Saturday 30th May 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warm and sunny, 24°C, on surface today with a very slight breeze. John lowered the bottom ladder until it reached the floor then descended to check the results of Monday’s bang. (There was a gap between the bottom ladder and middle ladder of 50cm.) The bang had not done as much as hoped for. The ledge on the left had been lowered but still needs another 50cm taking off it. Also the main bang had not removed as much to the South as hoped for. John removed a few loose bits from the East wall then positioned the base of the ladder firmly on the floor. He ascended, checking the amount of overlap within the bottom ladder. Once on the surface the bottom ladder was raised to the surface and adjusted so the bottom rung of the top part was firmly attached to the top rung of the bottom part. The lengthened ladder was then lowered. Kate was lifelined down and strapped the bottom ladder to the middle ladder with a one rung overlap. She then sent up 18 loads of mud, 25 loads of rocks, 2 frogs, 1 newt and an assortment of other critters. At the end John descended to check what needed doing next. Probably a bit of capping and pf work then think again. The bottom rung of the bottom ladder was level with John’s knee at the end of the session and is again hanging from the middle ladder! 3½ hours. John.

Monday 25th May 2026

John Cooper, Pete Hann and family, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Clare and Wayne Starsmore delivery team. Kate down to do some before photos. John then replaced her using his drill to prepare holes for Adrian. Adrian then descended and filled some of the holes before coming out. The bottom ladder was raised to prevent it getting damaged. Need to see if it can be lengthened on Saturday. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 23rd May 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warm and sunny, 20°C, on surface today. Kate down to do some before photos. John then replaced her using his drill in chisel mode. After a while he was replaced by Adrian with caps and pfs. Once some spoil had built up he was joined by Kate to load the buckets. When Adrian had had enough he was replaced by Jude. Jude and Kate then loaded up more spoil. Finally John went down to see what work was required to make it a diggable size. 22 loads of rock and 6 loads of mud today. 4 hours. John.

View down to South. Photo KL with AV's camera.

Close up. Photo KL with AV's camera.

Video looking South by KL.

Saturday 16th May 2026

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cool, 11°C, and damp with showers on surface today. Kushy down for a quick look and to load a large rock before coming up to help haul it out. Jude and Kate then went down but there isn’t really enough room for two so Jude ended up just raising and lowering the bucket for Kate. Eventually Jude came out and Adrian went down with drill. However neither caps not p/fs had much effect on the wall so just concentrated on extracting rocks from the floor. A total of 14 loads of mud and 16 of rocks hauled out today. Very slow, really must make it bigger to allow effective working. 3¼ hours. John.

Looking South, floor level. Photo KL.

Saturday 9th May 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warm and sunny, 18°C, on surface today. John down first to sort out the bottom ladder and dig out a few rocks. Kate then replaced John and started sending up loads of mud and rocks. John down again after a while to do a bit more work on rocks before returning to haul out more loads. At the end Adrian went down with camera but then called for capping kit. More loads of rock then sent up before finishing with a total count of 15 loads of rocks and 32 loads of mud. The bottom ladder is now over 30cm off the floor, wedged between the walls of the rift, and Pete’s new wall is being undermined! Under his old wall looks more interesting. 3½ hours. John.

Kate sheltering a few metres up. Photo AV.

Ladder doesn't reach floor! Photo AV.

Under Pete's old wall. Photo AV.

End of session. Video AV.