Daren Cilau.  The Story so far ….

Andy Cave, Steve Allen and crew had made such a fine job setting up the Hard Rock Cafe, many miles down in Daren Cilau that we, Steve Milner, Mark Lumley, Snablet, Dave and Alan Turner, had to go and pay them a visit.  The Hard Rock Cafe was superb; good food, plenty of whisky, good sounds from the Ghetto Blaster and most of all, good company.

As a minor distraction we turned our minds to a little bit of digging, just to break up the hilarity. Steve Allen and Andy Cave made the first breakthrough into new stuff at 3pm on Saturday, the second breakthrough came 2 hours later into Agrophobia Airbell (say no more).  The time came however, for the (Hey, You, the) ♫ROCK STEADY CREW♫: Steve Milner, Mark, Snablet & Henry to start work.  After 2 hours digging in soft sand, Steve, threatened with burial, broke through into low sandy passage, inadvertently kicking in the passage behind. It took some time for the remaining crew to catch up with the elusive caver.  The Rock Steady Cruise, a lofty phreatic passage adorned with minute aragonite, gypsum and selenite crystals was discovered.  Unfortunately, the passage closed down around the next corner leaving a 6" airspace draughting strongly.

It was time then to retreat and let the next shift have a go.  Andy Cave made the next breakthrough, he too was threatened with sand avalanches but then the Peace Pipe was passed.  The passage beyond, the High Flyer, changed character becoming cleaner but more friable without diminishing in size.  The present terminus (" Brazil" 'cos its a long way away) saw some 6 hours of intermittent digging but no breakthrough was made.  As it draughts so strongly the digging teams will be back very soon.  The Rock Steady Crew emerged from the cave after 32 hours, Steve Allen & Andy Cave after 46-48 hours.

SEE THE NEXT ISSUE FOR - The Story so far…….

Steve Milner