Darren Chapman, John Cooper, Mark Easterling (Bean), Aidan Harrison, Pete Hellier, Mark Kellaway (Mak), Alex Lane and Adrian Vanderplank. Cool and dry with a really colourful sunset. Cave walls damp and a small trickle of water down the shafts. With such a large team and two buckets we were able to haul up two shafts at a time. To start with each load was hauled up Father Duckmas. The load was removed from the bottom rope transferred to the next rope and hauled up to the Tunnel where it stashed and the empty bucket reurned. Meanwhile the other bucket was attached to the bottom rope, filled and hauled up. In this way 17 loads were raised and stashed at the Tunnel. Everyone then moved on up and the process was repeated for the top two shafts. At one stage Bean was hit by a falling rock that had not been removed from a bucket before it was sent down again. That’s two consecutive sessions where someone has been hit by a rock falling from a bucket! At the end of the session the hammer, chisel and crowbar from the Soakaway dig were brought out. 1¼ hours. John.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Thursday 22nd October 2026
John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Cool and dry after heavy rain earlier. Cave walls damp but no running water. Adrian to bottom with capping kit, Jude part way down Pensioners’ Pot and John hauling at the top. When hauling the first rock out the bucket suddenly became much lighter and there was an “Ouch” from Adrian. The falling rock had hit his helmet and broken the ear defenders! He insisted he was fine and continued capping, but sending up slightly smaller loads. There was a nice cool outward draught coming up Pensioners’ Pot, fumes from capping took only 30 seconds from bottom to top and cleared within a couple of minutes. At the end the spoil was moved on up to the bottom of Father Duckmas shaft, which now needs clearing. 2¼ hours. John.
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| Broken! Photo AV. |
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Tuesday 13th October 2026
John Cooper, Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Nice warm cloudy day, 18°C but very windy. The cave walls were a bit damp but still pretty dry and the draught was going in on the first couple of pitches. A double mix of cement split over 3 loads taken to the bottom and used by Adrian cementing the walls. A cool outward draught was produced as he worked (chimney effect?). Probably a bit of capping next time as it’s pretty restrictive. 2½ hours. John.
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| Looking at floor. Photo AV. |