Water Icicle Close Cavern

A return to Water Icicle Close Cavern to help Keith and Pete transport scaffolding for the dig.
After having breakfast as usual at The Old Smith café in Monyash we headed towards the cave. Unfortunately it had rained quite a lot overnight so Pete wasn't able to get his car to the end of Derby Lane. He had brought about 14 scaffold poles and dropped them at the side of Derby Lane as far as he could get his car along it before parking up in a better location.
We first got into caving gear then carried these poles to the end of Derby Lane. Luckily I was able to carry three heave bags of scaffold clips in my car so at least it was only the poles to carry.
We then moved poles and clips to the shaft entrance just in time for a party of two to exit after a trip in the cave.
Keith abseiled in first and the poles and clips were then moved to the bottom of the shaft. Once all of us were also below ground, we began moving the poles and clips to the end of North-West Passage.
There were also 30 or so short sections of scaffold pole near the end of North-West Passage remaining from the original dig. Together with the longer poles we had just brought, Karen handed the poles to me as I stood at the foot of the ladder up to the breakthrough site, I then handed them to Keith who had clipped himself to the ladder with a sling part way up, and he handed them to Pete, who was at the top by the gate.
Next we all climbed up the ladder and after Keith and I had pulled up the three bags of scaffold clips then we formed a “chain-gang” through the scaffolded section of the old dig and passed the poles through to Pete at the bottom. Then we got the clips down to Pete.
Then the poles were moved through to the small chamber at the bottom of the scaffolded section and then through into the start of the larger new section. From here we finally only had to get the poles to Three-way Aven where they will be stored until they are used in shoring up the boulders and loose stone in Cherty-Two Choke.
After the hard work was finished, a return to the café in Monyash for welcome pints of tea and snacks was the next action.