Easter 2009
Team: Artur Kozlowski, Al Kennedy
Last year in May Chris Jewell and Simon Cornhill, British cave divers from Cave Diving Group were trying to get to Sump3 but failed to pass Sump1 due to bad visibility. As they were stopped while trying to get through previously explored sections Al and I decided to launched our own assault last weekend. However I contacted Chris and informed him about our plans. One of the lines at the start of the Sump1 turned out to be laid by them and Chris passed on me some information on bottom composition. We agreed to join forces when he would come over.
On Saturday, with the help of Tony Furnel, Eoghan Mullan and Stephen 'Jock' Read we amassed 6 cylinders (4x 12L steel bottle, 1x 11L aluminium bottle, 1x 5.5L aluminium bottle) at the mouth of Upper Cradle and then Al and I transported them in few trips to our dive base at S1.
With all that heavy gear there was obvious need for second diver behind first sump so we agreed that Al would pass it too but only after I had established solid line connection. On Saturday afternoon I dived on my own with 2x12 and 11l alu as main breathing tank, to save gas in 12s for undived sump 3. I followed Chris's and Simon's line from last year, found their reel and continued under very low and awkward section to break surface only 6m further, after 32 min dive .
Mission for Saturday was accomplished, connection was re-established so I returned to base straight away. Noting down rough compass bearing on the way out I was surprised when it turned out I was going South and South East ( Cradle Hole supposed to be to the Nort East) That was my replacement compass so I assumed it was broken. However back on the surface it seemed to work the same way as Al's one. Strange... Reunited with Al at dive base we secured all equipment and went to Agnahoo ( Cavers hut rent by Speleological Union Ireland to be used for its members)for food drink and and some sleep... ...
On Sunday Al dived first and I followed him in close touch distance. Al had his 12s and i had mine's plus 11alu and 5l Alu. For some reason ( only light showers over the night) visibility in SUMP1 was poor, from yesterday's 1-1.5m only 30cm was left. We progressed slowly and carefully but steadily. Around 70m from the base, where passage direction was West, visibility suddenly improved back to 1m I checked my compass - passage turned NW! ( we were coming from NE, Cradle Hole) We surfaced uneventfully on cobblestone beach and after dekitting and celebrating with memorial photos we started notice further discrepancies in Dave Morris description: sump pool much smaller and no stream flowing into it. And the dry passage was heading NE! We have explored good 100m of passages on different levels: Al was pushing small passage on stream level ( at the end of dry section) and i climbed two 15m avens (high vertical passages going up). The first one was actually more boulder collapse with continuous way upward (boulders were well cemented with calcite) and after bit of squeezing and wriggling I finally reached daylight!! I was standing on the bottom of very tight 5m high rift - but I was also in drysuit and there was no way I could fit through - We will try to locate this place from the surface. The other aven was more challenging to climb but well decorated and at the top I entered some high level passage with beautiful formation. One end of passage seemed to be choked with boulders though pushable and at the other end I had to stop to avoid further damage of fine formation - gour pools, flowstone, stalagmites and stalactites. At this stage we knew we were in completely different passage from Dave Morris's Monastir Way. And what was more important we were pretty sure we were first who ever entered it. We called it Northern Way. After some discussion we decided that Al waited there for me and I tried to establish underwater line connection with Dave's Monastir Way. With my 12s and alu 5l I returned to the point of low visibility, made a junction off the main line and jumped to the right and SW direction where i expected to find another passage. And so I did After 20m of following right hand side wall the floor started ascending steeply and after 18min in total I surfaced in big foamy sump pool with the stream flowing into it. To my right big and high passage - Dave Morris's Monastir Way - was heading South.It took me 7min to go back to Al and we dived together again - Al first and me following him closely with 4 tanks. Once through the sump, each of us grabbed one 12l and we started slow journey upstream , crossing six or seven cascades. Canyon passage was in many places in excess of 10m in hight! After 240m Sump 2 appeared. We agreed that I would try to pass it and if succeeded, I would proceed to sump 3 and dive it too. In the meantime Al was to resurvey UC2 as we felt that most of it was heading South towards Monastir and not SW as survey in Caves of Co Fermanagh and co Cavan would suggest.
Sump2 was quick job that took 7min to pass but then I spent another 30min trying to find suitable way off the water in 20m long U shape canal passage. Slow carry of both my 12ls to sump 3 proper started( on the way you pass smaller sump 3 but it was easily bypassed by Morris and I did the same without much reflection). Some flood debris in Upper Cradle 3 which again was heading mainly South 9not SW as on the survey). I have spent 32 min in sump 3 proper - steep descent to 13m along rift and gravel floor , then under low arch and from there I tried many ways , mostly ascending, some along shingle floors and some navigating among boulders but each time i encountered very worrying loose boulders composed ceiling , usually on 5-6m of depth. I could hear noise of my bubbles expanding and reaching some air above but obviously I have retreated very quickly on hold breath....I didn't noticed any visible flow in that sump either. Finally I started being quite cold, our drysuits must have been quite shattered after pushing dry Northern Way..I left the most obvious section of line in the sump and started carrying my gear back to sump 2. On the way back I've noticed that there's actually stream crossing the passage and flowing out from smaller first Sump 3 which was neglected by Morris and me. I have also noticed that it was going along the rift clearly in SW direction while the other sump 3 was heading dead straight S. 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 and facing steep unstable cobblestone slope under low squeeze I was in no position to push it so I left my line in, surfaced and proceed back to S2. This had to wait for next push. I came back to Al after 2h45min and he just finished his resurvey. Just as we thought, that section of Monastir Way was heading mainly South. After reaching our dive base in Cradle Hole we decided to leave all the tanks in the cave to retrieve them next day. We exited the cave after 12 hours, exhausted as horses after western movie...
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