The Mine Shafts Project. Hydrology.

[The Old Ruminator]

Get the deck above the beam on top platform finished.







Everything. All ladders and two platforms connect to the top ladder. That in turn is fixed to a pole across the top of the cap. Basically if any bracket fails the lot will be suspended from the next section above it and upwards to the entrance.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Theory is a wonderful thing -----

 

[The Old Ruminator]

When main shaft was dug it entered a natural cavern we called The Alcove as seen here from the 20m platform when entered by swimming over. Sadly 20m platform was the other side of the pool so to speak.



Looking back to the platform you see the issue here. Also the divers line now high and dry in lower shaft water.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

The problem was worked out at home. We just needed a capable climber -- Brian.

My traverse poles to be arrive at the 20m level.



Brian bolts accross above The Alcove.



He gets across and gets a ladder in.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

We get a fixed ladder chained to the wall. The traverse poles are in. ( adjustable to start with on two clamps.) Clever eh ?







Step off ladder in The Alcove.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

OK. We dont have the primary objective ( yet ) but we have had a lot of fun together. Maybe around 200m of passage not seen for 200 years. You can see that I am the thinker and photographer. Not that keen on actual hard work. The Alcove dig starts and we follow the lode south. There is nowhere else to go ---

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Yes well the adit is ongoing as that would be the key to everything but as you may now know doomed to failure.

Never did like that high pressure water coming from the roof.





Another ominous rumble and muddy surge. We now know that water backed up beyond here went up to 6m. A lot of hydrostatic pressure.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Piping water through the ventilation shaft to make a level floor.



Bags of rocks and gravel waiting to be hauled up. Oh and my chair.



Shaft base leveled and tidied up. The pole is to stop anyone getting washed down the adit in a flood. Very safety minded see.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Bag filling in the upper adit. Raked down from the choke.



Next bag.



Shaft base downstream outflow.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

I tell you it scared the sh*t out of me. If the choke had gone thousands of litres of water would have come crashing through. I went up to video Mike poking and listening to those rumbles. Took stills off the video as I was in a hurry.



Mr Pink Boots sat in his chair.



Miners notch in the ventilation shaft.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

The ventilation shaft with cap and ginging at the top.



Repairing collapsed ginging with gravel bags.



The Chiptruss Patent Bag Filling Stand. I am sure that my genious is not appreciated.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Bag hauling at the shaft head.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Anyway lets leave the adit for a while. It still gives me the willies looking at it.

The start of The Alcove dig in the main shaft from my log.



Brian abseiiling main shaft down to The Alcove.



Start of the dig in The Alcove. A fairly large passage but completely filled with hypogenic residue. Easy to dispose of as it goes down the shaft behind.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

A bit about the photos. No I dont sit around doing set up shots. Its all done on the go. Anything quick gets done as stills from video. Normally I just follow the action but I do dig as well. I found that the quickest way is to set up lighting with Skyray torches and take the image on the TG6 on programme. I Auto gives differant lighting results but needs more editing usually. I dont do RAW as its unneccessary for the journalistic record shots I do. JPEG results around 2mb are fine for what I do. OK for books, Photobucket etc. The collages are screen saved blocks from Flickr. The Flickr engine does seem to improve the images in some way and the site acts as a secondary record. Videos less than I GB can go on there too. I use VLC Media Player free version for stills from the video. Moved frame by frame then download the best shot. Might then need a bit of careful editing. Simple stuff like cropping and contrast. Images here are uploaded from Photobucket which I pay for. When that sub ends who knows ? I wont be around to notice. I pay for Flickr too.

The Alcove by mobile phone. Mostly using ambient light and coming out around 3mb. I do find them difficult to run through the editor. The phone onboard AI has probably gone as far as you can go with it. I must admit they come out very well .

 

[The Old Ruminator]

The bridged and capped shaft at low water level.



Pink Boots goes down for a look.



Shaft continuation under adit level so pumped 1817 - 1820.



The flooded adit from the main shaft connects to this shaft. Distance 35m.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

I am inside a short section of level down the shaft that looks to have been abandoned.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

The wheelbarrow track preserved.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Bob chamber main shaft.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Lowest level main shaft. The dive line enters the north going adit.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

The Alcove flooded Jan. 2022 . Water nearly 7m higher than in the previous image.



Same view Feb 2022. Big boulder in The Alcove showing.