August Bank Holiday - Bull Pot of the Witches - 27 Aug 12

We went to sign in at the board that used to be hung on the end of the building, but it had gone and we realised that they have a new extension for their changing room - very nice!  One of the major bonuses of Bull Pot of the Witches is that it’s only about a hundred yards from the back of Bull Pot Farm, which is unusual in Yorkshire (particularly in that area!).  Keith rigged around the side of the open pot and off the tree to a rebelay and the bottom.

Keith on the rebelay

I followed, by which time Keith had found at least four routes off the main pot, so we waited for Paul and he directed us back under the wall that we’d dropped, along a short traverse to a sloping take off into a rift with two deviations.

Paul about head to down the rift

It looked straightforward enough, but was interestingly off-balance!  The guide says that most of the short pitches in BPotW are free-climbable - I could see that they might be, but maybe for someone braver than me.  Down another short drop we then came to a chamber with a lot of boulders jammed in the roof.  Keith commented on it and I said that it reminded me of Aygill Caverns, which isn’t a million miles away.  We then arrived at the top of a climb down that was fine once you got past the first bit, but looked fairly horrible.  The pitch beyond that was low and awkward to get onto, but there were plenty of ledges and I was confident that it would be straightforward to get back up.  Paul decided to wait here as his collar bone was aching from being hit by a small stone that came rattling down the shaft in Jingling Pot.  Keith and I continued to another small pitch, followed by a 6ft drop into what looked like a sump pool.  Keith explored and had a look around while I came down the rope, but not having been in there before and with water levels quite high, it was difficult to tell if there was a way on or not.  We started along a water-worn dry shelf on the right, but with SRT kit on, it wasn’t much fun, so we turned back.

Back up the 6ft drop, Keith discovered the climb up that we’d been looking for into the Long Gallery.  I had a bit of a problem on that, not having much upper body strength, but I eventually flopped into the gallery on my face.  Effective, but not very elegant!  We explored along this good-sized hading (sloping) rift and came to a large stream, presumably the same one we’d seen at the bottom of the 6ft drop.  Again, as water levels were high and we were conscious of Paul waiting, we decided to turn back.  There were a couple of nice, but muddy curtains along the gallery.  I imagine that water levels get very high down there at times!  Heading back up I had an interesting time working out how to get off the top of the pitch where Paul was waiting.  Once I’d sussed it out it was straightforward enough.  I think I must have been getting tired by that time because I made really hard work of the pitch with the two deviations and got really cross with myself.  While the others came up, I headed out into the open pot and took my time up the last two short pitches.  I then went further around the top of the pot and followed a small path that takes an upper route into the cave and took some photos of Paul and Keith emerging.  

Keith reaching the tree

By this time it was raining quite heavily and I found a very soggy honey bee, which I tucked away under an overhang on some moss.  We were only underground for barely a couple of hours, but again another trip that none of us had done before and we agreed that it was worth another trip at a later date.  Having since had a look at a survey, it’s obvious just how much of the cave that we actually missed completely - no excuse not to go back then!!!