29th November 2014 - Slaughter Stream Cave
This trip felt like a good opportunity to introduce a favourite cave of mine to Barry, Maxine and James. Tom was keen too, despite the fantastic autumn day outside.
As our group was larger than usual, I took the time to look at the engineering of the entrance series. The first shaft must have envolved quite a serious amount of work with the neatly stacked stones shored up many metres high. Before descending Mouse Aven I could see that there is a substantial amount of scaffold in the roof here too. Pen Pot pitch is the largest of the entrance series, and this is where the natural beauty of the cave begins - looking up at the shapes of the shadows here as your friends descend brings a good feeling about the trip ahead.
Towards the end of the short crawl that follows the sound of the main stream can be heard. This is entered at Cross Stream Junction where the water from Dry Sink (an obvious swallet on the surface) enters. Heading upstream we passed an inlet to the left and an issuing sump and followed another inlet stream to the right which leads to Zuree Aven, the small waterfall in which makes an attractive climb. This took us to the dry upper series of the cave - one of the more interesting passages here is the aptly named Three Deserts. Each of the deserts contains attractive silt "sand dune" formations, the shape of which when examined shows that the water which last flowed down the passage did so in a direction away from the location of today's main stream. We took on some much needed water, and continued along Dog's Grave Passage passing a roosting lesser horseshoe bat on the way to Norman.
For those who are not acquainted with Norman, he is a dog that has laid in this quiet passage for a long time. Some of his bones now have crystals in which catch the light as you move past. Having looked at a number of previous photographs of the dog, it is clear that damage has occured to the remains due to stones being kicked into them. The source of the stones was the wall built to protect the bones but as the raised tape makes a clear statement I suggested we move one of the stones back. You can see the difference in the photos below - the offending stone was close to the dogs head which is currently still in very good condition. You can now see the canine tooth too which I feel is an added advantage. Comparing a photo taken by Nicholas Chipchase (1999 ?) you can see that Norman's hind legs have narrowly escaped the damage that has occured to the front.
Barry, Tom and I continued on towards the camp where the floor shows the shapes carved by the original stream. At the camp we had a look down the "Pig Trough" which is interesting because a stream can be seen to be heading further into the cave - I do not know if this has been traced to static sump 4 at the end of Kuwait Passage or if it forms another unknown route to the Slaughter Rising.
In all, a fun trip lasting five hours; somewhat shorter than most trips to this varied cave.
Alex Henderson
Below: Norman, 29th November 2014 - stones moved away
Below: Norman, 17th November 2012
Link to older photograph by Nicholas Chipchase:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96466079@N05/14920399284/in/photolist-oJsWTw-pFmsXv
This trip felt like a good opportunity to introduce a favourite cave of mine to Barry, Maxine and James. Tom was keen too, despite the fantastic autumn day outside.
As our group was larger than usual, I took the time to look at the engineering of the entrance series. The first shaft must have envolved quite a serious amount of work with the neatly stacked stones shored up many metres high. Before descending Mouse Aven I could see that there is a substantial amount of scaffold in the roof here too. Pen Pot pitch is the largest of the entrance series, and this is where the natural beauty of the cave begins - looking up at the shapes of the shadows here as your friends descend brings a good feeling about the trip ahead.
Towards the end of the short crawl that follows the sound of the main stream can be heard. This is entered at Cross Stream Junction where the water from Dry Sink (an obvious swallet on the surface) enters. Heading upstream we passed an inlet to the left and an issuing sump and followed another inlet stream to the right which leads to Zuree Aven, the small waterfall in which makes an attractive climb. This took us to the dry upper series of the cave - one of the more interesting passages here is the aptly named Three Deserts. Each of the deserts contains attractive silt "sand dune" formations, the shape of which when examined shows that the water which last flowed down the passage did so in a direction away from the location of today's main stream. We took on some much needed water, and continued along Dog's Grave Passage passing a roosting lesser horseshoe bat on the way to Norman.
For those who are not acquainted with Norman, he is a dog that has laid in this quiet passage for a long time. Some of his bones now have crystals in which catch the light as you move past. Having looked at a number of previous photographs of the dog, it is clear that damage has occured to the remains due to stones being kicked into them. The source of the stones was the wall built to protect the bones but as the raised tape makes a clear statement I suggested we move one of the stones back. You can see the difference in the photos below - the offending stone was close to the dogs head which is currently still in very good condition. You can now see the canine tooth too which I feel is an added advantage. Comparing a photo taken by Nicholas Chipchase (1999 ?) you can see that Norman's hind legs have narrowly escaped the damage that has occured to the front.
Barry, Tom and I continued on towards the camp where the floor shows the shapes carved by the original stream. At the camp we had a look down the "Pig Trough" which is interesting because a stream can be seen to be heading further into the cave - I do not know if this has been traced to static sump 4 at the end of Kuwait Passage or if it forms another unknown route to the Slaughter Rising.
In all, a fun trip lasting five hours; somewhat shorter than most trips to this varied cave.
Alex Henderson
Below: Norman, 29th November 2014 - stones moved away
Below: Norman, 17th November 2012
Link to older photograph by Nicholas Chipchase:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96466079@N05/14920399284/in/photolist-oJsWTw-pFmsXv