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Hallowe'en Rift, Mendip Hills

Excursions [and other notes] involved in the exploration of Hallowe'en Rift; a cave, so far, formed within Triassic Dolomitic Conglomerate.

The exploration of Hallowe'en Rift was started in 1982 by Trevor Hughes with other members of the Bristol Exploration Club, then during the early 1990's Vince Simmonds and other, mostly, local diggers were active at a number of locations within the cave, including the start of the present dig with Graham Johnson in December 1991. The current phase of exploration was commenced in 2009, with the majority of the early work being carried out by Vince Simmonds and Alex Gee, now the regular team includes Rob 'Tav' Taviner, Graham 'Jake' Johnson, Nick Hawkes, Matt Tuck, Jonathon Riley, Paul 'Brockers' Brock, Roz Simmonds, Duncan Price and Mike Moxon. There has been occasional help from others including Mike Willett, John 'Tangent' Williams, Pete Bolt, Bob Smith, Callum and Hazel Simmonds, with a couple of guest appearances by that well-known antipodean, Ray Deasy.

3rd July 2018

digging 2018Posted by Vince Simmonds Wed, July 04, 2018 06:27:18

With Roz and Alex

We arrived at the farm to find that the cows had escaped from the field and were exploring the yard. We helped to round them up and persuaded the cows to return to the fields, before getting ready to walk up to the cave.

After many years of digging, all have gone down the slippery slope and followed Another Emotional Journey, it now seems that we are being led Up the Garden Path.

The skip route Up the Garden Path is obstructed by two boulders and a bulge of rock; 4no. 500mm x 12mm holes were drilled, 2no. in the bulge and 1no. into each boulder. While this was being done Roz and Alex carried on to the dig where they dug some more sediment from the floor and bagged it up. They went through to the end to look at the newly accessed rift chamber and see the potential ahead for themselves. Alex took some bearings, confirming that the passage is trending west to east.

When they returned, I could make the necessary connections, retire to a safe location and bring the evening to a satisfactory conclusion.

There will be plenty to clear on the weekend.





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