A team of 3 Backhoe Buccaneers were down P8 last night, myself, Olly, and Jack.
We agreed to meet after work, Jack's day had run over slightly, but Olly and I mitigated the delay by removing the rear seat from his 2CV, sticking some tunes on and basking in the glorious spring sunshine to pass the time.
Now changed and through the fields, Jack sped off ahead to make it from entrance to sump in a record 5 minutes, myself and Olly were there in around 10. Up into the dig and we began.
We began with the same system as last time; man 1 quarter filling a bag, passing it out to man 2, who passes it up to man 3, man 3 then consolidates it into a larger bag on the pile. Rubbish! We then remembered the reason for the scaff and bags was to enable a 2-person team to dig more efficiently, with 3 of us there it made more sense to haul out to the top of the pot and stack/tip above. Thus, no more scaff is yet required if we can keep a team together, increasing bag stocks wouldn't hurt though either way!
Once the percolation slurry is cleared from the dig face, progress becomes much quicker. We seem to have broken through a layer of clay which wouldn't have been helping drainage much.
With some 25 kibbles removed, we have now driven a trench down into the dig, meaning we are digging forwards, rather than downwards. At last! There are still some larger boulders in place acting as trench wall, for now if we don't stare at them too hard they'll stay put. We won't be able to lift them out of the dig without resorting to destructive methods, though one lay directly ahead to tackle.
After some scraping and prodding, and the smaller boulder reft from its earthen captivity, the session culminated in being able to stick my arm forwards above the face and feel some calcite coming down from the roof. Intriguing...
We made it out in good time, however slightly slower moving uphill. A quick stop off at the Wanted to see Nick and the Bull Pit team, we also found a troop of SUSSites in there for a brief natter. However, the hour was late and it was time for bed. By the time I was fed and the soil removed from under my finger nails it was about 12:30/1am.
All in all a great session, we're going prodding in another location next week to allow the air to refresh itself a little in Christmas Aven, it wasn't an issue, but we were aware of a slight change as the session went on, it's not draughting yet!
