Post date: Feb 16, 2017 5:44:17 PM

Objective: Survey and Photo trip.

Team: Éabha, Richard, Petie.

Trip Time: 7hrs

After acquiring Muh’s distox and agreeing to complete the Fang passage survey in early January, by mid-February we made it back. Now that most of the Shannon Group have either retired or emigrated, who else would continue the never ending surveying of Shannon? Bus mentioned the need to survey Les’ climb so we decided we’d get that crossed off the list too. Although I’m a little perplexed as I remember many a condescending lecture on how one should always survey as you explore… and how it was bad practice to continue with exploration before surveying previous finds…hmmm.

On Friday evening Petie and I travelled up from Dublin to Leitrim where we met Richard. We had intended to be at Tullyard by 10.30am Saturday morning. After a yummy cooked breakfast from my Mammy and a bit of faffing we eventually made it to the car park shortly after midday and into the cave around 1pm. Richard rigged (for tall people) and we headed straight for Fang Passage. Peite had a gander up Fang passage and confirmed that despite the challenging bold step it was a boring bit of passage. We got cracking with Richard on survey points, Petie on instruments and myself drawing. I had forgotten the tipp-ex so this section of passage now contains some curious mud balls. If Bus hadn’t described a tight dug out squeeze the way on could have been easily missed. After the awkward squeeze the passage is highly decorated with a variety of formations eventually leading to Les’ climb and back into the streamway. At the far end of the passage is a loose bolder slope; a blind shot was taken here as it was too dodge! The higher level passage from the entrance to Fang along Les’s climb and down to the streamway at both points was completed, with a total survey length on this occasion of 109m.

After surveying we spent quite a while posing for Petie to produce ONE photo worth sharing. A little bit of time was spent searching for the Witch’s Finger….we feared it had been accidently broken but thankfully it was located. It should be noted that this passage is beautifully decorated and well preserved and care should be taken if anyone fancies a look. The climb back down to the streamway from Fang seemed even trickier than last time. Both times I needed assistance. For short people I’d advise bringing someone to land on for the climb down.

By this point I was freezing from standing around Posing for Petie’s perfect shot. We decided to leave the gear and just have a look at the higher level stuff above JCP climb and see how much needed to be surveyed next time. Petie had an extensive look around as he had the most enthusiasm left of the three of us. We headed out of the cave making it back to the car just after 8pm and retired to the comforts of the hoo.

P.S. If anyone is interested in a surveying trip into Shannon please contact me. No experience in surveying is needed. There's still lots to do!!