Lionel's Hole - Duck 2

[Chris Lank]

On the last couple of occasions that I have visited Lionel?s Hole, Duck 2 has been almost sumped, to the point where I could not pass.  Oddly, there had not been any recent significant rain.  Earlier in the week, I had a short dig in the downstream cobbles in order to try and lower the water level, but to no avail.

Today, I had a good look at Duck 2 from the upstream side.  The main streamway was almost dry but after crawling through Duck 1, I found that the tributary streamway (coming from the direction of the boulder ruckle) was contributing a lot of water to the streamway just upstream of Duck 2.  It is this water that appears to make the Duck impassable.

I have only been visiting Lionel?s Hole for the last year and have not come across this feature before.  I am used to the streamway flooding but in my limited experience this usually appears to be due to the main streamway.  I am therefore wondering if the cave has changed its ?plumbing?.

Does anyone have any explanation or am I mistaken?

 

[Rich C]

I have been visiting Lionel's on and off for 20 years and have only found Duck 2 passable on a two occasions. I generally visit two or three times a year so I don't forget the route. It was bone dry in July 2001 and I succeeded in doing the round trip as described. It is tight though. The other time I found it open was November 2007 but it was only just passable. I don't think the plumbing has changed. It just requires almost drought conditions to open. Normally the is a two inch airspace which is completely unusable as to get through you need to lay on the stream bed.

 

[Andy Sparrow]

Back in 1978, I was the first person to encounter and pass Duck 2.  At that time (in average water flow) it had a barely nose-sized airspace.  Once through I demolished a cobble bank and lowered the water by a couple of inches.  On subsequent trips in wet weather the duck was sumped, while in prolonged dry weather the airspace would increase sufficiently to make it a wet crawl rather than a duck.  Any changes here are most likely due to accumulations of cobbles and sediments downstream which, if removed, would probably make life slightly less aquatic.