Sunday 27th July 2025

AM - Mike Kushy, David, Louise and Jackson Morrison. 

MK and DM continued with building the well whilst LM and JM filled the trailer with unusable rocks. After a while LM and JM went off for a walk. Pretty much done and ready for earth to be backfilled around the well and landscape the ground. Mike.

Entrance photos by DM.

PM - Sam Hill and Mike Kushy

 

Met Kushy and Tuska at the dig at 3pm and had a quick chinwag whilst admiring their handywork on the entrance. Kushy and myself then set off underground armed with the drill box and a drum of sand and a BDH of ready mixed cement between us. Once at the dig I made my way down and through the new stuff with Kushy staying up in the safe (ish) area. Once in TP chamber Kushy and myself got the light connection through the better looking approach to the chamber and I had a look around, marvelling at the new stuff. Kushy cleared the topside of this whilst I came back up and then he grabbed the drill box. With the large crowbar I went down to the lower side of this and pulled down what I could. One very large oven sized boulder came down and then took two more similar sized ones with it as is crashed down the chamber with a extremely loud racket which Kushy wasn't expecting. Having got what I could from the bottom I tried from the top but everything was too loose and unpredictable so a retreat was made up through the very snug squeeze into the horizontal stuff. I then joined Kushy as he was bringing down the second batch of cement to stabilise the way through the boulders. A very impressive find with a lot of stabilising work to be done. 2hrs for both of us. Sam.

Looking horizontally Eastwards. Photo SH.
 The dig through to Tea Party Chamber is down to the right.

 

 

Saturday 26th July 2025

Mike Kushy, Ed Ford and John Cooper. MK to begin (10am) with drill, pried more rock at the dig face and downsized it. Prepped a ladder and belay line when EF arrived around 10.30. MK had another go at pushing the slope but the last little bit was just too tight. EF cleared some backlog whilst MK opened up the squeeze some more. MK finally got through with helmet off and could see it's well worth opening up more to get others in today. EF then had a go at the front for a while whilst MK filled buckets to be taken up. EF and MK then swapped places and it was looking so much easier. After MK finished there was enough room to pass through the squeeze 2 cavers abreast. Went on to explore leaving JC on the outside of the squeezes. Numerous squeezes along the bedding to the west and a few hairy boulder chokes before we eventually arrived at a chamber roughly 30m x 15m with a height of at least a few metres. Estimated 60m of horizontal passage today. Lots of cryogenic stal' in the chamber to tape off and formations. Obvious way on following the slope floor down but this will be another day and we have loads of stabilsing to do, it's only a matter of time before traffic in there gets someone really hurt. The chamber shall be called Tea Party Chamber (I suspect quite a few mugs will get drunk here). 6 hours, Mike.

MK's Youtube video for today.

Tea Party Chamber, EF in photo. Photo MK.

MK in the initial breakthrough point after widening. Photo EF.

Friday 25th July 2025

Mike Kushy and David Morrison (Tuska). Continuing building work on the rustic well entrance. 7 hours. Mike.

Photo MK.

Front doors. Photo MK.

DM admiring his work. Photo MK.

Sunday 20th July 2025

Mike Kushy, Mike Moxon, Trevor Hughes and John Cooper. MK went in early (around 2ish) with the drill and proceeded to pry rock at the dig face and break down to size. MM, TH and JC arrived around 2.30, I believe the order was: MK at dig face, MM hauling the first rope, TH at the alcove exchanging buckets and JC doing the top haul. MK had quite the battle with the rocks blocking the way on into the West, in the meantime the rest cleared any back log. 51 buckets cleared and some large rocks sent to the alcove. With impeding rocks eventually cleared MK had a go at the left slope through the West hole. Some slumping occured whilst this was being pushed and the floor dropped away leaving MK temporarily held up by his arms. The slope to the left has the biggest draught and is like sticking your head near an open fridge, the right seems to be a calcited stream floor coming round to meet the left hole. Looking vertically down through the left hole a rocky and steep slope heads back in under us and out of view. Best bet is to keep clearing the floor at the junction of the West branch, unfortunately this means we are going to have to look at upping our retaining wall game...possibly block the old haul tube and fill that whole area in with some clever walling? We all got out around 5.30pm. Mike K.

MK's youtube videos from today

The sloping passage to the left and the holes to the right, in the West hole. Photo MK.

Looking down over the slope to the left, after the floor collapse. Photo MK.

Saturday 19th July 2025

Ed Ford & Mike Kushy headed down 10.30. Ed was sent down to the dig first with the drill box. The North wall has a boulder, currently supported but slowly getting undercut with only mud fill. The first point of the day was to support this with scaffolding. Once measured a 900mm section was cut by Kushy while Ed drilled a hole for a pin. With the scaff piece fitted we got on to the main job of pulling boulders out the floor. These still had a fair amount of fill around them. The first boulder came free after around 5 buckets with a bit of help from the crowbar. It was a bit disconcerting at first as the whole floor was lifting exposing another couple of moderate size boulders. Once loose these were plug and feathered. Upon the second round Ed got one stuck and had to drill more holes to split the bolder. Kushy took over and sped the whole process up with a steady stream of rock coming out of the floor and being stacked in the alcove. Ed started taking the fill and emptying it down some holes where he discovered the rocks sounded like they were falling deeper than the current dig. At this point Kushy had made a hole wide enough to slip through into the west wall. This bit of passage is all clean washed and appears to be rift like. There are two big boulders, frustratingly moving but not coming out. Ed swapped and had a go before giving up. Ed moved up to mix 2 Daren Drums of sand with half cement while Kushy went back to playing. The mix was used to shove some rock into the west wall and build a retaining wall. The dig is currently looking very promising with open passage beyond the two rocks. It seems to be following underneath a natural bedding plane. Good session spending around 5 1/2 hours. Ed.

MK's youtube videos from today

Ed drilling pins for scaff', Ed facing east. Photo MK

The hole to the West. Photo MK.

Closer look into the West hole. Photo MK.