Saturday 8th August 2026

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Sarah Hann, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy) and Kate Lawrence. Hot again today, 26°C with virtually no breeze. Kate to the bottom first and 1 frog plus assorted critters sent up for rehoming. Then 20 loads of spoil sent up before a large rock prevented progress. Kushy descended with capping kit and the rock sent up in pieces, a couple still rather large. After a few more loads sent up he came back out to help with hauling. After 40 loads, 1 of which included a dumpy bag, Kate came out and John descended to see what was required next. He was taking down Kate’s plumb line but it fell out of the bucket and went down the rift. Fortunately the weight was still caught on the bucket so some of the line was retrieved before the centre spindle jammed somewhere out of sight. It was sent back up in a load of rock and John came out. Kushy then descended to take final pictures and do the plumb having attached the line to Nigel’s Trowel – no one dare drop that down the rift! A couple more loads sent up. Final tally for the day was 15 loads of gravel and 28 loads of rocks. Plumbed depth 6.8m. Note the bottom of the ladder is about 3m off the floor so it is necessary to free climb the bottom bit. 3 hours. John.

Looking down facing North. Photo. MK.

Looking down facing South then up. Video. MK.

Friday 7th August 2026

Mike Kousiounis. Checked air quality for tomorrow. All good. 15 minutes.

Dumpy bags doing their job. Photo MK.

Sunday 2nd August 2026

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy) and Kate Lawrence. Kushy to the bottom. Used John’s drill and long bit to ream out holes then charged with 6m of 40gm cord. The bottom double ladder was pulled up about 3m and suspended from the fixed ladder above to prevent it getting damaged. Both dumpy bags stuffed down the rift to prevent debris falling down it, although it may slow down fume clearance. The wire was run down behind the fixed ladder to prevent any mishap. All went OK. Should be some rocks for next Saturday. 1½ hours. John.

Testing wire at start. Photo KL.

Saturday 1st August 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann and Kate Lawrence. Cooler again today at 22°C with a nice breeze. Kate down first to remove any critters and tidy up. A couple of empty dumpy bags were dropped down and eventually reached Kate. These were used to block up the rift in the floor to prevent debris going down it. John replaced her and had the new section of ladder lowered. However it proved to be too long, the bottom would be severly damaged by the bangs, so it was hauled up again. The double ladder at the bottom was repositioned and the walls examined for loose rocks. Nothing significant so John came out and Kate went down again to continue clearing. A total of 6 loads of rocks and 6 loads of mud hauled out today. Pete then abseiled down using a new hanger he’d just installed, stopping halfway down to make a better fixing of the ladders. Not entirely successful as he didn’t have a suitable bolt. At the bottom it was proving too warm with the draught cut off so the bags were removed from the rift. This also allowed Kate to plumb the rift and Pete to measure with his Disto. From the floor Kate plumbed 4.6m whilst Pete from a ledge slightly higher measured 5.0m. Kate then came out and Pete was lifelined out. John then went down a drilled a line of 12mm holes in the West wall ready for the next bang. One drill bit broke and required grips to extract it from the rock. 4½ hours. John.

Rift in floor. Photo KL.

Pete checking Disto reading. Photo KL.

Saturday 25th July 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cooler today at 22°C with a nice breeze. Kate down first to attach the bottom ladder then Jude followed. Buckets of rocks sent up until bigger ones reached when Adrian descended with capping kit. More buckets of rocks sent up, then once he’d finished he came out. Then more loads of rocks, gravel and mud came out. When the loading team had had enough they decided to plumb the depth of the rift in the floor using the lifetine with a krab on the end. Unfortunately the rift was too deep, or the krab was not heavy enough to detect the floor. They came out and John and Kushy descended to add a final 2 loads. John came out and Adrian descended again for a final look. Total for the day was 27 loads of rock and 15 loads of gravel/mud – total 42 of course! 3½ hours. John.

Jude with spoil. Photo KL.

South end of floor rift. Photo KL.

View from above. Photo AV.

View from above. Video AV.