Following our successful Kittens trip, we returned to Watts Grove to explore the levels heading off halfway down the main shaft. A sketchy traverse protected by a couple bolts saw us into the first and whilst the echo along it sounded awesome the presence of an old 8mm spit took the edge off our excitement. The level is a classic example of T’owd man’s hard graft, hand-picked and arrow straight, and now it’s additionally been adorned with a beautiful white river and pearls. Unfortunately it’s also prime evidence of poor judgement as it end blind after 40m with no ore extracted.
As I derigged the traverse Luke swung into the opposing level to report back it goes but the floor’s mostly missing. Indeed quite a bit of exposed thrutching was required to progress between the short sections of remaining floor, this time with no old spits or footprints so we were hopeful this would be new. Unfortunately once fully across it was clear they had climbed up from below to access the end, missing out the fun of the flying bridges. From here a short bit more level ends in the expected climbing shaft down, which marries up with the one found at the end of the last trip in the level below. Nothing continued across which was a shame as it marked the end of explorations in what otherwise had been an awesome little mine. We finished the survey and got some snaps, then smashed our way to the pub to come up with a new plan for next week…
