Sunday 26th February 2023

Mike Kushy and Mike Wise.

Started at 11am. Took 2 drills and 5 batteries into Tooth Dig to continue from the 2 Andy's work yesterday. Mike Wise started at the Tooth Dig whilst MK moved the spoil from yesterday higher up. Then MK set to work on Courtenay's boulder whilst MW was busy. After a short while we swapped places. Some rocks were pulled out from higher up allowing MK to enter the ongoing passage feet first, with a bit a of contortion. Tight going, even tighter over 2 rocks in the floor. A long triangular tunnel about 4-5 m long can be seen with a boulder collapse at the far end (potentially the other end of cement dig, and probably close enough for a light connection?). Half way along this tunnel the bedded ceiling has black voids undercutting the ceiling with a view of what looks a sizeable space, the draught was most prominent from here. Tried to dig the mud floor out a little, but unsure whether I was undermining blocks above without much room for an escape. On the way out some edges were hammered off and the blocks in the floor were reduced so should be easier and safer to go in head first next time and hopefully get into the void. Some more work can be done opening up the corner to get into the new passage. On exit MW had done the job of getting rid of Courtenay's boulder, allowing a crawl into a stand up chamber. No ways on but if we open up a way in higher up there's alot of room for spoil to go into. Both drills spent we went to cement dig to cement some more. 4 1/2 hours. Mike K.

The very end of the triangular tunnel

The very end again, a different view

Looking back to the corner from the rocks in floor

The rocks in floor, with the triangular passage behind. The rocks are now smaller and moved.

The start of the triangular passage, the undercut can be seen on the right part way along.

 

Another view

The corner squeeze with the ongoing passage being up and over to the left

The view from the start of the ongoing passage

Mike W working on the corner squeeze

 

Tooth Dig got a visit first with 2 drills, 5 batteries and a set of P+F. A few bits and pieces were finally knocked off some rocks blocking the way into the "passage" seen yesterday by the 2 Andys. Kushy got in feet first for about 6m into a small space in boulders. Rocks are very resistant to P+F!

The block at floor level mentioned in the report from 18 February was reduced to floor level and the approach was opened out. There is a small chamber on the other side floored with sand and cobbles with 2 places to stand up. The roof is made of the boulders beside the drop down and lights can be seen. Water was running down the "back" wall.

Having run out of battery power and abandoning a P+F stuck in a boulder we decamped to the Cement Dig. 2 mixes of cement were made and applied and the filled buckets at the bottom were emptied. Time digging 4 1/2 hours. Mike Wise.

Saturday 25th February 2023

Andy Morse and Andy Thompson

We arrived at Tooth Dig for 11am and quickly got to work. Very gingerly I removed a large block from the ceiling of the dig, squealing a little bit each time I hit the plug and feathers. This block was about twice the size of a microwave and directly above my legs so I was very glad to get it out without injury. Once this was removed I could work my way into the gap created, enough to see a very interesting looking continuation to the passage. Very excited to see where it leads over the coming month. We returned to the surface at 3pm. 4 hours A Thompson.

The Tale of the Tooth. Andy Thompson, finder of the tooth, had subsequently prepared the tooth into an identifiable condition. The tooth was able to then be confirmed as formerly belonging to a Woolly Rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) possibly strolling around some 40,000 years ago. Andy Thompson and Andy Morse and myself (Tuska) met with Richard the landowner, who to say the least, was excited and shared with us his delight and interest in such a find. Richard welcomed the fact we would leave the tooth in his care and is happy for the tooth to go for more tests as needed and happy also to share the tooth with those wishing to see it. Hoping, I believe, for more similar finds that we all might better understand the Mendip environment at the time 'Fang' the Rhino roamed. All to play for. Tuska.

Saturday 18th February 2023

Mike Kushy, Courtenay James and Monica Bollani. Took in 2 drills and a Daren drum of cement. CJ and MB went to dig at Tooth Dig whilst MK went to the cemented dig. I carried on work enlarging the bottom, a strong acoustic connection with the others in Tooth Dig, estimate about 15m apart and probably at the same depth...but need to survey both digs. Some cement work will be needed at the sharp end to remove larger rocks in the ceiling, which will then allow access into the 'chamber' ahead. With all buckets filled and batteries used and no sign of the others I went to join them. 2 1/2 hours.

The other site is much more spacious since I was last there, a good draught. My feeling is the dig is going to force digging downwards at this point. Courtenay had been working on removing a large boulder at floor level opposite the squeeze into the dig. A good view beyond the Boulder can be seen with a floor strewn with black cobbles, also a very good draught emanating from here. 4 1/2 hours in all. The full tub of cement is in a red bag part way down the bedding and there's 2 and a bit half bags of sand (enough for a cementing session). Mike.

Monica at the sharp end of Tooth Dig

(Photo at a horizontal angle)

Photo of the sharp end, 1ft chisel

Clean washed rock above the sharp end, the sound connection from the cemented dig comes through here.

Sunday 12th February 2023

Mike Kushy, Andy Thompson and Frank Tully. Took in 2 x 1/2 bags of sand and a drill. Andy and Frank went to recent dig at the Boulder Rift dig, now referred to as the 'Tooth Dig'. Mike went to the cemented dig. Some more space made in the small boulder chamber, filled up 7 small buckets of spoil. Was able to squeeze into the horizontal part. A view onto what looks like a chamber with a solid wall, all clean washed and where the strongest draught comes from. Should be able to chip off the boulders either side to get into it, but it may take a few more sessions yet. Andy and Frank joined me about 2ish and the buckets were cleared up cave, one more load of 6 small buckets were filled and lifted up also. Ended the session with some cementing, whilst Frank and Andy opened up the top rope area to make hauling easier. 2 and a bit half bags of sand and no cement at dig site  Not sure how long, est' 4 1/2 hours. Mike.

https://youtu.be/YQ8h5c_rVx4

Frank Tully, Andrew Thompson. We arrived at the dig for 11.30 and Frank took the first shift removing the floor to create some more space in the Boulder Chamber dig. After many buckets had been passed out, and Frank's legs had gone dead from the awkward position, I moved in to start removing the mud going forward. We managed to gain another foot or so. Amongst the spoil that was removed, we found a tooth. It is believed to belong to a Woolly Rhinoceros and will see the dig rechristened "Tooth Dig". Once we had both spent all of our energy and had a little play with the crowbar, we backed off to help Mike remove his spoil and mix him some cement. 3 hours. A Thompson.

Sunday 5th February 2023

Mike Kushy, Andy Thompson and Tim Rose. Took in sand, cement and 2 drills. Andy and Tim went to dig at the Boulder Rift dig, Mike went to the cemented dig. I opened up the dig face a little more and managed to pull the obstructive Boulder out of the floor. There's a big calcite blockage further down which I've started to remove some of but a lot more will come out. Tim and Andy joined me about 13.30 and clatch was removed from the very bottom, some interesting holes appearing in the floor. We finished off with a cementing session. Dry and bright day outside and a very good druaght at the dig. Note: I could smell Andy smoking in the other dig and the smell was coming from the floor in the dig I was in. There's half a Daren drum of cement and 2 x 1/2 bags of sand. 4 hours. Mike.

We met at Upper Pitts on Sunday morning for an hour of faffing around, drinking tea and discussing how tortoises go around knobbing each other. Monica & Courtenay tried their best to convince me to go to a proper cave with them but for some reason I honoured my promise to assist Mike in his Rabbit Hole. We headed over to the cave about 11am after we'd cleared up the important business of deciding what length a fossilised sperm whale phallus would be. The last time I saw Mike's hole it was just a hole. Now it's a certified, fully fenced off ring piece. Between the three of us we carted a load of sand and drill into the cave. I thought the general idea of a dig was to remove spoil from the cave, not take it in. Once through the initial passage and maze of gaps in boulders an impressive 45°  bedding plane is entered. Quite a bit of stal. and plenty of interesting formations. Mike sent Andy and I off through some more gaps in boulders to continue one of the two current dig sites, this one is found at the lowest point in the boulder rift. Andy did all the hard work removing a few rocks and plenty of clatch which I lost into various gaps in the boulders. The way on appeared to be horizontal. Meanwhile I took the drill to a few boulders on the approach to make life easier. One boulder in particular was proper fucking me off! Definitely a draft emanating from somewhere in that area and the whole time we could hear Mike drilling in the other dig. I'm certainly not qualified to comment but my gut feeling is that this dig will just follow the bedding and appear in the wall of the main chamber. I think I'd head down rather than horizontal if anything, but that looks a lot of effort. After sufficient punishment Andy and I headed to Mike's hole in the floor. This looked like a much more promising site to me. We helped Mike haul and lose a load of spoil from the bottom of the dig. Andy then whipped up a tray of sloppy and Mike smeared Andy's sloppy all over the walls before cleaning himself off on the curtains. All spent, we made a hasty exit and got back to the car at 15:30. Great to see the place and I look forward to stomping down a mile of clean washed streamway once it's found. Meanwhile I'll stick to Portland Boulder bashing. Tim.

On Sunday Tim and I left Mike at the cement dig to go and take a further look at the Boulder Rift dig. I removed a large boulder from the floor and with Tim's help managed to remove this from the dig. After creating a little more space I was able to get headfirst into the continuation. A strong draught could be felt and despite Tim's hesitance I believe it to be worth pushing. The next task will be removing the floor in the chamber we have created, to give us the space we need to dig going forwards. 3 hours. AT

Sunday 29th January 2023

Mike Kushy, John Cooper and Courtenay James. I left Courtenay and John to dismantle the obtrusive rock at the Boulder Rift dig, this took them about an hour and a half. Meanwhile I worked on opening up the cemented dig in the main bedding some more, also managed to clear out some rock from the on going area. When JC and CJ arrived we cleared the rock built up from plug and feathering and some clatch. The session was ended with some more cement work on the walls higher up. There's still an annoying bit of rock low down which needs coming out to allow further clearing ahead. 3 1/2 hours. Mike.

Sunday 22nd January 2023

 

Before

Mike Kushy. Solo trip to work on the cemented dig at the bottom of the main bedding. Plug and feathering the right hand hole, made it big enough to get into. Need to open up the slope on the floor a bit more which won't take long. Head first a view off to the right for a few metres, a small hole down to the left, draughting very well, appeared. A flowstone wall ahead, all feels very safe. Broke my 14mm drill bit and didn't have a spare so had to improvise with a 10mm and what I had left of the 14mm. Will need a team of at least 3 next time to pull the clatch and rocks out. 5 hours, Mike.

After

https://youtu.be/W3jSOnFQxAU

Saturday 7th January 2023

Mike Kushy, Andy Thompson and Courtenay James. Carried the rest of the bags left throughout the cave down to the Bedding Dig. Cleared out a lot of clatch that had washed in. You can now see the holes in the floor more clearly again. Looking down the pit, the hole on the right has a good view to a stal'd up solid wall which is concave with nodules on it and some nice formations. Good draught when you stick your head in too. There's a huge slab like block across the floor which I think has dropped from above (4m or so). I believe this could be the cause of the blockage. With some cementing done off this it should be possible to plug and feather edges off it and some of the right hand side to get in and clear the rest of the clatch and some bigger rocks. When we're into the next bit a lot more work cementing will need to be done, but for now it's workable and a decent size to allow progress forwards. After this we went to the most recent dig in the Boulder Rift. Good progress was made for an hour or so clearing cobbles and grit back, it's a decent size in there now and there's a lot more to come out, buckets left on site. At the end of this session a big block was moved that now blocks the way into the dig, this will need to be broken up to allow access again, but it will make the whole dig much more comfortable. This block will probably take a few hours to break up. 5 hours. Mike.

Monday 2nd January 2023

Mike Kushy, Samuel Hill and Frank Tully. We took in a lot of materials, 6 tackles sacks of sand, 2 tackle sacks of cement and 2 bags with drills. With hopes of getting into the new passage seen last time we set to work at the most recent dig site. The plan was to open up the approach to bring bigger rocks out, we soon gave up on this realising it's a big job and decided to head further down and squirrel on with the hope of a 'big breakthrough'. Frank joined us at this point. Capping and pfs we managed to make a hole big enough to squeeze into the next bit, that wasn't 2m high but more like 2ft, got the width right at about 5m though. Eastwater Lower Traverse type passage, and 'proper cave' with a small streamway. The water hits a sandy cobble filled floor and heads left (looking down), digging here will require opening up the squeeze, which in turn will require opening up the approach to get large rocks out. There's also a couple of fluted rock paths heading back up into the ceiling, but just slightly too tight to get up into. MK on the way out of the new bit decided to go check out the other pit, it was then decided efforts for the day would be better spent on the bottom of our original Boulder Rift dig. Some corners were taken off and we managed to get a body length in, boulders in the ceiling again (clean washed) with an easy diggable floor full of mud and sandstone cobbles...interesting site with a much more pronounced draught! On the way out looking up to the left you can see a hole with water trickling out of it, I predict this is the other side of the chamber we broke into earlier...the survey should confirm this once done.

We then finished off by cementing at the bedding chamber dig. Really happy to start breaking up rocks in the floor here next session and there's quite alot of clatch to come out. 1 half bag of sand and a 1/3 of a half bag at the bottom, quarter Daren drum of cement. There's 2 tackle sacks of sand left in the 4th chamber from the entrance plus a tackle sack of sand and a tackle sack of cement left in the first chamber (plenty enough for the next session). 6 hours in total. Mike.

The bottom left of the new 'breakthrough chamber'

The final squeeze into the new chamber

A view of the new chamber from the squeeze

Sam in the bottom of the original dig in Boulder Rift

The view looking back up from the last photo

The other side of the dig looking back towards Sam

The sharp end

The sharper end

Friday 30th December 2022

Mike Kushy, Samuel Hill, Callum Simmonds and Courtenay James. Took 2 and a half full bags of sand down to the bottom dig in tackle sacks. Used 1 full bag with Sam and Callum. We then all moved up to the Boulder Rift dig. MK went back up cave to the Pit and a clear light connection was made with Sam still in the boulder rift. Would be an easy connection to make! We then carried on the most recent dig. Courtenay showed up around 2ish and he and MK went and did some more cement work, all the sand and cement has been exhausted. I think it should be safe enough next trip to start pulling rocks out of the floor again. Oh, we could hear and feel clear reverberation from the drilling by Sam and Callum. After this we went to join the guys in the Boulder Rift dig. They had got through to a little chamber beyond, with a hole in the floor draughting well. MK went in and dug a hole slightly higher up, which ended up connecting to the other dig in the boulder rift, forming a round trip. The hole in the floor was inspected and decent open passage can be seen ahead, no boulders or mud in sight. Unfortunately opening this up would have taken more time than we had today, and the whole approach could do with enlarging to allow bigger, loose stacked rocks to come right out. 5 1/2 hours. Mike K. 

https://youtu.be/7DBfA40Xa5w

Thursday 29th December 2022

John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Took in John’s drill etc. Worked on Boulder Rift dig, removing top boulder and was on the lower one when John hit his index finger with the hammer, splitting it open. Packed up and came out. 1 hour. John.

Tuesday 27th December 2022

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Took in enough sand for 3 mixes and cement for 6 mixes plus the drill. Left the drill at the start of the Boulder Rift but the rest went to the bottom dig. John did 3 mixes of cement which Mike used up walling. John then came out with all the empty bags leaving Mike to go to the Boulder Rift dig. 2 hours. John.

After finishing with John cementing (12.30pm ish), Mike K went to do some more work at the most recent dig in the Boulder Rift. Plug and feathering away. Andy Thompson arrived just after 2pm  to provide some much appreciated help. Andy then took over p and f work whilst Mike went to inspect the collapse from Thursday down the other BR dig site. The collapse was obvious and has opened up a lot more room to get to the bottom, there is also a view of some decent space below heading towards the new site. Mike and Andy left the site just before 4, two decent sized boulders to break up still but out of battery power. There's enough cement and water at the cementing site but some more sand will need taking in. 5 hours in all. Mike.

*Photo looking vertically down on the recent dig site, most of the boulder on the left has now been removed*

Thursday 22nd December 2022

John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Went in with the diggers but stopped to start surveying at the Pit whilst they went to the bottom dig with more sand and cement. First descended the Pit and updated the one leg done previously. More there than expected. Could talk through to Adrian in the Upper Bedding Chamber but could not get a visual connection. Then on to the Upper Bedding Chamber and surveyed down the East side. Then on to Boulder Rift and surveyed the South going passage – lots of rumbles from below on way out. Needs doing again properly when it’s been made safe. Did not do the Upper North trending bit as the diggers had joined us by then and were below it. 2½ hours. John.

Courtenay James, Mike Kushy, Wayne Starsmore and Mike Wise. Started about 3.30. We took in one and a half bags of sand, a full BDH of cement and an extra container of water, plus the drill bag. Wayne set about a mix whilst Courtenay and Mike W carried on with clearing spoil on the rope haul and Mike K sorted rocks out for the bottom. All the sand and cement was used, 5 and a half small buckets for use at the bottom. Cemented in some steps which will be usable next session and started building up off the floor. I'm guessing another 4-5 sessions to finish. There are lots of big rocks and fist sized rocks at the bottom ready for next time, slight draught. At 5ish Wayne headed on out whilst the rest of us went to trial a new dig site in the Boulder Rift chamber. Under the large horizontal slabs in the middle of the chamber there's a pit that heads down to some clean washed rock. After saying hi to the surveyors and listening to an impressive collapse beneath them we got to work. Progress was steady and all seems safe enough to work without stabilising. Slipknotting a rope around rocks in the floor helped to remove some large lumps. A hole in the floor was revealed with a cool draught being emitted once opened, more work yet. A crowbar, Plug and Feathers box with tools and a rope has been left in place. A good dig to have at the end of short cementing sessions at the bottom. Mike. K

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Sunday 18th December 2022

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Andrew Thompson. Took in sand, cement, mixing tub, dexion and drill (not used). Whilst Mike sorted out his skeleton dexion frame in the bottom pit Andy sent up buckets of spoil for John to stack. Once Mike was ready a mix of cement was done which Mike used to hold the frame in place. Lots more cementing will be required before any progress can be made. 2½ hours. John.

From logbook : A trip down to the dig to do a cementing and scaffolding session. We each lugged a tackle sack to the dig face and Mike assembled the angle iron whilst John and I hauled some of the catch out from the right hand wall on the approach to the face. A short cementing session at the end. Lots more cement needed. 1/3 of cement left in drum. 2 1/2 hours. Andy T.