Tuesday 6th October 2026

John Cooper, Xiao Jin, Kate Lawrence, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Still warm today at 18°C. John down first and started to drill a line of 4 holes in the top ledge.Kate then descended and drew lines on the rock to show John where he was NOT allowed to drill. After she returned to the surface 3 dumpy bags were lowered to block off the rift in the floor. Then John completed the line of 4 deep holes in the ledge. In addition he drilled another line of 4 shorter holes in the ledge at floor level, North end. He then came out and Kate descended with a roll of carpet to cover the dumpy bags. It is hoped that the smoother surface will make removing the gravel easier. Kate then came out and Wayne descended. He commented that the stemming water was leaking out of the holes where they passed through the various beds. Should be more spoil this time, fingers crossed. 2½ hours. John.

Saturday 3rd October 2026

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Sarah Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cooler again today at 18°C but misty and damp, warmer when the sun popped out every so often. Kate down and then the double ladder hauled out. Disappointing bang result as it turned out, possibly owing to not tamping the holes with water? Also only the attachment point of Kate’s special stal left. The ledge had been slightly shaken but not broken. However the floor boulder had gone, leaving a continuous rift in the floor. Kate sent up 15 loads and then called for assistance to remove a rock wedged down the rift. John was allowed down and the pair managed to extract it. John then reduced it to manageable pieces before returning to surface. A few more loads hauled out. Total for the day only 10 of rocks and 11 of gravel. Will need to redo the bang in the ledge. 2 hours. John.

Stal remains. Photo KL.

Ledge should be gravel! Photo KL.

Looking South then down. Video KL.

Tuesday 29th September 2026

John Cooper, Xiao Jin, Kate Lawrence, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warmer 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.