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.

Saturday 12th July 2025

Lee Venning, Hollie London, Ed Ford and Mike Kushy. Met at 10. MK forgot his drill but fortunately LV had one he could bring. Took in drill and some drums of sand and 1 of cement. LV went to the dig face and cleared around 20 buckets, then HL went to the front and did around a dozen buckets. EF then went to the face and cleared until it was big boulders that needed downsizing. MK then went to the front and did some pf work. MK stayed at the face for the rest of the session, around 60 buckets cleared in total. HL then left and LV/EF started mixing up some cement, which MK used up at the face. Nice draughty hole in the floor, that draughts more the more stuff pulled out, but is hard to fully clear currently. LV and EF in the meantime removed more rock from the higher bucket route and flattened out the route well. MK used some cement to start a wall opposite the 'alcove' to hold back the ever slumpin' mud wall. LV and EF headed out with drill and whatever bags/drums they could manage. MK stayed on for another half hour and did his best to render up the upper bucket route. MK came out with 3 drums and a tackle sack, all tackle sacks and empty drums left in the lockbox on surface. 1 full drum of sand in the cave and 1/2 drum of cement. The dig face is mainly 1ft wide boulders that need prying and pf's down to size. 5 hours. Mike.

MK's youtube video from today

Looking down. Photo HL.

Looking down. Photo HL.

Looking down. Photo HL.

Draughty hole, this is looking east into the floor. Photo MK.

The beginning of the wall opposite the 'Alcove'. Photo MK.

Some rock removed for ease of the upper haul. Photo MK.

Final section of the upper haul, rock removed and rendered. Photo MK.

Wednesday 9th July

 Mike Wise, Ed Ford and Sam Hill. Carried in 3 daren drums of sand and EF also took a 1/2 drum of cement. We dropped all this at Cement Dig and went to have a look at the scaff structure. We agreed it looked sound enough with the bar ends pinned or blocked and cemented and the descending block and flake adequately supported. Mulling over whether to dig here or endure purgatory at Puddle, it was decided by unanimous vote to continue digging down here. SH took pole position having not seen it since early April, MW went to the top and EF heroically shuttled between the shaft top and the awkward boulder half way up the slope carrying 2 buckets at a time and unjamming pretty much every bucket at least once in different locations. Between 19:00 and 20:30 we moved out 26 buckets at which point we decided to call it an evening. We are all still alive and EF is clearly made of heroic stuff!

 Photos by N/A

 2 1/2 hours 

Mike Wise 

Tuesday 8th July 2025

am. John Cooper spent a couple of hours trying to turn triangular blocks into rectangular building stones. Running out of nice rocks; filling trailer with rubbish rocks. John.

Monday 7th July 2025

am. John Cooper spent a couple of hours trying to turn triangular blocks into rectangular building stones. John.

Saturday 5th July 2025

Mike Kushy and John Gisborne. Met at 10am and took in tackle sack of scaff' clips, angle grinder, drill and small tools for the work. MK went to the dig face first to assess any movement, then JG went in to look at what scaffolding work was needed. The aim was to make it safe, but also allow enough room to still dig. We opted to close up the 'up cave' area as there's no way we're making our way horizontally back under ourselves. JG set about drilling for 16mm threaded pins and starting the scaffold whilst MK went back to surface to get more pole. 6 x 2m poles brought in. It's feeling a heck of a lot safer already so we made some cement mixes to build up around the scaff' bar ends. Another couple of weekends work yet before back to clearing. Amazing draught today seemingly coming from everywhere! It looks as though we may be on top of an E/W rift about 2ft wide, clearing back the opposite side to our proud solid wall and a little lower it's looking a lot like one big wall...but time will tell. 1 daren drum of sand in cave and all empty drums took to surface to be refilled, also need to take in water for mixing. 4 1/2 hours. Mike.

JG fitting scaffold supports. Photo MK.

Looking North into dig base. Photo MK.

Looking South into dig base. Photo MK.

Friday 4th July 2025

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and David Morrison. Tuska and Kushy spent the whole day on the surface building up the entrance turret. John did a couple of hours in the afternoon ferrying scaffold bars and clamps to site as well as topping up water for cement mixing. John.

Wednesday 2nd July 2025

AM - Mike Kushy and Mike Wise arrived around 11. We took in drill and 5 lengths of conveyor. MW took edges and lumps from the bucket path whilst MK pushed down the spoil pit and made more room for stacking. The conveyor worked well but lacking anchor rock we need to take in some bigger pins. Got to surface around 1.30pm for lunch with Tuska and to help get his generator out of his car. 2 1/2 hours, MK.

PM - Mike Wise, Mike Kushy, John Cooper, Hollie London, Ed Ford and Tuska. JC arrived around 2pm and he MK and MW headed on down. To start JC sat by the alcove with MK on the step and MW filling buckets. We cleared 20 buckets into the alcove, pretty smooth and uneventful. HL arrived around 2.30 and replaced JC who went to the top haul. MW and MK swapped places and 70 more buckets cleared. HL then went to the dig face and MK swapped with MW. After several buckets HL called up to MK and asked for some assistance. MK climbed down and found HL was using a 15-20kg rock as a pillow. MK offered to take the pillow off HL's shoulder and HL was able to climb out, leaving MK to hold the boulder. We decided to climb out a little and let everything settle. HL went back to hauling and MK cleared the loose from higher up, during this more good sized rocks fell out and everything felt quite uncomfortable and we decided to let it settle for a while. We stopped at 100 buckets. Just as we had finished EF arrived, so MK and EF went to look at the Puddle Dig which is definitely clearable. May be a good plan to go back to clearing Puddle Dig on a Wednesday evening whilst we engineer Cement Dig. We need to scaff' frame and cement our way down Cement Dig steadily, best to do as full days on weekends. Good draught as usual, which seems to come from up cave slightly, nice holes in the floor getting larger and wall looking more wall like with what seems to be another ledge lower down. 4 hours. MK.

EF in Puddle Dig. Photo MK.

Tuesday 1st July 2025

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Collected rocks and some sand from White Rabbit and delivered them to TempleTwin. In exchange collected the cement mixer from TempleTwin and delivered to White Rabbit. Too hot still to do any work. 1 hour. John.

Wednesday 25th June 2025

John Cooper, Hollie London, Ed Ford and Mike Wise on site to do some more spoil removal and initiate modifications to the stepping in right hand (or left hand depending on your view of things) wall.

We met Dave Morrison while changing and undertook training on the process for opening the new gate and wooden lid before heading in.

HL and EF worked at the front, with MW on the corner and JC up top hauling and dumping. The corner was modified slightly which reduced the bucket jamming frequency and opportunities for improvement work next week were noted.

After 20 minutes or so HL advised  finding a hole at least a metre deep (isn't that a MK line?) which she proceeded to widen before swapping with EF. The draught noticeably increased at this point. EF descended and proceeded to open up the hole further and partially fill it with mud - at least according to HL :)

We lost count of buckets after the first half dozen but it is likely some 25 or so were removed in the hour allowed.

After this, JC and EF exited via the old route and attached our new wire to the end of the old and deployed it to the surface. MW started drilling while HL sat shivering in the draught, ear plugs in and trying not to drop too much loose spoil down MWs neck. Five 10mm holes were drilled, 4 along the stepped in wall and one on the 'left' of the hole. One drill bit snapped off in the drill chuck, but happily both parts were extracted and operations continued with the spare.

The new hole is impressively large and we are a good distance below the 'undercut' now. It made it quite easy to get in and do the necessary after the holes had been drilled.

After some wire fettling, HL and MW exited via the new route and met JC and EF who were relaxing on the surface. HL got the drill bag caught on the wooden lid on the way out.

Rock modification could just be heard from the surface.

JC and MW had some fun trying to shut the new gating arrangement. 

2 hours for JC and EF, 3 hours for HL and MW

Photos by HL

Mike Wise  

Before starting the session

The hole appears and the draught picks up

as above

The other end of the hole with rock bridge. One 10mm hole made in the 'wall' just above the wellie boot

as above 

overall view before rock modification

Monday 23rd June 2025

Mike Kushy and Dave Morrison. Fitting new doors, mesh and preparing for turret building. Also had a tidy up of the thistles. 2 1/2 hours. Mike.

Framework. Photo DM.

Framework. Photo DM.

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.

Wednesday 4th June 2025

 Hollie London, Trevor Hughes, Mike Wise, Ed Ford, Chris Holt and John Cooper on a mission to level the bottom of Cement Dig. HL, EF and CH each spent approximately 30 minutes digging and filling buckets. The top rope attachment loop was found to have a very long tail; when this was adjusted the rope reached all the way from JC at the dumping spot to TH at the top of the shaft making hauling easy peasy especially with MW, EF and CH assisting the buckets to negotiate the corners. A new 8m rope was attached to the top rope krab and left to follow the bucket, making it easy to retrieve the bucket from JC after emptying.

EF had a 1 on 1 battle with a tooth shaped rock in the floor which was rocking to and fro but did not want to be extracted. The full time score was EF 0 - Rock 1. In extra time CH and MW took a look at it but the final score was Diggers 0 - Rock 3, with a grand total of 42 buckets removed, all of which were dumped by JC with the rest of the team rotating to different extents.

At the end MW went down to review the status at the bottom and was really pleased to find a flat floor with no downhill wriggling needed to see the 'corner' and a clearance of maybe 15" below the undercut. The floor has some rocks embedded in the mud but a bit of minor furtling indicated these could be dug out.

No-one got cold as the draught wasn't as strong as it was on the last visit, but TH and MW got persistently dripped on while positioned just above the top of the shaft.

 JC took CH out via the old cave, HL carried my bag of tools in and out - thanks HL!

Before digging photo

After digging photo - the rock mentioned above can be seen in the floor just above the krab

 2 hrs and 15 minutes

Before and after photos by HL 

 

Mike Wise

Saturday 31st May 2025

Mike Kushy and Mike Wise. Took in 2 8ft scaff bars and 2 x daren drums of sand/dust to Cement Dig. MW cut the bars whilst MK drilled for pins. MK also made a small mix and started buliding up a wall from solid ledge at the bottom. MW then made a further load of mix to keep building. No building materials left so will have to fill Daren drums to carry in next session. Lovely draughts coming from all holes leading 'down cave'. 4 hours. MK.

MK's youtube video from today

The dig face (looking east), I'm stood on the big solid ledge. Photo by MK.

Wednesday 28th May 2025

 John Cooper,Jake Baynes, Mike Kushy, Hollie London and Mike Wise

Johns log entry:

  I went in via the Puddle Dig route and had a look at the bottom of Cement Dig before the others arrived. At least a couple of meters deeper than the last time I was there. Hauling was done in two stages using two ropes. Started with MW at the bottom filling small buckets (5L) which HL hauled up and passed across to JB. He removed the bucket from that haul rope and attached it to the upper one which I pulled up and emptied. Initially we were hauling and dumping via the original East slope but when MK arrived the top haul moved across to the West slope where emptying by MK was easier, even though a longer haul. After a while I swapped with MK so resumed emptying the buckets. Much later, about the time the spoil being removed changed from bang debris to original deposit (sticky and muddy), MW and HL swapped. 60 loads of spoil removed from bottom. Definitely needs 5 people to work effectively.

 

Mike Wise log entry.

 The first 30 buckets were easy containing mostly bang debris. The following 30 were harder to fill and empty comprising in the main sticky mud and access to grab this stuff was down slope and under the under cut, so was harder to get at.  In the end HL was able to get in under the bedding roof and see around a sharp left corner into about 1m of narrow ongoing passage. Spoil removal at the corner noticeably improved the draught but there is loose material coming down from above the undercut somewhere. 

On Saturday 31st some stabilisation work is planned by MW and MK unless 3 more bodies are available in which case some more clearing will be done.

 We also need to improve the method for hauling up from the bottom - it is unnecessarily difficult. 

No photos this week, but prospects are looking more positive than they have for quite a while

 2.5 hours

Mike Wise.

Friday 16th May 2025

Mike Kushy. 1 hour filling trailer with rocks. Mike.

Photo MK.

Sunday 11th May 2025

Mike Kushy. Went to Puddle Dig and moved some spoil back behind walls I built. Fairly draughty and long crowbar goes into the muddy floor with hardly any resistance. Then on to Cement Dig and cleared some of the backlog further back. Much stronger draught at this site and actually got quite cold even though I was moving the whole time. 2 hours. Mike.

Wednesday May 7th

 Mikes' Wise and Kushy checking out the result of last week's bang and to clear what we could with our limited resources. The left hand wall was damaged, but still intact and solid looking.  The rock in the floor had been broken out. MW dragged out the rock from the floor and some loads of the loose or detachable lumps for MK to stack or throw further up the passage above. We then swapped and MK investigated the undercut pulling off some more large lumps before attacking the backwall and uncovering a decent sized descending hole adjacent to and connected with the undercut. After removal of a large triangular rock, this showed the same sticky, stone filled and wet mud infill that we had buried with bang debris last week. MW probed the floor here with the large crowbar,  shoving it down 2ft without too much effort.  In summary we seem to have solid left and right hand walls and bedding roof and maybe have left the horrible loose stuff behind. We also now have room to dig. All we need is a minimum team of 5 for a 1/2 day to clear all the bang debris and the mud infill so we can see what we have found. 

2 hours

Mike Wise

Wednesday April 30th

Mikes Wise and Kushy to tidy up the base of Cement Dig and continue with necessary alterations.

5 previously stashed full buckets were moved out and 3 more extracted from the dig. MW drilled 7 holes, 5 in the left hand wall and 2 in the newly exposed rock in the floor and charged them while MK did more tidying up above.

On exit MK diverted to initiate some noise.

Despite feeling a bit unwell, MK still carried the drill bag in and out - thanks a lot MK

MK at the top of the shaft using his light to make himself invisible

Photo by MW

2 hours

Mike Wise

Wednesday April 23rd

Mike Wise and Mike Kushy along with Trevor Hughes (welcomed back after an illness), for a clearing session following the recent rock disturbance.

The hoped for open space on the left had not materialised but a large amount of rock had been sheared off the front leaving a clean face for next time and no significant collateral damage was noted.

Between us we dug, filled, hauled and disposed of north of 50 buckets of debris plus 5 or 6 big lumps of rock.

In doing this, we dug down on the right into the space left by the absent steps and below the bang debris into virgin fill. This was a solid but wet clay embedded with small stone. Soon afterwards we exposed an undercut some 18" deep running along the entire right hand side with a solid looking, flow stone covered vertical wall at its back. Also exposed was a rib of resistant rock with a rounded upper edge running at right angles across the middle of the dig. The connection of this rib with the right hand wall was hammered energetically, but nothing much resulted.

Satisfied for the moment we exited after 2.5 hours

At the start of the session a slight draught could be detected which I thought might be coming from the right hand hole that MK pushed in the first phase of WRH exploration. As we exposed the clay and undercut the draft increased noticeably to become a conversation piece above. I thought it came from the undercut. MK went down for a quick look as we exited and thought it was coming from the clean face on the left hand wall.

The next session will be used to clear the bottom of loose debris completely and if we remember to bring them, to use a smoke match or two. A photo or two will also be taken.

Mike Wise

Wednesday April 9th

Mike Wise, Mike Kushy and Sam Hill to do some clearing of the rubble at Cement Dig meeting at 1800. Before we could get at the dig debris, we needed to do some tidying up in the approach passage. MK hauled buckets of smaller material, while MW and SH dealt with larger blocks which were lifted out and stashed out of the way in the calcited rift area. This took at least 30 minutes.

With only three of us, heroic efforts had to be made, especially by Sam, with MW passing him buckets and MK somewhere above disposing of debris. Nevertheless, a veritable mountain of loose material  flew up in our shiny, but overpoweringly pleasant smelling new buckets and out via 2 bucket drag lines. A good few large rocks also somehow were got all the way out. This was kept going for an hour or so taking us to around 2045. Unfortunately, we all forgot to count the buckets.

MW then did some drilling. The floor in front of the left hand alcove shown in the final photo from Saturdays blog entry was dug back to what seemed to be a solid base. 6 holes were drilled. The back wall is split by a diagional joint; above the joint are some calcite features, below is clean rock. At some point during this activity MW found himself talking to MK rather than SH as SH had departed; it was getting late. MW and MK exited at 2200 after subjecting the drilled alcove to a bit of a prod.

Photo by Mike Wise 

Sam playing piggy in the middle

Saturday April 5th

Last Wednesday MK had noticed on our way out something of potential interest, so after finishing a session at BagPit, MW and MK went back to take a look.

 The 'something' was at the top right of the bedding below Calcite Squeeze and immediately below the crawl into Boulder Rift Chamber. A small ledge curves around to the right below a big slab and terminates where it slopes down in front of a wall. Small stones dropped several metres. 

MW went along the ledge and started digging mud out ahead, sandstone cobbles came as well. It looks like water has come down from the Boulder Rift crawl and mud and cobbles are plentiful. The ledge has a lip on it at the front edge. After clearing, we swapped and MK stuck his head far enough to see down the wall. It was draughting noticeably but we think it connects with Tooth Dig somewhere and would be almost impossible to dig, so we left it alone.

Photos attached are by MK and include a couple of the Cement Dig taken on Saturday whilst collecting a bucket and crowbar. Wednesdays conclusion was successful and there is plenty to clear. Plan is for a 6pm meet on Wednesday

1.5 hours

Mike W 

2 photos - MW sat on the ledge getting mud and cobbles out to create some space. The slope of cobbles leading up to Boulder Rift crawl can be glimpsed to the right of the crowbar. The drop is below the notch in the roof.

MW stretching to grab a rock from in front of the vertical wall.

MK looking down into the bottom of Cement Dig. Lots of rubble. On the right are the broken remains of the second step.

MK sat in the bottom on a floor of broken rubble just waiting for removal. Right middle, just out of view, is the small passage pushed previously to the right. Upper left a view exposed by the removal of a rock.

Back on Wednesday.

Wednesday 2nd April

Mike W with Mike K to clear the larger rocks and prep to push on at the bottom of Cement Dig. We went in through the new cave with MK taking a detour to view the Puddle and grab his P&Fs.

In the dig, MW split the large rock into 2 pieces and after some struggle got the still rather large 'half' up to MK. The 2nd half was even bigger so this was split. Apart from one other being split, the rest of the rocks were manhandled out which was a bit of a struggle given the lack of footholds in the pit.

After a bit of cleaning of loose debris during which a few more large rocks were found and shifted out, the view looking down from the top was of a nice rock bench curving around the hole below where the bottom step had been. This was some 250mm wide, 500mm or so deep and approx. 1.5m long. From the floor, the low passage MK had previously pushed a bit was now accessible curving off to the right. Finally, a large rock that MK might have cemented in place in the past and which blocks the 'way on' at 11 on a clock face was accessible. A slight draught was detectable.

The bench took 2 x 12mm x 550mm holes and the blocking rock took another. A 4th hole swallowed one of MW's drill bits which snapped off at nearly full depth! After charging we retired back up through the horizontal passage where all the rocks had been dumped last week and stopped just above at the front of the calcited rift to pack up. In the passage which was now pretty much empty due to sterling rock tidying efforts by MK, and just above it in the packing area, the air was freezing cold.

MK fired from Golden Key Chamber, a slight rumble being heard by MW climbing the ladders and we exited after 2.5 hours.

 The Puddle had dropped a little bit but there is still plenty of water there.

Tuesday 25th March

Mike W and Sam H to assess the damage made in Cement Dig from last weeks activity, move out what material we could and assess possibilities for next steps.

The steps had disappeared, creating some much needed space and there was a lot of mixed sized debris in the bottom. A hole up on the right, not visible from the steps was disgorging stones, mud and clay at random with quite a lot already on the floor. Further space creation opportunities exist on the right at floor level. Cement work was largely intact.

With Sam in the hole and Mike perched above, 4 buckets of small stuff and all the accessible medium, large and larger but manageable rocks were brought up and dumped on the only flat surface available (where the end of the wire had been left). Sam uncovered two very large rocks which could be moved but not lifted out.

Actions needed in the normal course of events would be a) cement up the loose hole b) P&F the large rocks and lift them out and c) get a team of at least 5 to move the rocks back to a suitable spot and then chain out all the small stuff in buckets. While discussing this we started getting terminally depressed at the thought of how much cement would be needed to be brought down to accomplish the first task. We instead discussed the use of lightweight, but strong GRP grid, brought down in suitably sized sections and either bolted into place or wedged behind steel tubing or dexion. This has been successfuly used in LVS to create a working platform and hold back the loose overhead boulder choke. Suitably installed, possibly with chicken wire behind it, this could also enable storage of much of the small and medium sized debris, avoiding the painful thought of chaining it out. The hole needs gardening and surveying to establish details of course, but we left feeling much more cheerful following this discussion. We just need to find some off-cuts.

Time underground 1 hour. Write up by Mike W / Photos by Sam.

Photos.  1 before clearance /  2 and 3 after clearance / 4 Puddle dig, still very wet

Wednesday March 19th 2025

Mike W and Mike K, having discussed the matter a couple of times recently, decided to go and disturb the floor in Cement Dig. Mike K arrived first and went ahead, bag in hand, to check the results of a recent disturbance in Puddle Dig and rollup and retrieve the wire; Mike W followed carrying a drill bag and battery box. The two Mikes met at the connection point into Boulder Rift chamber and soon were reminiscing about previous visits to the 'old cave'. Mike W inserted himself into the bottom of the dig and found there wasn't room to swing a drill, so it was decided to open things up by making the two steps disappear. 4 holes were drilled in the bottom step and 2 in the upper step. Although some quickly holed through at 300mm, others were drilled normally to between 400 and 600 mm. Mike K busied himself dropping dried mud down Mike W's neck and into the drilled holes. After some faffing around, the job was done and Mike K laid a wire trail all the way back to Golden Key Chamber. He fired just as Mike W was hauling bags up the 10ft climb. 3 hours  Mike W

A disturbed but still quite wet Puddle dig. Photo MK.

Mike W sitting on the lower step in Cement Dig. Photo MK.

Wednesday 12th March 2025

Mike Kushy and Mike Wise. MK went in early and cleared some mud. Pool still there. MW arrived and 4 holes drilled, 3m used. 2 1/2 hours. Mike K.

Dig face. Photo MK.

Wednesday 26th February 2025

Mike Kushy, Sam Hill and Mike Wise. Very wet cave today after the heavy rain yesterday. MK took the drill and the 'rinsed out' pf box in. Broke up the large rocks laying in the pool and tossed them further back. The pool only had water in the half closest, beyond was fairly dry and gaps could be seen over the mud. SH arrived in the midst of MKs aqueous mud mining but didn't opt to tag in. We both moved some rocks higher up to the dam. MW then arrived and with SH near Tooth Dig, MK hauling and MW filling the buckets we cleared the dam fully. We then all congregated at the bottom where MK unwound the bung and shoved his arm up the pipe to unblock it. This consequently rushed into the dig and my suit got a good clean. No pictures and you wouldn't want to see the state of it. The dam water raised the pool level by a good 2 inches. Think this is a good time to leave this dig site until warmer weather. Let's head North! 2 1/2 hours. Mike.

Sam Hill's video upon arrival.