Things have been busy at the Dambusters Dig in Gautries the last few weeks, following a pause whilst Ben and I were away with work and holidays. There’s now a scaffolding structure pinned to the walls that’s been boarded out to prevent the mud from Pool Chamber slumping into the dig. The previous trip had involved bringing those boards into the dig. Quite an exercise getting ten 6-foot-long boards through the south-west passage and muddy duck!
The trip yesterday involved first collecting some final bits of scaffolding from Mark Noble (many thanks, Mark). Then once these were secured in place, a trench was dug in the floor to drain some of sloppy mud and lower the water level in the sump. Just before leaving, Ben capped a large boulder that had been buried in the slop. It turned out to be bigger than we thought, but it’s mostly gone now and we should get it out completely in the next trip.
Also in the next trip, we’re planning to put the plug in place when we leave, to divert the stream along the south west passage and though our dig. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the floor it washes away. Maybe then we can finally drain the sump completely and find that undiscovered passage leading off somewhere new…