Vince, Jake, Mike, Tav, Jon, Nick, and Duncan.
We’re ‘making hay while the sun shines’ and following-up on Nick’s suggestion by having a Tuesday evening digging session. Duncan went off to 23¾ to check out something while the rest of us went digging.
As usual we arrived at the dig warm and no time to cool down, I was straight into digging. I was going to get very warm swinging the mattock and filling buckets with the loosened sediment. After 20 minutes or so it was time to cool down and Jake took over digging duties. Jake continued where I had left off until he too became overheated and it was Mike’s turn for a while, then it was Tav before I returned for the final stint. Down in the lower, intermediate spoil dump, Jon and Nick were coping admirably with spoil management.
The majority of spoil removed was a varying mixture of clay, silt, and sand ranging in colour from light red to brown becoming light creamy brown and bright yellow. There are distinct layers throughout where the sediment has settled, presumably following flood events. Good progress was made in a downwards direction. In the later stage of the session some sub angular to subrounded cobbles and boulders were encountered, these showed signs of continuing erosion by aggressive water/moisture. A few rocks were removed but others remain in situ until Thursday evening’s session. It is certainly looking interesting at present.
As ever when all are busy time seems to pass quickly and the session came to an end. We moved the tools out of the way and made our way out of the cave.
It had been warm work and refreshments at the entrance were welcome. We took the opportunity to discuss the evening’s activities and to plan for Thursday. Happy days!
