John Cooper's record of digging sessions.
Ordinary font is John’s. Italics is copied from someone else.
[email from Tuska:
John,
Yes, it is worth recording the efforts of the team thus far, a blog would be a good way as Kushy suggests or a piece to be contd is another in a journal. Or as a cartoon maybe, only joking!
For my two-penny-worth I would write it as a short series as in a blog or put in a journal, quarter page at most, sometimes photo. We must not though give a specific location just yet and it is best recorded as The Last White Rabbit at Priddy, Somerset
I would recommend this particular course because the cave is likely to yield in short sections getting ever bigger as we go. Yoh!
Passage Names suggested to start us off if you are still ok with Alice in Wonderland. They are only meant merely as an opening salvo, if you do write anything.
‘Too Dark To See Anything’ Section
Entrance shaft - The Rabbit Hole
First Chamber – The Pocket Watch
Squeeze into New Chamber - Drink and Shrink Squeeze
The New Chamber - The (Little) Golden Key Chamber
‘The Slow Engineers’ will need to prepare the passage ways structure behind Kushy and Yourself (The Vanguards) pushing forwards. I suggest securing the approaches so you do not have to spend too long waiting for us to get where it appears the ‘Angels fear to tread’.
I would like to try and get down the hole again soon, may still need help if ok with you.
Will try also to get over to start on the winter shelter.
Hopefully catch up soon.
Best wishes
Tuska]
[several emails from Tuska. I first opened The Last early 2015 John Hill and Dave Speed in photos. Piped it and capped it April 2016. Tuska in photo. Lost it completely April 19th 2016.]
Dave Speed and John Hill before the pipe went in.
[From Kushy We used the digger on the 12th November '21. So I would count that as the first session. I didn't write a report sorry. It was me Wayne and Tusker there: We uncovered the sleepers, then spent a few weeks moving them into place and digging out the soil.]
[Old Log book. Thursday 2nd December 2021. About 2ft. below the shaft now, support work around the base of the shaft before more digging. Removed one boulder and an incredible breathing draught coming from below. I think T’ might be hiding a secret. Mike, Wayne and Tuska].
Tuesday 18th January 2022. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Cool overcast but dry and no wind. Mike was working at the bottom cementing boulders to prop up the entrance pipe. John was on the surface mixing cement. Two bags of slab mix and two bags of sand. To each bag was added half a bag of ballast and some cement. The four mixes were split in half to lower down to Mike. Half a dozen small loads of mud were hauled out. Very muddy underfoot on surface. 2 hours.
[Old Log book. Sunday 23rd January 2022. Mike K, Tuska, Alan Mills and Mark Helmore. Cementing and stabilising the shaft again, a dozen loads put in. The shaft is now cemented all 360° all around the edge and tied in 2-3ft. deep all around. PF’d a boulder directly down and looking at a 6ft. drop down. Mike.]
Wednesday 26th January 2022. John Cooper and David Morrison (Tuska). Tuska on the surface mixing with John below cementing boulders to prop up the entrance pipes. Not quite so muddy today. 2 hours.
Wednesday 2nd February 2022. John Cooper and David Morrison (Tuska). Tuska organised delivery of the winch and ladder which he started fettling in the morning. I turned up about 1.30pm with some water as there was none for mixing cement. Spent a while deciding where and how to fix the entrance ladder. Left it propped on rocks pending a proper base being constructed Sunday. Finally spent some time cutting off welded on nuts from the winch frame. 2 hours for me.
Saturday 12th February 2022. John Cooper joined Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Dave Morrison (Tuska) and Chris Williams for the afternoon session setting up on the surface. 2 hours.
Friday 4th March 2022. John Cooper and Dave Morrison. Some clatch moved to surface so Kushy can Plug and Feather more boulders. 1 hour.
[Old Log book. Sunday 6th March. Mike, Tuska, Chris W. and John. Mike and Tuska breaking up boulders and winching out for a few hours, about 6ft lower again. Bedding type roof heading towards Wookey direction at about 45°, the opposite way there is a draughting hole in the floor. Cement work done at the end with Chris and John popped over to say “Hello”. Mike.]
Sunday 13th March 2022. John Cooper and Andy Thompson went across early afternoon and assisted Kushy, Mark Helmore and Al Mills for a bit of rock hauling. Tuska had already left. Empty water container brought back to Upper Pitts for refilling. 1 hour.
Tuesday 15th March 2022. John Cooper, Mark Helmore, Dave Morrison, Andrew Thompson and Chris Williams. Took across another large water container. Plug and feathers used to break up a couple of boulders into bits small enough to haul out. Also removed a load of muddy clatch. Some work done on surface repositioning haul line. Draught coming outwards today. 2 hours.
Thursday 24th March 2022. John Cooper, Dave Morrison and Andrew Thompson (and Wayne stopped by for a visit). Widening the bottom by John using plug and feathers. Also some clatch removed. Depth measured at 26¼ ft (must do it myself next time in metres!). 2½ hours.
Tuesday 29th March 2022. John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Depth at start 8.5m. Plug and feathers used to break up boulder. Not very effective at start because boulder surface kept fracturing. Eventually got it sorted. Bit of cementing done at end. 2 hours.
Wednesday 30th March 2022. John Cooper, Dave Morrison and Andrew Thompson. Depth at end of session was 9.2m. Plug and feathers used to break up boulders. Quite a bit of clatch removed. Some cementing done at end. Need more sand and cement. 3 hours.
Friday 1st April 2022. John Cooper, Dave Morrison, Geoff Newton and Andrew Thompson. Quite a bit of clatch removed. Spent some time working on the pointy boulder but it just splintered when drilling the end. Eventually it wouldn’t release a plug and broke the tip off the drill bit. Dropped the boulder so it is now possible to drill the top of it. Depth at end of session was 9.4m. 3 hours.
Saturday 2nd April 2022. John Cooper took over from Mark Helmore for the last cement mix of the day. Others were Mike Kousiounis, Andrew Thompson and Chris Williams. They had been there all day whilst I only joined after I’d finished in Dave Mitchell’s Dig. Mike had removed the big pointy boulder but decided more support was required before proceeding further along. 1 hour for me.
[Old Log Book Saturday 2nd April. Mike K, Andy T and Mark H. Removing the large boulder and clatch. Surprised how low we are after John’s sessions. Roof looked very suspect towards Wookey so cemented 2 bags of sand early for support, Chris W joined us and so did John later. 6½ hours. Mike.]
Tuesday 5th April 2022. John Cooper, Mark Helmore, Dave Morrison and Andrew Thompson. Quite a bit of clatch removed. Plug and feathers used to break up a few boulders. One mix of cement used to build wall. Measured depth 9.7m but did fill up the hole again so probably 9.5m now. 2 hours.
Thursday 7th April 2022. John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Plug and feathers used to create wall building rocks. 2 mixes of cement then used to build wall. There are 4 bags of sand and 1+ bags of cement remaining. 2 hours.
Saturday 9th April 2022. John Cooper joined Mike Kousiounis and Dave Morrison for the last part of the session (Mark Helmore having already left). Mike was breaking up rock with plug and feathers when I arrived but soon switched to clearing. Loads of rock and a bit of clatch hauled up before calling it a day. 1 hour for me.
Tuesday 12th April 2022. John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Started by hauling clatch out. Then 1 mix of cement and a bit of boulder breaking. Depth was 9.8m to top of talus cone, 10.1m to foot level. Winch bearing died at end of session. 2 hours.
Friday 15th April 2022. John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Started with 1 mix of cement which was used cementing the boulders left from last time. Then hauled some clatch out. Then a spell breaking up the bigger boulder on the solid wall side. Still 10.1m to bottom. 2 hours.
Monday 18th April 2022. John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Andrew Thompson. When we arrived the winch setup was a real mess. We reset it up and later watched as one of the sheep had another go at demolishing it. The sheep went under a scaffold leg and lifted it up as a means of scratching its back. With no weight on it they were able to move the legs several metres rotating the winch itself at the same time! With Andy and Mike at the bottom a steady stream of debris, rocks and clatch, came out. A half hour lunch break was an opportunity to take one of Mike’s batteries back for recharging. Continued after lunch using my batteries before finally going to get the newly charged one to finish off the day. One mix of cement done in the morning session and a second mix in the afternoon one. Depth now 10.2m. 5 hours of work.
Wednesday 20th April 2022. John Cooper, Mark Helmore and Andrew Thompson. Started by hauling clatch out. Then 1 mix of cement and a bit of boulder breaking, just hammer. Depth was 10.4m to foot level. 2 hours
Tuesday 26th April 2022. John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Started by hauling clatch out. Then a bit of boulder breaking to create walling material for 2 mixes of cement. During the hauling of clatch a boulder was dislodged from somewhere in the shaft which fell hitting John’s helmet and left shoulder. A bruise is now developing from the rock which was about the size of 2 house bricks. Later on the empty bucket came down on its own! I really don’t trust the hook on the hauling rope, needs to be a closed one so it cannot fall off accidentally. Depth was 10.4m to foot level. 2½ hours.
Thursday 5th May 2022. John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Andy at the bottom and John on the surface. Andy started by breaking up the big rock left by Mike and then another one from the side. John hauled the bits to the surface. Then some clatch hauled out. Finally a few rocks broken up for Mike to use as walling material. Depth now 10.8m. 6 bags of sand, 2 bags of cement and 2 containers of water on site. 2 hours.
Sunday 8th May 2022. John Cooper joined Dave King and Mike Kousiounis for the end of day session. Geoff Newton had already left. Sent a bit of mortar and some rocks down to Mike for walling. 1 hour.
Tuesday 10th May 2022. John Cooper and Andrew Thompson. Two mixes of cement used building up the wall at the Swildon’s end using rocks from the surface. Still not looking safe. 2 hours.
[Old Log Book Sunday 15th May 2022. Cutting up angle beams to help stabilise the loose wall that keeps peeling away. All went well and started building up off the beams. Managed to leave an open space towards Wookey also. 2 mixes used. MK, AT, MH and DM. Mike.]
Tuesday 17th May 2022. John Cooper and Wayne Starsmore. Took across 2 bags of cement and 4 bags of sand together with the refilled water drum. Took my drill down. My plug and feathers used to break up a bit of the rock freeing up 4 sets of Mike’s PFs in the process. Still not quite removed. One mix of cement used building up walls using the debris. Nice draught from the down-dip end. 2½ hours.
Thursday 19th May 2022. John Cooper. Took across 6 bags of sand. Took my drill down but discovered I’d left the main battery on charge at home. Continued breaking up the same rock as Tuesday. Made a little progress before running low on battery power. Then a voice from above turned out to be Wayne out on a run. He volunteered to get his drill so I continued working until I had no power left. Then Wayne returned and lowered his drill. I continued breaking up the same rock, it’s nearly gone now. 2 hours.
Sunday 22nd May 2022. John Cooper joined Mike Kousiounis for the end of day session. Geoff Newton had already left and Dave Morrison (Tuska), Frank Tully and Chris Williams left when I arrived. I did 2 mixes of mortar which Mike used up walling. Used a mixture of rock he created using plug and feathers and some I sent down. 2 hours.
Friday 27th May 2022. John Cooper. Continued breaking up rock on the solid side. Didn’t notice any draught today. 1½ hours.
Sunday 29th May 2022. John Cooper joined Mike Kousiounis, Al Mills and Dave Morrison (Tuska) for the end of day session. Geoff Newton left as I arrived. Mike continued with plug and feathers for a while until batteries all dead. Then I did 2 mixes of mortar which Mike used up walling. Used a mixture of rock he created using plug and feathers and some I sent down. 2 hours.
Wednesday 1st June 2022. John Cooper. Continued breaking up rock on the solid side. Needs spoil clearing now. Didn’t notice any draught today. 1½ hours.
Thursday 2nd June 2022. John Cooper, Al Mills and Dave Morrison (Tuska). Started by clearing the spoil, 1½ hours. Then breaking up more rock for another hour. Draught is coming from the Wookey end at head height. 2½ hours.
Friday 3rd June 2022. John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Geoff Newton. John arrived an hour after the others. Geoff had already cleared the spoil from yesterday. Mike then went down and created more which John and Geoff hauled out. Quite a bit more clatch also hauled out. Two mixes of cement were then done and used cementing at the bottom (rocks sent back down as building material. Current depth 11.6m. 3 hours for John.Wednesday 8th June 2022. John Cooper. Continued breaking up rock. Needs turning into a supporting wall now. Draught coming from Wookey end today. 1½ hours.
Monday 13th June 2022. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Cleared some spoil then 3 mixes of cement used by Mike building walls. No sand left but 1 full bag cement. 3 hours.
Thursday 16th June 2022. John Cooper and Dave Morrison (Tuska). Took across 4 bags of sand, 1 bag of cement already there. Put electron ladder don then John life lined Dave down. After inspection life lined him back out. Dave thinks best to tackle the higher level hole along the solid right wall rather then the lower left which goes into nasty breakdown. Then John went down and did a bit of plug and feather work. 2 buckets of spoil. 2½ hours.
Monday 20th June 2022. John Cooper, Mark Helmore and Mike Kousiounis. Mark inspected bottom and did not like the lower hole on the left. Decided far better to go back up a bit and follow solid wall along. Started to demolish the wall and when Mike took over he was excavating clatch from behind it. Managed to retrieve his ear defenders. Finally used the remains of his Swildon’s cord to pop a couple of boulders. Not too loud and fumes quickly came out. 3¼ hours.
Wednesday 22nd June 2022. John Cooper. Continued breaking up rock. Needs a good clearing session now then a tunnel roof constructing. Draught coming from Wookey end today. 2 hours.
Thursday 23rd June 2022. John Cooper, Al Mills and Dave Morrison (Tuska). Al and Tuska arrived mid-morning and made a start on fabricating a shelter for the winch. John arrived about 12.45 and after helping a bit descended and sent up spoil. This revealed the winch had been moved quite a bit by the sheep so had to be repositioned several times. When it started spitting with rain a halt to hauling was called. John ascended and continued helping with the fabrication. The rain held off. 2 hours for John.
Friday 24th June 2022. John Cooper and Geoff Newton. Geoff loading and John hauling. Nice draught from the Wookey end. John then took over at bottom with a mix of cement and fixed a scaffold bar as a roof support. I think it may be necessary to completely wall up the bottom left hole. 2½ hours.
Thursday 30th June 2022. John Cooper. Continued breaking up rock. Took in a couple of short bits of scaffold tube which will be used in building a roof over the ongoing tunnel. 1½ hours.
Thursday 7th July 2022. John Cooper, Rob Harper, Al Mills and Dave Morrison (Tuska). Surface levelling work all day. Attempt to erect cover showed up weakness in design. Back to the drawing board. 7 hours.
[Old Log book. Sunday 17th July 2022. Mike Kushy, Rob Harper, Geoff Newton, Monica B, Valerie ?. A lot of mud and rubble was first removed from the “passage” ahead. Then all the remaining sand and cement was used to concrete in boulders, rubble etc to stabilise the first metre or two of the “passage” roof. Work in progress. 3½ hours. Geoff.]
Thursday 21st July 2022. John Cooper. Took over 4 bags of sand and a bag of cement. Continued breaking up rock on the right hand side. 1½ hours.
Saturday 23rd July 2022. John Cooper, Rob Harper, Mark Helmore and Mike Kousiounis. Mike banged a boulder ahead about 10.30am and the fumes cleared within the hour. Mark and Mike were breaking up boulders and when I arrived about 1.30pm Mark and Rob departed. Mike went back in and I supplied him with two mixes of cement and building rocks until calling it a day about 15.45. 2 hours surface work for me.
[Mike’s report. Mike arrived at the dig around 10 after picking up a det and 1m of 20g from Graham.
Solo trip down and drill 2 holes into the ongoing Boulder, all went well and set of charge about 10.40. Went to put gate back on but the fumes beat me to it, flying out in about 3 seconds, so 12m in 3 seconds is the maths for thedraught speed at that time, slightly overcast.
Waited in the car and Mark/Rob showed up at 11. Went back into the cave about 11.15 and no problems with fumes at all. The bang did as hoped and the Boulder in the ceiling stayed in place, although still sat on a shattered pillar to the left (unsure if this is propping it, but it can stay there and get cemented in with enough space still moving forward).
Cleared some spoil and cut the angle iron out, Rob went to grab a hacksaw from Bean as my blade didn’t last long. Mark joined me at the bottom whilst Rob was away and started to attack the right hand wall. Lots of damage done, Rob was very patient at surface waiting for buckets to be filled, that right hand wall is very stubborn with no particular grain.
John arrived and Rob/Mark left.
I managed to fish some of the spoil ahead back and stacked the bigger rocks up to support the scaffold bar above the ‘abyss hole’, also managed to pull some more of the right hand wall out.
Cement was put in to stabilise the left hand wall, high up on the right and started on the dodgy stack further ahead to the left. Once set this will allow more of the right hand wall to come out and a safe exit if anything moves when pulling the rest of the stuff from ahead back/stabilising the dodgy stack.]
Wednesday 27th July 2022. John Cooper. Took over 4 bags of sand and a bag of cement. There are now 6 bags of sand and 1 ¾ bags of cement on site. Continued breaking up rock on the right hand side. There is now very little holding up the right hand end of the scaffold bars which support the roof. Need to fasten a support to the wall to help hold them up. Lots of rocks to haul out. Nice outward draught from way on. 1½ hours.
Friday 29th July 2022. John Cooper and Geoff Newton. Took over another tub of water. With Geoff at the bottom John hauled out 14 loads of rocks left from Wednesday. Then John went down with drill and plug and feathers to create more rock. 10 loads sent up to the surface. Going in horizontally now. Roughly measured for a support beam to be fixed to the right hand wall. 2½ hours.
Sunday 31st July 2022. John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Geoff Newton. Took across support beam and fixings. Mike and Geoff at the bottom fixed it in place. Then a constant stream of spoil was hauled out by John. Two buckets in use meant as soon as the empty one reached the bottom it was swapped for a full one. Probably more loads than Friday were hauled out. After a couple of hours lunch break and Geoff departed. John did a mix of cement which was sent down and used by Mike walling with John at the bottom as well providing made to measure rocks. 4 hours.
[New Log Book. Sunday 31st July. Mike, Geoff and John. Mike and Geoff at the bottom, takes two people to dig the bottom now. Mike was in about 8ft under the big boulder, cleared roughly 30+ buckets of big rock and clatch. Geoff had a go at the sharp end and pulled out 2 very large slabs. These were left in for cement work. Whilst Geoff was in the questionable scaff bar moved out of place, this was replaced with a larger bar now sat on much more solid rock. Oh! The first part of today’s session Mike and Geoff attached the angle iron high up on the right to support the ceiling (John had cut and drilled this at home), Geoff left at 1pm then John made a mix and came down with Mike to break up the big slabs, Great draught(s) as usual! I think the strongest came from the hole in the right wall I believe, but a pungent draught came from down below and forwards 4 ½ hours.]
Tuesday 2nd August 2022. John Cooper. Plug and feather work along the bottom passage. 1½ hours.
Friday 5th August 2022. John Cooper. Plug and feather work along the bottom passage, right hand side. 1½ hours.
Saturday 6th August 2022. John Cooper, Mark Helmore, Mike Kousiounis and Geoff Newton. MH, MK and GN started clearing spoil at 1pm and were joined by JC at 3pm. MH and MK had been at the bottom with GN hauling until JC arrived to relieve GN. Another hour of hauling before GN went down and replaced MH. JC then did a mix of cement which MK used on the left hand wall while GN continued sending up rocks. It is now possible to get into a small chamber at the end of the horizontal passage with a way down probably on the right hand side. 4¼ hours total.
[New Log Book. Saturday 6th August. Geoff, Mark H. and Mike (to start). Started by clearing spoil left from John’s midweek session, quite a pile 2 hours clearing. Mark in the meantime worked on forwards/downwards, finally he managed to wriggle the seemingly glued together rocks apart. Space was seen ahead so Mike swapped with Mark, after a few more rocks were removed Mike was able to squeeze through into a calcited (muddy) and decent sized chamber (approx 4m long, 3m wide and 1.5m high). Voids everywhere and some nice stal tucked away in corners. The obvious way on is down to the right when entering where what seems to be another chamber and a tall rift below (Draught increased). John arrived about 3pm to mix up and cement was put in, in preparation for the next breakthrough. 4 ½ hours. *cave is 12.5m deep then approx. 6.5m long. Mike]
Tuesday 9th August 2022. John Cooper and Mark Helmore. Plug and feather work along the bottom passage to make entry to the next chamber easier. 2 hours.
Wednesday 10th August 2022. John Cooper. Plug and feather work along the bottom passage, right hand side. Measured up for a new support to go next to the angle iron put in last weekend. Need 1100mm. There is a square bar just over that length to try or cut down as needed. 1½ hours.
Friday 12th July 2022. John Cooper and Geoff Newton. 30°C on surface so both at bottom. Took down square bar and opened up left hand slot so it would just fit. Will need cementing in now. More plug and feather work on right hand wall but more still required. 2 hours.
Sunday 14th August 2022. John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis, Geoff Newton and Frances Porter. Mike and Geoff had an early start, partly because of the heat. John and Frances joined about 1.30pm to relieve Geoff and do a final few hauls and a mix of cement to fix the square bar. There are 3 bags of sand and 1 bag of cement still on site. 1½ hours.
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections) - Sunday 14th August.
Mike and Geoff had an early start around 9am.
Started clearing then drilling, Mike’s drill gave up the ghost finally so Geoff went off to borrow John’s from the hut. Meanwhile Mike managed to work the annoying rocks out of the floor and break them down a bit.
Geoff came back and the pit was filled in to tipping point, so Geoff went to the surface and half the load was cleared before breaking for a rest. Mike then continued on the surface until all the pit was clear. Geoff came up and lunch was had.
Geoff then went to the sharp end and set about plug and feathering from inside the chamber working back, making a decent sized space in the connection to the chamber now. I think the way into the right hand wall will now be further ahead and into the chamber then working back down as there’s a very large Boulder impeding the way directly down to the right. Amazing draught as you’ll see from this week’s video. Batteries used up John then showed up in time with Frances.
John set about on a mix while Frances hoisted the remaining spoil up, Geoff left for the day at this point.
A mix was sent down and Mike wedged a big rock under the impeding Boulder on the right and cemented around it, also braced in John’s metal bar and some more of the left hand wall. The connection point into ‘Pocket Watch’ chamber now feels very secure.
Left around 2.30 (accidentally leaving dead drill and John’s battery in field).
The gap on the right higher up in the chamber heading back down should now be safe to push.]
Tuesday 16th August 2022. John Cooper and Mark Helmore. Plug and feather work on a boulder in the right hand side of the Chamber by Mark whilst John dragged the spoil up the slope to the pit. When John’s new battery ran low Mark hauled out the spoil and then John had a look in the chamber before coming out. 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 17th August. John Cooper – afternoon. More breaking up boulder. Battery ran out before last bit reduced to manageable size. 1 ½ hours.]
Wednesday 17th August 2022. John Cooper – afternoon session. Continued breaking up the boulder Mark was working on yesterday. Battery ran out with just the last couple of bits to split in half to make transferable. Spoil now needs moving to pit then to surface. Might be useful to have a drag tray along the bottom tunnel. 1½ hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 17th August. John Cooper – afternoon. More breaking up boulder. Battery ran out before last bit reduced to manageable size. 1 ½ hours.]
Wednesday 17th August 2022. John Cooper, Mark Helmore and Mike Kousiounis (Kushy) – evening session. With John on the surface, Mark at the bottom of the entrance shaft and in the tunnel and Mike in the chamber the spoil from the afternoon session was cleared. Mike also created more spoil and entered the next chamber down. Spoil, including mud, cleared. 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 17th August ’22. The Last/Rabbit Hole? JC, MK and MH – evening. Got to the hut, put food on, locked myself out of the hut and had to rush to see if I could borrow a fob to get in, I could! Is this supposed one of them kind of evenings?! Thanks Wayne.
Met John and Mark H at the dig. Mike went at the sharp end to clear back John’s mess to Mark. Enough moved back to start drilling the impeding rock. Big chunks removed. I got into the next space, with Mark now above me in “Pocket Watch” chamber to help lift some heavy rock out. A couple of draughting routes in different directions, most noticeably down 6ft and SW direction (off to the right). A bit more stabilising needed in places back in the Pocket Watch, but boulders and spaces are getting bigger! - /not a bad evening in the end. Mike 2 hours.]
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections - Wednesday 17th August - Evening
John, Mark and Mike.
Mike went into the chamber and passed rocks back to Mark to the go up to surface to John. Cleared the debris left by John’s afternoon session. Plug and feathered open a big enough hole to get into the next space. Quite an obvious way on with a pronounced draught down in the floor 6-8ft deep with a rounded off, I think is a wall, rock. It has like a brick work pattern on it and could be the cliff sloping over an edge? All feels safe in the next bit.
Cleared some mud to finish. Chamber needs a little clean and there’s a rock at the connection to the chamber which is a bit annoying for clearing easily.
The slab over the top of the next bit could do with another foot or so taken of its edge to make passing spoil back easier. Other than that there’s a lot of stuff to clear down below.
The new bit again is very heavily staled up and feels very safe with the boulders again getting a lot bigger and the spaces getting bigger still.
I would like to cement the rock on the right linking down at the next bit. I think it needs tying into the block above it in the chamber.
2 hours, Mike]
Friday 19th August 2022. John Cooper and Geoff Newton. Both at bottom. First John did a bit of work on the floor of the crawl through into the first chamber. Then both had a look at the ways on. Some rocks passed back to the pit. Decided not to attack Mike’s favourite spot below the second chamber but to try and get to the same spot via a safer route further left in the first chamber. Geoff did some plug and feather work starting to demolish a rather large boulder that’s not holding anything up. John went and got the hauling bucket and filled the 2 x 5L tubs with mud and took them to the pit. Finally we cleared the pit of all the mud and debris. 3 hours.
[New Log Book. Friday 19th August 2022. John Cooper and Geoff Newton. Initially Geoff to the “next space” where he removed small rocks and clatch making entry into the space easier. Whilst this was happening John was reducing a boulder in the floor of the approach to “Pocket Watch” using plug and feathers, There did not seen to be a viable way on from the “next space”. So we agreed to start the removal of a large fluted coffin sized boulder blocking the way on in the descending left hand side of “Pocket Watch”. We both had a go at this with plug and feathers – it remains work in progress. The spaces below the boulder ate plug and feathers. The we removed all the boulder parts to the surface 3 hours. Geoff.]
Tuesday 23rd August 2022. John Cooper, Ali Moody and Wayne Starsmore (watchers on surface were Colin Shapter, Barry Wilkinson and Marion Wilkinson). Put ladder and lifeline down for Ali. After she and Wayne had done a look round Wayne went to surface, Ali moved spoil along bottom crawl and John did plug and feather work on the large boulder that Geoff had started. Still requires more work. 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Tuesday 23rd August 2022. John Cooper, Ali Moody and Wayne Starsmore. Tourist and work. 2 hours. John C]
Wednesday 24th August 2022 - afternoon. John Cooper. More plug and feather work on the boulder and the slab to its right. Spoil left in chamber, rocks and 1 bucket of mud. Draught from ahead left and a pretty grotto there. 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 24th August 2022. Afternoon. John Cooper. Plug and feather work. Spoil left in chamber, 2 hours.]
Wednesday 24th August 2022 – evening. Nick Butler, John Cooper, Mark Helmore and Mike Kousiounis (Kushy). John on the surface hauling, Mark at the bottom of the entrance shaft loading buckets and dragging the spoil back, Nick in the chamber passing the spoil back from Mike to part way along the tunnel and Mike creating yet more spoil. A grand total of 38 loads were hauled up, all today’s work. 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 24th August. Evening. John Cooper, Mark Helmore, Mike Kushy and Nick Butler. Mike at the front clearing John’s “Afternoon Mess” back to Nick, then back to Mark in the pit, to then go up to John on surface. 38 loads. Carried on from where John had started and opened up a view down to the pit seen before. Draught increased on opening. 2 hours. Mike.]
Monday 29th August 2022. John Cooper, Jess Eades, Martyn Grayson, Rob Harper, Mark Helmore, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Andy Thompson, Adrian Vanderplank, Jude Vanderplank and visit at closing time by Courtenay James. Mike at the front with plug and feathers. Rest removed a grand total of 61 loads to the surface. Mike says looking good but need to be careful. 5 hours.
[New Log Book. Monday 29th August ’22. John C, Mike K, Mark H, Rob H(arper), Adrian and Jude, Martyn and Jess and Andy Thompson. 10am start, Mike in the new way on and Jess in the older way pulling out loose stuff. 61 loads cleared. Broke through into a horizontal rift that led to “proper cave” with a vadose trench heading back in under and to a deep pot. More work to secure the head of the pot and some bolts with a traverse rope would be handy ready for the floor to open up. Draught increased a lot when the hole in the floor was revealed. 5 ½ hours. Mike.]
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections) - Monday 29th August 2022
MK, JC, MH, RH, AVP, JVP, Martyn Grayson, Jess Eades and Andy Thompson.
I can’t quite remember all that happened or where people were but we did 61 good weight buckets today. Clearing out the clatch to start with in the second way down to the pit. Needed to plug and feather so Jess went into the 1st way on we found. After a while I could poke my head through a gap and see that the next bit below Jess looked stable enough to go in. So swapped places with Jess and pushed feet first into another little chamber lower down, dug through some rocks horizontally and got into a bit more open space with a solid wall on the left with some nice flowstone and slickenslides. The passage went on horizontal for roughly 5 metres there was also a climb up in the ceiling that continued on in the same direction but even further. Too small to look around to see if it’s safe to push on. Turned around and realised there’s a vadose trench heading to the top of a deep pot/pitch with an excellent draught. Glad I roped up when digging in the floor and I would advise anyone going in to do the same as the floor looks like it’s just suspended above the drop. There’s a rope in, this could be brought full circle to where it’s tied off and a tether could be attached to it, like a traverse line.
There’s a big block in the floor to break up and lots of rock to pull out of the floor, this would possibly allow a way in from the second way down.
Photos and videos attached.
Mike.
P.S. Thanks everyone for your help today!]
Wednesday 31st August 2022 - afternoon. John Cooper and Wayne Starsmore. Took out a couple of boulders in the floor of the small chamber (third) then worked on the left hand wall leading onwards over the slab in the floor. Possible to do a loop round in the second chamber. Bit of a squeeze down into the third chamber where I was working. 6 loads of rock and a couple of buckets of clatch to surface. 2 hours.
Wednesday 31st August 2022 - evening. John Cooper, Mark Helmore, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy), Andy Thompson and Mike Wise. Kushy continued downwards in the third chamber eventually linking to the base of the left hand drop from the first chamber. 26 loads of rock and clatch were hauled to the surface by John. Dark at the end of the session. 2 hours.
Thursday 15th September 2022. John Cooper. Plug and feather work at the bottom making it wide enough to work. Came out to help Al Mills and Dave Morrison plant some fence posts they had spent the day digging holes for. 2 hours total.
[New Log Book. Thursday 15th September 2022. John Cooper. Plug and feather at the bottom to make it a bit roomier. Came out and assisted Tuska and Satanic putting in fence posts around the dig. 2 hours. John C.
Friday 16th September 2022. John Cooper and Geoff Newton. Took along another couple of 5L buckets. With Geoff at the dig face and John in chamber 3 9 buckets of clatch and 3 rocks were moved on out to the surface. Don’t like the look of the bottom. Too many dodgy boulders above me now. 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Friday 16th September 2022. John Cooper and Geoff Newton. 9 small tubs of clatch and 3 rocks from bottom to surface via various chambers. Neither Geoff nor John are happy digging at the bottom of all the assorted boulders! 2 hours. John Cooper.
It is not so much that I was unhappy digging there, it’s just that there does not seem to be a viable way on at the current location. Not much draught today. Need to look for a Plan B. Geoff.]
[New Log Book. Wednesday 28th September. JC, MK and Mike Wise. John and Mike started at 6.20. 9 buckets (small) filled. John started to take them out, then MW joined us. Not much draught initially, used my vape to find where it had gone / was coming from. Broke into another chamber after a hairy collapse, draught good in there. /heading towards cliff again now. 2 round trips now in the dig, 24 small buckets and 3 large ones. Just over 3 hours, Mike.]
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections) Wednesday 28th September
John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Mike Wise.
Me and John got to the dig about 6.20pm. Filled up 9 small buckets of catch from the bottom. John started to ferry these out whilst I worked on opening up the dig face. Mike Wise then arrived to help John take the buckets to surface. Mike came back down to the face and took some photos, another 9 buckets filled and passed up. Whilst Mike and John relayed them up cave I used my vape to figure out where the draught had gone (not much draught this evening) the slight draughts all seemed to be coming from the direction in which the higher horizontal passage heads (towards the cliff face). With this in mind I chose to attack a small hole near the calcited area, slightly higher from the dig face and heading horizontal. Space could be seen quickly, I wiggled about a large chunk of calcite and in doing so a collapse happened in front somewhere, quite substantial, Mike could hear it up cave and shouted back to check in on me. This collapse opened up a hole in the floor higher up in the existing horizontal bit. Mike confirmed this but was unable to get in so I went back up cave along the horizontal bit and managed to wiggle my way down into a new chamber. The draught was more significant again here, a few ways to choose from but a nice horizontal black hole emits the draught again heading towards the cliff face (we can't be far off now). At the end I managed to break up the calcite from the other side and squeeze back to our original dig site, completing the 2nd round trip of the cave thus far. 6 more small buckets were sent to surface. 24 small buckets and 3 big buckets this evening, I believe. Just over 3 hours.
Lots more clatch and rocks to clear to tidy up the previous chamber.]
Sunday 2nd October 2022. Monica Bollani, John Cooper, Courtenay James and Mike Kousiounis (Kushy). John arrived towards the end to mix a bit of cement.
[New Log Book. Sunday 2nd October ’22. MK, Monica B and Courtenay J. 9 small buckets cleared. Then made a mix + ½ to stabilise some stuff. 4 hours odd.
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections) Sunday October 2nd.
MK to start with, did a few hours solo. Prepped up the climb down for some support work and broke up some of the bigger rocks. Filled up 9 small buckets. Went into the new chamber for another look, dug a hole in the floor and found a 4m deep put that I could climb into heavily stal'd up. Moved the 9 buckets to the bottom of the shaft and climbed up for a rest. Monica and Courtenay showed up with some lunch. We ate then made a mix and pulled the buckets up. Mike and court took the Mix in and Monica carried on mixing, John showed up not long after and carried on the mix. Cement work done in the new chamber, around the connection to the new chamber and in the climb down. Should be able to open up the climb down a bit more and the connection to the new chamber. 5 hours.]
Wednesday 5th October 2022. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Took both drills over. John concentrated on opening up the squeeze between the second and third chamber whilst Mike worked on the drop down from the third chamber. After a while Mike moved on in and John worked on widening the squeeze to the top of the drop down. John followed Mike, now in the fifth chamber, down after a while and passed empty buckets along to him from the fourth chamber. Emptied them down the hole in the floor of the fourth chamber. Only one unexpected crash from a boulder today! 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 5th October ’22. MK and JC. Opening up some of the squeezes and climbed down. Dug into ongoing passage in the final chamber. Lots of flowstone ahead on both sides. Cold and strong draught. 2 ½ hours. Mike K.]
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections) Wednesday October 5th.
MK and JC today. Took two drills in and enlarged the 2nd to 3rd passage squeeze, the head of the climb down and the climb down itself. Opened up the connection to the final chamber also. Dropped all the loose rock on the left hand wall in the final chamber (anyone who has been there will be glad to hear about this). It didn't take much at all and made a Hell of a noise. John asked if everything was alright. Went into the final chamber and handed a few small buckets back to John. I dug at the horizontal way on whilst John opened up more of the climb down. Several small buckets filled and the way on all looks to be flowstone, can see a fair few metres ahead and looks to be a pitch a couple of metres ahead. Very cold and strong draught beyond. All the floor is calcite, a thick false floor. Looking forward to Sunday. 2½ hours.
[New Log Book. Sunday 9th October ’22. MK. Solo trip. Started work on the horizontal passage. Nice view through boulders and good draught. Made 2 large mixes and worked on stabilising the penultimate chamber squeeze through to the final chamber and the climb down. 3 ½ hours. Mike.]
[From Kushy Sunday 9th Oct: MK on a solo trip, broke through into new passage. Looks faulty and definitely walking sized, the boulder slope I was unsure whether the rocks would be perched so being by myself I decided not to enter the new bit, I also thought it would be a good idea to use a rope in case there's a drop under the rocks. Finished off the session putting 2 mixes in to stabilise some of the previous passages.]
Tuesday 11th October 2022. John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Surveying. Started with a plumb of the entrance using a fibron tape then the rest with DistoX. Recording on my memo recorder as we went along and backed up the actual legs in the survey notebook. Adrian failed the penultimate squeeze and Jude didn’t like the look of the final one so after I went through I surveyed back from the end on my own. Will need doing properly. 2 hours.
[New Log Book. Tuesday 11th October 2022. John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Made a start on surveying. Looked down the final hole. 2 hours.
Wednesday 12th October 2022. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Took both drills over. Initially both went through the final squeeze into the big passage so Mike could have a good look down the hole. Thought up on the left looked far more interesting. Took some video. Then John came out through the last two squeezes and attacked the penultimate one that stopped Adrian yesterday. Mike concentrated on enlarging and simplifying the final squeeze. Stopped when John’s drill gave up in a puff of smoke. 1¾ hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 12th October ’22. MK and JC. Went into the end chamber, had a look ahead and down the next pot. Prospectful but very unstable. Lots of stabilising after the final squeeze and at the end of the boulder slope. Spent the end on the session opening up some of the connection points. 1 ¾ hours. Mike.]
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections) John, Adrian and Jude surveyed Tuesday 11th. After their trip I asked John if he had a looked into the ongoing passage, turns out he went in and surveyed right to the end. Obviously a lot more guts than me I'm sure John will give a more detailed report.
Wednesday 12th: John and Mike. Knowing John had been to the bitter end gave me more confidence to go check out the new bit. It's quite treacherous and the boulder slope will need stabilising. The pit in the floor seems to go down quite far and there's quite clear passage off to the left which will be easy to get into once everything is safe. We finished the session opening up the final squeeze and the squeeze previous to that, more to be done on these yet. There is a higher passage in the new bit that makes it look like the solid wall could run back to the entrance, unsure we need to do this though.]
Sunday 16th October. John Cooper went over, did one mix of cement and lowered it half at a time to Kushy who did a valiant job of ferrying it to the old end and making it safer. No time underground – but see Kushy’s report below.
[New Log Book. Sunday 16th October. MK and Frank Tully. With John’s go ahead we went on into the next bit. Still following the bedding, about 10m wide and 25m down to the bottom. Probably doubled the cave length. More digging yet. On the way out found a hole into boulders that seemed to go back towards the entrance shaft. Nice draught in the bedding passage. Came back to hut for lunch. Then MK went back in to do more plug and feather work and cementing on connection points. Started 10.30, lunch at 1pm, back in for 1.45 and finished about 16.30. Tusker and John came in the afternoon to mix and look at how we will finish the entrance as no more spoil to surface. Mike.]
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections) Sunday 16th October
MK and Frank Tully. I was prepared to go in alone and just open stuff up a bit and cement. In the Common Room at the hut John asked if anyone was joining me and Frank was happy to come and assist me so John said we may as well push on into the next bit of cave. So we did. The bedded roof continued and the passage opens up to about 10m wide. We headed straight down the middle and came to a calcite blockage, 5 minutes with a crowbar and we both got through. The bedding opened up again to the estimated 10m wide and continued down for at least another 10m deep. Here it hits a phreatic layer. In the middle of the bedding is a horizontal passage going through the ceiling and into boulders (draughty) but no open way on. The ceiling here looks almost sump like. Coming back to the bedding area the ceiling can be follow to the left (looking downslope) to a long mud puddle thing, the draught is most prominent here and a black space can be seen beyond a triangle shaped hole, about 10 inches high...yay more mud to dig out. We headed back uphill checking the far sides of the bedding...Frank on the right, me on the left. At the calcite bit we had crowbarred into Frank was on his way up and I noticed a small hole in under to the left. We both pushed through the flat out hole into a large boulder collapse with a solid wall on the left. It goes quite far in and feels like the end is under the entrance shaft, probably 10m or so below. Signs of water coming in here and the solid wall can be followed down cave to another calcite blockage, again also draughting well. Some rearranging and support work and this would be a promising dig site also.
All in all we estimate we've got about 100m length and just shy of 50m depth, but the survey will let us know for sure.
We headed back to the hut for lunch.
After lunch I went back in alone to use up the drill batteries, opened up the final squeeze some more and the horizontal squeeze before it. John then arrived with Tuska and a full mix of cement was taken down (really hard work alone even though in 2 halves) and support work was down around the final squeeze area and the start of the bedding passage. Hopefully it's a lot more comfortable for the surveyors now, but on Wednesday more work will be done making it more comfortable still.
Mike.]
Wednesday 19th October 2022. John Cooper, Courtenay James, Mike Kousiounis (Kushy) and Mike Wise. One mix of cement (half a bag) taken in. We first enlarged the calcite blockage mentioned in the previous report. Then a tour round. MW took pictures and video. Cemented in below the original “final squeeze”. Going to be a sod to survey! 2½ hours.
[New Log Book. Wednesday 19th October 2022. Mike Kushy, Courtenay James, John Cooper and Mike Wise. Courtenay made a nice cement mix on the surface then carried it down to the first bedding chamber. The calcite squeeze was hammered slightly more open by Kushy, Mike and John. Several buckets of spoil and boulders were removed from the very bottom of the “final” bedding chamber with a possible draughting way on was visible. John went out to the cement mix and stabilised some boulders while the rest of us went into the boulder chamber (see Oct 16th log), shouted up to John and dug rocks out of the hole in the floor. 2 ½ hours. Mike Wise.]
[From Kushy (with editorial corrections Wednesday 19th
MK, JC, MW and CJ.
Met Tuska on the surface measuring up and sorting surface stuff. Courtenay made a cement mix and we all headed down. Ferried all the tools into the newer section of cave. Mike Wise started to enlarge the calcite squeeze then John took over. Meanwhile the rest of us started taking photos. John had made the squeeze big enough for us all to carry on down cave. I showed John where the boulder chamber is and he also looked at the bottom. John then went to work more on the calcite squeeze whilst the rest of us took more photos. We also had a little poke at the muddy area, I predict this to go Saturday fairly quickly.
On the way back we headed into the boulder chamber to photograph more. The prime dig site was blowing a really good draught this evening, strong then the bottom of the bedding chamber, Mike W was very keen to dig here. Whilst in the boulder chamber we could hear John above and managed to have a conversation, to a certain extent.
2½ hours, Mike.]
Thursday 20th October 2022. John Cooper and Jude Vanderplank. Surveying from Station 14 down over pit, down through calcite squeeze then an anti-clockwise loop taking in the muddy bottom. Still a lot to survey. 2 hours.
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