Jenga Pot Conservation Day - April 2016

After 10 years of digs around Jenga Pot, a rather large collection of tools, drag buckets and other digging paraphernalia had accumulated. The thought of "we’ll come back to that dig" had been common practice as it is in so many digs but sadly other projects had taken over so we thought it was about time the cave was returned (as much as possible) to its natural state.

Thankfully we were blessed with excellent weather and had a good turnout of around 10 people so split into two groups. One team headed a bit deeper into the cave to go on a tool hunt while the other team focused on the area around the entrance including the removal of a large 50m hose, 100m of cable and a very heavy submersible pump. The hose turned out to not be too difficult as it ended up not having as much silt in it that we thought it might but it was still pretty heavy and included some rather nasty smelling water!

Around 35 sand bags were also emptied and the contents stacked neatly at the far end of a chamber away from water so as not to wash it all back in. The bags weighed a ton so it was back breaking work.

By the end of the day, all the bits had been collected from the extremities and piled in two locations. Quite a lot was brought to the surface including the hose and cable but it will require one short trip for a few people to bring out the remainder but at least it’s all in one place now.

A good day with some excellent teamwork followed by a nice pint in the sun! Thanks to everyone who helped, the place looked a lot better afterwards.

Despite this, exploration will continue in Jenga as there is almost certainly more to find and we’ll get back to it once a couple of other projects have come to a conclusion.