Present: Al, Carolyn, Andy, Adam, Ben
After much faffing about we reached Bull Pot Farm at about 1:30pm ish. We then proceeded to get changed and decided which caves to do. The above group, namely us, decided to do Aygill as Carolyn had already done County previously. (Actually she hadn’t, but I had. -Al) The weather at the start when we were getting changed along with some others in our weekend group who were going to do County was pretty bad, i.e. low cloud. Not to mention the huge amount of cars and minibuses that had decided to go to Bull Pot Farm. We had decided to do Aygill because Al and co. wanted to find the elusive “impressive” sump pool.
The cave started with a small climb down into a low passage way which lead to a 6ft. climb into a small chamber where we had a rest and let 2 other cavers past. We then entered another low passageway which went on a little way opening up into a traverse. The traverse was completed successfully by all. Then it was time for the first pitch of about 9m. This was to be done with the aid of a ladder otherwise it may have proved painful. Al was first down the pitch closely followed by myself. I wondered at first where Al had got to when I reached the bottom but soon realised that he was in the low passage way leading off to the left. Carolyn was next and then Adam and Ben appeared as if by magic. This passageway lead to the final pitch of 11m to be negotiated by ladder. We were quite fortunate in that we didn’t have to rig the ladder due to there being a ladder already there. So we put our trust in equipment other than our own for that descent. By now we could hear the gush of water, we weren’t going to stay dry for long.
Whilst waiting for people to reach the bottom of the pitch Al showed myself and Carolyn a jet of water emerging from the side of the cave wall. Al then used his body to block off the stream and then released a great torrent of water. Now came the really fun part a nice descent of some cascades and from there into a dry passageway which led to a very wet crawl.
From there we visited various caverns with nice formations and a “curtain” in the Curtain Chamber, visited previously, see above. Adam and Ben climbed up the side of the chamber to try to find another suitable passageway but didn’t.
We thought it was about time we turned back and decided to by-pass the wet crawl via the Middle Series I think. whilst doing this Al found a foaming pool which initially was thought to be that elusive sump pool but it wasn’t nearly “impressive” enough, what ever that actually means!
Whilst climbing the cascades to the bottom of the 2nd pitch I slipped and damaged my ankle quite badly, as in hobbled to the pub afterwards.
The 2nd pitch turned out to be a challenge for Carolyn, she needed advice from Adam who was at the top. whilst giving advice Adam entrusted me with the belay rope. At the 1st pitch Carolyn was feeling the effects of being cold and wet and needed to be pullyed up using Adam as a counterweight, meaning he had to climb the pitch twice! It was left to myself and Al to derig the pitch. But we soon caught up, after about 3m. Finally we made it to the final crawl where Al noticed blood on his caving suit, realising it wasn’t his he shouted ahead and after much looking by myself and Ben we were able to establish that it was a deep nick out of Ben’s finger. He should have worn his fashionable yellow gloves.
After a hobble back to the car to get changed we noticed that the others had gone, they had left a rain/sleet sodden note saying they had gone, like it wasn’t too obvious. The club shorts made a reappearance as my towel. Al got his car started, just, and it was off to the Marton Arms, but not before we had eaten a delightful chilli, masterfully prepared by Adam, Katrina and Anthony.
Andy Stone