Thursday 6th February 2025

John Cooper. Solo trip to survey the latest area around the third connection down to the puddle, not the connection itself though. 1½ hours. Now got to update the survey properly. John.

Wednesday 5th February 2025

 Mike Wise, Mike Kushy and Sam Hill. MW filling buckets with stone and mud from the dam, MK hauling and SH on the Tooth Dig side taking buckets and rocks further away. It's now possible to get to the hauling spot from 3 different ways, again. After an hour or so the dam was cleared, apart from 2 large rocks. MW set to work with pfs whilst SH came back round to the dig face, where MK joined him. Bigger rocks were sent up to MW to make the most of bringing the drill in, meanwhile SH filled buckets of slop from the pool and sent them to MK in the dodgy pocket above the dig. MW then requested more rock to break up, so SH set to work on this whilst MK dismantled his walls to find more big rock. There's not actually a great deal of mud left in/around the pool anymore. Compulsory prod around at the end, still no drainage but far in to the right you can get some real good glug sounds. The dam is filled up with small bucket sized rock and there about 4 big rocks that need breaking down more. We really need to cement up around the sharp end! 2 1/2 hours. Mike.

No photo's today, but check out White Rabbit Cave in Canada:

White Rabbit Cave - Youtube

Monday 3rd February 2025

Mike Kushy, solo. Took in drill and made rocks smaller, these got tossed into the dam. Lost some mud in a crack to one side and tipped several buckets into the dam. Went to the sharp end and the air was very frosty. Worked on some temporary walls some more, which were backfilled with mud from the bottom of the puddle. Some decent rocks retrieved from the pool and sent further back, all the buckets are filled and further back too. Once again some stirring with the crowbar ahead. There's a very large block in the floor under the puddle which moves. 2 hours. Mike.
Didn't take any photos, so here's a Lidar image with the cave entrance marked in green.

Sunday 2nd February 2025

Mike Kushy, solo. Headed in just before 5pm, quite a cold evening. My glasses steamed up as soon as in the concrete pipe. Got to the dam and found it empty, the far side of the dam a lot of mud has washed away around the sandbag (as expected) letting out a small leak. Will have to cement this up in drier weather. The hose could also do with replacing as it's quite old and has a few kinks. The hose was where I'd left it though and you could see foam where the hole I put the hose in had overfilled. There was foam higher on the walls than the crawl through to the end, so the place would have been fully sumped at some stage. There was hardly any water to be seen at the dig face, the shattered ceiling ahead had obviously had water go over the top of it, thus bringing all the ceiling to the floor (at least we know now it is not holding the standing up block to the left. Chucked what rocks I could back and lost several buckets of mud directly into the alcove above the dig face. Then I quickly built walls around and tipped all of the mud behind them. The puddle now beginning to show its ugly face again. Ahead a thick calcite vein (8") was broken out and this let the water move on further ahead. It was at this point the air noticeably changed in draught and temperature. A lot of stuff to clear as ever and there's a large block ahead to the left that will come out. I'm feeling more optimistic now, it looks like we could be above some mud filled rift. 2 1/2 hours. Mike.

Start of session. Photo MK.

End of session. Photo MK.

Friday 24th January 2025

Mike Kushy, solo. Took in a bag of postcrete, bung with tap attachment and hose. Dismantled some of the dam and built it back up using the postcrete. Once this was finished I went to the dig face with some empty buckets to grab some sticky mud and give the postcrete time to set. Big puddle at the bottom! (Glad I didn't struggle bringing the drill in). The sticky mud was used to line the dam inside and out. Once this was done I fitted the bung into the pipe work and attached the hose. Need to render the dam up with cement ideally at some stage as there are still a couple of minor leaks. The hose was really effective and a good flow came out, enough that the dam doesn't fill up quick enough, to provide a constant flow. I've left the tap open and managed to put the hose into the boulders to the left. Turned the tap off for a while and then opened again. The water can be heard flowing off down the hose and into the diversion. Recommend leaving the tap open open when not there, then closing on arrival of digging trips ready to use for cleaning or flushing afterwards. 2 hours. Mike.

Youtube channel.

The finished dam. Photo MK.

Puddle. Photo MK.

Puddle again. Photo MK.