Post date: Mar 15, 2010 3:28:58 PM

Present: Pavel Cesnak, Tony Furnell, Artur Kozlowski, Steve Muh; Time:4.5 hours

After much time spent deciding who was going where and trying in vain to get breakfast in Blacklion (bring back Bloodstones!) the four of us finally split from the Ramsdon's Pot crew (see Leitrim reports) and set about grabbing scaff connectors from the store and a spanner from Les' shed. This sorted, we drove over to Carrickbeg, suited up and got started, myself and Steve heading straight to the work in hand.

The first aim was to pull out the torso-sized boulder resting on one side of an upward squeeze by means of a rope and some distance; Steve squeezed into the scaffold-decorated chamber we were in last time and got the rope sorted while I assisted where possible from underneath. We then retreated and Steve tried to pull the boulder down but it kept snagging in the squeeze. Heading warily back to the rock, the good news was that it definitely wasn't supporting the dodgy-looking scree behind it, so Muh and I shifted it over to a better position. We decided that by the size of the rock we'd have to come back with capping gear to remove it properly.

So with the rock fairly well lodged, Steve pushed on ahead, past my previous terminus; nothing moved so he crawled on a few metres further to an open chamber! I headed through behind him and we examined the dodgy walls, dodgy ceilings and not-so-dodgy floors -- albeit in far more spacious surroundings. Once clear of the last boulders the streamway was reached and we found nicely sized passage heading off, notably rectangular and around garage-door-sized in proportion. Steve headed back through the entrance series to bring Artur and Pavel through and we all started on along the streamway.

Almost immediately we had to start wading; knee and then waist deep. Judging by mud deposits, the whole entrance area probably floods to the roof in high water, but current conditions were probably the lowest you'd expect. The passage seemed quite reminiscent of Tullyhona, at least by the rock colour and proportion. Once we reached a point that Steve was getting wet to his shoulders we decided to turn back, since no one was in wetsuits, and four wet people trapped behind a collapsed entrance series wouldn't be much fun.

So we headed out with a view to returning the following day with wet gear (and dive gear, for Artur). On the way out Steve and I did some finishing touches to the rock garden in the entrance series; a bit of superhuman strength got the big rock shifted well out of the way, so there's no need to return with capping gear -- there's now no squeeze here. The remaining two scaff bars were placed to support a big leaning boulder; it just needs some finishing touches on the next available weekend.

So for the next trip: a couple more lengths of scaff for the entrance series, a short piece of scaff (around 18 inches) to complete the support structure in the rock garden, and perhaps some mortar to, ahem, cement the deal.

Fat Tony