Wednesday 29th November 2023

pm. John Cooper and Mike Kushy. John on the surface hauling and mixing cement, Mike underground. Cleared the spoil Mike created with plug and feathering. Then 3 mixes of cement (8 loads) and loads of building rocks sent down to Mike for wall building. There’s probably enough sand for 1 good mix left. 2½ hours. John.

Before cementing. Photo MK.

Cement Work. Photo MK.

Cement Work. Photo MK.

Sunday 26th November 2023

am- Mike Kushy and Sam Hill. Setting charge. Strong draught.

pm- MK and SH. SH clearing the bottom, MK on winch and buckets. After an hour or so MK went to join SH at the bottom and evaluate. Sketchy looking boulders everywhere with gaps between. Decided to clean up rock and prep for cement. 2 1/2 mixes done. John Cooper joined us near to finishing. Right hand side looking into dodgy chamber now stable and the pillar built last week has held up well. Can probably cut some steel to put in place at the roof of chamber, strangely draught lost in the afternoon. Plan is to keep driving down in the floor closer to the shaft and try to stay clear of the dodgy chamber, but leave accessible if needs must.

Before cement work. Photo MK.

Cement Work. Photo MK.

Floor of the Dodgy Chamber. Photo MK.

Thursday 23rd November 2023

John Cooper. Went to drill some holes in the bottom. 6 holes 300 – 400mm deep ready for Mike next time he’s about. Nice draught from below. 1 hour.

Sunday 19th November 2023

am: Michael Kousiounis and Dave Morrison . Setting of charge. All went well. Samuel Hill joined us at the end. 1 hour.

pm: Started about 12.30. SH cleared the bottom with DM on winch and MK emptying buckets. After an hour or so SH came up and MK went down to inspect. Some more movement to previously stabilised rock, but still holding. Several more buckets were cleared then we started cement work. A pillar was built from a solid floor hoping to stabilise a large boulder in the ceiling that's dropping Also some stabilising of the right hand side. John Cooper joined us in the midst of this and Monica's mum and brother came to see.

Spoil after bang. Photo MK.

The dropping boulder in the ceiling, note the cement work opening up. Photo MK.

Some decent voids that draught very well are now visible in the floor, just off to the side of the vertical shaft. It's tempting do use a charge to get rid of a few boulders in the floor and see what happens and deal with the outcome. Getting in and stabilising anymore will be dicey in itself. Finished around 3pm, so 3 hours.

The voids in the floor. Photo MK.

Possible next step. Photo MK.

Pillar has been built up from the slab marked by the green cross to support the dropping boulder above.The blue crosses are the boulders that could be removed to perhaps reveal more void below. Mike.

Wednesday 8th November 2023

John Cooper. Went to drill some holes in the bottom. 8 holes 300 – 500mm deep ready for Mike next time he’s about. 1 hour. John.

Sunday 5th November 2023.

 Mike Kushy and John Cooper. 

AM- set off charge, laid and fired in half hour.

PM- after setting charge at Valinor we cleared WR. About 2 hours clearing. A bit of movement after the charge, some large boulders in the horizontal bit have dropped and some of the concreted boulders have moved slightly. Not too concerning though. Ready for drilling. Mike.

Bottom after clearing. Photo MK.

Tuesday 31st October 2023

John Cooper. First of all wiggled a boulder out which was then plug and feathered to manageable chunks. Then drilled some holes in the bottom and sides, 4 in the floor and 6 in the walls. All 10 holes 300 – 500mm deep ready for Mike on Sunday. 2 hours.John.

Sunday 29th October 2023

Mike Kushy, Dave Morrisom and John Cooper. Mike and Dave clearing out bang spoil. Some of the charge didn't go off for some reason, never mind though as the blocks we want to bang had shifted from the charge that did go off allowing removal. Cleared enough ready for drilling. John joined us at the end. Good draught. 2 1/2 hours. Mike.

Looking into the chamber at the bottom, all seems to be holding up okay. Photo MK.

The bottom after clearing. Red block wiggles and will come out. Blue crosses supposed drilling point. Yellow crosses maybe to be drilled, would be good to get out. Photo MK.

Sunday 22nd October 2023

John.Cooper and Mike.Kousiounis. Setting charge in holes drilled by John mid week. All went off fine. No sign of any newts in the tunnel. 1 hour. Mike.

Saturday 21st October 2023

Pete Hann, Jude and Adrian Vanderplank, Nigel Graham as surface support.

All down the entrance shaft to firstly look at Johns drilled shot holes, (Very nice!)

Then on down into the original dig, a couple of times there seemed to be a strange grunting noise particularly in the more snug sections, strange?

Pete was impressed with the bedding chambers and thought they could be quite photogenic. We went to both ends, but not the very ends and I missed the way into Tooth dig, and found myself looking at a small bucket and rope and an even smaller hole and thinking if they’ve gone through that I’m seriously impressed. A steady trip out, looking for draughts and anything else which might be of interest. Adrian.

PS from John Cooper. When Pete returned the key he said "Don't ever give me that again!"

Thursday 19th October 2023

John Cooper. Went to drill some holes in the bottom. 6 holes 300 – 500mm deep ready for Mike on Sunday. 1 hour. John.

Wednesday 18th October 2023

Mike Kushy, John Cooper and Dave Morrison (Tuska). Clearing out bang spoil, clearing the tunnel and bringing the builders ladder out. Some suspect rocks left in place, not sure about pulling the smaller rock out as it had alot of resistance and decided to cement up to provide some support. 2 hours. Good draught. Mike.

Spoil to clear. Photo MK.

More spoil (looking horizontally). Photo MK.

After clearing. Photo MK.

Cement/building work. Photo MK.

Plan for next stage. Photo MK.

 

Yellow + blocks questionable and shouldn't be touched. Red X ones for drilling and blasting.

Sunday 15th October 2023

AM: Mike Kushy and Dave Morrison (Tuska). Banging the holes drilled by John Cooper mid week. Really good holes to widen out the bottom.

PM: Mike Kushy, Tuska and John Cooper. Cleared the debris from the morning. Drilled 6 holes at 900mm then set off.

Debris after 1st bang Photo MK.

Bottom cleared. Photo MK.

Weird little insect. Photo MK.

Tuesday 10th October 2023

John Cooper. Went to drill some holes in the bottom. However there was still debris on it so after clearing in into the tunnel and the hole below drilled the walls instead. 1 hour. John.

Sunday 1st October 2023

Mike Kousiounis and Dave Morrison. Started by clearing the bottom of the shaft. Bucket still snagged in a couple of places so after clearing we opened up the shaft with some more plug and feathering. Happy with the bucket pull, we set about doing some cement work. John Cooper joined us around 2pm and we finished the last bit of cementing that needed doing to fully stabilise the shaft ready for banging. 5 hours. Mike.

Tuesday 19th September 2023

John Cooper + 1. Three bags of sand taken across and added to the second dumpy bag. Another water carry was required today.   John repairing the damage he’d done last week in the shaft Whilst cement was mixed on the surface and rocks were sent down. Very windy on the surface and a good draught coming out up the shaft. Another cementing session required once this one has gone off. Need to take another bag of cement across. The first dumpy bag of sand now empty. 2 hours.

Looking Down from Surface

Looking Down from Changeover Ladder Point