Having discovered the large stopes beyond Bogg Shaft on a trip
earlier this month, we came back to survey the lay of the land and to finish
off a sublevel that had been started last year. Dropping down from the surface
shaft we headed for the ore shoot link to the Smallcleugh Horse Level on the
west side of Bogg Shaft. On the cross cut linking the Middlecleugh North and
Longcleugh Veins we stopped for a quick lunch. Now it was time to put in some
more anchors to finish off the job we had started last year. Taking out the
drill we had brought with us we discovered it was absolutely useless, some
members who shall remain anonymous had forgotten to bring a drill bit down - at
this stage there where a lot of expletives. Thankfully using the one anchor and
a rail line we where still able to get down the shaft we had wanted to explore.
Alistair rigged the shaft and we dropped down into the sublevel some 6m
below.
The shaft continued down to Caplecleugh, but whether it was open
all the way or not was not possible to see as there was a large amount of
debris making it unsafe to abseil down further. This did not bother us that
much as there was plenty to see in this sublevel. Landing in the level, an ore
truck greeted us with tools as its load, further on we came to a junction with
dynamite, fusing and detonators along with other artifacts. Left, the junction
was back filled, right it carried on past many ore hoppers, concrete arching
and manways. In the level we found artifacts, amazingly long straw stalactites,
and graffiti dating back to 1917. Eventually we reached a point on the level
where it had been back filled. Here Alistair and Karli climbed a manway, which
gave us access to a stope, that yet again revealed more fantastic
artifacts.
Having surveyed, explored and photographed we made our way
back to the main horse level and then proceeded to climb the manway up to the
stopes above Smallcleugh and the link to the larger stopes we have found on the
last trip. Since the last trip report a number of other explorers have
contacted us, identifying the stopes we had found. The stopes did not belong to
Smallcleugh, they where part of the Caplecleugh system and had always mostly
been accessed via the Caplecleugh Low Level. With time running short the main
aim was to survey what we had found last time to try and get a fix of possible
shafts to the surface as the air here was very fresh and cold - hopefully
meaning a surface link near by and an easier route to get here.
On
arrival we managed to do a quick survey and to have a little potter, then it
was a race back to the surface to make call out time. It was a very tiring
trip, approaching 9 hours, with 113m of abseil and prussuking. Finally around
8:30 in the evening the last member of the group emerged from the surface
shaft. All of us where rather exhausted and wondering what we where doing there
at that time on a Saturday night? Thoughts of finishing a nice meal and maybe
drinking a second or third pint came to mind.
One last note, whilst
prussuking up I looked up to see how far I had to go, my helmet clip came
undone and off went the helmet, thankfully the power lead to the battery pack
stopped it dropping all the way, food for thought about all the helmet mounted
battery pack converts. |
