67: Dig update
The weather had created problems for us and apart from aching joints and pulling muscles trying to move around in cramped spaces...the winter temperatures, and the rain, have meant it's just too damn cold to do anything in the last few weeks. But we had to force ourselves to continue. ( In truth it was just me who was reluctant). Thankfully I have supportive colleagues in this venture - this whole expedition could not be done without them.
Now, when conditions are good - this is what we put up with. Tight spaces, dust that requires safety glasses, mouldy lower levels requiring a mask, cramp, and sometimes a little panic the further you go in and stop digging and realize where you are and how far away from clean air and being able to stand up or even crawl on your hands and knees. The most recent dig was the first time we were able to turn around to belly wriggle back to the entrance and fresh air.
Here's a rough sketch of part of it to where we thought we were 75% of the way in, but we know now it goes on further and we may only be 30%. The part the figure is digging is the fill that goes to within 20-30cm of the roof. In fact up until a few days ago the space was tighter than shown below except at the most recent station point. The black bit is beyond the light and is about 8 metres away and swings to the left. This may be where the fill stops...hopefully! The first of the series of 8 below is where we are now and the distance looks the same ahead again.
Here's some photos of various stages so far. 1 & 2 are of the first way station. The roots you see came in with the top layer of fill. 3&4 are where we dug beyond the first way station. The 5th is the 2nd staging point (dug deeper than the first). The last photo is what awaits around the corner (the dark spot in the 5th phot0) running another 6 metres or so at least (which is as far as we can see at this point until we dig another 2 metres to allow a camera or RODN.E to travel down and take photos and video for us.
Below are some photos of a dig in the UK, much clearer and giving an idea by clearer perspective. Our cave is much smaller over it's entire length and much harder to take photos in.
I'm hoping that by October we'll clear the fill which will open up the crawl space to something more like this that leads to the cavern that contains what we are after...
