On a sort of related note, had a spur of the moment trip into the Old Gang mines yesterday. Dropped down into the Brandy Bottle Vein level for a interesting enough poke about and then went to look at some rises & leave by the usual Hard Level through trip route.
When we got to the bottom of the incline the water seemed a shade deeper than normal and going through the deep water at the end of the Black Crosscut it was impossible to get through without having half your head underwater at the lowest points. Didn’t think a great deal of it, putting it down to the rain we’d had during the preceding week however when we got to the flat out crawl into the drier sections of the crosscut we found that someone had stuffed plastic sheeting into the drainage pipe which normally limits the water level to just above chin depth and had placed a dead the size of a portable TV square across the exit from the crawl.
Now it could just be a coincidence of two natural occurrences happening at the same time but I don’t think so. The plastic had been properly scrunched up and shoved right into the pipe and I don’t think the fairly mild flow of water that flows through there could have done that. The dead could feasibly have slid down from the rubble pile on the left however its placement was perfect to block the exit and took a fair bit of shifting when laid flat out in water and if something that size had tumbled down of its own accord it would have brought a fair bit of the very loose rubble in that area with it which it hadn’t.
If it was intentional, you have to wonder at the mentality of someone who would have done such a thing. To get to that point from one side you have a good 50 yards of chin deep water, from the other a good hour’s flat-out march through low wet crawls, waist deep water and long, low, passages through crumbling shale. Not the sort of place your average spotty Herbert is going to wander into for a cheap laugh.