Thursday 19th June 2025

Mike Kushy and David Morrison. DM fresh off the plane and straight back to digging plans. We had a little clear up and forumlated a final plan for the site. We also measured for the final gate. This will be bolted and hinged to the concrete sleeper, lifting upwards to a catch. A turret is the landowners preferred style for the cave entrance itself. 2 hours. Mike.

Wednesday 18th June 2025

Mike Kushy, Mike Wise, Mike Waterworth and Ed Ford. MK at the sharp end to begin with, filling buckets of slop, with MWi at the 1st haul, then MWa at the corner and EF top hauling. Works okay with 4, with a bit of fettling it might be possible to clear with 3 even. 4/5 people preferred though. MK and MWi swapped places after a couple of dozen buckets, then another couple of dozen cleared. Still more loose to come out but we think it's best to open the ledge up at the bottom to create more clearing space. Draught picked up around 7.30pm. 2 hours. Mike K.

Saturday 14th June 2025

Mike Kushy. Crowbarred some boulders, broke these down with pfs. Collapsed a lot of mud ready for Wednesday nighters. Mixed up two small buckets of cement and resumed stabilising work. New wire near cement dig still coiled up. Apologies for not having any photos or videos of the pit downwards, I dropped my phone whilst probing the holes. 3 1/2 hours. Mike.

Wednesday June 11th 2025

 Ed Ford, Hollie London, Mike Waterworth, Trevor Hughes and Mike Wise.

 Took in 2 daren drums of sand and with HL, EF and MWa rotating roles at the front we extracted 35 buckets of spoil which TH hauled up and dumped. MWi made some minor improvements to the surfaces to ease the upper hauling route. Spoil became progressively wetter and digging harder during the session. Draught improved noticeably towards the end. Some decisions are going to be needed regarding rock removal in the floor and on that section which forms the left hand corner, but digging should be possible for one more session.

Dig at the start of the session

Looking onwards around the left hand corner

The base of the dig at the end

Looking around the left hand corner

 Photos and video by Hollie

1.5 hours digging, 2.25 hours overall

 Mike Wise 

Saturday 7th June 2025

Michael Kousiounis and John Gisborne. Met 10am and took in drill, water and 2 daren drums with premixed cement and sand in. JG went for a look at the sharp end, then MK went in and broke up the nuisance rock from Wednesday evening. JG in the meantime started making a mix and sent the first load down to MK to carry on the wall building. A second mix was made and this was used supporting the opposite wall. Buckets filled up ready. Lots of calcite amongst the spoil at the bottom and the floor seems to be drying out well. All daren drums brought out and left with sacks in container, ready to get filled up with sand and taken back in. 2 1/2 hours. Mike.