Vince, Nick, Jake, Tav, and Jon. And then there were five…
Another earlier start for me (underground by 08:45) to break up the very large lump of calcite and conglomerate left on the floor in Can of Worms last weekend. Quickly set to work with plugs and feathers, drilling longer holes today (14mm x 260mm drill bit) due to the thickness of the lump. This process worked well but ran out of battery power (3no. 14ah 36v) before the job was finished, something left for next weekend.
Just as I ran out of battery juice Nick arrived at Can of Worms and the pile of rock debris was removed to the surface. Nick then got on with digging, concentrating on working under the low arch on the SW side of the chamber. I cleared away the filled bags and sporadic rock to Jake perched on the ledge, Tav was flitting to and fro between the entrance and the ledge, Jon made his way up to the surface to haul out the spoil. The digging is not especially easy at present through a compact, alternating layers of calcite flowstone and fine-grained sediment (silt, sand) but Nick maintained a steady flow of spoil. It was noticeably drier in the cave compared to last weekend and certainly not as mucky.
At the close of today’s session, 68 bags had been filled, hauled, and emptied and a lot of rocks were added to the wall-building pile. It was pleasant on the surface in the sunshine but now it was time for the Hunters’.