Tuesday 29th September 2026

John Cooper, Xiao Jin, Kate Lawrence, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warner today at 20°C. John down first and stuffed two dumpy bags into the rift in the floor. Kate then descended to show John where he was NOT allowed to drill. Then John drilled a line of 4 deep holes in the ledge. The floor was too broken to drill significant holes so just 1 shallow one in the floor boulder and 2 longer ones into the North end of the rift. A third dumpy bag was used with the capping mat to cover the South end of the rift. John came out and was replaced by Wayne. He removed one of the dumpy bags from the floor rift to take a video of the rift before replacing it. The bottom double ladder was raised to give more working room for Wayne to charge the holes. Wire fed down behind the ladder and once everything was set up Wayne came up and the holes were destroyed. The fumes came out very quickly today. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 26th September 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cooler again today at 18°C but dry. Kushy to the bottom initially to try filming down the rift in the floor with a GoPro fastened on the end of some drain rods together with a torch. When he came out the bottom double ladder was lowered into the hole and John descended, guiding it down until it reached the floor. Although only 1 leg was on the ground it was fairly stable so John climbed it and used the top rung to stand on. His drill was then lowered and 5 pins were fixed into the side walls, 2 on the East side and 3 on the West side. Once the drill was hauled out he fastened himself to the lifeline which was then locked off on the surface. A total of 4 mixes of cement spread over 7 loads together with a similar number of loads of rocks were then lowered to him and added to the top of Pete’s North wall. He then came out and Adrian descended and used the remaining load of cement and some rocks supporting the stal at the bottom. While he was doing this Kushy did more filming in the rift with a longer length of drain rod (5m). Shows we still have several more metres of widening to do. 3 hours. John.

GoPro top part of rift. Video MK.

Friday 25th September 2026

Nigel Graham, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian and Jude Vanderplank..and Kate Lawrence (surface support). Wayne rigged a SRT rope from the scaffold with one deviation down the shaft to the bottom. Wayne and Jude went down to look at the bottom first. When they came out Nigel and I descended to look at the bottom. I then came out first self-lifelining up the ladders whilst Nigel chose to SRT up and out. A bit smelly about halfway up but couldn’t find the cause! Adrian.

A happy Nigel. Photo KL.

Saturday 19th September 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Xiao Jin, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cooler today at 18°C with a slight breeze. Gradually turned wetter as the day wore on but not too wet. Kate down to start with, sending up buckets of rocks and buckets of gravel. Joined later by Kushy to help and then replaced by Adrian with his capping kit. The rift swallowed Adrian’s small bag at some stage. The GoPro footage taken down the rift at the end of the session didn’t reveal anything new. Total for the day was 29 loads of rocks and 19 loads of gravel (and a teeny weeny bit of broken stal). 3¼ hours. John.

Looking down. Photo MK.

Descending top part of shaft. Video MK.

Descending bottom part of shaft. Video MK.

Saturday 12th September 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warmer again today at 20°C, sunny and with a slight breeze. John down initially to unhook and reposition the bottom double ladder. Kate then down and after the ladder was removed she sent up 19 loads of rocks and 15 of gravel. She then came out and John descended, sending up another bucket of rocks and 3 of gravel. Total for today was 20 of rocks and 18 of gravel. He then drilled series of holes, 4 with his 900mm bit and 8 with his 600mm bit, all 12mm diameter. He then came out and Adrian descended to charge the holes. Only 5m of 40gm, which was insufficient cord for all the holes so only the 4 deeper ones at the North end and 6 in the middle used leaving the 2 at the South end unused. All went OK so should be some spoil for next time. 4 hours. John.