Balkonhöhle - Hiltiaplenty
Lucy Hyde
Lucy and Mealy descended, followed by Martin down Hilti a plenty, withthe idea to rig traverse observed on previous trip of Frank, Lucy, Mealy and Oakem. This was previously rigged by Becka but no rigging guide supplied. They managed to rig across the 1st pitch and while rigging they heard - to their surprise - the sound of Frank beneath them who had gone with Paul and Aaron to rig as described in Frank's description of this day. We however ran out of rope so abandoned this track, returned and spent the rest of the trip investigating small leads. Returning to the passage visited by Lucy, Mealy and Frank on the 31st. This was the much anticipated DIG that had been laughed at in top camp. Lucy and Mealy were armed with s(?????) and most importantly shovels so set to work. By 'work' this meant lying horizontally in narrow passage and singing "Don't come a digging matilda with me" for quite a time. After Martin had endured this with great patience, he taught Mealy and Lucy to survey up the passage 'digging matilda' - Mealy did laser and Lucy did book. Having surveyed they were cold. They set off to explore leads i nthe Martin loop. Lucy was cold and tired and wasn't as entusiastic as Mealy to go down small holes. They explored most small holes on the loop. saw the pretty cracked mud, licked the wall in the chalky passage, took photos. Mealy followed a narrow lead for 20-30m where she found it to widen into a samll ?? before discovering a freshwater body described as a pong, otherwise considerd to be a puddle. There is a pitch to allow the viewer to make their own decision.
On the way up Martin adjusted the rigging and deviation on Hiltiaplenty to make it more user friendly.