Team: Stephen Macnamara, Stephen Read, Eoghan Mullan, Shay, Daniel Drozd.
Duration: ~6 hours.
I was half an hour late for our planned rendezvous at Fowley's for 10:30. However I wasn't last - Daniel had driven into a ditch en route and Shay stopped with him while a farmer dragged his vehicle out. We eventually bundled into Daniel's jeep at the layby and got up the hill for about 12 pm. Eoghan would meet us underground later.
After the previous night's rainfall, the cave was tanking, with a new waterfall to the left when looking out over the tree pitch . The new route was still easily passable, but pretty dampening especially when hanging round to rig. Jock had brought his new drill (and batteries!), so we stopped to install a couple more anchors on the lower pitch in ICC - one at the start of the traverse, and the second to make a Y-hang at the pitch head. Will prevent a catastrophe if one fails.
We made our way down through the drippy boulder ruckles to the rift chamber at the bottom, where we nosed into the upper dig to hear the waterfall - still similar in volume to before. Back in the chamber, we divvied up gear, Jock and I bringing chisel, hammer, crowbar, drill and plug and feathers down to the lower dig, and Shay and Daniel taking trenching tool and small bar to continue the mud tunnel towards the water.
The water was flowing all the way to the lower dig today, but we were already wet and thus indifferent to the conditions. We could both fit into the small chamber at the end. Our objective was to remove a lintel at the entrance to the bedding plane continuation. I started with the drilling and then swapped to let Jock enjoy his new p&f purchase. He put it to good use, and the lintel came out in nice chunks which could be stacked in the small chamber. The limestone here apparently breaks much more easily and predictably than that in Poll na Spideog.
We continued with another round-and-a-half of plugs before the batteries were finished. We reckon another good trip (or potentially 2) will see us through the Cheesepress-like constriction to where the passage visibly opens up. As it is, it could probably be squeezed by a very small person, but there is no obvious turning point beyond and reversing could be problematic. The water flows through the constriction, and there was a good breeze outwards (drill dust falling at 30° from the vertical).
Back in the upper dig, Shay and Daniel had been busy, removing 16 or so buckets of mud. The tunnel was still progressing horizontally, but the fill had now solidified (mudstone??) and required chiselling. We passed forward our tools and the four of us took turns - hard enough work at this stage. Eoghan arrived soon after and brought some fresh energy and wit.
After several turns at the dig face and with callout approaching, Jock and I started to make our way up to clean off in the ICC waterfall and exit. On meeting up at the car, the others reported that they had been able to scoop out some softer fill from ahead, and Daniel could stick his head through the gap:
"It is a narrow passage 2 metres long, -20° inclination. The ceiling meets the floor but ther is some small shaft there or some sort of a window. 1-2 days chiselling. It is a narrow passage, hands forward crawling style."
So The Ramson's Dream still lives.
We left the cave rigged with the intention of killing the leads, or reaching glory, at the next Shannon trip in January.
Stephen.