Post date: Jun 3, 2011 9:00:12 PM

Friday afternoon, 3 June

Cavers: SteveBus, Al

Time: 3 hours, or so

With Steve out of work early on Friday afternoon, and suspecting that Black Burn cave might still be too wet, it seemed like a good time to go back to Ardclinis Pot, to push into the open passage discovered by Aileen (just before she got stuck in said open passage).

It was a scorching afternoon as we hiked up the ard clon easa, the height of the sloping waterfall. Sloping waterfalls there are in plenty, all still dry and a little less greasy than last weekend. Soon the pitches were dropped, and after dekitting from SRT we started digging at the entrance to the wet continuation. This is a small slot down a rubble slope. We made it less steep and so possible to drag the kibble up. Steve started down the wet continuation, in reverse, filling the kibble as he went, which i then dumped below the pitch. A large, iridescent purple beetle was engaged in futilely climbing the pitch. Soon Steve had cleared out the rubble we'd stacked in the wider part of the continuation, i slid down the slope and we started working back along the passage, Steve digging and filling while i dragged the kibble back, eventually having to crawl back and forwards as the rope was too short to pull the tray up and down the whole passage. A few frustratingly large boulders interrupted the otherwise smooth progress. Eventually Steve reached the corner, and after a bit more excavating reversed around it and down almost to the next corner. This passage was painstakingly deepened too, then came a period in which i lay in the car wash, getting wet, while Steve lay in some mud, getting wet, and hammering chert from around his (*ahem*) (you read it here first). This was understandingly a delicate operation, but successfully accomplished without significant damage.

And then...........................................................

........................................time was getting on, we were getting a bit frustrated by the short tray-tugging rope, so Steve filled a final kibble and we crawled back out.

44 hours later - Once More Into The Breech [sic]

Sunday afternoon, 5 June

Cavers: Steve Bus, Steve Muh, Jock, Al

Time: 3.5 hours

A very wet Sunday evidently appealed to Steve Bus and he woke me after 10am with the good news that we were going back to Ardclinis. Although i'd been woken at 5am by torrential rain, i was feeling fairly excited about caving again, but that excitement diminished as the rain increased on the trip up to Ardclinis. We parked in a downpour, and sat, waiting for Jock and drier weather. Bus checked the forecast - heavy rain was predicted until Monday, and judging by the clagged-in headlands and hilltops it was fairly accurate. But after half an hour of mutterings about plan B's and suchlike, the rain suddenly stopped (at least turned to drizzle). We jumped out the car, into caving kit and yomped up the hill, expecting to find the burn in spate and the climbs either interesting or impassable.

The climbs were still dry, but greasy. We left a big sling on the tree trunk at the top of the second climb for Jock, and soon entered the cave. We'd left the pitches rigged since Friday so we were all soon at the bottom, and pulling balaclavas and hoods on for the digging.

I went in head-first first, expecting to do 20 minutes or so of chert-bashing at the start of the Labour Ward Squeeze. Muh reversed in behind me, and then Bus. While Muh and Bus worked on the Squeeze Between The Bends, i started breaking as much rock as possible, soon building up a prickly bed of chert beneath me. Muh and Bus promised the kibble once they'd finished digging out the squeeze. I waited, hammered a bit more chert, waited, felt increasing amounts of water come through the roof, hammered chert, got a bit wetter, hammered some more chert, and still the kibble didn't appear. Jock arrived, and i could hear him and Bus having a pleasant conversation up the passage while Muh and i reclined in the wet. I threw the broken chert up above the chert bridge to give more room. Moving back to the corner, i thought i could dig in the floor to create a turning spot. This revealed a small hole in the right hand wall, which then took the small stream from the floor. After a bit more engineering i got all the water into it, and made the passage a little drier.

The Labour Ward Squeeze was very muddy, and although i'd removed much of the Aileen-trapping chert from the beginning of the squeeze, there was still not anywhere near enough clearance to pass through without sliding in the wet mud (50/50 mud and water). I had a bright idea of channelling the mud down into the new sink. I started pushing mud and gravel left and right, then Muh helped at the corner, and eventually a little bit of mud streamed out of the squeeze. The kibble appeared and Muh began loading it, but with such a distance to drag and not enough rope it had to man-handled by Bus and Jock all the way the pitch-foot where it could dumped. A kibble took about 10 minutes to empty and return.

I became so bored that the muddy squeeze actually looked better and better. Eventually i went for it, forcing myself between the mud and the ceiling. It opened up (a relative term) ahead. My suit stuck badly in the mud but eventually i made it through the body-length squeeze, and into slightly higher and wider passage. In front the passage continued, flat out over clean-washed cobbles, with a lot of water pouring in the roof. To the right a smaller passage branched off at 90 degrees, a body-sized tube, floored with thick deposits of muddy gravel but with a clean-washed limestone roof, and from whence came a decent sound of a stream. Neither option obviously opened up, though my immediate problem was how to extract myself. I didn't fancy reverse-squeezing, so started engineering a turning space. Muh went to work on digging the passage before the squeeze. By rolling cobbles and boulders to the left and throwing them forward, and scraping gravel and mud i deepened the passage a little at the junction (now it was just possible to turn over in it). I could also start moving forward, into the drippy passage, again rolling rocks forward. Then i reversed into the right-hand branch. Continuing to back up my legs dropped over a short step about a half body-length in (a moment of excitement that i'd reached another pitch), onto more mud and then the passage felt like it closed down - but there must be some space between the mud and roof, to take the water and emit the sound.

I returned to the junction, and chatted with Muh, while lying in a muddy pool. He was continuing to dig the passage, but it was painfully slow hauling the kibble. I went for a closer look down the drippy passage, managing to dig myself to the end, where water was splashing down a small shaft, too small to get into, and too wet to properly look up, but it does seem very tight (lots of rock breaking required). This passage must cross directly under the burn, hence the very drippy ceiling. Wetter, i wriggled back to the junction and made my turn again. After another two kibbles i'd had enough, and returned through the Labour Ward. Muh's excavations had created a pleasant muddy pool (Jock's Dream Lake) just at the end of the squeeze. The Squeeze Between The Bends was almost spacious after Bus and Muh's work.

When Muh and i reached the sitting room area, we swapped positions with Jock and Bus, who took the kibble back in for a final load, and to have a look at the muddy squeeze. Jock went in first, after a couple of attempts helmet-off decided the squeeze (actually a grovel) was too horrible. He shoved the kibble in the mud to fill it and they dragged it out.

Back on the surface, the burn was very definitely in a bit of a spate, and water was flowing over the pool sink but fortunately sinking before the waterfall climb. At the base of the first climb there was a small resurgence in the left (looking upstream) wall, the water emerging from a small rift with a tiny, clear, sump behind. There was also definitely more water sinking in the gorge than reappears at the known spring.

All in all a very worthwhile trip, and good fun, in spite of appearances at the beginning.

The extension is in the region of a whole 7 or 8 metres.