Author: Paddy O

By Paddy O In Day Trips

Bull Pot of the Witches

Scott, Ami, Sophie H, Billy, Paddy

As the weather wasn’t suitable for the planned trip down Scanty Lardos I put a shout out to the club that I needed to do a bit of rigging practice for an assessment and would be good to have a few folk along. As such a find group of cavers assembled at Bull Pot Farm and off we headed down Bull Pot of the Witches. One of my favourite caves this one, something for everyone pitches, squeezes pretties, wet, dry; and it was the first cave I ever went in!

I quickly rigged the traverse line to the entrance chimney, something I’d used several times with other people but never rigged myself. It’s been rebolted recently and although they’re quite far apart it’s an easy rig. Then on to the chimney itself, a wide Y hang but a good clean drop. Quickly followed by Scott I ran off to rig the second pitch while he pointed out the way to cavern 32 for the others to explore. As it was Ami and Billys first time in BPoTW they were keen to have a good poke about, Sophie had been in with me a few months ago for SRT practice but was definitely keen to learn the system a bit better. They quickly caught me up as I was finishing rigging, Scott let me lower him down the pitch and then the others followed down on descenders and then shimmied down the in situ handline below. Sending the next bag down with Billy I messed about with hanging a ladder while he made a start on rigging the next pitch.

Considering it was only his second time rigging, and with some great advice from Scott Billy made a great job of rigging the bottom pitches and before long we were all exploring in the Long Gallery. Right takes you to the upstream sump and down through the mud you find a drop down to the streamway and then it gets too small and chokes. A good place it turns out to discuss various vehicle breakdown stories (It appears that AA are better than RAC).

On ascent Billy derigged the bottom pitches again and the rest of us set about finding Burnetts passage, Scott says “its through there and down” not how I remembered it. Turns out it was through there and up, but not the way I’d been before. Billy nipped back and tied the bag to the bottom of the top pitch and then followed on. Heading down Burnetts I noticed the way I’d used before and made a detour to explore, I quickly found myself at the bottom of the in situ handline, with my bag clipped to it! That wasn’t going to be easy to haul up Billy! Having moved the bag to the correct rope it was quicker for me to jug up the rope and drop back down to join the others at the gour chambers.

Last time I went in to the gour pools we went from the other side and I had gravity on my side to help with the tight bit, it certainly wasn’t helping me this night! After a small struggle I decided to go back and de rig the pitch and the traverse and let the others enjoy the pools, apparently Ami made it into the upper pools, I didn’t even know that was a place!

Having de rigged and made it back to my van, changed and tidied ropes I was getting a bit concerned about the others, 10 mins to call out and they still hadn’t emerged! I decided to walk back to see if I could see them coming, and lights were heading towards me. Apparently one of my biners had got jammed shut at the top of the chimney and they had spent 15 mins trying to free it! As it was Billy that de rigged I think that’s a cock up Ken nomination coming his way! Also if anyone finds a carabiner at the top of the chimney with an orange tough tag on it, I’d be grateful for its return!

By Paddy O In Day Trips

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!

By Paddy O In Day Trips

Long Drop

Ami, Pete, James, Jasmine, (New) Dave, Paddy

A cave of multiple leaders! With Steve originally leading this trip but unable to make it, Dave agreed to take on the rigging but was then thwarted by a punctured tyre, myself and Ami agreed to co lead it, only because we were the ones with the kit! After meeting on Leck fell and having introduced ourselves to prospective new member Dave we set off in the direction of Rumbling, with the description telling us Long Drop was the next fenced enclosure.

“Long Drop Cave is one of the lesser popular trips on Leck Fell” According to the CNCC description, and that was evident as we picked a way through the trees to the entrance, after foraging bilberries, wild strawberries and sorrel Ami set off to rig the first pitch, with the 20m rope just making the bottom of what should be a 15m rig. After this it was a short squeeze through to the second, awkward pitch. A comment of “Ami, I don’t think I fit” from me and some muffled swearing from others we just about made it. The bottom of the second pitch is not somewhere to hang around, the mud has a definite unpleasant aroma to it, so me and Ami exchanged places and I set off on the 25m kinda side on crawl to pitch 3.

A reachy start to get to the Y hang might be an understatement, but we definitely chose the right way round to rig, Ami on the small stuff, me on the reachy stuff! Nice pitch with two rebelays and a deviation made for a good amount of vertical fun! Once we all congregated at the bottom James, Jasmine and Ami set off to explore the crawl to the sump, while the more sensible folk stayed behind.

Upon their return we started the ascent back to the surface, with James derigging pitch 3 and Jasmine taking on 1 and 2. All surfaced and present we made our way back in the direction of the vehicles, at least we thought so as the classic Leck fell fog had come in and hidden then from view!

 

A good nights caving, Ami is keen to do the exchange with Deaths Head on the next meets list, I think I might be busy that day…