Wretched Rabbit to County Pot
Saturday, 16 November 2013
A rather late and heavy night beforehand resulted in me awaking 25 minutes late and running around frantically stuffing neoprene into a rucksack before sprinting to the chapel. As Tom rightly said, “why did we go to Bar Red?”. Fortunately, when I arrived I discovered that no one had left yet due to Mikes car being kicked in by a bunch of fuckwits, and also failing to start. Time was passed with games such as piggyback pole jousting. We sorted out a hire car, and arrived at Inglesport for a filling culinary assault over an hour behind schedule.
We finally arrived at the farm at about half one, and met up with the rest of the party. Sam Allshorn had originally intended to go down Bull Pot of the Witches, but decided against this for unascertained reasons, so we marched over to Wretched Rabbit and got underground, first descending the Spiral Staircase and hitting the main drag, going on up to Eureka Junction. On the way, Tom misdirected Clara into a particularly wet passage, causing Clara to invoke wrath upon him and the rest of us to be rather amused. Clara and Katey then swapped groups, and from there a rather convoluted and sporting route was taken through to the Upper Trident Series via Holbeck Junction and Straw Chamber, along with a rope climb which Nathanael particularly despised. Once past Confusion Corner, we bypassed the Chocolate Traverse and pissed around in Trident for a while, saw Paperfloor Passage, and went back to the scaffolding bar climb we had entered by. I explored a little on the way, but this was not communicated well to the rest of the group by me and my return was not well received. These sections of the cave were very pretty, especially the many thin stals comprising Straw Chamber along with some very nice mineral veins decorating much of the ceiling.
We left Trident and headed back to Confusion Corner, and then onto the Battle of Britain chamber so as to observe the Manchester Bypass back to County for future reference. This done, we made our way back round on a sporting route via Razor Passage and Toadstool Junction until we arrived at Poetic Justice and climbed the chimney for no explicable reason other than blind egotism. From there, we exited County via the Snake and the 5m pitch which had already been rigged by Warren. We proceeded to have a largely unsuccessful conference about how to tie a bowline efficiently, during which Sam Allshorn experienced much merriment in observing our inadequacies. Tom eventually ended the discussion by tying Nathanaels for him, and all was resolved, until Sam Allshorn asked me to pack the ladder and experienced yet more hilarity in my attempts. We then left County, emerging at roughly 7pm. A decent five hours of caving had been done, despite the mornings delays. On the way back I left the path and fell into a bog, causing Sam Allshorn and Katey yet more amusement.
We then returned to the farm, and spent a nice hour in the warmth of the members lounge. After Warren and his group had surfaced, we made our way back to Leeds, stopping off in a Skipton chippie on the way.
An excellent day out which was enjoyed by all present. Many thanks to Sam Allshorn for being a thorough guide, to Chris for driving and to Matt for organising the trip. I hope to return and explore further in the not too distant future.
Comments
To be commended as a first rant but for the aficionados, this is the order we went in. Well done on remembering all those names Rob.
Wretched Rabbit
Spiral Staircase
Holbeck Junction
Straw Chamber
Eureka Junction also using the wet route.
Lower Piece’s swapped Clara for Katey
Lower Trident and Whiteline Chamber taking in the Whiteway
Upper Trident to Splash Chamber via handline.
Then into Right Hand series then Left Hand Series and Paper Floor Passage
Battle of Britain then to Broadway via Oxford Circus
Then Razzor Passage to Platypus upstream to Poetic Justice
Spout Hall then the Snake to first pitch in County Pot.
Sam Allshorn
Friday, 22 November 2013