IJ
- Jan 4, 2019

118: Dig Update

This dig was meant to be a big push with up to 5 helpers. Only one could make it in the end and while it slowed us down we still managed to get a lot done over 5 hours with just two people. Instead of pushing forward which was the plan, we went deep and wide to make it safer for the next stage. It was hard work and we probably dug a little too fast which we suffered from the next day.

Here are some pics from that dig.

The first shows a new helper working at the new 'station' head. The second shows the progress around the corner along with a moisture absorber bucket to try and lower the condensation (a human puts out 85ml over 5 hours and all of this is in a confined space for us as you can see). Often you can see water vapour hanging like a fog in the lamplight. Along the roof are various water drops hanging bu at the end in the most confined space the tube roof was completely wet after last time. The third photo shows the different types of fill that have been brought in from the outside to block the cave off including river rocks (not quarry rocks, though many are broken with sharp edges.

With someone new helping us for the first time and listening to their thoughts as they dug it was apparent there was much doubt in their mind as to whether this fill was natural wash down through the phreatic tube or deliberately filled by human hands. Fair enough, it's good to get new eyes and objectivity in what we are doing. I often accuse others of seeing what they want to see rather than what is the reality, so it's only fair someone do some reexamining of our theories on how and why the tub e is filled. After all if it's natural there is no point in doing what we are doing as no 8' skeletons would lie behind it. But if it is humans that filled it....!

The question came to me as 'how long would we keep digging until we gave up', (how far would we continue without solid evidence, how many metres would we go in? We are already at 13.5m as reachable by hand tool but if we got to 30m with no breakthrough...what then? What evidence shows us it's hand filled? Could we find a bottle cap, something left behind by those filling it or brought in from the outside, wherever it was they took the clay and river rocks from?

The only thing we had from the outset was the layering and little clumps of different clays. If a large flow of water produced this phreatic tube thousands of years ago...if water surges brought in river rocks and just rocks, where did they come from? A flow or surge that strong would bring in lots of surrounding soil matter and then clay and then more rocks and then a strong enough flow to bring in soft fill the mixing would be like concrete. It already looks unlike any phreatic tube we have been in, and that's a few. It also looks unlike nay fill in any cave entrance or phreatic tube elsewhere in the world. Still, that isn't evidence is it? It's just conjecture with enough doubt to begin. Then there is the tube itself. Any long term flow would cause a stained floor, yet when you reach the floor and clean the material away the floor is a similar colour to the top suggesting placement of fill, not flow of fill. Below is a photo we've flipped vertically to show what the floor would look like if we cleared enough of it. There is not need to do much of that, even at the stations as we need something soft to sit on!