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.