The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
One I might keep going.
So number one.
Shatter Cave was discovered in 1969. This not by following an original route but by the quarry blasting into a point where the original stream at some time descended onto the now active levels via Viagara Rift. W L Cave close by was revealed in 1967. Shatter had not been surveyed so not realising that W L Cave was indeed the original Shatter route through to Balch Cave Pete Rose and I started blasting the very promising stal blocked passage beyond Pink Pool Chamber in WL Cave. All pre drill days so loads of stick or plaster often the maximum we could pick up at the suppliers near Radstock. I guess that might of been about 8Lb. So one day in 1973 this indeed happened again. On exiting W L we met a group of disorientated cavers emerging from Shatter. We had blasted strait through into Shatter as they had walked by. Yes most unfortunate.
I would have liked the Shatter entrance blocked and the original route via W L as a single entrance. Thus reinstating the original cave route. It was not to be as that meant crossing Pink Pool Chamber though a route not to spoil it could have been devised. Today the caves are two separate trips but remember that the are one and the same fossil passage.
The W L Link from the Shatter side. It was left as is and exceedingly tight. More work would have been needed to make it a through way.
A modern image showing the W L connection route far left and now taped off.
So number one.
Shatter Cave was discovered in 1969. This not by following an original route but by the quarry blasting into a point where the original stream at some time descended onto the now active levels via Viagara Rift. W L Cave close by was revealed in 1967. Shatter had not been surveyed so not realising that W L Cave was indeed the original Shatter route through to Balch Cave Pete Rose and I started blasting the very promising stal blocked passage beyond Pink Pool Chamber in WL Cave. All pre drill days so loads of stick or plaster often the maximum we could pick up at the suppliers near Radstock. I guess that might of been about 8Lb. So one day in 1973 this indeed happened again. On exiting W L we met a group of disorientated cavers emerging from Shatter. We had blasted strait through into Shatter as they had walked by. Yes most unfortunate.
I would have liked the Shatter entrance blocked and the original route via W L as a single entrance. Thus reinstating the original cave route. It was not to be as that meant crossing Pink Pool Chamber though a route not to spoil it could have been devised. Today the caves are two separate trips but remember that the are one and the same fossil passage.
The W L Link from the Shatter side. It was left as is and exceedingly tight. More work would have been needed to make it a through way.
A modern image showing the W L connection route far left and now taped off.
