Water Icicle Close Cavern

Keith wanted to do a bit of work in the dig at the bottom of the Elevator and also we needed to sort out the lock on the gate which I hadn't been able to unlock on my last trip due to dirt and grit in the lock.
We drove to the end of Derby Lane where the farmer had blocked the field gate with large boulders probably to stop the off-roaders getting through.
Soon we had changed into caving gear and following Keith down the entrance shaft and onwards to the gate in North West Passage.
Luckily Keith was able to get the lock open after a generous application of spray oil and we made our way to Three Way Aven. We picked up a few small slabby pieces of rock and placed them on a particularly muddy section of the taped-off route as we made our way to the top of The Elevator pitch down to the current dig site.
It was impressive the work Keith and Pete had done in a few trips. They have made their way down around 10 meters into the blocked shaft at the bottom of the very shattered rift chamber.
After Keith had split a couple of boulders and move them out of the way, we started back up again but each waited out of the firing line until the person ahead was completely off the rope and back in Urchin Passage due to the large quantity of loose rock around this pitch.
We made our way to the bottom of the 30 metre entrance shaft and prusiked back to a day which had started as sunny but had turned cloudy.

A return visit back to the café beckoned.