Post date: May 9, 2009 1:10:35 PM

Stephen Macnamara, Eoghan Mullan and Stephen McCullagh (6 hours)

It was back to Little Gortmaconnell for a quick pushing trip at the end of the sandy dig. On the last digging trip the decision was made to start pushing of the dig in an upwards direction. So for this trip the plan was for more of the same (that is unless we made a dramatic breakthrough). As is now usual for our trips into this cave it was an early morning start in Belfast followed by a speedy drive down to Enniskillen to enjoy the delights of the morning fry in Wetherspoons. After a bit of faffing we arrived at the cave entrance around 1:30 pm.

Stevemuh decided (although come to think about it he really had no choice as he had the only meander suit and there was a bit of water going down the cave) to rig the cave. The dead goat was still there and it was beginning to really smell nevertheless it would take more than that to put us off. Steve quickly rigged the cave with Eoghan and I following. At the bottom we were met with a bit of a surprise; the unpleasant crawl at the bottom had become a tight squeeze over a shallow pool. This was a bit confusing until we squeezed on passed the corner into the rift below the dig and discovered that all the fill we had dumped in this bit of passage on the last trip had disappeared. It seems that there must be a lot of water coming down from above. On the last trip I worried that we would quickly run out of room for dumping spoil especially if the dig goes long-term but it seems that the spoil heap is self-removing, though hopefully the tight squeeze doesn't get any worse.

As per the last trip the digging was quite easy and we all took shifts at the dig face with someone working at the back removing the spoil. All in all we made another couple of metres of progress horizontally with about 1 m upwards progress. Unfortunately no breakthrough was had. Maybe for the next trip we'll need some Lino to help the spoil removal process.

After 4&1/2 hours it was time to leave. This time it was my turn to derig and we thought it was a good idea to knock down a few of the loose stones at the entrance to the second pitch. Unfortunately the few stones turned into a few larger rocks which quickly destabilised the whole slope. The next trip will require a few scaf bars to prevent the large rocks guarding the entrance coming down and blocking the way on.

Once back at the cars Eoghan and I drove straight up to Belfast while Steve went to his sister's house.

Stevebus