Vince, Tav, Jon, Jake, and Nick
Underground digging activity was mostly concentrated at the NE extent, in the area of An Unexpected Development (AUD), although Nick, freshly returned from a working field trip to Angola and raring to go, couldn’t resist an opportunity to fill some bags in Can of Worms (CoW). At the AUD area it was my turn to dig, the spoil being cleared away by Tav, Jon hauled the bags and rocks upslope and carried the spoil across the chamber to the ‘hump.’ A combination of Jake, Nick, and Jon then shifted the spoil through the cave to the entrance initially, then to the surface. The pile of rocks I had stacked to one side a couple of weeks ago in the chamber were also removed to the surface.
The digging effort (AUD) continued to open the area below the “false floor” where there are potential leads to the northern and eastern sides. Just need to create some more space to enable progress in both directions. The fine-grained sediments comprise silty, fine sand with frequent inclusions which consist of cobble- and boulder-sized chunks of calcite ‘floor’ and less frequently dolomitic conglomerate. At the close of the digging session, a large boulder was eventually prised free of the fine-grained sediment and left in position where it can be easily reduced into more manageable fractions. At the end of digging the progress made is clearly visible.
A total of 54 bags (including 14 from CoW) were filled, hauled, and emptied plus 15 loads of rocks were hauled out and added to the spoil heap wall extension. The session was concluded with refreshments at the Hunters’ Lodge Inn.