Saturday 25th April 2026

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warm and sunny on the surface today. John to the bottom to start with to break up the larger rocks and move the bits behind the ladder. John then went up and Kate went down and 23 loads of mud and 1 load of rocks were hauled out. Kate then came up and John went down to dig out a footing for the new section of wall under Pete’s newest wall. Pete joined John and the drill came down and 4 pins were drilled and inserted into the sides of the footing. The drill was then sent up and four bags of Postfix sent down. Several bottles of water then used and the base laid. Two mixes of mortar then prepared on the surface and sent down for Pete to make a start on the wall. Lots more walling required. Depth measured at end of session 15.7m, but that’s to the mud floor. 3 hours. John.

Saturday 18th April 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Pleasantly cool but dry with a slight breeze and sunshine. First the ladder on the surface was lengthened by decreasing the overlap of the two sections by four rungs. It was then lowered to the bottom and the top of it attached to the middle ladder. Kate and Jude then went down and started clearing rock. After a couple of hours Kate came out and John went down to reposition the bottom ladder which was no longer touching the floor. He continued to the bottom and moved one rock causing a small mud slump. He then came out to help haul out more rock. Adrian then went down with capping kit and Jude came out. A total of 55 loads hauled out today, 42 were rock and the rest were mud or gravel. At the end Adrian was attacked by the East wall. He then took photographs of the offending rocks. Next week will probably need to build up below Pete’s new wall to prevent more mud slumping in and break up Adrian’s attackers. 3 hours. John.

East wall slump. Photo AV.

East wall slump - wider view. Photo AV.

Still more clearing required. Photo AV.

Tuesday 14th April 2026

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Sarah Hann, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. John drilled a series of holes in the floor. Established it was just over 500mm thick at the deepest point. Adrian then came along and put 40gm cord in some of them. Not enough cord for all of them. Used water to tamp the holes where possible. Removed the bottom ladder to prevent damage and because it needs lengthening. Fumes produced about as thick as the mist on the surface. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 11th April 2026

John Cooper, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. Initially Kate loading and Pete and John hauling. Adrian turned up later and joined the surface team. When 20 loads of mud and 2 of rock had been hauled out John took Kate’s place to see what holes were required. Another 4 loads of rocks hauled out in preparation for a mid week session. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 4th April 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. A cold and windy day, storm Dave on its way. John and Adrian to the bottom to decide the plan of attack. Capping commenced. Meanwhile the rest were sorting out the rock heap on the surface, large rocks for walling and small for track maintenance. John was then replaced by Kate. A total of 20 loads of rock and 3 of mud were hauled out today. May need something a bit stronger next time. 3 hours. John.