DYO BOB Digging

After a week of undramatic weather Andrew and I planned a trip into BOB in DYO. We planned to meet Bernie in the car park for a chat about the tape on the way to Corbels inlet before hand. The result of this chat was that we can’t (as we expected) cross the pool that is taped off owing to the delicate nature of the water born formations that are forming. He did however point us in the direction of some passage that doesn’t appear on the survey that may bypass the taped off pool. We will have to go and look some time…

Whilst chatting to Bernie we also met Gary, a Welsh section trainee who was coming along with us into BOB. As we moved the kit to the entrance via the rope drop a shower started. With the river issuing from the cave showing signs of increased flow flow from the hilltop sinks we decided to keep a close eye on the water levels in the cave during the trip. After kitting up at the usual spot we dived through in poor vis, the route on under the aven offered no improvement and a search of the side walls of the flooded section of the aven also proved fruitless in the conditions.

After climbing up the aven we all headed into Gwynn Saunders Hall to show Gary around. Having three of us allowed Andrew to use more photo gear but we still need bigger flashes to do the place justice. After photographing the waterfall, the duck and the phreatic passage we went up the slope to the dig.

With three of us working spoil movement became easy, one person dug, one towed the spoil trug along the tunnel and the third dragged it to the mud slope and dumped the contents to be removed by the next flood pulse. A careful eye was kept on a rock we had placed on the waters edge in the passage below and when the water started to rise around it we called it a day.