With Brockers, Jonathon, Nick and Alex
While the empty bags were being removed from the drying line, I
took the opportunity to go underground and have a quick look at progress so
far. The enlargement of the south-west passage to hands and knees crawling
rather than a flat-out wriggle is an improvement and means that removable of
obstructions is easier. Haven’t reached the limit attained in the early 90s yet
and looking at the size of passage immediately ahead, squeezes we easily passed
back then, we must have been keen!
Nick joined me, and we swapped places. Nick started digging and
filling bags, I hauled the skip back and transferred the load to another skip,
Alex hauled that away, then Jon took over hauling the skip to the bottom of the
entrance. The filled bags were hauled up to the surface by Brockers who then
proceeded to empty the bags, 57 of them and a skip load of rocks. The empty
bags re-bundled, ready to go back underground at the end of the session.
In between hauling the skip, Alex became distracted by an obstruction
that wobbled the skip and occasionally caused it to tip over, spending a long
time cursing it and hitting it with a lump hammer and chisel. Eventually, some
progress was made, and Alex returned to hauling the skip, he seemed pleased
with his achievement.
At the end of the session, I returned to the end to discuss with
Nick the best way to remove an annoying obstruction, a calcited slab of
conglomerate. The outcome of the discussion was to dig to the left-hand side of
the calcited slab, possibly exposing more of it, enabling removal, or by-passing
it all together. A metre or so ahead the passage is much roomier, progress will
be easier.
Back at the shed, we shared the bubbly, my 501st trip.
