Due to conflicting schedules the gang has been split up for the foreseeable weeks, so Sam and I had agreed to head down LWS on a different evening to other gang members with intentions of aiding progress. Also Sam had not been about for the past 9 weeks so it was an easy one to get back into, rather than a romp to the end of Baggers.
Armed with drill and rock removal tools our plan was to crack on with Dig#2 (Rob’s dig/2nd Reich) but on inspection it looked miserable! Tight-as-you-like and the way on looked tiny (even for Rob). I wanted to inspect the lower dig (1st Reich) although I’d never actually seen it in the flesh it mad sense that this would be the way on. We dropped down to floor level and both had a crawl to the end. It was tight for sure but not as desperate at the one above. With your helmet it off you could just about see into a black space but how big was that black space? Big enough to crawl along? There’s only one way to find out…
We started to dig out the floor (which was awkward) It involved digging a small mount facing the dig face and because of its tight nature you’d then have to push said mound underneath you, hop over it, turn around and then throw it towards the bottom of the pitch. Progress was slow but necessary in order to cap the face ahead. After a couple of shift swaps we were about 12 inches away from a proper look at the void. At this point Sam started to toot on his vape and gassed the place out! We were knackered and now we couldn’t see owt! We decided to head to surface via a quick ‘B-line’ to the top dig but this involved a traverse off the rope at the top of the pitch and I literally couldn’t see my hand so we headed out for post beers on surface instead.