An excellent trip with myself, Karen, Keith and
Dan. We met the land owner as we were standing on a nearby farm track
looking for the entrance and he was very friendly and pointed it our
for us (in a tree-lined depression where a small steam was sinking a
small distance away) and had a chat.
The Entrance pitches were really good and were
“P” bolted. It was a bit like abseiling inside some huge stone
sculpture as one shaft would end and another would begin next to it.
Unfortunately, I found the squeeze at the bottom
of these pitches tight and awkward, a bit like the Vice in Giants
Hole, and as I didn't want to injure myself on the first day of the trip, I
decided to head back up the pitches while the other three went on
into the rest of the cave.
Later in the evening we drove to Belcoo and after
crossing the nearby bridge to Black Lion, we were in the Republic of
Ireland. The only signs of a border between where we were in Northern
Ireland and the Republic were road signs on the bridge pointing out
that the speed limit signs were now in Kilometres per Hour instead if
Miles per Hour!
Belcoo had a couple of hairdressers, a
reasonably-sized Spar supermarket, and another smaller one, a
“gastropub” called the Customs House Country Inn plus a second
pub called the Hair of the Dog, which we never went in. The Police
Station was heavily fortified, however, a reminder of “The
Troubles” during the recent history of the part of Ireland. It was quite a contrast to the Gardai (Irish Republic Police) Station a few hundred metres away across the border which was a fairly unremarkable building in amongst the others on the Main Street in Black Lion.
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