With Jake, Jon, Nick, Brockers, and Tav
A full complement of diggers for this morning’s session. Following some discussion at the cave entrance regarding individual task and positioning it was decided to get the spoil out to the surface rather than stack the bags at the bottom of the entrance.
Jon was leading the advancement and winning the spoil aided by Tav who was clearing away the filled bags (and sporadic rocks). Brockers hauled the drag tray, shuttling the filled bags along the NE passage to the pot where he hauled the spoil to Nick, positioned up on the ledge. Nick loaded the next skip to be hauled away by Jake, at the bottom of the entrance the skip contents transferred to the next one and it was hauled out the surface by me.
It was pleasantly warm in the spring sunshine, and I soon had tor take off the oversuit. Birds were singing, butterflies (brimstones) flitting by, it was peaceful. The hauling out was virtually non-stop action, not much time to empty many of the bags. At the final count, c.140 bags had been filled, hauled, and emptied – about 100 came from the far end, and 40 others were filled somewhere else (probably very close to the ledge, Nick’s spot).
A good and productive session followed by refreshments at the Hunter’s Lodge Inn.