Toyland

Sophie H, Billy, Chris G, Jason, James, Paddy

From what was at one point 11 interested cavers only 6 turned up on a rather damp evening in Kingsdale. I had been into Toyland before but turned back because of increasing water levels, tonight looked more promising that rain was going to stop and we would be able to explore the Victoria extensions and Good Friday passages.

So, onwards we went diving into the pipe of valley entrance, quickly setting off through the cave and locating the often overlooked Milky Way passage. There is some fantastic moonmilk formations on either side as you crawl along, but I didn’t remember it being that low, or that cold last time! It didn’t take long to find the inlet to Toyland with its scramble up the flowstone cascade and the in situ rope. A rather awkward rebelay and then up to the ante chamber leads to a side on fairly tight squeeze and then a traverse over a pit, another rather welcome in situ rope is most welcome!

We then emerged into Toyland chamber, well decorated with straws and a flowstone cascade. The team all followed me through, at this point starting to wonder what they had signed up to, it’s a bit different to the normal valley entrance trip!

Onwards we pushed, up the flowstone cascade and into a lovely low crawl with the water, this led to another slightly awkward low squeeze and then a head hight considerably awkward squeeze. This stumped Jason at first but once me and James had climbed over him and got through I think he decided he didn’t fancy the others climbing over him as well, and so got stuck in and got through it. All through we carried on, climbed over some boulders and ascended the next rope, attempting to stay out of the water. At the top of this rope we had a choice, remove SRT kit and explore the Good Friday passages or to ascend the next rope and look at the Victoria Extensions. We opted for the Good Friday passages and set off expecting some pretties, after all, why else would it be worth visiting? We found dead ends, loose rocks, undulating passage and a watery squeeze that would be a face in the water situation. That was the point to turn around!

(The watery face in the water squeeze)

Once back at the pitch head James, Jason and Sophie decided enough was enough and opted to turn around, Whereas I fancied seeing what the Victoria extensions were about too. I set off up the rope along with Billy and Chris as the others started down. The top of the rope is a small muddy chamber with an onward squeeze. I attempted this but quickly found it was only going to be passable by removing SRT kit again. Billy being a little smaller than me managed to wriggle through and described the onward passage as “cavey and muddy”. The description wasn’t inspiring, and neither was his tone, so the decision was made to head back ourselves.

(Billy “Just leave me here”)

When dropping back towards Toyland there was definitely more water than on our way up, but it certainly gave our suits a good washing off that they needed! The Milky Way passage was flowing with water on the way out too, this wasn’t expected, it was supposed to have stopped raining outside. Upon surfacing it was raining harder than when we went underground, so much for a weather forecast!