I am looking for information on Gingling Wet Sinks, more specifically the state of the bottom "wet" entrance(s). There appears to have been some significant change to this entrance and the location of sinking water over the last year.
The water from the more northerly of the two sinking becks (the only one that really flows in normal conditions) now flows entirely into a large entrance on the true left bank. This is significantly larger than when I visited here just under a year ago, with much of the surrounding river embankment appearing to have been washed away by recent flooding. According to the farmer, it is a pretty new phenomenon that water sinks here at all, as it was the first time he had seen it sink there when he passed it last weekend (23rd April 2016), and he was certain that it was not there a year ago. Various people have told me about reportedly seeing new holes in the beck bottom periodically opening and closing over time, but none in the current sink location.
The only current available survey of this part of the cave is the original 1950's NPC survey:
http://cavemaps.org/surveys/npc/full/NPC%20J57%20Gingling%20Hole%20and%20Sink.png
According to this survey, the water sinks on the true right bank, a little further downstream from it's current sinking location, with the new entrance possibly in the area of where the 2nd pitch is indicated on the survey. No entrance is currently visible at all on the surface in this old location, with further openings in the "flood sink" open lower down, some of which are much newer than the single one shown on this survey (the farmer said that the bottom dropped out of this "flood sink" sometime in the early 80's opening up more visible entrances)
Does anyone have any recollections, or even better, photographs of any of the lower GSW entrances / sinks at any point over the last 60 years?
We aim to undertake a full re-survey sometime soon, which should shed some more light on these passages, but any info on what has changed would be greatly appreciated. Some of the notoriously wet entrance beddings might even be dryer and more pleasant now...
Noel
The water from the more northerly of the two sinking becks (the only one that really flows in normal conditions) now flows entirely into a large entrance on the true left bank. This is significantly larger than when I visited here just under a year ago, with much of the surrounding river embankment appearing to have been washed away by recent flooding. According to the farmer, it is a pretty new phenomenon that water sinks here at all, as it was the first time he had seen it sink there when he passed it last weekend (23rd April 2016), and he was certain that it was not there a year ago. Various people have told me about reportedly seeing new holes in the beck bottom periodically opening and closing over time, but none in the current sink location.
The only current available survey of this part of the cave is the original 1950's NPC survey:
http://cavemaps.org/surveys/npc/full/NPC%20J57%20Gingling%20Hole%20and%20Sink.png
According to this survey, the water sinks on the true right bank, a little further downstream from it's current sinking location, with the new entrance possibly in the area of where the 2nd pitch is indicated on the survey. No entrance is currently visible at all on the surface in this old location, with further openings in the "flood sink" open lower down, some of which are much newer than the single one shown on this survey (the farmer said that the bottom dropped out of this "flood sink" sometime in the early 80's opening up more visible entrances)
Does anyone have any recollections, or even better, photographs of any of the lower GSW entrances / sinks at any point over the last 60 years?
We aim to undertake a full re-survey sometime soon, which should shed some more light on these passages, but any info on what has changed would be greatly appreciated. Some of the notoriously wet entrance beddings might even be dryer and more pleasant now...
Noel
