Saturday 15th August 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Hot again today at 25°C but with a nice breeze. Kate down loading buckets. A toad and a frog and other critters were rehomed as well. Near the end Kate reported a large flake so John descended to assist but Kate had already accidentally kicked it down with her foot. She went out to help haul whilst John loaded another couple of buckets. The plumb was sent down with the Disto. John only got a reading of 2.3m in the South end of the rift but did manage to get the new plumb line stuck. John came out to report and Kate descended but also failed to retrieve the plumb bob. A total of 13 loads of gravel and 37 loads of rocks hauled out today. Still another 10+ to come out. 3 hours. John.

Debris at start of session. Photo KL.

Jammed line down South end. Photo KL.

Looking up to North. Photo KL.

Sunday 9th August 2026

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy) and Kate Lawrence. John to the bottom where he stuffed both dumpy bags down the rift to prevent debris falling down it. Then he drilled 8 x 12mm x 800mm holes in the West wall. He then swapped with Kushy who only managed to get 5m of cord in the holes. He did find that giving a squirt of water into the hole before feeding the cord in helped get it deeper but too late for most of the holes. The wire was run down behind the fixed ladder to prevent any mishap. All went OK. Should be some rocks for next Saturday. 2 hours. John.

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.