CENTRAL WEST – 16-17 May 2025
So, what’s a “dig”. It’s when you find a small potential cave and after examination, you determine that if you dig out some dirt or a few rocks, the cave might “go”. Back in the 70s and 80s this was a great pastime for cavers, but these days a dig can only occur on private property and with the approval of the landowner. We’d come across a potential dig and this weekend Rod, John, Trish and I were going to check it out.
We got off to a late start, around 11am, and it took a few minutes to find it (after all it had been six months since we were last there). We didn’t have very high expectations, this area isn’t known for its big caves, but it would be a fun weekend.
Six months ago, I was the only one who fitted down the hole and reported back that there was a “bit of a chamber, about 3m wide”. I didn’t want to go down first this time (a bit wary that I might find a snake down there hibernating).
Rod doing a bit of gardening to get the snow grass out of the way before we started.
John about to take one for the team and go down first.
It’s not the best entry for a large person, John and I were the first ones to go down and start the dig. We took down a couple of buckets and a couple of small shovels. Initially we just handed the buckets up to be emptied, then we decided a rope would be better to haul them out.
There are two small chambers, this one and then another small one off to the right. John decided to start the dig in this one, sort of where if water/rain and dirt came down the entrance, this is where it would settle and drain away – hopefully into huge chamber we were yet to discover.
The dirt was quite dry for the first 30cm or so, but then became damper. The dry dirt was lighter to haul up in the buckets, we also sent up any loose rocks.
After lunch we decided that we’d make the entrance bigger so Rod (the organiser) could go down and have a look.
This involved taking out a large rock that was in the way. Crow bars were used along with a bigger shovel. Because I was smaller than everyone else, I was able to maneuver myself so I could safely put a rope around the rock to haul it out.
Then it was hauled up and out.
It was a big rock!
Beautiful weather compared with the coastal area. Lovely spot for lunch.
At the end of the day, everyone went down to see what had been achieved and to take a selfie. We all had “dig fever” by now and those of us in the cave at 4pm when the others called it a day, didn’t really want to come out!
Exiting the cave, we’d put in some “steps” to make it easier to exit.
John exiting now the entrance was bigger – much easier.
We were back at our camp by 4.30pm and when the sun started going down it was absolutely freezing. I was in bed with a hot water bottle by 7pm, but I have to say I wasn’t toasty warm at all for the whole night – note to self when you go out to the Central West, take an extra Donah.
We were back to it the following morning, by the end of yesterday we’d extracted about 1 cubic meter of dirt, but we were a lot more efficient now, the hauling was working like clockwork.
Whilst we didn’t think the side chamber was going to be useful on the first day, John decided that we could do two areas at once, so he started on that passage. A number of rocks had to be removed first.
I made a few more changes to the entrance which meant that getting out for those bigger than me was a bit easier now. It was still awkward, not much I could do about that.
We finished at 1pm on the dot, and by now about 2 cubic meters of dirt had been removed and the hole was about 1m deep, we could almost stand up in the hole. The yellow line shows where the dirt was when we started.
The entrance on Day 1 (left) and the entrance at the end of Day 2. Pretty cool.
When you factor in that we didn’t start until 11pm on day 1 (finished at 4pm), and then on day 2, we started at 8.30am and finished at 1pm, for 10+ hours of work we’d achieved a lot! So, I’ve officially got a case of Dig Fever another weekend of digging is definitely called for.
Sounds like fun! 😊
If you like digging LOL
Thanks so much for the blog. Have really missed hearing about your adventures! This one sounds like a lot of work, and i am sure you are all quite buffed with all that hauling of heavy buckets!
Thanks for the comment Jenny, emails have been sketchy for a while, hopefully now fixed!