Monday 1st September 2025

Mike Kushy, Mike Waterworth and Ed Ford. 

MK to begin with, did an hour on surface picking larger rocks from the newly landcaped ground around the well. 

Latest surface shot. Photo MK.

Got into the cave around 5pm armed with extra batteries and new chisel bits. Picked up a 2ft length of scaffold bar on the way through and a few steel pins. 

First job was to pf the chocked stones in the ceiling of the light connection. Awkward, but all loose blocks removed with 2 batteries. This now gives an unobstructed view of the chamber from above the connection. 

MK in the light connection (after opening it up), looking down into TPC. Photo MK.

Second job was to drill for pins at the lip of the drop into TPC. The scaff' bar was then laid across these to allow decent foot holds to get out and to stop anyone sliding off the edge when coming into TPC. The bar is not fixed as of yet.

Looking up into the light connection, newly fitted foot bar. Photo MK.

MK had a little bit of juice left in one battery so started attacking the calcited phreatic tube with the hammer drill. Shortly EF and MW arrived. The tube looks to be heading into a larger chamber with a small clean washed stone floor.

MK then went to start a trial dig at the higher end of TPC, into the corner it seems to follow the bedding straight on. It quickly became a 2 person dig, meanwhile EF was attacking the calicte phreatic whilst MW scanned the lower regions below the pit. MK then wished the rest of the team good luck and headed out alone. 4 1/2 hours. Mike K.

 

Ed Ford, Kushy & Mike Waterworth down WR tonight. EF and MW headed down 1845. MW spent his time scanning the chamber and various offshoots while Kushy explored a dig at the top of the chamber. EF focused on breaking up flowstone blocking the onwards phreatic tube. Several attempts were made by EF and Kushy to squeeze in but a little too committing. EF confirmed the sight of floor on the other side so no drop off. The tube echos well and there's a strong draft. Kushy left leaving EF and MW to continue. EF P&F'd a block in the ceiling and had a go at navigating the squeeze successfully while MW headed out scanning as he went. EF didn't go into the breakthrough point and opted to leave for next session. Some more calcite could do with coming out of floor to make it a bit easier. All out by 21:30. Ed.

View chamber scan

View cave scan

Sunday 31st August 2025.

Hollie London, Mike Kushy and Ed Ford. 

All arrived just gone 10. After half an hour of dressing and Daren Drum faffing, 3 cavers, 3 mugs, 3 bacon and egg butties, a kettle, a stove, 5L of drinking water, and a selection of tea, coffee and hot chocolate made their way down to TPC. Cement was left at cement dig alcove. HL had to take the gas canister from the stove halfway down as EF was gassing himself with every knock and bang. 

The squeeze was a much more comfortable affair after last week's efforts. MK led the way, collecting conservation tape from higher above to relocate to TPC formations. 

HL's first time in TPC. HL disappeared down a hole in the bottom left of the chamber (red). The hole turned back on itself and continued downwards following the bedding plane for another 10m, with various avens and tubes either side. The bedding plane got tighter and carries on down further at the typical ~45° angle, but would be a longer term lead. Tight with lots of loose blocks and silt further on. EF and MK took turns to explore the onward phreatic passage higher up (blue).

All gathered back in TPC to assess the new tea-making facilities. Cappuccinos and bacon/egg butties in a large roomy chamber felt very un-Mendip of us. Fueled up we attacked the bottom right lead (blue). MK built up the wall above and to the right of the previously explored lead, whilst HL began dragging material out from the 'blue' lead. EF began restructuring the boulder field terracing and retaining walls (yellow). The 'blue' lead is draughting well. A mutual decision was made to remove the calcite over mud floor whilst preserving as much formations as possible.

Tea Party Chamber, Photo HL.

Screenshot 3d scan.

Formations to the right of the phreatic tube. Photo HL

EF looking up into the phreatic with the formations to his right. Photo MK.

HL and MK alternated attacking the calcited mud with all the arsenal. EF also retired from wall building to help out. Another break for tea and hobnobs resulted in the need of toilet facilities, this came in the form of a black 5l container. HL can confirm the toilets are unisex.

Eventually a large block was removed from the 'blue' lead. This allowed a good view on showing an obvious chamber around 3m ahead. The retaining wall for this is now 6ft high and back filled with spoil. It was determined sds chisel bits on the drill would be the best method of attack next round. Camp tidied and rubbish removed, we retreated. Upwards climb out of TPC still a thrutchy struggle but totally doable with the handline and on your back halfway up, needs stemples. All crew out of cave at 1700 for a well deserved beer. Hollie.

EF and HL brewing up in TPC. Photo MK.

Saturday 30th August 2025.

Mike Kushy and Mike Waterworth. Got to the dig around 11am. Took in 3 drums of sand, drill with extra batteries (thanks Trevor H) and scanning gear belonging to MW. The Wednesday crew had done a great job opening up the vertical squeeze to a much better size and around the head of the light connection. This allowed MK to fish out rocks from the floor and bar a good amount of mud away which was pushed down the slide. MW slid through to the Tea Party Chamber side easily enough and MK followed him. We started piling up large rocks under the climb down then we assesed what rock could be crowbarred from the floor of the light connection from this side. MK went back up to the 'safety zone' whilst MW worked on some huge slabs. 2 particulary stubborn ones took both of us from above and below to shift. With both in TPC we moved the freshly dropped slabs into safer positions. MW then started scanning TPC whilst MK made use of the batteries downsizing some of the larger boulders blocking the pit. MW had a go at pf work, then had a look down the pit and a look around the corner. About 5m of awkard passage ahead but thin bedding gaps, the floor looks interesting here though. A trial dig was also made into the waterworn ceiling straight ahead of you as you come into TPC. This revealed a very pretty and draughty little grotto with a view of a man sized phreatic tube heading off to the left. We would be best to dig into this 2m over so as to preserve the formations I believe, easy to bypass them anyway. Had another little clear of mud on the way out. Still a lot more that can be done and even some more rock from TPC that could be shifted, but we'll see what everyone thinks. We've put a handline down through the light connection, hold it. Puddle Dig had a small constant flow into it today, no water anywhere else. 5 1//2 hours. Mike K.

Youtube channel.

Screenshot of TPC from scan by MW.

MK doing pf work on the boulders blocking the pit in TPC. Photo MW.

Aerial view of TPC with dimesions. Done by MW.

Some formations in the little, pretty, draughty grotto. Photo MK.

View scan

Wednesday 27th August

Mike Wise, Hollie London and Ed Ford to do some cementing and anything we felt appropriate to the squeeze and the light connection. We took in between us several daren drums of sand, one of cement plus a drill bag and capping kit.

HL had passed the squeeze and was examining options for light connection work by the time MW arrived with the drill bag. MW completed a test fit on the squeeze face up and face down. Face up was much easier but the squeeze still did not qualify as a trade route for explorers so the capping kit was put into action after HL had returned above the squeeze.  30 minutes or so later with large slabs of rock removed and only minor collateral damage, the squeeze was retested and passed fit for general use. While all this was going on, EF took on the thankless task of cementing things higher up in the area below the scaffolding.

After some discussion between HL and MW peering into the light connection, it was decided the rock in the roof and associated awkward bits could not be safely attacked without creating more working space so HL startd P&F work on the floor on the right hand side as shown in the image.

In red the bit attacked by HL

Although very awkward to do, the nearer half of the rock shown was taken out after protracted effort and work on the rear half commenced before time was called at 2030 hours.

EF by this time had run out of rocks and places to cement and had 2 full buckets of cement left over. HL and EF rendered everything they could see to use it up. We exited Cement Dig at 2100, surfaced and got to the Hunters just before 2200.

Hopefully now the focus can be shifted to opening up the connection. We suggest installation of a short piece of ladder on the climb down into the chamber rather than cementing a boulder pile unless new cement portering and cementing volunteers are available.

 3.5 hours 

Image by Snip & Sketch 

 Mike Wise

Tuesday 26th August 2025

Mike Kushy, Ed Ford and Glen Thomas. Got into the cave around 11.30am armed with 2 drills (one very kindly leant by Lee Venning last minute) and HE materials. The aim was to get through the light connection using pfs only and have the HE on reserve if all else failed. With MK at the sharp end the new connection to the chamber was opened up using just the Bosch drill. Meanwhile EF and GT continued bringing the bang cable down to the dig face and joining the wires together (one end is near the shaft and the other end is just above the light connection with about 2m slack). After they had done this the pair continued to make some cement mixes and build up the retaining wall just under the scaffolding area. Meanwhile MK had managed to drop through into the chamber kicking stuff through on his way, super hard coming back out but lots of loose to push through still. EF joined MK to help lift out some more rock from the new connection then EF had a go at getting through to the chamber and managed succesfully. It is possible to free climb the last little bit but there's good scope to build a natural boulder stairway up from the chamber floor. It will pay to take in some caps or use the snappers to remove a couple of loose slabs from the edge around the top of the light conncetion. This and kicking more loose through (perhaps even taking a long rake or hoe in to pull the loose back from the chamber side). So there's that to do and more cementing as usual. 1 Daren Drum of sand in the cave, 1/4 BDH of cement and hardly any water so a fresh load of all materials will need taking in. We were tempted to set up a charge around the head of the new connection but time was short. Drizzly colder day today and a very cold draught. 5 hours. Mike.

GT building up walls. Photo MK.

Part way through opening up the light connection. Photo MK.

GT above the vertcal squeeze that's not much of a squeeze anymore thanks to SH. Photo MK.

Wednesday 20th August 2025

Afternoon. John Cooper. Took in four Daren Drums of sand. Left the bags in so the Drums could be brought out when empty. Met Sam (SH) in the car park as I was leaving. He was heading in with drill. 1½ hours. John.

Evening.  Ed Ford and Mike Wise descended around 6.15pm with EF carrying 5L of water and met SH at the squeeze boulder around 6.30pm. SH had passed the squeeze before we arrived and had needed to remove his oversuit to get out. Afterwards he had taken material off the right hand part of the squeeze boulder with P&F and it was now easily passable as ably demonstrated by EF. Having had a discussion about next moves, MW left EF lying flat out jiggling rocks in the light connection with SH as backup and went out the old way following the bang wire, going as far as the bottom of the entrance to collect all the coiled up slack. The coils had transformed themselves into a cleverly knotted mess and after a fight this was laid out down to the connection point in Golden Key Chamber. Here it got worse and the connection had to be unmade and time spent unravelling both parts before moving on downwards. The connection was left unmade as I had no glasses with me. Dropping through Calcite Squeeze I met SH and EF who had given up on P&F having made no further progress. The slack was dropped down the bedding and left there. There may be a bit more remaining in Golden Key Chamber., the firing point has not changed.

We then exited. Our consensus is capping is needed to make the squeeze passable for all and HE is needed for the slab and the floor in the light connection to provide much needed working space to get at the other rocks blocking the way down.

The 'Pit' also looked interesting.

Some amazing stabilisation work has been achieved over the last 3 weeks. First time MW has seen any of the recent find

 2 hours (EF and MW)

3 hours (SH)

Photo by SH

 

The light connection - red lines indicate material to be eliminated

Mike Wise 

Sunday 17th August 2025

Mike Kushy and Ed Ford. Took in 4 Daren Drums with ready mixed cement plus some sand in a bag. First we used the drill, already in cave, to smooth out the path from the recent breakthrough point. EF above the squeeze then put cement in around chockstones that seem to be holding the ceiling up and building up the walls. Meanwhile MK below the squeeze worked forwards building retaining walls on the right hand side. There seems to have been a fair amount of movement around where we originally climbed down through to the new chamber. We decided that the light connection hole is the sensible way forward, but cement was still put in near to the original way in to minimise future movement. EF then had a go at kicking stuff through the light connection squeeze but there is one stubborn rock holding us back. We then used what remaining battery we had to pf some of the edge away from the hole. Next best step seems to be either pf or set a small charge into the vertical squeeze and the light connection area at the same time, maybe pf squeeze and set charge lower down might be best. Back into the chamber soon. Still 3/4 BDH of cement in cave and 1/2 Darren Drum of sand. 4 hours. Mike.

Main chockstone in ceiling above squeeze (6 inch wide roughly). Photo EF.

MK trying out the light conncetion hole Photo EF.

Where we originally climbed down to the chamber.
The closest big hole in the floor wasn't there before. Photo EF.

Same photo as previous but further back. Photo EF.

More cementing of the ceiling above the squeeze. Photo EF.

Wednesday 13th August 2025

am. David Morrison, assisted by land owner. Fencing removed today, trailer of stone, sand and cement mixer and other heavy items up to Templeton. David.

pm. John Cooper did a couple of hours in the afternoon assisting David removing the postcrete and all the nails from the fence posts. Left David continuing gradually restoring the site. John

Monday 11th & Tuesday 12th August 2025

David Morrison. ‘Well-Head’ stonework White Rabbit, pointing both afternoons. David.

Well-Head. Photo DM.

Saturday 9th August 2025

Mike Kushy, solo. Took in drill and a BDH of cement. Finished off breaking down the boulder from Wednesday and put the pieces aside. Then a mix was made using 1 Daren Drum of sand and 1/4 drum of cement. This was used in and around the vertical squeeze boulder (unfortunately this boulder can not be removed as it holds up loads above), the vertical squeze boulder will have to be widened later. Went to surface with empty bags and drums then brought back in 2 drums of sand and some more water to mix with. This again was turned into cement and used at the base of the vertical squeeze rock. 3/4 BDH of cement and 2.5l of water left in cave, no sand. Should be safe enough now to open up the light conncetion route to the chamber, but I'd like to see another session of cement work yet. Would be nice to build a wall to the ceiling just above said squeeze. 5 hours. Mike.

Wednesday 6th August 2025

Day. Mike Kushy and Dave Morrison spent 5 hours doing more tidying up on the surface.

17.30 Ed Ford and Hollie London. Ed and Hollie entered around 17.30 after collecting bags from the Belfry. Hollie carried in two bags each containing a Daren Drum of sand, while Ed carried a black BDH of cement a Daren Drum of sand and a 5L water container in. Quite the challenge with two large tackle sacks. John arrived shortly after.

18.00 John Cooper entered at 18.00 without any loads to carry! John did 1 mix (2 Daren Drums of sand and half a black BDH of cement) which he passed down to Ed. Then did another mix, same quantities, and used it higher up on the climb down (where the yellow bag is). John then left with bag containing 2 empty Daren Drums - out by 20.30.

Ed and Hollie worked mainly around the entrance to the new bit. Hollie did a good job at reducing a large block making it much easier to get into the breakthrough (her first time plug and feathering). Ed spent his time adding cement to various loose boulders and made a small wall. We did not get as far as the squeeze. But Ed took a look. It is definitely tighter than remembered. This will take a fair amount of drilling to widen. Spare bags, empty cement BDH and drill box taken out. Out at 2100 before retreating to the Hunters'. 

Ed, Hollie and John.

Trainee mason in action. Photo EF.

Drilling 14mm holes. Photo EF.

Building block created. Photo EF.

Looking down into pot. Photo EF.

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.

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.