Mike M. You are a pedant of the highest order. Keep em coming."This chamber was first discovered by Colin Edmunds in 1975 but then remained unvisited for the next 19 years" It's also spelt wrong in the same report
I had always suspected Edmunds went to 20 but without an accurate survey then we didn't realise how close we were and you are a long way from home at the end of Beyond the Thunderdome. In the past diver's surveys have led to links but also to people ignoring the obvious when bearings are way out. Classic example is ANUS cave and Farr Series where all the evidence pointed to an obvious link but Martyn's original survey was way out. The link was finally dug open in one session!
There is an entertaining twist to this, in that after the link was sufficiently enlarged (I assisted Mr Price in this task), I had a look down a slope under the dig and popped back into Wookey 20, without any digging, so it was actually open all along!It is gettable-toable without divering nowadays, courtesy the 2015 showcaves tunnel to Wookey 20 and an enlarged link (IIRC D Price, A Moody, A Atkinson being protagonists of same)
Andrew Atkinson & Ali Moody opened up the connection from 20 to Beyond The Thunderdome in early 2016. I came along later and made it bigger with the help of Max Fisher & Pete Hall. We took a boat to Edmunds Chamber (or Rift) as it is sometimes called for some exclusive canoeing. The contact between the limestone and dolomitic conglomerate following a diagonal line down the wall of the chamber. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a viable dry way on from the place towards 22 and the large rift itself is aligned N-S not E-W. It is Mendippian habit to drop apostrophes e.g. people write about going to the Hunters (not Hunters').There is an entertaining twist to this, in that after the link was sufficiently enlarged (I assisted Mr Price in this task), I had a look down a slope under the dig and popped back into Wookey 20, without any digging, so it was actually open all along!
Pete - I believe that is probably the way I dug in originally and then opened a second route up from the far side for Andrew.There is an entertaining twist to this, in that after the link was sufficiently enlarged (I assisted Mr Price in this task), I had a look down a slope under the dig and popped back into Wookey 20, without any digging, so it was actually open all along!
I heard that your original route was very narrow and only Ali-sized. I believe that this is the route that Duncan and Co. enlarged.Pete - I believe that is probably the way I dug in originally and then opened a second route up from the far side for Andrew.