Post date: Mar 30, 2009 2:12:33 PM

Saturday March 28th -

After finally figuring out a weekend plan 3 cars were dispatched in the direction of Fermanagh on Saturday morning. I picked up Alistair and a small arsenal of dive bottles on the Ravenhill Road and Artur plus another arsenal of dive bottles at the Ballygawley roundabout. We met up with Tony, Roisín, Steve, Damien and Eoghan for a bit of pre caving grease at spoons in Enniskillen before 11.

After breakfast much faff talk ensued. Eventually Steve, Roisin and Damien headed/fecked off to Pollnaraftra via Garrison Cave. I hear it was a good trip with reports of a stuck arse in the z-bends. Luckily Roisín had a bottle of WD40 packed especially for the occasion.

Myself, Tony and Eoghan headed off to the marlbank and gave Alistair and Arthur a hand getting their gear shifted over to upper cradle. They were planning a prolonged assault to dive past the 5th sump in the cradle on the Monastir way. - Good luck lads

Before digging I managed to persuade Tony and Eoghan to take a quick run up the Aghinrawn river from Monastir sink so I could get a second opinion on Jocks trap. Tony agreed that it may have a bit of potential with water sculpted passage features in both directions. Once again arses proved too big for the upstream rift but we can definitely hear a vague trickle of a water (stream way?) and see approximately 4 metres of narrow rifting passage ahead. A small bit of capping or even a hammer and chisel session should hopefully be enough to widen the initial squeeze for further investigation. In the downstream direction Tony managed to squeeze into a strongly drafting low crawl. It would only need a small bit of digging in the floor to aid further progress. One more trip with survey and digging gear should hopefully get this off the list once and for all.

With all distractions out of the way we had run out of excuses for Gortmaconnell. After a quick run back down the hill for his SRT kit Tony descended oblivious to the recent goat sacrifice. Exhausted after throwing rocks and 10 minutes of digging Tony had to rush back to entertain the masses in Belfast (but not before another jog back up and down the hill to pick up forgotten car keys). Eoghan and I rotated between the bottom sandy dig and the high loose passage above. After two brief shifts we broke though the more compact gravely stuff to lovely easy going sand. Trying to keep to the left and wall we burrowed out a human sized 2 metreish long tunnel. The roof of the burrow seems to consist of more compact gravel but there is potential to get buried in here so we will need to shore this with a human size drainpipe or some boarding. Also I recommended bringing a small shovel or bucket and spade on the next visit so that whoever is digging could be dug out.

Next time folk are in here have a listen for someone tapping on the other side of the sand. Eoghan reckoned it was his heart beat but there is no way I could hear a heart beat from two or three metres away so it must be someone or something tapping on the other side - spooky.

Thinking the other dig was in the loose upper crawl we had two looks each up here while the other dug in the sand. I'm not too optimistic about prospects up here unless folk fancy opening up a through trip to the huge main sink beside the two surface pots. It seems to be heading in this direction and the strong draft and amount of bones amongst the loose boulders makes me think we are heading for daylight up there.

Next trip I'd like to start some shoring in the sand and take some time to get a feel for the rest of the cave, especially the main streamway.

Lessons learned:

Eoghan - more baby goat sacrifices may be required to aid further progress.

Tony - Remember to put your SRT kit on before you head up the hill from the car and conversely remember to bring your car keys back down the hill when your out!

Jock - Changing headlights on my car is a bollux. Be polite at pealer check points and point out that searching through sh!tty caving gear will not be pleasant. A sober Friday evening can make for a productive Saturday.