With Nick, Jake and Jonathon.
For one reason or another, a smaller team today.
Nick’s turn to dig, after bailing of course, Jake clearing away, it’s getting a long way now, the rift is c.10m in length and progressing. I was on the slope, man-handling the bags and occasional rocks to the top where, due to the size of the team, I loaded the skip to Jon, on the haul and shuttle, the bags and stones being stacked in the entrance rift.
Jake had cut-up a piece of quarry conveyor belt to fit inside the skip and provide some cushioning, this seems to have prolonged the life of the skip and it didn’t need replacing this session.
At the end of the digging, I went to the end to assess whether some induced rapid speleogenesis would be required in the mid-week. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a small space had been revealed, Nick commented that air movement could be detected, it’s always encouraging to have space to follow. As for IRS, it will be done, keeps the working space more comfortable and spoil removal better managed.
As usual, the last task of the session was to haul-out the bags and empty them, the stones were cleared-out too. Today’s tally: forty-two bags and half a dozen skip-loads of stones.
Today’s refreshments had been earned!
