Saturday 18th June 2022

John Cooper, Pete Hann and Adrian Vanderplank. Was to be an easy day, drill a few holes at the bottom and out early for tea and cake. Good outward draught noticed in entrance shaft. First problem came when Pete turned his light on at the base of the entrance shaft and got no light. Easily fixed when he remembered he hadn’t connected the cable. At the bottom Pete drilled 4 holes, 2 on the left and 2 on the right, with his 300mm drill bit then swapped to his 600mm drill bit. 2 holes on the left successfully deepened but while drilling the first on the right the tip broke! Abandoned that hole and used the 900mm bit on the 4^th hole. Suddenly it hit liquid slurry so he stopped. Moved to the first on the right to continue deepening that one, but very quickly the slurry left on the drill bit from hole 4 set solid and nothing Pete did could free up the bit. So the only thing left was to drill several more holes with the one remaining, 300mm, bit. Once everything was connected John went out with the drill and bits whilst Pete and Adrian fired the charge from the Tunnel. Pete tried to wind up the cable but before he had got very far he was enveloped in fumes so he dropped the cable and chased Adrian up the hole. Before they reached the surface the fumes were there. Looked like a chimney billowing smoke. All cleared within 5 minutes, but we didn’t go back down. Enough is enough for one day. 1½ hours. John.