16th January 2016

With Tav and Nick.

My turn at the front, Tav in the pot and Nick doing the haul and shuttle to the entrance shaft.

Todays mission was to clear the debris from last week’s rock reduction. There was a good deal of splatter covering the floor of the chamber comprising gravel and mud so plenty to clear away before starting to bar out the fractured rock. After shifting 35 bags of gravel, cobbles and slop along with 20 skip loads of rock the potential way ahead was cleared. The prognosis is not all that good, this end of the dig pinches down to a sediment filled fracture between rock c.100mm width. Although the trend appears to be going downwards it is in the wrong direction – south rather than north – and would require banging all the way. We will probably abandon this particular dig and concentrate the effort overhead through Merlin’s.

We were even later on parade at the Hunter’s Lodge Inn.