New deep underwater cave discovered in Gort

Discovering a new cave

24.07.10
After an eventful aborted dive in Polltoophill I decided to poke around a bit in the Kiltartan parish. During a recce trip in the area of Ballylee River Sinks a new, previously unknown, active only in wet weather sink was discovered. Located only a few hundred metres to the SW from the Hammer Sink South ( main sink of the Ballylee River - no access, blocked by boulders, mud and dead trees) in a dense woodland, it was hoped to give an access to the Balylle conduit further downstream.

30.07.10

Pollindre, fot. Frank Griga

First dive in the new sink. Weather was much drier and the sink was static at the surface. I descended the pot with 7l and 3l sidemounted, 45m of line, wetsuit and fins configuration. I couldn't resist and went down immediately. -4m was easily reached although there were some big tree branches and wood planks all over the sink. To that point the walls felt solid. From there on I could feel by touch (with my fins) that the way down was through some narrow gap between boulders. It felt quite stable so I carefully wriggled through and after only a short constricted section it opened up into something much bigger and quite vertical.

Diving the terminal sump in Cave of the Wild Horses

Rebreather Exploration Cave Diving in Spain

IRISH TIMES - Cave diving duo plunge to new depths in epic 4km underwater adventure

A POLISH and Belgian cave diving team have completed what they believe to be the longest traverse of water-filled underground caves in Ireland and Britain.

The two Irish-based cavers say that the “unique and complex” system under the Gort lowlands in south Galway, well known for its flooding, is also one of the most challenging subterranean routes in western Europe.

PIEKŁO I GŁĘBOKA WODA

PIEKŁO I GŁĘBOKA WODA

NURKOWANIE TECHNICZNE W IRLANDII

Ostatnie chwile Lusitanii

Kiedy pod koniec 2006 roku zacząłem rozglądać się za możliwością zrobienia kursu nurkowania technicznego w Irlandii sprawa okazała się trudniejsza niż by się to mogło wydawać. W kraju, u którego południowych wybrzeży leżała słynna Lusitania, a na północy co najmniej kilkadziesiąt u-bootów zatopionych w żenującym chaosie operacji „Deadlight” czekało na ponowną lokalizację, znalezienie instruktora nurkowania technicznego okazało się zadaniem beznadziejnym. Właściwie jedyna odpowiedź, która dawała jakąkolwiek nadzieję nadeszła z północnej części wyspy: jeśli warunki pogodowe będą sprzyjające, być może będzie szansa na przeprowadzenie kursu ...na przyszły rok latem... Czekanie osiem miesięcy na łasce północno-atlantyckich sztormów i irlandzkiego być może? Równie dobrze mogłem już teraz zapisać się do klubu szachowego i zacząć lokować całe oszczędności w funduszu emerytalnym...

Riders on the Storm Traverse footage

Riders on the Storm - Grande Finale

After reaching 1380 from the entrance in Polldeelin rising I felt that I missed the connection point. It seemed to me that trying to forge the connection from the Polltoophill Sink should be easier as in 2009 I left the end of the line in an open passage, 1070m from the entrance. Six eventfull dive over July and August finally resulted in the connection between Polltoophill in Castletown and its resurgence Polldeelin in Kiltartan. After 2.5 year and 45 dives from both sides the Riders on the Storm Traverse was completed - 2.4km in length with an average depth between 40-45m and max. -62m. Here are the log entries.

Riders on the Storm - After the Flood

16.06.2010

Repairing the lines damaged in the 2009 flood. Not as much damaged as hoplessely burried underneath thick layers of fine gravel, sometimes more than 0.5m deep. Runtime 1.5h

17.06.2010

Further  line repairs. Around 800m mark I started looking for the continuation of the way on, which at the time I thought would be before the end of my line from 2008 at 850m. With breathing becoming more and more difficult (seemed like the unit was getting flooded) I decided to abort the dive before the search was completed, I bailed out and started the return.