The distance between the caves now is approximately 4m closer than it has ever been at this current moment in time. The original information / estimates the distance to have been between 16 to 20 meters apart
maybe more maybe less the team in aggy could clearly hear us banging witch indicates it's likely no further than the maximum estimated distance.
All you need is a 4m *600mm drill bit, What's the problem then?The distance between the caves now is approximately 4m closer than it has ever been at this current moment in time. The original information / estimates the distance to have been between 16 to 20 meters apart
What we need is a constant team of at least 7 competent diggers per weekend preferably 8 people total so we can dig and haul / remove the spoil efficiently and as quickly as it is being dug out from the faceAll you need is a 4m *600mm drill bit, What's the problem then?
The levels seem approximately the same we will continue on out current level and direction until we have covered more forward distance then repeat sound tests from both sides again and adjust level direction accordingly if needed.
I feel like your digging team could do with a song to sing? Something to raise spirits when yet another monster boulder looms out of the clay and someone asks 'Are we nearly there yet?'The distance between the caves now is approximately 4m closer than it has ever been at this current moment in time. The original information / estimates the distance to have been between 16 to 20 meters apart
I produced the first survey of Gothic. Previously the accurate Pete Cousins (PC) 70’s Aggi survey had not include Southern Stream, so no closed loop. We surveyed up from the nearest PC Prime Point at the Lower Streamway/Southern Stream junction to the start of Priory Road/Gothic. Arthur Millett later ran a survey line for the remainder of Southern Stream to create a closed loop. I did the data processing. The greatest source of error IMO was due to compass calibration errors. A fraction of a degree of error in the calibration would produce a significant swing. When the S France radio location data was created the existing Aggi survey data was reprocessed with very minor adjustments to compass calibration to make the surveys align.
myself and Nick went to the main dig / and around sick parrot chamber on the friday evening to do the planned stabilising / improvement work so that the drill would be completely free to use at the face on Saturday and we would also not be holding up the tray and spoil removal with the work happening on the approach to the dig. We plug and feathered some areas trying to lower and widen the floor under the fractured boulder making a smoother ramp up and building up and making a smoother corner around the uphill S bend nearby, finding our lost bolting hammer buried 
in the spoil, we couldn't get the area under and around the fractured boulder as good as we'd have hoped due to one of the side floor boulders being around 1m thick already going through 2.5 of 5 batteries, could easily use 6 batteries here and not make much of a dent tbh 
the opposite side is already packed up with a boulder stack helping to support the celing / and lower part of the boulder, 
the area is better than it was regarding ease for drag tray but the fractured boulder still needs some attention to make it safe or as safe as we can make it, we / i am still not 100% sure what we are going to do to make it safe yet ? As currently putting anything underneath it is going to be in the way of drag trays, but something needs to be done with it as it is getting contact from us here and there when we are moving in and out aswell as the drag tray rope rubbing against it, we also broke up and removed the large boulder that I had dropped on the previous trip that was left blocking the approach and we also engineered a piece of scaff to support another horizontal scaff that is holding up a hell of alot of stuff on a small key stone so that area we are now happy with. 5 hours total work on friday night me and Nick returned to camp at 2am where the others were waiting And apparently considering coming to look for us. the day trippers Mathilde and Dylan had to wait well over an hour at camp before we set off for the dig, Colin and Leonie did not make it to the dig face unfortunately and unexpectedly exited the cave on Saturday afternoon leaving a team of 7 people instead of 9 the rest of us set to work removing and stacking spoil at camp aswell as digging the face simultaneously but removing more spoil from the dig face than we could get back to camp, and yet again having to stack spoil in the passage and vertical choke area 
as we had complications with communication i think ? The trays ran more smoothly the previous trip with the same numbers but different team, i was at the face most of the day so am not entirely sure the exact details of the holdups? But I think not feeding the pully system back down properly was a contributing factor? the day trippers left and we were down to 5 before we knew it thanks to the day trippers for all the help much appreciated as alway 
. The rest of us continued digging and hauling as much as possible but hauling with 3 people is pretty much non existent so stacking in passage was the only viable way , this can not continue to be the case as it is not productive at all adds more work in the long run and slows the entire process significantly. Even with the above issues we still managed to progress 0.75 meter at the dig face but next trip will not be the case as we need to remove spoil first as space has pretty much ran out and if we have a low numbers turn out this will take most of the entire Saturday i also chained the questionable boulder i had mentioned in a previous post to the wall in birthday surprise chamber with stainless steel chain and bolts so one less thing to worry about, 
as you can see at least 5 meters ahead through the tight vertical continuation that is currently maybe 8" at the widest still way to tight to progress forward, there is a slight draught coming in towards us and the pit doesn't get stuffy witch is a good thing it does appear we will have to remove alot of sand at the bottom to prevent making a steep slope behind us and chance of it slipping and burying us alive as we are basically digging straight down atm, the sand is dry and very fine, sand bags are an option but would have to install them very well as to prevent them slipping with the potential same bad outcome so we may just remove more sand and avoid potential issues as we have basically unlimited spoil space in priory road, so yet again the spoil had to be moved 1/2 - 3/4 of the way up the approach and stacked on the sides of the passage and then from that point unstacked and removed back to camp but not stacked at camp so more work for starters next camp, we barley touched the previously stacked spoil at the vertical choke, this is not productive at all and progressing forward is going to suffer also how long the task is going to take lickly double the time it could be completed in ? if we do not get a competent team of at least 8 people every camp, we progressed approx 0.75 meter again this trip planning on slightly changing our heading by around 40 degrees to the left but hitting a huge long boulder in floor and having to try and deviate around it resulting in a basically 90 degree corner at the end of the dig, we have been pretty lucky so far as the dig has been pretty straight and level but we will work out routes around whatever we come across and evaluate our options to progress as safely and efficiently as possible. The team worked fantastically and we couldn't not have achieved anymore than we did with the numbers we had 
I felt pretty rough caving out on Sunday lol
it's unlikely we will get these numbers and quality of man power every dig unfortunately, as always we are looking for new fresh and capable help ! So if you are interested in helping us please do contact me our next dig date / weekend is planned for 28th - 30th November digging on the 29th etc the only time most were together as everyone was busy grafting during the day.
it wasn't to bad with the scaff, 2 poles strapped together and hung off my belt and 3rd being carried and thrown in front after collecting water and the washing up we arrived at camp at 9.45pm. We had some food and a hot drink then went to Avalanche Aven to collect the tools that have just been sat up there unused since we started digging at Donovans grief, we only had one set of tools at the Donovans dig so another set was always needed as work at sick parrot chamber and surrounding areas can be done at the same time as digging the face, we also took the new ladder down from Avalanche, so it can be used in the pit dig on Priory Road instead of the 30 something? Year old original Glevum hall Aven rusty ladder we have been currently using. There is still a rope left in at avalanche but I would ask people not to go up there whilst there is no ladder or if you must do so with much care and caution as the ground is loose and unstable, a good sized boulder came down from just below the breakthrough point when Coleman was coming down, it landed about 1foot away from me from 7m up, I was just tucked out of the way luckily enough it stopped dead on it's flat side and didn't bounce / roll onto me or my legs as i was rolling up he ladder, the boulder in question looked like half of it was inside the clay wall and was handy and used as the main foot hold for entering and exiting the breakthrough point via the rope but after it detached the rear was completely flat literally in the clay a couple of cm , When the ladder was installed it eliminated anyone contacting the walls and getting up and down was OK but now without the ladder you will have to climb the walls with the rope hand line, as above i don't recommend. with just 3 of us we could only get the spoil back and stacked at the vertical choke not ideal again but hopefully next camp we get a good team and can get all the spoil back to sick parrot, we worked a solid 10 hours on Saturday with 1 short break , leaving the dig after 1am. Total day out was 12 hours we got back to Rockhard Cafe at 2am Sunday morning bed at nearly 6am we exited the cave at 7.15 pm on Sunday as alway contact me if your are interested in attending and helping us cheers
. Very impressive though. If he's on this forum and fancies catching up with his old British Gas caving buddy Ray, it would be great to reconnect via PM
