Saturday 6th August 2022

 

Geoff, Mark H. and Mike (to start).  Started by clearing spoil left from John’s midweek session, quite a pile 2 hours clearing. Mark in the meantime  worked on forwards/downwards, finally he managed to wriggle the seemingly glued together rocks apart. Space was seen ahead so Mike swapped with Mark, after a few more rocks were removed Mike was able to squeeze through into a calcited (muddy) and decent sized chamber (approx 4m long, 3m wide and 1.5m high). Voids everywhere and some nice stal tucked away in corners. The obvious way on is down to the right when entering where what seems to be another chamber and a tall rift below (Draught increased). John arrived about 3pm to mix up and cement was put in, in preparation for the next breakthrough. 4 ½ hours. *cave is 12.5m deep then approx. 6.5m long. Mike

John Cooper, Mark Helmore, Mike Kousiounis and Geoff Newton. MH, MK and GN started clearing spoil at 1pm and were joined by JC at 3pm. MH and MK had been at the bottom with GN hauling until JC arrived to relieve GN. Another hour of hauling before GN went down and replaced MH. JC then did a mix of cement which MK used on the left hand wall while GN continued sending up rocks. It is now possible to get into a small chamber at the end of the horizontal passage with a way down probably on the right hand side.  4¼ hours total. John.

Friday 5th August 2022

John Cooper. Plug and feather work along the bottom passage, right hand side. 1½ hours. John.

Tuesday 2nd August 2022

John Cooper. Plug and feather work along the bottom passage. 1½ hours. John.

Sunday 31st July 2022

 

Sunday 31^st July 2022. John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Geoff Newton. Took across support beam and fixings. Mike and Geoff at the bottom fixed it in place. Then a constant stream of spoil was hauled out by John. Two buckets in use meant as soon as the empty one reached the bottom it was swapped for a full one. Probably more loads than Friday were hauled out. After a couple of hours lunch break and Geoff departed. John did a mix of cement which was sent down and used by Mike walling with John at the bottom as well providing made to measure rocks. 4 hours. John.

Mike, Geoff and John. Mike and Geoff at the bottom, takes two people to dig the bottom now. Mike was in about 8ft under the big boulder, cleared roughly 30+ buckets of big rock and clatch. Geoff had a go at the sharp end and pulled out 2 very large slabs. These were left in for cement work. Whilst Geoff was in the questionable scaff bar moved out of place, this was replaced with a larger bar now sat on much more solid rock. Oh! The first part of today’s session Mike and Geoff attached the angle iron high up on the right to support the ceiling (John hsd cut and drilled this at home), Geoff left at 1pm then John made a mix and came down with Mike to break up the big slabs, Great draught(s) as usual! I think the strongest came from the hole in the right wall I believe, but a pungent draught came from down below and forwards 4 ½ hours. Mike

Friday 29th July 2022

John Cooper and Geoff Newton. Took over another tub of water. With Geoff at the bottom John hauled out 14 loads of rocks left from Wednesday. Then John went down with drill and plug and feathers to create more rock. 10 loads sent up to the surface. Going in horizontally now. Roughly measured for a support beam to be fixed to the right hand wall. 2½ hours. John.

Wednesday 27th July 2022

John Cooper. Took over 4 bags of sand and a bag of cement. There are now 6 bags of sand and 1 ¾ bags of cement on site. Continued breaking up rock on the right hand side. There is now very little holding up the right hand end of the scaffold bars which support the roof. Need to fasten a support to the wall to help hold them up. Lots of rocks to haul out. Nice outward draught from way on. 1½ hours. John.