need quite a lot of attention before any results are forthcoming. In the meantime the rest of the party were probing in the
inlets in the Skittle Alley area.
Back to
the squeeze, Fred had no trouble
in getting through, the critical measurements being around the chest & hips. Much to my disgust he reported that the chamber had no way out. Both ends were choked with calcited
boulders. Forcing my way through part of the squeeze I confirmed his findings. Chemical persuasion to the boulders may prove interesting, the draught is coming from somewhere. On
the way out we looked at our next line of attack, the inlet in Newton Hall
which we hope will give better
results. We met Jim & Co. at the entrance pitch, they too having had no
luck.
V.Unsworth.