Daren Cilau – Clean Up Project

Information about the clean up at Hard Rock Cafe, Western Flyover and Epocalypse Chokes,

The HRC Daren Diggers are currently working on a major clean up in the cave and have cleared all the unwanted, abandoned and unusable items from the Hard Rock Café camp. We’ve also completely cleared two other camp sites within the cave, the ‘Wendy Camp’ at Epocalypse Chokes and the Western Flyover camp. Neither of these sites had been used for decades, but still had all the paraphernalia, clothes, sleeping bags and food in situ and had become eyesores in otherwise lovely parts of the cave.

Now all we need to do is get it all the rubbish out of the cave!

Everything from the Wendy Camp has now exited the cave. Thank you very much to everyone that helped with this, including all passing cavers who took a bag or BDH of rubbish from Big Chamber Nowhere The Entrance.

Currently bags and drums cleared from HRC and Western Flyover are being transported to the foot of rope climbs in White Passage during every digging camp. These have been purposely packed to be of manageable size and weight. Once that’s completed the next stage will be getting all the drums and bags through the awkward section of obstacles beyond, at least as far as Valentine’s Chamber. This will be done on a day-trip with a team of cavers working as a chain gang (contact the Daren digging team if you’d like to help out with this – all volunteers welcome). Once at Valentine’s Chamber and beyond, the rubbish can more easily be taken out of the cave by either Daren diggers or passing tourists willing to help.

If you’re venturing into the further reaches of Daren and happen to have space in your tackle sack and enthusiasm to take some rubbish, then please do! If you’re not able to take it all the way out of the cave, feel free to take only as far as the designated drop off points listed below, every little helps. If you happen to be the owner of unwanted kit at HRC, then please consider taking it out or helping with project in any way you can.

Rubbish staging posts are…

  • Hard Rock Café
  • Western Flyover rope climb (Bonsai Streamway)
  • White Passage – below the rope climbs
  • Valentine’s Chamber
  • Big Chamber Nowhere Near the Entrance
  • Start of the Entrance Series

To minimise the risk of losing rubbish along the way, please don’t leave any bags or drums at any other point of the journey.

See CSS Newsletters Vol. 64, Nos. 1-3, Vol. 63, Nos. 10-12 and Vol. 61 and Nos. 10-12  for further information.


© Chelsea Spelaeological Society