Monday 29th August 2022

John C, Mike K, Mark H, Rob Harper, Adrian and Jude, Martyn and Jass and Andy Thompson. 10am start, Mike in the new way on and Jess in the older way pulling out loose stuff. 61 loads cleared. Broke through into a horizontal rift that led tp “proper cave” with a vadose trench heading back in under and to a deep pot. More work to secure the head of the pot and some bolts with a traverse rope would be handy ready for the floor to open up. Draught increased a lot when the hole in the floor was revealed. 5 ½ hours. Mike.

John Cooper, Jess Eades, Martyn Grayson, Rob Harper, Mark Helmore, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Andy Thompson, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and visit at closing time by Courtenay James. Mike at the front with plug and feathers. Rest removed a grand total of 61 loads to the surface. Mike says looking good but need to be careful. 5 hours. John.

MK, JC, MH, RH, AVP, JVP, Martyn Grayson, Jess Eades and Andy Thompson.
I can’t quite remember all that happened or where people were but we did 61 good weight buckets today. Clearing out the clatch to start with in the second way down to the pit. Needed to plug and feather so Jess went into the 1st way on we found. After a while I could poke my head through a gap and see that the next bit below Jess looked stable enough to go in. So swapped places with Jess and pushed feet first into another little chamber lower down, dug through some rocks horizontally and got into a bit more open space with a solid wall on the left with some nice flowstone and slickenslides. The passage went on horizontal for roughly 5 metres there was also a climb up in the ceiling that continued on in the same direction but even further. Too small to look around to see if it’s safe to push on. Turned around and realised there’s a vadose trench heading to the top of a deep pot/pitch with an excellent draught. Glad I roped up when digging in the floor and I would advise anyone going in to do the same as the floor looks like it’s just suspended above the drop. There’s a rope in, this could be brought full circle to where it’s tied off and a tether could be attached to it, like a traverse line. There’s a big block in the floor to break up and lots of rock to pull out of the floor, this would possibly allow a way in from the second way down. Mike.
P.S. Thanks everyone for your help today!]