Month: March 2015

Darren, Jason

Having been unable to find the entrance on a previous attempt, I brought my GPS.  Eventually we found a small hole with a stream running into it. “Arriving at Boundary Pot” announced the gizmo, so I got into the hole, only to find it went – nowhere.  Darren gave a second opinion, and we scouted around for alternative entrances but found none.  We then tried a more promising-looking hole some 50m back that we’d ignored on the GPS’s advice.  This was it.

A short crawl leads into a decent chamber with a daylight shaft.  Another crawl leads off, with the way on being a right turn almost immediately.  Darren ignored this for the thrill of exploration, but soon had to turn about.  Back on track, we soon got to another chamber with a healthy stream cascading down a hole in the floor.  This was a 3m or so climb down, in the full force of the stream.

At the bottom, the crucial passage began.  If there was 25cm of air space over the water, then the through trip was on.  It looked wet, but possible, so I started off into the confined rift, blowing the foam out of my face as I went.  Rounding a corner, I could see another couple of metres of passage, but the remainder was hidden by a deluge coming in from roof. “Blow this” I thought (or something similar), and made to turn round.  What with the high foamy water and limited space, this manoeuvre took a few moments during which I left my tackle sack floating (the current appeared to heading to the chamber).  Next time I looked, it had vanished!

Despite having a good grovel in the freezing water, neither Darren nor I could find it, so somewhat chagrined, we gladly withdrew, climbing up the waterfall this time.  Maybe the tackle sack will turn up in drier weather, or maybe it’ll fetch up in the nearer reaches of Easegill in several months ?

Anyway, feeling the need to warm up, we headed back to Wretched Rabbit, pausing only for Darren to haul a dead sheep out of the Borehole entrance, which was very public spirited: it was still reasonably fresh, but in a few weeks it would have made a Borehole trip quite unpleasant.

We then went for a saunter down Spiral Staircase, fetching up at Holbeck Junction (I think) – ventured upstream in Thackray’s passage (possibly), then returning to the junction, up the boulder slope into Straw Chamber (must have been – certainly there were spectacular straws), finally returning the way we had come.  I had hoped to stumble into Stop Pot and return via 4-ways chamber, but neither of us was sure enough of the way, not that there aren’t plenty to choose from!

So – not an unqualified success, but I am determined to do Boundary Pot one day – third time lucky?