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I'm in County Fermanagh at the foothills of the Cuilcagh mountains | 0:00:31 | 0:00:35 | |
and making my way to the Marble Arch Caves. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
-Michelle. -Hello, how are you? -How are you? God, that's some walk! | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
SHE LAUGHS Great weather for it, though, isn't it? | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
-Yes. Are you ready to go underground? -I am indeed. Let's go. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
-If you want to follow me, we'll head on in. -Perfect. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
'Michelle's going to be my guide through this fascinating | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
'natural underworld of waterfalls, rivers, caves and winding passages. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:58 | |
'It's beautiful and brilliant.' | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
We're deep below Fermanagh and you may be forgiven for thinking | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
that the weather above won't affect us, but it does. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:08 | |
Yes, it does. The rainwater that falls on Cuilcagh Mountain, | 0:01:08 | 0:01:12 | |
it's actually the catchment area for the three rivers that flow | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
into the Marble Arch Caves. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
And we're actually making our way up one of the rivers, | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
it's called the Cladagh Glen. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
So, you can imagine the weather that we experience in Fermanagh | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
and in particular up on Cuilcagh Mountain | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
has a large impact in relation to the show cave. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
We're able to come comfortably through this cave, but it all | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
depends on the amount of rainfall that we get above, doesn't it? | 0:01:33 | 0:01:37 | |
This cave tour is very much weather-dependent. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
There's days where we have to opt that we actually don't have a cave tour available. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
It really depends on the blanket bog, | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
whether or not the blanket bog is dry or if it's saturated. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
It depends if it's local rain or if it has fallen at a distance | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
and it also depends on what the rivers are like, if they've had | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
a period of time where they've dried up or if there's water in it. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
That is why the staff that work here monitor the weather forecast on a daily basis. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:02 | |
You're actually going outside and visually looking at Cuilcagh Mountain | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
to see if it's under cloud, if it's raining, | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
what you think is happening on the mountain, because it has its own little climate. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
In terms of weather, what's your perfect scenario? | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
-SHE LAUGHS -Best-case scenario is probably the rarest situation that we ever have, | 0:02:15 | 0:02:21 | |
is that when we have a heatwave. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:22 | |
I knew you were going to say that! | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
But even at the moment, you know, we've had a period of | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
a whole week now where we've had just dry weather. It's not hot, | 0:02:27 | 0:02:30 | |
it's not sunny, but there's been no rain up on Cuilcagh Mountain | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
and that changes everything. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:35 | |
It changes amount of water coming off the mountain, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
it changes the atmosphere in the cave. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:40 | |
I really like it when we've had a little bit of rainwater | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
and it's coming into the cave and the rivers are rising slightly | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
and you can hear the rumbling of the river. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
And that is part of the experience and the excitement | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
for members of the public. So, people who do arrive on a rainy day, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
I don't think they're losing out, I think they're seeing it | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
in a different way, and to me, that's what it's all about. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
-Every cloud has a silver lining. -Yes, we could say that! | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 |