Freesteel Blog » More mistakes than you can shake a digging tray at

More mistakes than you can shake a digging tray at

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 at 10:54 pm Written by:

The Telegraph has the scoop.

Underground cave system links Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria

Last Sunday, 300ft below the surface, 83 years of exploration came to an end (what? nothing has ended!) as it became possible to enter into Cumbria, travel below Lancashire and emerge in Yorkshire.

Due to the brave work of individuals such as Geoff Yeadon, Tim Allen and Mick Nunwick, the separate cave systems of Boxhead Pot and Notts Pot now make up a continuous 70 mile route under the heartland of Britain.

For some of the cavers this puts to an end almost 26 years of planning (“planning” as in hitting it with a hammer), using modern techniques (hammers, scaff poles, and explosives) in efforts to link the Three Counties.

Harnessing the power of natural underground water sources to blast away (with dynamite, not water) the mud and rock that was hiding a linking passage between Boxhead and Notts Pot, the team have joined a network of 30 entrances underneath the M62 and A66 (yep, our caves pass right under Manchester).

In the difficult conditions 300ft below, the team experienced ten bars of atmospheric pressure (equivalent to diving 90m deep in the sea) as they channelled water through with a simple hose with great force, blasting their way through.

This seems to be somewhat of a loose interpretation from the Guardian’s northern blog

Potholers break through the final Three Counties link

Those of us, mere mortals, who do this journey on the bog-standard M62 and A66, can only applaud, and sink back in our armchairs with riveting accounts of the grand northern history of Great Underground Events. My favourites include the first descent of Gaping Gill by Edouard-Alfred Martel (admittedly a Frenchman) and the strange, lonely explorations of Christopher Long in White Scar Caves, swimming on his back with a candle on his tummy.

The garble from the Daily Telegraph got into The Daily Mail, though at least they acknowledged that it’s the conclusion of only a some people’s pet project.

For some of the cavers this puts to an end almost 26 years of planning after modern techniques were used to link the Three Counties.

Harnessing the power of natural underground water sources to blast away the mud and rock that concealed a linking passage between Boxhead and Notts Pot, the team have joined a network of 30 entrances underneath the M62 and A66.
In the difficult conditions 300ft below, the team experienced ten bars of atmospheric pressure as they channeled water through with a simple hose at great force, blasting their way through.

They reproduced our old map of the area, and lots of lovely underground pictures.

Ah, well, I was hoping the breakthrough would hold off for a few more months for us to get round to surveying that area properly so as to make a much better drawing for the world to see.

We’ll work in that direction in future, having ticked off the last important parts of Rift and Ireby, and get a good solid map done, with walls and symbols on it.

You know what would make a more interesting topic for a magazine article than just a dig? A story about how cave maps are made. The surveys are intimately bound to the process of exploration, because how else does anyone know where they are?

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