Friday 30th August 2024

Mike Kushy. Cementing.

Arrived about 10.30. Mixed up and took 2 heavy buckets of cement to the dig face. Used this on the right hand, fractured wall. Then got back to surface about 1.15pm and set to making another 2 buckets of mix. JC arrived just as I had lowered the buckets, he kindly cleaned up the tools whilst I went back down. Used one bucket ahead and the other bucket building steps and losing rocks in gaps. Got to surface about 3pm. Too tired to drill or run cable. 4 1/2 hours. MK.

A royal welcome to the dig this morning . Photo MK.

Thursday 29th August 2024

Mike Kushy. Went in at 4pm. Retrieved bang wire and stated clearing debris. Bit fumey in the boulder chamber, but below this the air was okay. Bang did just as needed. Cleared back as much as possible and broke up the easy to pick rock. Lots of cement work to be done before attacking the next boulder ahead. A view beyond this boulder shows the floor dropping away more steeply. A cross section where fault and bedding passage meet ahead and what looks to be a significant hole at the bottom. Draught present, but not obvious. 3 hours. MK

MK's YouTube video from today

Bang debris. Photo MK.

After clearing. Photo MK.

Wednesday 28th August 2024

John Cooper and Trevor Hughes. John arrived at 18.00 and went to in to deepen the holes already drilled. Did the two on the right and the one in the floor but didn’t touch the ones on the left. Brought drill out and Trevor arrived about 19.00. Charge set up but holes not cooperating as wished for. Out by 20.00 leaving reel at top of ladder to be removed next time. 2 hours for me. John.

There are now 3 bags of sand, 2 of dust and a new bag of cement on site. Plus 25L water container topped up.

Monday 26th August 2024

John Arnold, John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Mike went in first to free up bang wire used Sunday which I hauled up to surface and wound onto drum. Then JA followed him in whilst JC did a cement mix, 1 bag of sand, ¼ bag of dust and same of cement. JA returned and lowered this down to JC in 3 buckets. JC ferried the first and second down to the shelf before collecting the third. At the 10ft climb JA went down and JC lowered a bucket of cement down which was stashed away whilst Mike cleared the dig face. JC collected the other 2 and ferried them down to the 10ft climb. One was taken on down by JC and used cementing boulders at the climb into the Boulder Rift connection. JC then used up the second one continuing the work and also losing boulders by cementing them into the floor. The third bucket was delivered to Mike who asked for another mix. JC took out the two empty buckets and did another mix of the same size (collected water from cattle trough). JA arrived with the third bucket, now empty, so when the mix was ready the same procedure as before was followed. Two of the buckets were used by Mike at the face whilst JC used a bit more on the floor. Once 2 buckets were empty JC took them out and cleared up on the surface before returning to Upper Pitts for tea and cake. JA and Mike continued for another hour. Need all cement supplies replenishing now. 3½ hours for me. John C.

The bang did as expected. Cleared rocks back and passed bags of shrapnel back to JA to lose behind the sloping block. JC arrived with 3 buckets of cement and set to building walls higher up cave. I used the 3rd bucket at the dig face. Another 3 buckets came in and I used 2 of these at the dig face again. Propping up large rocks and building a wall to the left and across the ceiling. Hopefully stable enough now to bang without much movement. Used the drill to make 5 holes. 4 1/2 hours. MK
 

Bang debris. Photo MK.

After clearing, with 5 holes drilled ready for bang. Photo MK.

Sunday 25th August 2024

 Mike Kushy, solo. Setting up charge, all went well. 1 1/2 hours. MK.

Wednesday 21st August 2024

Mike Kushy and John Cooper. 

MK got to the dig around 10am. Took drills in and downsized the rocks at the dig face. Cleared clatch behind the sloping block on the right. Drilled 2 12x400mm holes in the floor. Moved rocks up cave and got to surface just before 1pm. Started making a mix and JC showed up just after 1pm. JC and I took a bucket of muck down to the face each. When the first bucket was used JC headed out with it to make another mix whilst MK carried on cementing, JC remarked on the noticeable draught when he came down the 10ft. 2nd bucket used up MK headed out and caught JC coming in. They transferred buckets and JC headed up to grab the last bit of mix whilst MK went to use the 3rd bucket up. A sizeable pillar has been built up to the roof on the left and the gap in the ceiling has been cemented up, also some more cement around the boulder ahead. The cement left over was used to build steps onto the steep slope to ease passage, JC also used some cement around the boulder rift connection area. Cool, strong draught. All ready for a charge Sunday. 5 1/2 hours for me. Mike.

After clearing rock. Photo MK.

Cement work. Photo MK.

Saturday 17th August 2024

Mike Kushy, solo.

It doesn't always go to plan

Started by taking 2 buckets of cement mix in. Used up the first one on the right hand block. Lost a lot of clatch behind this once cementing was done. Started on preparing the LH wall for cement work, then a large boulder started shifting towards me. Moved back to a safe space until it had settled, then used a long crowbar to shift it into a breaking position. Another large rock then followed behind it. With rock now completely in the way I used the second bucket of mix further up cave and headed out to grab the drill. Lots of PF work until the batteries ran out. Still more rock to break up...but enough room now to start cementing. Headed out to surface and made another decent sized mix, again 2 buckets brought to the face. Built up from the floor up to a large boulder on the left. One cement bucket is still stuck at the dig face under a large rock.

A look over the large boulder on the left  through a 6 inch gap gives a view of what looks a decent sized vertical 'inlet' heading towards what ever is in front of us. Straight ahead is a view through boulders of 10ft or so. Stones falling quite far when chucked ahead. Draught seems to be picking up also.

Next step is break up and clear rock  and get more cement in on the left hand side wall/ceiling.

5 1/2 hours, Mike.

First boulder that dropped out of the LH wall. Photo MK.

Breaking first boulder, second boulder that dropped out behind. Photo MK.

Dig face face at the end of session. Photo MK.

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Vertical 'inlet'. Photo MK.

MK's YouTube video from today

Wednesday 7th August 2024

John Cooper. One mix of cement taken in, 2 buckets. Continued on supporting the boulder on the right-hand side. Will need lots more, as well as the wall on the left-hand side. Just finishing off as the next team arrived. 2 hours. John.

Mike Moxon, Adrian Miles and Trevor Hughes joined John (mortaring up the right hand side at the end). Adrian drilled 3 long holes - Kushy’s red dots - which, with 40g, will suffice to demolish the boulder and these were capped with tagged spiles to keep out debris. Mike and Trevor built a rock retaining wall back up passage, below the link to the higher passages, to store future spoil. As John said on site, a lot more pointing up needs to be done before the next charges can be fired. Of note: one of the shot holes penetrated right through the boulder, the other two not so. It will be an easy removal in due course. 1 1/2 hours for us. Trevor.

Yellow -draught, Red - next holes, Green - cement. Photo MK.

Tuesday 6th August 2024

John Cooper. One mix of cement taken in, 2 buckets, and made a start on supporting the boulder on the right-hand side. Will need lots more as well as the wall on the left-hand side. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 3rd August 2024

Mike Kushy and Trevor Hughes.

MK got the the cave about 10.45. A large boulder had fallen out from the bang, this was downsized and moved up cave. The bang had done alot of damage. Cleared the face a bit and Trevot arrived about 13.30. We filled bags with small clatch and found holes around to lose a lot of loose stuff into. TH had a go at the front, breaking up loose rock and crowbarring what he could safely. The end is going to need some stabilising before another bang, mainly the big sloping boulder on the right needs trapping in place. It would be nice not to have this one move as it's a lot of rock to deal with. Some rocks stacked around as walls, a good load at the bottom of the awkward climb to send higher up. Finished at 16.30. Mike.

Before clearing. Photo MK.

During clearing. Photo MK.

After. Photo MK.