TOUCHING THE VOID
Artur Kozlowski and Al Kennedy
17 May 2009

Hopes for this trip were dampened by the recent wet weather, but we wanted to get back in the upper reaches of Upper Cradle Hole and work on the survey and push sump 3a further.  Some modifications had been made to kit: Artur had slimmed his sidemount profile down and was diving in a semi-dry; i wore a light fleece undersuit to reduce overheating while walking and climbing in drysuit, wrapped my oversuit around my waist under my drysuit to change into while pushing dry passage, and stuffed my wellies into my drysuit pockets.  Acting as a human drybag i also took a headtorch for Artur. 
We kitted up in the 'Hoo and walked with Paul - who'd kindly given me a lift - to Upper Cradle sump 1.  The river was rather fuller than usual, but we decided to see what conditions in Upper Cradle 2 cascades were like.  The first dive was incident free (though i saw my first eel!), the sump being so large that the increased flow had little effect.  At the other end we each dropped one bottle for the climb up the cascades, deciding that it would be ok to pass sump 2 on just one bottle each.  With the increased flow there was no question of attempting the constricted passages of sump 3 so we didn't need to take two bottles each beyond sump 2.  With care it was possible to climb the cascades, though much more difficult than before.  After we ascended a couple i began to wonder if reversing them might not be much harder...hmm.  After some yelled debate (because the water was so noisy) we pressed on.

MASTODON DEFEAT & FU INLE
May Bank Holiday

Saturday...Making the most of the day, Artur, Niall, Jan, Julie and i set off early to Mastodon with ladder and tools.  First we tried the rift to the Northern Way and i was sent down to make a better effort than before.  I traversed across the first false floor until it constricted then dropped down horizontally and inched forwarded.  It didn't look easy: the floor disappeared, the rift narrowed and twisted.  Removal of a boss of rock might help things, so the drill was lowered with a chisel fitted, but it proved impossible to put any force on the blade one-handed. Our weapon wasn't so potent as first thought...  Niall had a go too, but was also defeated.  By this time Artur, Jan and Julie had gotten bored and entered Mastodon to look for promising leads.  One rift in boulders seemed to offer a possible connection, drafting strongly and heading in the right direction, but needed digging.  Niall, Jan and Julie set off for Noone's Hole and Artur and i dragged our tools into the rift and started digging in shifts.  We took a break at 1 pm and walked back to 'Hoo for some food, but Artur needed an afternoon nap so it wasn't until later in the afternoon that we resumed work.  Digging fever had passed though.  The rock was incredibly hard, and the drill made virtually no impression on it (we had used two batteries in 15 minutes during the morning, before deciding that hammer and chisel was more efficient).  We had cleared out the rift fill as much as we could and i tried to see how far in i could squeeze, but it got too tight.  Some rock would have to go.  I started to chisel away again, but soon the rift started to fill with smoke - i turned to see Artur reclining comfortably and smoking a 'scientific' cigarette to observe the direction of the draft.