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.
The haul rope was replaced today. Originally a 10mm digging rope was used but this was replaced by a 16mm hawser laid rope which was easier to grip. The load was attached to the middle of the rope so one side could be used to haul to the pulley and the other to swing the load across onto the platform. Eventually the platform was lengthened so the swing across was no longer required. As the hawser laid rope gradually became knotted the bucket was fastened to the end. Finally the whole rope became too knotted which is why it was replaced today with a 16mm plaited rope.
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 North 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 were 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.