digwookeyhole

Report by Vince

Vince, Tav, Jake and Mike. Duncan was also present although he had another little project to attend.

Vince digging, Tav clearing, Jake and Mike were organising the spoil disposal. Mike also got a side project underway, more space creation. There was a lot chattering and discussion regarding the sediment layers and time passed quickly. Another productive session.

This evenings load number was 42. According to Douglas Adams’ Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy: “42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.”

NOTE: there have been other digging sessions during August but no reports have been added or recieved!

Report by Vince.

Vince, Jon, Tav and Nick.

Jon digging, Vince cleared the filled buckets and rocks, passing them up to Tav at the top of the ‘sand pit’. Tav forwarded on the receptacles and loose rock to Nick to empty the buckets and use the stones to build a retaining in the intermediate spoil dump on one-side of the slope. There 67 loads of various descriptions.

Jon finished the session with a loud ‘crash’ when he decided to collapse some quite large and loose’ish boulders from the roof. The boulders had been situated above the position that Jon had been digging away all evening. There’s now plenty of sledge-hammer work for the next session now.

There are some interesting sedimentation layers, these were the subject of some discussion, there was of course the usual banter too.

An enjoyable and productive session.

Report by Vince

Vince, Jon, Tav, Nick and Estelle Sandford.

Another guest digger, Estelle, joined the team for this evening’s session. Nick had just returned from working in the ’back of beyond’ and was ‘chomping at the bit’.

On arrival at the sand pit, Estelle and Nick were dispatched to the dig face and left to get on with it. Jon, at the top of the pit, loaded the filled buckets into the skip hauled up the slope by Tav, who regularly administered water, like some demented bishop blessing the hordes, to lubricate the passage of the skip. Tav also kept the tally because he’s the only one who can keep count. My job was to empty the buckets, 102 of them, any rocks were added to the retaining wall. The spoil heap is getting to the stage where it requires some more care and attention, the spoil needs moving to the back wall to give us more dumping space.

At the end of the evening, another productive session.

Report by Vince

Vince, Mike and 7 Belgian cavers, members of the Cascade Caving Club.

Good job the Mike had recruited some help as we were a bit thin on the ground otherwise. It was a slower, steadier trip through the Chamber 20 passages. There were plenty of stops to point out some of the interesting features along the way. Photographs and discussions ensued.

When we all arrived at the bottom of the ‘sand pit’, it was a little bit crowded. I showed the Belgian team where to dig, gave them the mattock and the empty buckets and left them to it. Mike and I did the spoil management, I hauled the skip up the slope, and Mike emptied the buckets.

The Belgian contingent were enthusiastic diggers, there was plenty of banter between them (more chatter than Brockers). They did their bit, we did ours, time passed and soon the pub beckoned. The digging stopped and we left, no-one was counting the buckets. An enjoyable evening in good company.

Report by Vince

Vince, Jake, Jon and Tav.

We assembled in the showcave car park as usual and made our way up to the tradesman [tunnel] entrance. It was warm already.

A smaller team this evening so we utilised one of the alternative spoil disposal areas so that digging was possible. Tav did the brunt of the digging, Jon did all the clearing of the filled buckets and sporadic rock. Vince was at the top of the sandpit, the “real Chamber 21”, passing the receptacles to Jake who was in control of spoil management. To enable maximum utilisation to the available disposal space, rocks were moved, retaining walls constructed, and a lot of buckets were emptied.

With all the activities in full swing no-one kept a tally of the buckets filled and emptied so after some discussion, a compromise was reached, 77 is a good number, it has symmetry and we shifted that many last week. We were satisfied, a good productive session, by now everyone of us was warm, time to head out for some refreshment.

It was oppressively warm on exiting the cave and there was some spectacular lightning on the way up to the Hunter’s Lodge Inn.

Report by Vince

Vince, Jake, Jon, Nick and Tav.

A bigger team tonight and good to see Jake back after his flat maintenance stint.

It was the usual warm trip through Chamber 20 to the dig. The thing is, by the time you arrive at the dig you are warm, very warm, then, straight into swinging the mattock and loading the loosened sediment into the bucket. And you feel the need to work quickly as those team members waiting might become impatient, well that’s the perception.

Jake was digging, I cleared away the filled buckets and passed them up to Tav at the top of the sand pit. Tav transferred the buckets into the skip, which was hauled upslope to the spoil dispersal area, this was being managed this evening by Jon and Nick.

As the session progressed Jake got warmer and warmer, so we swapped places, my turn to warm-up, not that I was particularly cool anyway. More buckets filled, rocks battered with the sledgehammer, all removed to the spoil heap.

There was some discrepancy regarding total number of loads removed, but 77 was the figure we stuck to as it has some symmetry to it. A good productive session and we were all ready for the pub for some well-earned refreshments!

Report by Vince

Vince, Nick and Tav

A smaller team assembled this evening so we decided that spoil heap management would be a good thing to concentrate our efforts on. We built some walls, moved some rock, built some more walls somewhere else, and shovelled a lot of spoil around filling the nooks and crannies. Time passed quickly. At the end of the evenings session we had a lot more space to dump more spoil.

Report by Vince

Vince, Mike, Jon, Nick and Tav

There’s been a short break between digging sessions as sometimes happens when work and personal commitments all come together. A good number of the team gathered for this evening’s session though.

As usual it was a warm trip through Chamber 20 to the dig. Jon and Nick entered the ‘dig-pit’ to fill the buckets. Tav was at the top of the pit, transferring the loaded buckets and occasional rock into the skip hauled up-slope by Vince. Mike was dealing with the sediment re-distribution. The downside of lubricating the slope with a regular splash of water is that the hauling position becomes quite mucky and overalls become mud plastered, and damp!

Mike waits for the first buckets to arrive.

It didn’t take long for the diggers to settle into a steady rhythm, there wasn’t much time between loads, a total of 90 loads were dispersed, mostly buckets.

All went rather smoothly, there were no mishaps, nor any character assassination (not much anyway) and it was an enjoyable evening session.

But all good things come to an end and it was pub time!