Saturday 25th October 2025

Mike Kushy and Lee Venning arrived on site for 10am. The weather wasn’t too bad with a mix of sunshine and the odd shower. We got straight to work clearing the spoil, with MK down the shaft filling buckets and LV on the winch. After about 40ish buckets MK got to work with the breaker and before long it was back to hauling buckets, with some rather large rocks coming out. We stopped at 12.30pm for a quick lunchbreak. After lunch MK went back down the shaft on the breaker and filling buckets and LV was back on the winch.

At about 2pm Dave Morrison joined LV on the surface and took up winch duty while LV emptied the buckets. This continued until we got to 135 buckets (the spoil heap is bloody massive now). MK then drilled 7 x 600mm holes (breaking one of LV’s drill bits in the process). Estimated depth now 9.5m.

MK then got to work setting up so the holes he had drilled could be destroyed, we all retreated to a safe distance and the holes were destroyed. 7 hours. Lee.

Looking down. Photo LV.

Saturday 18th October 2025

 AM: Mike Kushy, solo. Breaker work for 2 hours.

Spoil after breaker work. Photo MK.

PM: Mike Kushy and Hollie London. First we cleared 42 loads of spoil. Then a supervised set up for Hollie, who did the entire set up herself. All went off fine. 3 hours. Mike.

Friday 17th October 2025

Afternoon session. John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Kate Lawrence. Cloudy and cool again today. Kate at the bottom clearing out bang debris, then John at the bottom with the breaker and finally Kushy at the bottom with the breaker (he broke the wide chisel bit!). After the generator ran out of fuel we continued until a total of 70 loads had been hauled out today. 3 hours. John.

Looking along, facing North. Photo MK.

Looking down, facing North. Photo MK.

Sunday 12th October 2025

Morning session. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Nice weather again today. Cloudy and cool. Hauled out 86 loads before I said that was enough. Kushy said we could have dug out loads more mud. Was helped towards the end by the arrival of Dave Morrison. Depth when I left was 8.6m. John Gisborne arrived as I was leaving for The Hunters' Lodge for my lunch. He’d been measuring up at White Rabbit’s Hole for a new gate. 2 hours.

Afternoon session. Kushy drilled and then destroyed holes. We will need to consider how to dispose of the spoil very soon. John.

View from top. Photo DM.

Friday 10th October 2025

Mike Kushy, solo. Breaker work for a couple of hours, 30 loads (at least) to clear. Also made a big mix and started bringing the rest of the wall up to ground height. 5 hours. Mike.

Looking at the floor, facing North. Photo MK.

Looking horizontally into the mud filled rift, facing North. Photo MK.

A further away view of the North horizontally. Photo MK.

Looking horizontally, facing South. Photo MK.

Tuesday 7th October 2025

Mike Kushy, Stuart Mcmanus (Mac) and Martin Grass. MK to begin with, who got everything ready and popped down to check the debris. With MK clearing the dig face and SM winching we cleared around 30 buckets, then a big boulder needed breaking up with pfs. Probably another dozen loads cleared. Still lots of mud to clear and breaker work to be done. Before digging and after working for half hour we took CO2 and O2 meter readings. Start CO2 0.097% End 0.26%. Start O2 19.85% End 19.97%. Pressure 994Hp. We don't have any issues down there at all, although it was significantly cooler down there today than it ever has been and there's a lot of air movement now. MG spent time recording the site and us working using his drone. He helped with the last couple of dozen buckets also. SM came down to have a look at the dig face towards the end. It seems all the western wall is now solid limestone! When SM/MG left MK made up some concrete mix and poured it behind the red box section steel to fill the gaps. Measured from box section with my laser measure: 7.669m. 4 1/2 hours. Mike.

Aerial view. Photo MG.

Dig face before clearing (looking down, facing north). Photo MK.

Dig face after clearing (looking down, facing north). Photo MK.

Site is getting a bit overfull with spoil. Photo MK.

View from top after clearing. Photo MK.

Monday 6th October 2025

Morning session. John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Much nicer weather today. Cloudy but still warm. Kushy had done some work with the breaker on Sunday and estimated 30 loads of spoil needed removing. I said it would be nice to get to 36 as that would be a nice round 100 from the bang. Reached 36 and Kushy reported there was still quite a bit to clear. When we got to 64, the last few having been mud, I said that was enough for the day. We had matched Friday’s total. Kushy reported a draught from the rift at the North end. We also rescued 1 small toad from the bottom. I then left after 1½ hours work. Kushy remained to drill some holes for the next bang.

Afternoon session. John Cooper, Mike Kousiounis and Aubrey Newport. John and Aubrey went along to assist Kushy with surface support as he set up and destroyed the holes he’d drilled earlier. ¾ hour.

Bottom, facing North. Photo MK.

Sunday 5th October 2025

Mike Kushy solo. Did some breaker work, all large blocks in the floor and a good chunk taken off the lower ledges. Estimate of 30 buckets to clear. 1 1/2 hours. Mike.

Friday 3rd October 2025

John Cooper and Mike Kousiounis. Rained all through the session but warm and not too heavy. With Kushy at the bottom 64 loads were hauled out, mainly rock but some mud. There are still some big bits that need breaker attention. Also the top of the wall under the red steel beam needs attention as it is breaking up under the stress of hauling. This should be a priority. 2 hours. John.

Before clearing. Photo MK.

Large rocks still to clear. Photo MK.

Wednesday 1st October 2025

John Cooper and Wayne Starsmore. John in the afternoon drilled some holes which Wayne destroyed once the Templeton North Pot team had gone home. 1½ hours then 1 hour. John.