It would be an unusual night in the dig! And that came true, although not in the way we had expected. The people from the south Monique and I had met on Monday had indicated they wanted to go and see the state of the dig. They had agreed with Miles to meet up at the Manager's office at 18:30. They are rather keen so I expected them a bit earlier. I made sure I was too! But there was no sign of them.
When it got to 18:45 Miles and I decided to sit down at the log fire of the office with coffee and tea. Not uncomfortable at all, but not quite how we had intended things! By 19:00 they still weren't there. We figured something must have come in between, and we just went in without them.
We had lots to do in the dig! There still was a lot of rubble from earlier detonations we had to clear up. We set to work! I went up while Miles sorted out some stuff down below. The little pillar of rock I photographed last time had come down, and some more with it. Support was needed!
When that was sorted Miles stuck his head into the ceiling-parallel bit. Together we threw some rocks from last time's blast down. That made some space! Unfortunately it had also allowed one of the rocks to now move; Miles was pondering supporting that one as well. We also made plans for making the passage wider. But that would have to largely wait until next time! Miles did start, while I managed to pull three more big rocks out of the far end. This time, I didn't drop any of them on my fingers! That's good. I was running out of space to put them though, especially with Miles now not too far away; throwing things down risked throwing them on his head. I stacked them on the side as best as I could!
I came back to see how he was getting on. With some of the rubble gone, Miles figured he could come up. Good! I've explored that bit already in August; it now being October it was time he got to see it as well. He didn't think it looked any more promising than the rest of the dig, but fortunately also not less promising.
With his visit at the top time was running out. We had started late today! We went back down, and started towards the pitch. Where we saw lights! The people who go by the monikers of Dwarrowdelf and Hamster had turned up! And were now making their way up. They clearly didn't like Miles' rigging, as they had brought their own rope, and were ascending it as if this was the top of Everest. We could do nothing but wait, until they had scaled the perilous heights. We scampered up and de-rigged for them (we didn't want to wait for them to do it at their speed) and then tried to figure out what had happened.
The confirmed they had been late; they blamed a very slow logging lorry on the road. They had just come down without us, and headed to the general dig area. They had probably got to our part of the dig when Miles was inspecting progress; we were high up and didn't make much sound, so they hadn't heard us and we hadn't heard them. They had also gone to the other dig, but hadn't gone in as they weren't sure about safety. Oh well! I'm sure they'll be back...
We all went out into the moonlight. With the extra time on the pitch and on the collapse (Miles wanted to wait for them) it had got a bit late. I quickly changed and scooted! And now I'm not sure when we'll be back. Other stuff will be happening!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment