Water Icicle Close Cavern

Pete Collins is still in Scotland working I had been out of action for the past two weekends due to a virus and/or chest cold and last week Keith and Karen had started digging at the end of Urchin Passage. Unfortunately this was proving to be quite muddy but after a few hours they reached a small chamber beyond.

 Keith in the low, muddy crawl to the dig

They had also began replacing the temporary read and white plastic conservation tape marking the route through the passages with the better solution of solid orange narrow tape supported by stainless steel pegs.

Karen looking at a section with the replacement Conservation Tape

From this small chamber, a way on could be seen but it was too small to fit through. They hoped that removing part of a boulder would allow them to get through but time had run out.
So the plan was to return to this dig and hopefully get past the constriction and see what was waiting beyond.
We met in Monyash café for breakfast and then leaving Keith's car at Monyash, drove up Derby Lane in mine.
We found a small white van already parked there and could see a caver at the shaft entrance. After changing into our caving gear, Keith headed down the shaft rigging our rope as he went followed by Karen and myself.
We stripped off our SRT kit and headed for the end of North-West Passage. Keith set up our aluminium ladder which is now left at the bottom of the climb up and locked to scaffolding. Keith climbed up and after tying the ladder off at the top, Karen followed after I had taken a couple of photos of her on the bottom of the ladder. As I was about to set up the ladder myself one of the cavers we had seen on the surface arrived and I explained that we were going digging and it was still ongoing so it would be best not to follow up the ladder and he was happy with that.
We headed for the dig at the end of Urchin Passage and Keith assembled the drill and started on the obstructing boulder while Karen and I followed him over the short and low muddy crawl then up through a hole into the small chamber.

 Keith drilling the obstructing boulder

Once everything was ready, we returned back to Urchin Passage and Keith tried setting off the charge but there was a muffled “crack” and it was obvious that it hadn't done the job.
Returning to the boulder, Keith found that the charge hadn't fire correctly and replaced it with a fresh one. This time there was a satisfying bang and the job was done. Keith and Karen crawled back through into the small chamber and Keith managed to get past the obstruction. Karen tried to follow but found it was still too tight. I followed them into the small chamber and took a few photos of the continuation. Keith couldn't be seen as the low passage beyond had gone a round a bit of a bend. Soon he was back and reported that the low passage continued but it was largely full of mud. The problem that it could be dug but there was limited stacking space.

 Keith returning from the new passage beyond the constriction

We returned back along Urchin Passage and then headed up Cherty-Two Passage. Keith wanted to break up a boulder in the floor of the dig at the end of this passage. I tool a few photos and a video of Keith drilling the rock and also the chert formation on the wall nearby in the shape of a figure two which prompted the name of “Cherty-Two Passage”.

 Karen looking at the "Cherty-Two"

Once we had finished, we headed back to the entrance shaft and after getting our SRT kit back on, we headed for the surface and back to the cafe!