Swildons - diesel/heating oil smell Oct 2012

AliKnits

New member
Hi, planning a quick trip to/through Sump 1 and back this Friday (12 Oct) but I know Wessex has moved its Saturday 13th club trip to another cave - they had planned Blue Pencil but have moved to Mangle Hole because a Swildons short round trip on 6th Oct reported a very strong smell.  I can't see any recent posts about the smell on here.  I was just wondering if anyone knew if this might affect the route directly to Sump 1 or if it's confined to some other areas on the short round?  Thank you.
 
This has happened several times this year, each time following a flood. It is believed to be caused by the flood stirring up old pollution in Watergate. The fumes rise up in the Fault Chamber/Greasy Chimney area and are then carried out on the draught. On Sunday morning the smell was first noticed on exiting the Inclined Rift and became stronger on approaching Tratman's Temple. The pools along the crawl towards St Paul's had a thin film on them and again the smell was quite strong (good outward draught). We went down to Sump 1 instead. This was fine. You should be OK with your proposed trip.
 
Hello.  A group of us did the round trip last night.  Noticeable, but far from overpowering smell in one of the passages after greasy chimney - nowhere else.  The smell stopped within a few  minutes of first picking it up.

In this condition, it caused us no problems at all and didn't affect the enjoyment of the trip (as it was so brief).  Seems to be clearing up quickly.
 
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