Tullyholvin rising, 9 May 2010

Diggers - Petie, Al

On Saturday night Petie and i made a plan to meet on Sunday and cave somewhere in Fermanagh, venue to be arranged from our shortlist of possible sites. Arriving at the ICRO store on Sunday morning i heard the news that ICRO had successfully opened up the boulder ruckle to the right of the Reyfad Group entrance to Tullyholvin rising. They had discovered 15 m of new passage, pushed by Jock to a visible continuation beyond some mud fill. Tullyholvin went to the top of my shortlist of sites and we decided to go there first to see what the craic was.

The entrance had been propped up by some scaffold, and after tightening the nuts up we entered, first 10 m of crawling rift to a small chamber, and then i squeezed down 5 m of tortuous tube with a chert ceiling and floor. At the end were two mud banks. Petie brought up the hammer and chisel and i removed a couple of chert lumps with a few blows. Neither blocked the way, but doing anything to make digging here easier was worth it. Petie passed the shovel and i started on the mud. This was awkward, and after a few scrapes i pushed the shovel back and started with one hand. Gradually one mud bank was transfered to the side. With an aching arm and neck i gladly handed over to Petie to continue. Eventually the second mud bank was mostly removed, but it was becoming apparent that a chert nodule on the ceiling would also have to be removed. I swapped again with Petie and tried to get hammer and chisel to bear on the nodule, but it proved impossible. After some loud cursing i resorted to beating it futilely. It refused to give, splintering and sparking in mockery. Hammering the floor achieved nothing either. I tried the squeeze but it was just too tight. We swapped again (each change at the dig face requiring a reverse crawl to the chamber) and Petie took a turn. By then we were both tiring and aching after two hours digging, and retired to the car for a tea break.

Round 2 saw me again beating sparks out of the chert ceiling while Petie explored the Reyfad Group passage to its bitter end. Here he could hear my hammering. I gave up hammering and started moving mud again, as the floor seemed to be a little deeper on the left. I pushed as much mud through the constriction as i could, widened the squeeze and cleaned the floor down to the chert. Petie was now back, so i reversed to the chamber and with Petie's help entered the crawl feet first. I could then push the mud further through the constriction and try the squeeze again. I could get both legs through, but that was all. Defeated now i returned to the chamber, turned around and went back for a final look at the continuation (2 m 'open' passage visible, possibly turning to the right, good draft) and to remove the tools.

The First Law of Chert: The hardness of chert increases proportionally with the degree to which the chert restricts the way on.

Afterwards we took a walk down the Boho ravine, resurgence spotting and relishing the chance to stand upright. Leaving the river at the road bridge we walked back to Boho, taking a detour up a small stream on the left of the road (from Toneel rising?).

Then went looking for a deep hole in the rock in Ballintempo forest...

Maybe here...

On the edge of a nice waterfall...