Our first digging trip at sump 12. The trip to sump 4 was very easy as we had carried in our cylinders the previous weekend, all we had to carry was our regs. The down side was we had to free dive sumps 2 & 3. Although everything went OK it makes you realise just how far it is, and that there isn't much room for error. Upon reaching sump 4 we picked up our two 6 litre cylinders and headed onwards. Our first problem was trying to get the cylinders and yourself through sump 4, this took some perseverance. Apart from being incredibly heavy the trip to twelve went without to many more problems. Once at twelve we set up the hauling system for getting the drag tray in and out of the sump. We each had a 40 min dive in the sump removing, in total, about 1/4 tonne of spoil. A very successful trip but many more will be needed. Cold is what stopped us digging longer, even with the added luxury of a stove, so we were able to leave one of our 6 litre cylinders down by sump 9. We carried our empty 6 out of the cave, and arrived on the surface extremely tired and in need of food.
To Sump 1 via Standard Tourist Trip route.
Look at sump 12 after the bang and start digging. After a hard carry with 2 x 6Ltr cylinders each we made a good start with the digging. After the three of us had dived we had 1/4 filled a one ton bag. Cold is what stopped us digging longer. One 6ltr cylinder left in the cave for future dive.