Bull Pot of the Witches

Present: James, Tom, Paddy

The evening’s plan was Bull pot of the witches. Paying strict attention to the CNCC rigging topo I brought 5 kit bags full of rope. I think we only used 2 in the end!

The journey began rigging the initial chimney descent. Again this didn’t really seem necessary apart from bottom bells out slightly. We headed right, finding a massive chamber of Cavern 32 to the right; however, after looking in a few uninviting corners we returned to the main shaft to continue our descent. 

Down a couple of pitches we ended up at the Long Gallery. Heading right towards the streamway we ended up at the Trap. But we weren’t to be trapped this evening. Capitalizing on the drought-like conditions we managed to wade through with water levels barely rising above waist height. Pushing on further through a duck we ended up in the Upstream Passage. This continues all the way to the final upstream sump. Apparently the next stop for divers if they could find a route would be Aygill Caverns! 

Heading back through the duck we headed up the steep, muddy slope rigged with a hand-rope. Paddy took the lead, disappearing up the incline. Me and Tom followed, managing to squeeze up into the beautiful Gour Chamber. Well worth the effort. To get out we followed the bottom of this through a tight squeeze. I’m sure this would be harder the other way round so we were happy to find this chamber from our less usual direction.

Realising it was now late and our survey was smushed into pocket sludge we found our way up into the main Bull Pot Shaft. Tom volunteered to de-rig the entrance passages, much appreciated.