Wednesday 28th February 2024

John Cooper and David Morrison (Tuska). John started at 15.00 and moved rocks up from the bedding plane to the base of the entrance shaft. Only about half a dozen left to move when Tuska arrived at 16.00. By then the heap of rocks had very nearly reached the bottom of the fixed ladder, which would have pleased Nigel. Tuska then hauled rocks for 2½ hours, John loading and moving the last few up from the bedding plane.Towards the end Tuska was working in the dark as he had not brought a light along and it was thick mist. All spoil cleared when we left. However, a look at the bottom showed lots more cementing, clearing and boulder breaking still to do. 3½ hours. John.

Sunday 25th February 2024

Sam Hill, Mike Kushy and Alex Hannam.

MK and SH to start with. Took both drills in and broke up rocks at the dig face, SH breaking down rocks big enough to move back then MK making them even small further back. AH joined us after about an hour. With SH at the sharp end, AH behind and MK receiving rocks and stashing them up cave. Lots of buckets of clatch moved behind the retaining wall.  AH went to the front for a while and worked on some blocks. MK went to the front and filled up buckets of clatch from the floor, revealing some enticing holes. The retaining wall is now full and there's rock filling the bottom of the shaft, the space between the bedding and loose rock down the bottom. A few big boulders to break up at the sharp end still. Also the very bottom needs more wall building in the floor. Good view straight on as well. We need to keep straight on as a future option, but the floor is the better prospect. Good draught. 4 1/2 hours. Mike.

MK's YouTube video from today

Sam Hill and Alex Hannam at the dig face. Photo MK.

The dig face at the end of session. Photo MK.

View of ahead. Photo MK.

Saturday 24th February 2024

John Cooper, Pete Hann, David Morrison (Tuska) and Jude Vanderplank. Carried across two new bags of sand. One full mix of cement done and used by Pete (60%) at the bottom building supporting walls whilst John used up the rest higher up. Meanwhile Tuska was building walls on the surface. A second full mix was then done before Tuska left. Pete used all of it at the bottom. His wall now reaches and supports the roof boulder. One large boulder cemented into the floor as it was too big to fit on a wall. As we were finishing Jude appeared to inspect the work. 3 hours. John.

Bottom, inwards and downwards. Photo JV.

Wednesday 21st February 2024

John Cooper. Early evening trip to carry on with p&f on the large rock. Now in smaller chunks. Whether they are now small enough for Pete to build with will find out another day. Nice trickle of water flowing along and down into the floor. 1½ hours. John.

Pete Hillier and Trevor Hughes arrived on site at 19.00. Once at the dig face it was obvious that someone (John) had kindly destroyed the rock that I was going for tonight.
To give us room to work we hauled about 8 skip loads of ugly rocks to the surface enabling us to move the wall building rocks, so recently produced, away from the dig face. I attacked the next boulder forward and reduced it to a single residual piece. Quite a few smaller rocks were pulled out of the end leaving an enticing open space ahead from which emitted the usual draught.
We stopped work at 21.30 as the clarion call of the Hunters was beckoning.
The next trip (Sunday?) may, given some careful rock breaking, allow access to the c2m open passage ahead.
Good luck to the Sunday team. Trevor.

Sunday 18th February 2024

John Cooper and Trevor Hughes. John took across 2 bags of sand and a bag of cement, bringing back 3 of the scaffold poles which have been left in the digging shed at Upper Pitts. There are still 5 left on site. Trevor used p&f on the large rock ahead whilst I ferried some rocks out to the surface. 2½ hours. John.

The dig face  after yesterday’s session. Photo TH.

The top rock has been reduced in size, then split in half vertically and the right hand (slightly smaller) half reduced to spoil/walling stone. The left hand half has been turned 90deg with the sheared face uppermost ready for the next visitors to further reduce. The debris from yesterday is somewhat haphazardly stacked adjacent to the new wall and needs to be climbed on cautiously. Rather splendid open voids can be seen ahead and the whole area draughts well. A lot more work needs to be done to 1) reduce the residual top rock and 2) demolish the lower rock - which does move slightly. All this took 2 1/2 hours with JC nobly acting as my assistant and spoil remover. A decent pile of rock was brought out to the surface and the concreting stocks replenished by John. Trevor.

Saturday 17th February 2024

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann and Adrian Vanderplank. Carried across a new bag of cement. John pointed out yesterday’s cementing so Adrian and Pete could avoid it. Capping kit taken in and used by Adrian breaking up boulders. One mix of cement done and taken down for use by Pete then John was despatched to get his drill and more caps. Lots more breaking up boulders by Adrian as well as clatch deposited behind retaining walls. Another mix of cement then done before calling it a day. No sand left, only stone dust in 1 dumpy bag. Third of a bag of cement left. Nigel got down the ladder and back up it again but didn’t get off the bottom. A couple of boulders hauled out to show willing, however plenty of space to build them into support walls. 4½ hours.John.

Loose blocks on the floor and far side capped. Some larger boulders in the floor also capped. Cementing on the near side with the intention of building a pillar to support the rock in the roof. Also infilling gaps on the left hand side with rocks and cement. Adrian.

Friday 16th February 2024

Mike Kushy and John Cooper.

MK started at 11am, took in drill and used the batteries taking apart the big boulder, still some of it left over. Buckets of clatch were filled and emptied behind the retaining wall. At 13.30 JC arrived and came down the bottom to help move a few dozen more buckets of clatch. Cement mixes were then made. 6 decent buckets were used in total, John filling some gaps higher up and MK working on stabilising the bottom. A decent pillar was built up to an overhanging boulder and a step was created to ease getting in and out of the very bottom. Interesting holes appearing at the bottom, one deep hole in the floor and a few straight ahead. 3 big blocks to dismantle and we could be into a new area. Finished at 16.00. 5 hours for me, Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

The dig face. Photo MK.

Sunday 11th February 2024

Mike Kushy, David Morrison (Tuska) and John Cooper. Started with MK at the dig face breaking up rocks and filling up behind retaining wall with clatch, DM was on surface wall building. MK around 1pm being overwhelmed with rocks brought a load up to the base of the shaft. JC had just arrived and a dozen buckets were sent up to surface. MK then went back to the dig face to use up the rest of the batteries breaking up rock. The face of the very large rock came off but there is still alot more to demolish. Cement had been mixed and JC joined MK down the bottom for cement work. The retaining wall was raised further (nearly to the ceiling, but still a gap to tip buckets into). JC also cemented some more stuff higher up, there is still a small hole at the step down that clatch can be poured into. JC came down to inspect the bottom and work was done stabilising the walls at the very bottom. Some clearing out of the floor and this will need to be continued building upon next time. Strong outward draught today from new hole in the floor. Lots of fossils and some coral around. 4 1/2 hours for me. Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

Haven't had a photo of the surface for a while. Photo MK

The bottom after clearing, obvious big block still in place to downsize further. Photo MK.

Wednesday 7th February 2024

Trevor Hughes, Mike Kushy and John Cooper.

MK started about 10.30 and went in to inspect damage after bang. Perfect charge and took out/down just what was needed. Filled up several small buckets of gravel and emptied them in the rift above. TH Showed up just after 11 and went to the sharp end. A mix of downsized rocks and small buckets were sent up to be stashed or buckets emptied in the rift by MK. This continued until just after 1.30 when JC showed up. MK then went to the bottom and broke up more rock whilst waiting for cement mixes. With cement mixed TH left and JC came down with 2 cement buckets to help with stabilising. Once 1 bucket was empty JC went and did another 2 bucket mix. 4 x large upright buckets of mix were used in total. MK stabilising at the bottom and JC cementing some of the gaps higher up.

The bottom is quite spacious now. At some point the draught changed when TH was clearing and now blows out rather than getting drawn in. There's a constant stream running through after the hard rain. A retaining wall has been built over the stream and upwards to brace the rocks higher up. It needs a scaff pole put in place to keep drainage running.

Looking down into the way on, the ceiling could do with some steel support at some stage. A few angle brackets and tactfully placed box section steel should sort this out, but not an immediate concern because digging down you are well clear of the ceiling.

Loads of gravel/clatch to come out and a few big rocks in the passage to be downsized yet. Small spoil can go either behind the newly built retaining wall or into the ongoing rift above, so easily digging with 2...we will try to stash building rocks in the cave going forwards.

Looking cavey!

5 1/2 hours for me. Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

Bang debris. Photo MK.

After clearing. Photo MK.

Tuesday 6th February 2024

Evening. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis (Kushy). Whilst Mike set the cord in the holes I ran the wire down the shaft and connected the detonator. Once complete the boulders were popped. 1 hour. John.

Tuesday 6th February 2024

Afternoon. John Cooper. Drilled 7 x 10mm holes, 400-500mm deep, in boulders ready for Mike to demolish. Needs a good cementing session. 1 hour. John.

Sunday 4th February 2024

Dave Morrison, Mike Kushy and Sam Hill to start with. SH down in the pit, MK on the step and DM on surface winching. Lots and lots of clatch cleared, MK pulling up smaller buckets on rope from SH below, and transferring directly to bigger buckets to get winched up by DM. Constant work until 1pm, then SH had some large rocks to dismantle at the dig face. DM left about 1.30pm and MK went to the dig face with SH pouring small buckets into the rift at the end of the bedding bit. Around 2ish Alex Randall and Issac Whitcombe joined us. MK in the pit, SH at the step, IW at the bottom of the ladder and AR on winch (15 minutes later John Cooper and then Rich Witcombe joined the surface team). We cleared all the pit of any loose clatch. Holes all over the place. Lots of big rocks sent up to surface too. A very large boulder in the middle of the passage seems to be blocking a decent bit of space. SH decided to squeeze around the boulder to look at what's beyond. He said there's more boulders...but all looking a lot bigger. We need to keep heading down. IW came to look at the bottom. 5 1/2 hours for me. Mike.

MK's YouTube Video from today

SH squeezing around the offending boulder. Photo MK.

The offending boulder, view looking 45 degree down, from the floor of the pit . Photo MK.

Proposed drill holes, expecting some movement from above, but unable to stabilise so happy for stuff to fall. Photo MK.