DaveT wrote:
Les, a few of questions.
On the route from Cabin shaft you head round the back of boundary shaft and along a convoluted route, which IIRC involves a short rope or ladder pitch and a squeeze through natural. You end up halfway up a massive stope with a long scaffold pipe to bridge the gap (complete with traverse protection ropes, cross this and then I think you follow round to the right to another stope with a rope heading diagonally upwards - probably about 30m. Do you recall going up this? I asked Dewi about it and he said it led to a dangerous collapse, but I was dubious as a lot of effort has been made in bolting the route.
So, it was a long time ago and I was there with Mike Smith and some Wessex. I don't recall the route, it is quite mazy, but I know our "guide" ended up back at Cabin Shaft, so we had to go around again.
I found the route to Grand Turk, but I do remember stepping across a stope to get in to the passage with a run in. I don't remember the details though. We dug through the run in to get to the chamber that led to the pitch down to the crawl into Grand Turk
DaveT wrote:
When the entrance was big dug from the inside was this vertical or horizontal and do you know if they were capping it? Was it close to the path that runs above the kiln or did you have to bash through trees/bramble. (The reason I ask is there are a lot of bumps and hollows around there and even a block search of a 200m x 200m square would take a while). I know its a big ask for you to try and remember the details from some time ago, but it would help limit the search. We could, of course, just maypole the shaft and work our way out - or I could retrace my original trip.
Having a entrance at this end would be really helpful in getting down to the diesel stopes as it avoids the long drag from cabin and also makes a nice through route for Grand Turk
Dave
The exit (because it was opened from the inside) was vertical, up through some mud and roots. Whilst we were down in Grand Turk those that stayed behind noticed a skeleton that one of our members (a vet) identified as a dog, this suggested that there must be an old entrance nearby. A look around identified what appeared to be a slope of earth that might have come down from above. Apparently they dug it away with their hands and more fell down, eventually they had opened a short shaft up against a rock edge, to a root and earth blockage. They inserted Mike Smith up into it upside down, and he kicked his way through the roots to make a hole out into the woods. They then sat in the chamber waited until we returned when they spoofed us that we had to return all the way to Cabin Shaft, through all the squalor of the run in that we had dug through. We were muddy and wet and lacking humour so were very pleased to discover they had managed to open an exit. We popped out in the woods and it was like the film, The Great Escape, as we came out of the "tunnel" one at a time.