Tucks Rift

Good weather provided the opportunity to dive in Tucks Rifts again. My shift pattern means I can’t do it this weekend so I went today instead 🙂 . The aim of the trip was to see what changes the months of flooding have made to the cave and to repair the inevitable damage to the line.

Parking was in the farmyard to keep the van away from the new Bull. Two walks through the fields with the kit gave me a chance to reflect on the physical toughness of my van relative to me in relation to said Bull. After moving the kit into the cave I inspected the sump pool and found it to be a muddy colour and foul smelling. Once fully kitted I found the muddy staining was only a surface layer, below it the vis was about 4 or 5 meters.

Underwater some minor line damage was found in the first sump and the first half of the second sump. There was plenty of vegetation tangled on the line and some floor boulders had clearly been moved downstream. In the second half of sump two the line was broken and completely pulled off its’ belays. Some repair work was done but we will need to find a better way to provide more permanent belay points in this high flow area of the cave. The known end of the cave was not reached. On the way out several points of interest that had been identified on previous dives were looked at. All came to nothing and the surface was regained after an enjoyable 40 minutes.

Moving the kit back up through the cave was more difficult with only one person but after several climbs up and down the rift passage everything was on the surface in the warm sunshine (remember that?). On the walk(s) back to the van with the kit there was no sign of the Bull. It had probably decided to stay away from me as I smelled like the sump pool. 😎