Strans Gill Pot

Sunday, 9 September 2007

Another fine trip down this classic tight but very well decorated Yorkshire pothole. Met Sam and Simon in Hubberholme at around 10.20am, but problems with arranging a call-out meant we weren't up at the entrance until around midday.

We then proceeded to get changed on this fine September morning when all of a sudden the peace and tranquility was interrupted by the distant sounds of the farmer's quadbike! We quickly dived out of sight, but with the farmer advancing quickly and caving gear strewn everywhere, things weren't looking good. All we could do was lie perfectly still under the grass banking and listen as the quad entered the field and the farmer filled up the feeders one by one.

Thankfully, we weren't spotted and once he had disappeared (which must have been a good 20-30mins later) we crawled off towards the gully to continue getting changed and give the farmer more time to disappear.

And so, by around 1pm we were ready to go underground! Sam gingerly went over to rig the entrance pitch while myself and Simon waited out of sight. Once underground, steady progress saw us through the entrance series. The squeezes at the top of Hope pitch and before Charity pitch were passed pretty quickly and some photo faffing took place.

Soon down Charity pitch, which was much drier than my last visit and into the crawls and streamway leading towards Sluice pitch. More time was spent here photo-faffing before moving on to the Passage of Time. This section of passage is very, very impressive with a magnificent array of straws and columns in what is quite a large passage. A suitable reward for negotiating the entrance series.

More photos were taken, quickly by Sam and his digital camera, less quickly by me and my 30yr old manual SLR. Things were going well until I noticed the film wasn't winding on anymore (the photo-counter wasn't working), and probably hadn't been for some time, and so with it being late and with Sam having some good piccies we headed out. The journey out was pretty uneventul, except for Sam having to go for an emergency poo near assembly hall and the surface was reached a couple of hours later.

Good stuff!