Down in the Coal Mine

  As we were in Truro for the Maritime Mega 4 events we took in many of the satellite events that were planned in the area. This trip was not an actual geocaching event but was an activity on the way to an event in Joggins.

 







  One of the organizers was able to get a trip down into the coal mine at the Springhill Miners Museum for a group of people. This tour was a great experience for me as I had been down in the mine many years earlier with family, probably around 1973, just shortly after the mine opened as museum.  The Springhill Miners Museum comprises a portion of the mine and several buildings to represent a portion of the daily life of miners at the time of the "bump" that occurred October 23 1958.  A bump is an underground earthquake caused when the galleries where coal was excavated collapse. The coal is removed and most of the stone on either side is shale or slate which is fragile and can come crashing down with no notice.

   We arrived at the mine site to begin our tour and wandered the grounds seeing the machinery and exhibits as we waited for all of our party to arrive. We took a walk through the miners museum building and it gave a brief insight into the, people and the mine as it existed at the time. The #2 Colliery was one of the deepest of its kind in the world with a sloped shaft reaching 4300m(14.200ft) in length with side cuts and galleries where the miners worked being over 1200m(4000ft) underground.

 
  We paid our admission and were given a numbered tag and headed to the change house where the significance of the tag was explained.  Each miner had their own brass tag with a unique number on it. It was used to assign gear, to tally coal mined, to receive a pay stub and most importantly to track who may still be in the mine at the end of a shift or in the case of a disaster.


  Each miner changed out of their street clothes and hung them near the ceiling in the change house. They then headed to the outfitter who have them a numbered lamp that corresponded to the number on their tag. The tag was then hung on a hook to be retrieved when they came out of the mine at the end of the shift and turned in their headlamp to be recharged for the next day.

After we were outfitted with hardhats, it was time to head to the mine shaft itself. We walked to the mine head and started down the sloping entrance to the mine. A walk that many a miner had undertaken before us. It is only as you get in the mine shaft that you realize how low the ceilings actually were. The coal seam was only about 4 feet high, so that is the amount of material that was removed, most miners worked on hands and knees as the mine owners didn't expend extra cost to make the mine higher for no added revenue from coal. Since I am 6' 4" tall the mine was a bit crowded and I did a lot of head bumping. The only consolation for me was that there was someone 6'9" tall behind me and he had it worse.

 





  We continued on our way down, a walk of about 300 feet that took us to a level about 80 feet underground. Here we tried to get comfortable as our guide explained about the structure of the mine and how the mining was done. The mine is flooded past this level, so we could go no further. The lights were turned out just after we were warned again about the rats in the mine. The rats were a constant companion to the miners and were a nuisance as they would steal water and food, but they also were an early warning system in the mines as they would notice trouble often before the miners would. If the rats started to run out of the mine, it was a good bet that the miners woudl be following them. We stood briefly in a dark that was absolute, so dark that there was no reference points for balance. We were told that after only a few hours in this complete darkness, trapped miners would be unable to stand because of the disorientation.
 
 







The lights were turned back on and it was time for the climb up the slope to the surface. We turned on our gear and retrieved our numbered tags. We then returned to the museum where the attendant would look up your number and tell you of the fate of the miner who held that number on the fateful day of the bump. Mine was 40 years old, with 3 children and he died in the mine, one of 75 who lost their lives that day. It was truly a somber experience to learn of the fate of so many who only wanted to provide for their families.Many who survived owed their lives to the Dragermen, who wore air tanks and would head into the mine as everyone else was trying to escape, to try and save their fellow miners. Due to their work 99 of the 174 miners underground were rescued. It took 5 and a half days to reach the last of the survivors. After that it was a recovery mission,

Tidal Bore Rafting

  It had been a couple of weeks since I did any writing on the blog. for part of the time we were away enjoying the festivities of the Maritime Mega 4 geocaching event in Truro, NS. It was an awesome time to meet geocachers from around the world and to experience our own province like a tourist. The MM4 committee organized many satellite events around the province and one of the ones that we most looked forward to was Tidal Bore Rafting. I have a confession to make, I am from Nova Scotia and have never experienced the tidal bore. Not once in over a half century of conscious memory. Whew, that is behind me. We thought that there could be no better way to experience it than to take a full immersion experience, and that truly describes what happens when you hit the river and meet the bore.

 We started the day by meeting with the organizers of this event. We seemed to have to sign an awful lot of waivers before we were allowed to go to the next step.
  You only live once right. Now, everyone is given a coloured rubber bracelet, this tells you which boat you are in, each boat holds 8 people. We looked around to find the souls with similar coloured bracelets and we had ourselves a crew.

  Next stop on the journey was the donated show pile, where shoes that were deemed too dirty to make the return trip home ended up. If you are worried about your shoes, it you wonder if the mud will come out, visit the show pile. The mud won't come out.   Next is the PFD Pile. We head there to get a flotation device that fits and get yourself strapped in.  Now properly shod and buoyant it is time to start the parade to the river bank to start the most exciting part of the day.

The donated shoes.

Getting bouyant

The start of the parade to the water

As we hike from the lodge we get our first sight of the river and our conveyance for the day, and the mud. Lots of mud. Red mud, slippery mud, did I mention lots of mud.  There is no use being dainty and trying to get to the boat without getting any on you, it won't work and you will be coated soon anyway. Best to just just grab hold of your inner child and slip, slide and roll your way to your boat.

 

The look of things to come

After a brief mutiny when the captain was put over the side, a new caption was at the helm.

  Now we embark on our boats and push off from shore. We head down the river for our meeting with the bore. It is amazing how shallow the river is at low tide and at several points people had to pile out to drag the boat over the bars to get to deeper water, the river changes day by day so there is no map for the bars. 

 Back in the boats once more we are motoring along watching the eagles perched in trees waiting for the inrushing tide to deliver supper, I think we are too big to tackle so are safe for the time being.  The driver takes us to a sand bar in the middle of the river where we can debark for a little while and stretch our legs as we wait for the bore to arrive.

On the bar, in a few minutes this was the rapids

  Some people use the time to get up to some mischief.  Our guide is heard to mutter that it is never the children who end up throwing mud.

Incoming!

  As we look down the river we see a faint line of light coloured foam on a chocolate milk coloured river. The bore is coming. No need to panic but it is time to get back in the boats for the highlight of the day. We move a bit further down the river and meet the bore head on. If that sounds dramatic, it is.

   It is up and over the face of the bore with the full force of the motors behind us and then into the calmer water behind it. An amazing ride, but it is not over yet. The boat disappears under the waves and fills with water. The driver gooses the throttle and pushes us into the next wave, now the water is up to your neck and another wave is looming. The water crashes over your head and the boat is nowhere to be seen, you can feel it under you, but you can't see it.

   The boat is now into the calm water and runs out the holes in the transom  and you are once again in a boat and not riding atop a submarine. You look around and see 7 more smiles that look like the one you feel on your own face. You then look around to see what the spectacle looks like from the outside as others plow through the waves.

 You think to yourself you are so glad that you did this and it was an amazing experience. But it is not over. You are in a brief reprieve as the boat is navigated around to plow through the waves once more. This time you know what is coming. The anticipation is a bit more acute. You grip the rope a bit tighter. As the waves this time seem a bit bigger and the boat plows into them a bit harder, you are sure you are going to leave the boat, not by choice, but by force. Just as you are sure that you are going overboard, another huge wave slams into you pushing you into the center of the boat. A huge grin spreads across you  face and the next wave enters your mouth, you then realize that the chocolate milk river is quite salty.

After a couple of passes through the waves it is time to head upriver to the mud banks for the final experience of the day. We exit the boat near the riverbank, removing our shoes we make out way to the top of the bank, by digging our fingers and toes into the slippery mud. We get to the top and trying to remain upright we survey the slope, then you sit/slip/fall onto the bank and shoot down the side like an otter in a wildlife show. Then it is the precarious scramble to get to the top for another slide.

 

Then we get the signal from our guide that it is time to head back to the lodge. We are a bit disappointed to be leaving so soon, but we are advised on the way back that the showers are communal and the first ones back get to see less of their fellow rafters. We are sold on the idea and head for the lodge. There is only one last muddy climb up the bank to shore and  a chance to hit the showers and get mud out of every nook and cranny.

After the showers are done and the muddy gear is stowed, or tossed, it is time to do a final meet up with the organizers to say thanks and to draw names for door prizes. It is a geocaching event as well.  After all is said and done we line up for a group photos to remember the fun with and it is off to the next event in our weekend.