Shannon, Sandy Chamber (Bus Pass), May 18th 2024.

Team: Bus, Jock, Paul , Becks, Phil T (+ Daniel and Muh)

Objective: Explore some leads and survey a new high-level chamber discovered by Bus and Jock on their last visit after Bus decided it would be worth having another look for an upstream George’s Choke bypass.

Duration: 9.75 hours.

My desire for some ‘proper’ caving led Roisin to appeal to Jock on my behalf to take me on a Shannon trip. So, a few weeks later I was loading up the back of Steve Bus’ car and we were tottering up to Polltullyard, with Stevesx2, Becks and Paul. Plus Steve Muh and Daniel, who would be chasing a separate lead long past George’s Choke, Daniel rigged the entrance and we were down.

We started well with Bus setting a blistering pace. However, we got slowed a bit when crossing into the free state, realising Paul and Becks were unaccounted for. Bus turned back to find them while Jock and I moved forward at a more leisurely pace and trusted they would be able to catch up. Eventually we were reunited and after clearing a pair of steamed up glasses.

Finally, we arrived at Angahoo chamber. We scrambled up the boulders and through a bit of a squeeze and we were into a new passage, sloping up and to the right. The defining characteristic was loose, sketchy boulders. We picked our way carefully through then we were in the bottom of a wide hole that formed a sort of funnel with the new chamber above.

Jock, feeling confident in his recently renewed enthusiasm for climbing, ascended out of the hole first and used himself as an anchor for a handline that the rest of used to get out. When we were all up Jock drilled a couple of through bolts and put in a y-hang to help the descent later.

The chamber was low and wide, it was possible to stand at full height when at the edge of the hole, but a sand bank gradually rose out and away from the hole, narrowing the height of the chamber all around to about 60cm. The floor of the chamber was a really fine sand, covered in a thin layer of mud that was cracked to look like a chocolate bar the entire way around.

On Jock’s and Bus’ last visit they had taken a quick look around the perimeter and noticed at least three promising leads. The first was on the west wall. It started as a squeeze and Becks was sent in. It quickly turned into even more of a squeeze and eventually became impassable, it is unclear whether it continued, and a dig may be needed in the future.

While Bus and Becks were investigating the first lead, Paul had scuttled to the southeastern corner of the chamber and found a lead which had been unnoticed by the 2 Steves the previous trip. It turned into a flat crawl, and we slithered our way around a crater and turned left to where the ground rose up to a narrow squeeze that had to be dug out. This opened to a small room and another left turn led to another rise in the ground, a squeeze, and a longer passage.

This passage had the same soft sand that was below and continued for about ten metres to another sharp, impassable narrowing. Paul and Becks decided they would try and dig this out to see if it continued, but only got two scoops in before heading back to the surface in time for the last a bus home. The rest of us surveyed the passage back to entrance hole.

Directly east of the entrance hole the ground and the roof rose parallel to each other. This led to the west wall which contained three leads. The first was against the north wall. The roof was low, and the passage was straight. The cross section was square-ish, and it looked promising. Unfortunately, it ended sharply the same way our first two leads did.

The second lead heading east was wider but still a letterbox. I lead, worming my way down to come to the same disappointment we were growing used to. 

The third lead was a 90 degree turn from the wall, heading south. The roof and ground came close with sharp rock extruding from both, and Bus had to widen it out. I tried pushing through but could only get far enough to see a downhill descent to dead cave and a dead end. The end wall of this is possibly the crater that we had navigated around when chasing our original second lead.

We surveyed these three passages, and then down the whole way back to Agnahoo. All five leads lead nowhere but disappointment. We removed the bolts and rope and left with around 150m of new cave surveyed.

-Philip.