Sunday 19th July 2026

John Cooper, Kate Lawrence, Wayne Starsmore, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. John drilled 2 lines of 6 holes. Could not drill too deep as they went through. John came out and Wayne went to the bottom to set up before ladder hauled up. Jude pressed the button. Phut then PHUT and finally BANG. There was some faffing involved here. Should be some spoil for next weekend now. 4 hours. John.

July 2026. John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank (with a visit from Tom Chapman to look at installing gate/frame). Hot again today, 26°C with no breeze. Jude and Kate to the bottom to start and 1 frog, 1 cricket and several slugs sent up for rehoming. They then sent up 15 loads of mud and 35 loads of rocks, clearing all the spoil from Tuesday’s bang. Nice rift in floor with cool breeze coming out. At the end Adrian went down and thinks we need to repeat last Tuesday’s effort. 2½ hours. John.

Looking down, ladder on West wall. Photo AV.

Tuesday 14th July 2026

John Cooper, Xiao Jin, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank (with a visit from Kushy). Jude and Kate to the bottom to start and 1 frog, 1 cricket and several slugs sent up for rehoming. They then came out and John went down with his drill. A line of 4 holes drilled in the bulge, another line of 4 in the ledge below and 1 at the floor level. John was then replaced by Adrian who filled the holes, connected them and came out, raising the ladder out of harms way on the way out. Xiao pressed the “FIRE” button. All went OK. Bottom ladder lowered again but will need securing by the first person down next time. Should be some spoil to clear on Saturday. John.

Saturday 11th July 2026

John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy) and Pete Hann. Hot today, 28°C with a slight breeze. Mike and Pete down, Pete wall building at North end of rift and Kushy assisting. John on surface mixing cement and supplying rocks as needed. There was good cold draught coming out of a 15cm wide crack at the South end of the rift, floor level. John used the foot of the first ladder as a cool refuge when not working on the surface. Wall completed with 3 mixes of cement. Next step requires the wall on the East side to be taken out to make the bottom workable. 2 hours. John.

Base of Wall at North end. Photo MK.

Floor rift at North end. Video MK.

Saturday 4th July 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Kate Lawrence, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Warm today, 21°C with a breeze. John and Kate down to start with. Once Kate had cleared the wildlife she left and John dug out footings for the next section of the North wall. Adrian’s old drill was then used to drill holes for rebar that were embedded in the wall. Two bags of PostFix used to provide the base for the next couple of meters of wall. Pete then descended and checked with John what was required. John then went out and Kate descended to assist Pete. Three mixes of cement done spread over 6 buckets. Lots of buckets of small/medium sized rocks sent down. Having built up over halfway, incorporating all the supports, we ran out of mortar. Similar amount of walling to do next week. 3 hours. John.