Saturday 7th February 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Mike Kousiounis, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cold, 2°C today, but sunny and no wind. Kate and Mike at the bottom sorting out building stones and sending up buckets of slop. Total of 40 loads of slop sent up today. Short video of proceedings taken by Kate. Will really need to get the retaining wall started next week. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 7th February 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. 10°C today with rain showers and wind if out of the depression. Kate to the bottom where sent up 40 loads of “slop”. As the big bucket tractor was not available double loads were put in the Kubota and emptied at 10 (20 loads) and 20 so a total of forty for the day. Adrian and Jude's post digging refreshments cut short by a call out for Swildon's Hole and John had to report for radio-location duty in Jake's field (for Sump IX) .  Digging 2 hours. John.

Saturday 24th January 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Mike Kousiounis, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Colder today with rain showers and wind. Kate to the bottom where she reported slumping from the North end which would prevent Pete from building a wall. Instead she sent up 35 loads of “slop” which was all the big bucket could take. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 17th January 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Pleasant day, 8°C, and sunny spells. Started by lowering the bottom ladder then Kate descended, lifelined, and managed to descend to the bottom. John then had to go down the fixed ladders to unhook the bottom ladder so the haul line could be used for its proper purpose. Kate then send up 28 loads of mud (slop!) and 25 of rock. The larger rocks were kept ready to be sent down for walling of the North end mud bank. Finally camera sent down so she could record the current state. Made a start fastening down some wire mesh on the hauling platform to prevent slipping. 2½ hours. John.

Video looking South

South-East Wall. Photo KL.

Thursday 15th January 2026

John Cooper, Kate Lawrence, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Heavy rain and big puddles on roads but forecast said rain slowing down as afternoon progressed. Cold at 6°C and a bit of wind but sheltered in the depression. Initially Kate and Wayne went down to have a look at the current dig floor, reporting a nice draught coming out of the hole in the floor in the South-East corner. When they came out John lowered his drill kit and followed it down. After clearing mud away from the exposed boulder on the floor he drilled a line of 5 12mm x 400mm holes plus a separate hole in another boulder to the West. The holes were marked with lengths of black cable. By the time he’d done this Adrian and Jude had arrived so John came out, hauling drill kit out before Jude went down for a look. Once she was out tackle sack of bits lowered then Adrian descended and charged the holes, some with 40gm and some with 12gm cord. Tackle sack raised before detonator carefully lowered down. Adrian then came out, detaching the removable bottom section of ladder with some difficulty. This bottom section was then raised above likely blast damage before Adrian reached the surface. A separate lifeline was taken across and used as needed. Nice bang felt from the stile and the fumes came out quickly. 2 hours. John.