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None of us is in top shape when we meet at Inglesport cafe: Alex and me bruised from our Saturday trip and Chris knackered after his trip to Poland. Despite the lack of enthusiasm we decided to stick to our plan and even laminated the route description at Inglesport.
Getting changed in Bull pot farm
It’s a very nice day and it’s somehow a shame to disappear underground, but well, it’s our hobby, isn’t it? Everything started well: Alex left the description at the car and since none of us has been there before, it made for a more spicy trip ;) Chris doesn’t seem to be that excited about rigging the entrance pitch to Cow Pot, doubting that the rope would reach the bottom. But soon we all follow Alex and meet up at the bottom from where we said our ‘good byes’ to the normal Cow Pot route and turn towards the pleasures of Black Book of Death. After negotiating a 17m partially scaffolded climb we carried on into the infamous narrow rift. Alex goes first and his groaning doesn’t encourage me. It’s definitely a SRTless job. Chris passed the tackle bags on the other side of first narrow part of the rift to Alex and then followed him. It takes me a while to decide that I really wanted to carry on. I passed my SRT gear to Chris in such a clumsy way that I dropped part of it down the rift which made my journey even better. The second constriction is quite fine but looking at the third one with no knowledge of what is behind, forces me to re-think of my plans for Monday. ‘Perhaps I would be better sleeping in the grass outside in the sunshine?’ By that time Alex was already on the traverse above the second pitch. Luckily the traverse is rigged with in-situ ropes, of an unknown age, so we did not have to rig it. Moreover, it seems that we would not have to come back the same way. ‘Let’s carry on!’ Chris passes the narrow slot and disappears on the traverse and it takes me again a while to get through and put the harness on.
The traverse is exposed but fine and at the end of it is another man-sized tube. Having half of my body on the traverse, I manage to fit Chris’s gear into tackle bag and remove my SRT gear again. If you love tight S-bends, this is the place to be. It takes us about 15-20 minutes to pass through this tube but once we are out, we know that all the major difficulties are over!
Exit from the sideways crawl in Cow
We put our harnesses on and descend a couple of nice pitches with in-situ ropes and after a little while we pop out in the main drain. What a relief! We shake each-others hands; eat chocolate bars and go to have a look at the sump. The signs of flooding are quite frightening.
From here we opt for the streamway up to the Oxbow corner. This part is absolutely fantastic, the amount of water makes this part really exciting.
Main streamwayJust before turning to Wretched Rabbit we met our Finnish friends on their way from Lancaster to Wretched Rabbit. We decided to extend our trip by exiting via Boundary pot which takes a while to reach. I have never been here before but this place is absolutely fantastic, like a kingdom of water and waterfalls. We pass several cascades, climbs and an exposed waterfall before we have to fall on our knees and even on our bellies. The crawl is a bit intimidating. The guys are far ahead of me while I struggling with the tackle bag. Half of this tube is filled with water and the other half is covered in foam. At some point I almost had a panic attack being sure that water level was rising. When I reached a small waterfall in my way, I was not sure where to go. Hopefully the way was not to climb it, that would be lethal. I shouted and luckily Alex came back and all I can hear from him is ‘go through the waterfall!’. It feels like crawling into nowhere. But after the waterfall the passage enlarges. The only thing which is left is a few climbs. On one of the climbs Alex opens his tattoo salloon and makes a nice tattoo on Chris’s face by dropping a tackle bag straight on his eye {It was the crab from the haul cord that hit him}
After a last crawl we emerge in a nice day outside! On our way back to Bull Pot farm we derigged the entrance pitch and quickly got changed and head for some food at Marton Arms.All in all, one of my best trips!
Party: Ales, Chris and Alex R
They might know that Poland can be violent
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