TOWARDS MONASTIR SINK
Team: Chris Jewell, Artur Kozlowski
15.04.2009

15.04.2009
Divers: Chris Jewell and Artur Kozlowski

After having established voice and visual connection with the surface in Northern Way, Dave returned to Upper Cradle while Chris and I traversed underwater to Monastir Way, carried our gear through cascades, passed sump two and finally arrived to sump three ( first one , smaller one). 3 weeks ago I took a quick look into it laying the line to -4m along shingle and washed cobbles floor where rift closed ahead but flow was coming from low descending slit on right hand side.Tired, cold , with bulky 12s (actually I had only one 12l with me there..)  and  facing steep  unstable cobblestone slope under low squeeze I was in no position to push it 3 weeks ago. This time was different. Steep unstable slope turned out  to be rather imaginary but passing the slit proved to be committing enough. From there I followed strong current indication ( previous week was very wet in Fermanagh) in small passage which surfaced in 5m long rifty airbell. I belayed on a flake above the surface and from there current led me down through small 4m deep shaft.

NORTHERN WAY - AURAL AND VISUAL CONNECTION WITH SURFACE

TEAM: Chris Jewell, Dave Garman, Al Kennedy, Artur Kozlowski
15-04-09

Our aim on this trip was to establish the location of the Northern Way surface connection, then to traverse to the Monastir Way and push in the two third sumps (someone please rename these 3 and 4 or 3a and 3b!), with Chris Jewell and Dave Garman from England.  Rather unthinkingly i'd chosen the wrong tanks, and since lugging 2x 12 L bottles through Upper Cradle Hole and then up the Monastir Way was very unappealling i elected to stay on the surface to hunt for the connection.  From our survey we had determined the most likely position to be in a 100 m or so square area south of Mastodon cave.  Without much hope that it would work i suggested that the three divers - Artur, Chris and Dave - shout when they reached the rift if they could not push it.

In the event, even in wetsuits Chris and Dave were unable to push the surface connection, and so the divers resorted to shouting 'hello'. Unbelievably i heard them faintly but clearly on the surface over 100 m away near Pollsillagh!   Running in the direction of the shouts, i shouted 'hello' back as i approached the Mastodon shakehole, to be greeted by cheering from the diving party.

UPPER CRADLE HOLE - DISCOVERY OF THE NORTHERN WAY
Easter 2009
Team: Artur Kozlowski, Al Kennedy

Cradle Hole is a huge shakehole (if  I were not trying to be smart  I would say hole in the ground) South of Marble Arch, co. Fermanagh, bounded by big cliffs. It is believed to be collapsed massive underground junction of Sru Croppa and Aghinrawn rivers. Descending to the bottom of the Cradle Hole one can proceed North and downstream towards Marble Arch ( Lower Cradle Hole) or South and upstream towards Monastir/Aghinrawn River Sink (Upper Cradle Hole). After 200 m upstream along fine river passage the Aghinrawn River sumps (Sump 1). It was first tackled by M. Boon in 1958 when he free dived short 0.5m long sumped section to a bigger sump chamber. In 1961 diving on the rope ( and to my understanding on aqualung) P. Davies ventured 24m into the sump on depth of 3.6m. Next move belonged to Martyn Farr who pushed it for total 105m from the base but the passage still showed no sign of coming up. Finally in August 1978 Dave Morris and Phill Rust got through first sump which proved to be 135m long. Next day Morris explored 240m of stream passage behind Sump 1 and called it Monastir Way. Continuing he passed 30m long Sump2 and after another 120m of dry passage he arrived to small Sump 3 which was easily bypassed and after 30m Sump3 proper appeared. At this stage he had 1m of line left so Sump 3 remained undived.