This article was published on Nov 10, 2008 on the
www.mydivelocker.ie website and did not appear on this site. I'm extremely grateful to the site owner
Tom Brett, a personal friend of Artur, to allow me to reproduce it here. Needless to say I'm extremely grateful to Artur for all the contributions he made to this site and to the Irish Cave Diving Database and by way of tribute thought folk who haven't seen it before to remember Artur as we knew him - ever exploring and providing wonderful reports. Co-incidentally this report that was never published previously on this site is about Pollonora, the scene of his last dive.
Artur Kozlowski, Cave Diving Explorer RIP
It looks like we have new fascinating dive site in Kiltartan area Here's the story:
26.04.2008
Few weeks ago I was poking around Kiltartan waiting for Jim to go back from Polldeelin and I came across of series of small collapses/caves on the right hand side from Tom's Murray Sink. After a short while I realized they must have been Pollonora Holes 1-9 described in Caves of County Galway and Clare. The last one, no 9 marked on 6" map as Pollonora Holes is situated on left hand side of the road 300-400m from Kiltartan church. Apparently they have been created along collapsed cave passage that goes S-N which can be entered for short distances from various holes. When I went up from the last one I looked across the road and I saw farmhouse and B&B. Without much thinking I went in and asked owner if he has any cave on his land by any chance. 'Yes I have indeed' I heard. Before I managed to ask THE QUESTION he said 'But it's filled with water'. Next thing we were forcing thick bushes behind his house to get to two holes - obvious continuation of Pollonora holes. When I shone my torch through crystal clear water in the last one I saw some dark opening few meters below surface and I was hooked....
10.05.2008
Last week I did evening recce dive to evaluate prospects. At the bottom of flooded dry cave passage another passage went to -8m and then continued South West over clay bottom. I had only single cylinder with me, awkward bulky reel and no silt screws so I postponed further venture into the cave. Back to partially flooded dry cave passage I proceeded South and just before collapse I've spotted another side passage on the bottom, this one heading East.
Things looked very promising although bottom composition was a bit discouraging - clay was severely reducing visibility every time I moved.
17.05.2008
Equipped with plenty of silt screws stowed along my 12's side mounted cylinders and 50m reel I venture into pale blue water with high hopes. If I thought that clay disturbance during belaying process would be a problem I was wrong - it was nightmare. For every belay point/silt screw inserted I was punished by clouds of impenetrable clay that reduced vis to none. At that point I already knew that return would be fun.. Moreover, I had two lengths of silt screws, 20cm and 30cm but both proved to be too short to stay firmly in the clay bottom - I had to remember not to pull the line under any circumstances. Passage was very low in many places and dislocation any of those screws plus no visibility on return could mean End of da Game. After 30m or so the possible way on started descending and I arrived to the junction with spacious passage 2m high and 3m wide going S-N. The clearance between roof and clay bottom allowed to maintain good visibility. I felt almost like in Florida I followed this passage in North direction reaching max depth -16m at the end of my 50m line. Passage continued. Promising, promising. Exit interesting as expected
18.05.2008
After previous evening dive I had a quick chat with Jim on the phone and I must have sounded enthusiastic because his call woke me up me next day at 8.30am. He was waiting outside B&B... He grabbed my still almost full 12s ( 180 and 190 bar), I showed him the entrance, few remarks on line position and the bottom, asked him to do some quick survey on the way out and off he went. I returned to B&B to get my breakfast. One hour later I met him already changed and working on the survey. He was smiling and apparently he liked the place. He extended the line for further 30m during which passage turned West and back again North dropping to -22m. He arrived to some exposed rock formation and after belay was done vis was completely gone and he couldn't find the way on. But we both believe it should be obvious for the next diver who would arrive to this point in undisturbed conditions.
At this point it's too early to draw any conclusions but I have a strange feeling this site might be a lifetime adventure...
P.S.
I strongly believe, and after talk with Jim I know he has the very same opinion, that this is a site only for those who are well dived, proficient and comfortable with their Side mounted gear ( forget about any other configuration). This IS NOT training dive site though it may look like. This is a complex place and I don't want to even think what could happen if someone loose the line,get entangled or dislocate line as one of these problems for sure will be accompanied with reduction of visibility to 10cm at the best...There are far better places to master your side mounted skills/equipment configuration. If it has to be overhead let it be Hell complex in Doolin when the conditions are right. Soon I will post detailed description of this complex including sketches based on over 20 dives I did over there last summer.
24.05.2008
Diver: Artur Conrad
Equipped with sidemounted 12's and 10 pieces of 50cm silt screws I headed into the cave enjoying incredible 5-6m visibility. After initial 30m of low section I was swimming in a big passage 2-3m high and 4-5 m wide. All the way over thick clay bottom. Longer silt screws performed flawlessly. Sticking to my thirds I explored 140m of new passage, depth at the end -35m. Water temperature 9 degree, EOL 240m, passage turned West.
25.05.2008
Divers: Jim Warny, Artur Conrad
We dived together, Jim following 10-15min after me with his sidemounted rebreather. I was diving sidemounted 10's pumped to 210Bar so I was in rush to get to EOL. Without violating thirds I added 50m of line on depth 30-35m, passage turned South at the end. I met Jim on my way out, he grabbed my unused silt screws and off he went. He managed to explore 75m of passage beyond previous limit. EOL at the end of weekend 365m. All in stunning visibility. Really enjoyable place. We have few theories on where the passage is heading but we need at least one more weekend of diving there to push it to some conclusions.
31.05.2008
Divers: Jim Warny, Artur Conrad
Planned as a double dive, Jim on sidemounted rebreather and me with three sidemounted 12's ( in reality two of them sidemounted and one hand held - bad bad idea..
I reached EOL using 40% of my hand held stage so I could drop it and start further exploration with comfortable standard sidemounted rig. I was privileged to add 145m of new line in stunning 8m visibility. Size of the passage increased to 4x8m, depth at the end of the line -37.5m. Passage goes strongly West and South-West in long, straight runs. Around 400m in I've noticed big shaft in the roof going up, place marked on the line with snoopy loop, not explored. EOL 510m in. Awesome...
Exit was utterly interesting: I was about 100m away from the exit when I encountered big clouds of silt ahead of me. It didn't look good and I started worried about Jim who was supposed to follow me 30min after. When I swam into the cloud things looked even worse. Belays were dislocated and line was floating underneath the roof. Moving in 20cm vis I had very bad feelings and I must admit at that stage I thought something terrible had happened and Jim was already gone. I only hoped there was still continuous line to the exit. I had to take care of myself, anyway there was no point of any search it that visibility. Additionally I was fighting with my buoyancy, hand held 12l tank didn't helped at all... Eventually at -22m of depth and not much to my surprise I felt I couldn't move on anymore - I got entangled in the slack floating line. Classic instance of short chain of errors leading to accident in cave diving. If I said I was fully composed at that time that would be far from truth...I really wanted to take out knife and cut the line but there was still a chance that Jim was somewhere behind me struggling to find the way out. Cutting the line in those conditions would be like death sentence for him. Unwillingly I calculated my gas reserves ( I still had 30min of deco ahead), removed one of the entangled sidemounted tanks and left it in the passage wrapped with line. I cut most of my deco between 18m and 6m as I wanted to know as soon as possible that I had line connection with my oxygen tank at 6m and safety. Huge relief when I finally bumped into my o2 tank. At the same time my heart sank when I realized that Jim's o2 tank was there as well... That could mean nothing but in my present state of composure I just thought he didn't make it. Two minutes after I saw beam of light above me - it was Jim checking if I was OK. I guess we both were much relieved seeing each other...
It turned out that Jim encountered problems with oxygen cells in his rebreather and decided to bail out at -30m. Problems with buoyancy and clay bottom did the rest of the job. Pulled line was only the consequence. When I came back next day to pick up my tank and to repair the line things looked much better then I perceived them during the dive while being stressed : only two belays point were dislocated, one silt screw and one natural one on the roof which simply broke off as limestone is very cherty there. Even my entanglement looked surprisingly simple and basically I managed to remove the tank from the line with two quick moves...Seems like a stress factor can kill you quicker than any other 'real problem'...Anyway
next time we will think twice before we enter this site together..
31.05.2008
Diver: Jim Warny
Sherpa and Guide: Artur Conrad
As you can imagine I was done with diving for the rest of that day and decided to limit my activity to sherpa/guide duties I led Jim to the place I found during my field trip 18.05 during which I located series of Coole river risings mentioned in 'Caves of County Clare and South Galway'. Most of them were connected or explored to some degree by Martyn Farr and his team back in 90's. All of them contained brown peaty water ( same as the river emerging from Polldeelin) except one - pond of clear water, 20mx5m with vertical walls visible underneath the surface looked more than promising. Judging from the same water quality and from the fact that Pollonora Hole #10 passage was heading more or less in that direction we were in high hopes to find connection and some further dive base. I couldn't really relate this site to any described in the book, the only one left unmatched was Pouluiscemore but this one was described as inhospitable place while our was looking at us and saying: 'Come to me and dive me...' So off Jim went with sidemounted 7's. Watching his bubbles breaking the surface I could figure out that after 4 minutes or so he entered overhead as bubbles became more diffused and continuous. 'Well done Jim!' I thought... He was back to the surface after 20min only to confirm that this place was indeed Pouluiscemore site. Encountered shaft was dropping steeply to -20m with huge quantities of silt destroying visibility immediately. It leveled out at -21.5m where got smaller and even more silty. Any way on only for cold blooded... There was 4mm PP Martyn's old line with characteristic tape and cable tie markings which has been slack and loose so has been removed. It looked a bit dodgy so instead of reusing it we're thinking to put it on E-bay as cave diving memorabilia (line came with 3 snoopy loops but they seem to be sound so will be used next weekend, no remorse...
01.06.2008
Diver: Artur Conrad
Series of dives in Pollonore Hole #10 - retrieving ditched tank, repairing the line and excavating first 20m of low passage. Lot of FUN Disappointingly bad visibility in whole sump, 1-1.5m max apparently due to heavy storms that rolled over Galway during last two days. Chances for Monday's next push seemed to be slim...
02.06.2008
Diver: Artur Conrad
When I entered sump in the morning to place my stage tank and oxygen visibility was barely 1m.. . Ambitious plans to add another 200m of line were only dreams now. Nevertheless I was there, fully kitted and equipped , with the promise of eternal fame laying just half kilometer away... Off I Went. First 50m vis was crap, below 1m. In next few hundred meters it improved but still to no more then 2m. Things changed dramatically after I crossed 400m mark. Shining the torch on the line ahead I could easily see two red marks on it, each of them marking 5m intervals...That meant visibility WELL OVER 10m !!! Passage grown bigger to 10mx5m in places and leveled out on -40m. Suddenly I felt small and unimportant swimming under those huge arches of the roof forming above my head...That was by far the most amazing place I've ever been and the privilege to be there first only made that feeling even more surreal. I didn't really want to go back but I had to as I let myself to exceed my thirds slightly (shame shame on me...). I inserted last silt screw and dropped more than half empty reel next to. -43m on the bottom, 640m in, passage going West, South-West and West again. This is Cave from my Dream. Can't wait to be back there again...
7-8.06.2008
Diver: Artur Conrad
Most of the Saturday I spent placing stage tanks behind initial low section and surveying first 50m.
On Sunday I got to my previous limit of 640m in 40 min, depth -42.5. Visibility around 5-6m. Passage soon became wider ( maybe even 15m) but lower, around 2-3m. Depth increased to 47m, further drop in visibility. Suddenly I realized I was swimming through dark brown peat stained water, passage got strange smooth shapes on the wall and ceiling (for example long smooth features growing/hanging from the ceiling effectively dividing passage into few parallel ones, awesome floor became more sandy than silty. As I approached any sensible limits of my PPO2 when I hit -49.5m of depth I made a belay, dropped my reel and started my way out. That was 740m from the entrance. It's getting more and more intriguing. Next time trimix a must as apparently I must have missed some big junction where the brown water comes in. Total dive time 167min, temperature in whole passage 10 degree.
21-22.06.2008
Diver:Artur Conrad
Support: Jim, Wojtek and Shane
Despite storm and heavy rains rolling over the whole country the final dive on Sunday took place without any disruptions nor surprises. I added 70-80m of new line, cave at the end is low and labyrinth-like. EOL is around 810m in on the depth -52m. Possible Westward way on seems to be quite low, 0.5 high.
Total dive time 3h 22min.
Cheers
Artur
