Saturday 21st February 2026

John Cooper, Nigel Graham, Pete Hann, Mike Kousiounis, Kate Lawrence and Adrian Vanderplank. Mud retaining wall started today. John to the bottom first where he excavated a trench across the rift at the base of the mud wall. Pete then drilled two holes in opposite walls and stainless steel pins inserted to act as anchors. Four bags of Postmix were then emptied into the trench, covering the pins, to act as a foundation for the wall. Two mixes of cement were then sent down and used to fix in a large rock either side of one protruding from the mud wall. A very large rock was then identified as a suitable tie but was too large for John so he swapped with Kushy. Another couple of mixes of cement were then sent down to fix it in place and some more large rocks added. Another wall building session will be required next week and possible additional ones later. One frog perched on the head of a mattock 3m up the mud wall was supervising proceedings. It was eventually rescued by Kate and is now quite happy in its new home above ground. 2 hours. John.

Saturday 14th 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.