Saturday 2nd March 2024

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Nigel Graham, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Sleet/rain on surface – not nice. One full mix of cement done. Adrian capped rocks for building material. Most of the cement was then used by Pete building up the wall. John used a bit of cement higher up. Meanwhile, on the surface, Nigel was moving spoil from the heap to the wall fill. A second full mix of cement was then done before Jude and Nigel retreated back to Upper Pitts. All this was used by Pete building up the main wall. Nice holes in the floor but a lot of clatch to move out first - 4 people? Filled up the water container but no sand or cement on site now (just rock dust). 3½ hours.John.

Pete wall building. Photo AV.

Looking back out. Photo AV.

Onwards and downwards. Fossil, upper centre left? Photo AV.

Onwards and downwards. Photo AV.

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.