day 2 in the pit

i've gotta say working on 3.5hrs sleep and barely any breakfast took it's toll on all those stupid and 'brave' enough to plunge back into the hole. upon arrival we noticed we had a little guest nesting in one of our carved out foot-holes (: we started a little later but it was slow progress and although i charged ahead and did my best to work at a solid pace, i got to a point where i was so nauseous and halfway between vomiting and passing out so reluctantly thought it might be a smart plan to chill out for a bit.. i had to sit down for a good 20min in the shade with my head absolutely swimming before i could get back up and keep going. it irritated me but at least im at a stage where i have the sense to do that instead of carrying on like a moron to prove a point.. (: we only worked for two hours or so and then headed back for lunch.. we all felt so gross and sick and after a half hour nap it was time to head out again.

the afternoon was much better. it was raining on and off the whole time which made the earth harder to plough but at the same time kept us cool.. i think the half hour sleep made more of a difference than id expected and we all got straight back into it.. there's not much to describe really, it's the same repetitive system over and over again. i had a shift of bucket-hauling and ended up with a bit of rope burns on my arms, then  spent a solid 40mins or so digging and shoveling dirt at the bottom of the pit with jarred and boy (yes, that is his name.. how awesome??). we worked so well, i've gotta say.. except from about halfway onwards jarred and i started going a bit delirious and we were just collapsing in hysterical fits of laughter whilst still shoveling away and started speaking absolute nonsense.. i'm talking inventing trees that dance the macarena and then making random sound effects every time we dumped soil into the bucket.

in any case, we made great progress and i cannot even describe the feeling of jumping in to a cold shower and scrubbing myself clean once the hard work was over.. i think i could've planted a tree in what came off me. depressing, though, was the realisation that i'm not quite as tanned as i had hoped.. it was just a layer of dirt -_-

side note: the last photo of this lot is fairly nauseating if you don't like looking at gross things.. poor emily has had a really bad reaction to sand fly bites and the back of her leg is covered in these huge pus-filled blister-looking growths.. given i'm documenting the group injuries i felt it was definitely worthy of a snap..