Loser Plateau - Surface stuff + looking at horizontal hole nr. 204C
Anthony Day
Went off to 204C to place a tag. While Julia bashed in a bolt, I went for a wander down the adjacent gully, which is littered with shafts and also a 1m square horizontal entrance. This was interesting, so we investigated further. Entrance passage slopes downhill for ~ 5m and meets a cross passage which is choked left and a body-sized grovel right. This leads to a 3m deep pit with the roof-tube carrying on beyond. This didn't look massively promising, and was definitely oversuit country, but the cave was definitely worth a tag and and underground survey.
The tube was trending uphill parallel to the gully, so the thought occurred that maybe it popped out of the hill higher up. Found a pile of boulders a little higher up which appeared to conceal a black space. Shifted a couple of rocks out of the way and an entrance appeared, so while I put a tag bolt in at the first entrance, Julia investigated. She found a descending tube heading towards the first entrance, via a couple of bouldery squeezes, with a black space apparent beyond. Rocks dislodged in the general direction of this black space went rumble, boom, bang, etc. etc., so she ran away quickly.
Did surface survey from first entrance to 204c, then adjourned to the Stone Bridge for a protracted brew. Returned armed with an oversuit and survey gear. Sure enough, the continuation of the body sized hole beyond the 3m deep pit ends in a pitch thus ensuring a return...