Sunday 12th February 2023

Mike Kushy, Andy Thompson and Frank Tully. Took in 2 x 1/2 bags of sand and a drill. Andy and Frank went to recent dig at the Boulder Rift dig, now referred to as the 'Tooth Dig'. Mike went to the cemented dig. Some more space made in the small boulder chamber, filled up 7 small buckets of spoil. Was able to squeeze into the horizontal part. A view onto what looks like a chamber with a solid wall, all clean washed and where the strongest draught comes from. Should be able to chip off the boulders either side to get into it, but it may take a few more sessions yet. Andy and Frank joined me about 2ish and the buckets were cleared up cave, one more load of 6 small buckets were filled and lifted up also. Ended the session with some cementing, whilst Frank and Andy opened up the top rope area to make hauling easier. 2 and a bit half bags of sand and no cement at dig site  Not sure how long, est' 4 1/2 hours. Mike.

https://youtu.be/YQ8h5c_rVx4

Frank Tully, Andrew Thompson. We arrived at the dig for 11.30 and Frank took the first shift removing the floor to create some more space in the Boulder Chamber dig. After many buckets had been passed out, and Frank's legs had gone dead from the awkward position, I moved in to start removing the mud going forward. We managed to gain another foot or so. Amongst the spoil that was removed, we found a tooth. It is believed to belong to a Woolly Rhinoceros and will see the dig rechristened "Tooth Dig". Once we had both spent all of our energy and had a little play with the crowbar, we backed off to help Mike remove his spoil and mix him some cement. 3 hours. A Thompson.

Sunday 5th February 2023

Mike Kushy, Andy Thompson and Tim Rose. Took in sand, cement and 2 drills. Andy and Tim went to dig at the Boulder Rift dig, Mike went to the cemented dig. I opened up the dig face a little more and managed to pull the obstructive Boulder out of the floor. There's a big calcite blockage further down which I've started to remove some of but a lot more will come out. Tim and Andy joined me about 13.30 and clatch was removed from the very bottom, some interesting holes appearing in the floor. We finished off with a cementing session. Dry and bright day outside and a very good druaght at the dig. Note: I could smell Andy smoking in the other dig and the smell was coming from the floor in the dig I was in. There's half a Daren drum of cement and 2 x 1/2 bags of sand. 4 hours. Mike.

We met at Upper Pitts on Sunday morning for an hour of faffing around, drinking tea and discussing how tortoises go around knobbing each other. Monica & Courtenay tried their best to convince me to go to a proper cave with them but for some reason I honoured my promise to assist Mike in his Rabbit Hole. We headed over to the cave about 11am after we'd cleared up the important business of deciding what length a fossilised sperm whale phallus would be. The last time I saw Mike's hole it was just a hole. Now it's a certified, fully fenced off ring piece. Between the three of us we carted a load of sand and drill into the cave. I thought the general idea of a dig was to remove spoil from the cave, not take it in. Once through the initial passage and maze of gaps in boulders an impressive 45°  bedding plane is entered. Quite a bit of stal. and plenty of interesting formations. Mike sent Andy and I off through some more gaps in boulders to continue one of the two current dig sites, this one is found at the lowest point in the boulder rift. Andy did all the hard work removing a few rocks and plenty of clatch which I lost into various gaps in the boulders. The way on appeared to be horizontal. Meanwhile I took the drill to a few boulders on the approach to make life easier. One boulder in particular was proper fucking me off! Definitely a draft emanating from somewhere in that area and the whole time we could hear Mike drilling in the other dig. I'm certainly not qualified to comment but my gut feeling is that this dig will just follow the bedding and appear in the wall of the main chamber. I think I'd head down rather than horizontal if anything, but that looks a lot of effort. After sufficient punishment Andy and I headed to Mike's hole in the floor. This looked like a much more promising site to me. We helped Mike haul and lose a load of spoil from the bottom of the dig. Andy then whipped up a tray of sloppy and Mike smeared Andy's sloppy all over the walls before cleaning himself off on the curtains. All spent, we made a hasty exit and got back to the car at 15:30. Great to see the place and I look forward to stomping down a mile of clean washed streamway once it's found. Meanwhile I'll stick to Portland Boulder bashing. Tim.

On Sunday Tim and I left Mike at the cement dig to go and take a further look at the Boulder Rift dig. I removed a large boulder from the floor and with Tim's help managed to remove this from the dig. After creating a little more space I was able to get headfirst into the continuation. A strong draught could be felt and despite Tim's hesitance I believe it to be worth pushing. The next task will be removing the floor in the chamber we have created, to give us the space we need to dig going forwards. 3 hours. AT

Sunday 29th January 2023

Mike Kushy, John Cooper and Courtenay James. I left Courtenay and John to dismantle the obtrusive rock at the Boulder Rift dig, this took them about an hour and a half. Meanwhile I worked on opening up the cemented dig in the main bedding some more, also managed to clear out some rock from the on going area. When JC and CJ arrived we cleared the rock built up from plug and feathering and some clatch. The session was ended with some more cement work on the walls higher up. There's still an annoying bit of rock low down which needs coming out to allow further clearing ahead. 3 1/2 hours. Mike.

Sunday 22nd January 2023

 

Before

Mike Kushy. Solo trip to work on the cemented dig at the bottom of the main bedding. Plug and feathering the right hand hole, made it big enough to get into. Need to open up the slope on the floor a bit more which won't take long. Head first a view off to the right for a few metres, a small hole down to the left, draughting very well, appeared. A flowstone wall ahead, all feels very safe. Broke my 14mm drill bit and didn't have a spare so had to improvise with a 10mm and what I had left of the 14mm. Will need a team of at least 3 next time to pull the clatch and rocks out. 5 hours, Mike.

After

https://youtu.be/W3jSOnFQxAU

Saturday 7th January 2023

Mike Kushy, Andy Thompson and Courtenay James. Carried the rest of the bags left throughout the cave down to the Bedding Dig. Cleared out a lot of clatch that had washed in. You can now see the holes in the floor more clearly again. Looking down the pit, the hole on the right has a good view to a stal'd up solid wall which is concave with nodules on it and some nice formations. Good draught when you stick your head in too. There's a huge slab like block across the floor which I think has dropped from above (4m or so). I believe this could be the cause of the blockage. With some cementing done off this it should be possible to plug and feather edges off it and some of the right hand side to get in and clear the rest of the clatch and some bigger rocks. When we're into the next bit a lot more work cementing will need to be done, but for now it's workable and a decent size to allow progress forwards. After this we went to the most recent dig in the Boulder Rift. Good progress was made for an hour or so clearing cobbles and grit back, it's a decent size in there now and there's a lot more to come out, buckets left on site. At the end of this session a big block was moved that now blocks the way into the dig, this will need to be broken up to allow access again, but it will make the whole dig much more comfortable. This block will probably take a few hours to break up. 5 hours. Mike.