Two Pretty pots and a scary mine!

A quick trip to Yorkshire gave Dom and I a chance to look at two pretty little pots, that neither of us had visited before.

A few of our photos came out OK, although a little ‘flat’ - my ‘fire fly’ proved to be illusive when I packed! All a little steamy too. Have emailed a couple to Ben to put on the website, for those interested. Click Here

Shuttleworth – good description in Descent no. 218. Painter’s alley direction was excellent, but I shan’t be bothering to descend the very loose and nasty slope to ‘the house of the rising sump’ again. I have drawn a rough topo if anyone wants it for future visits.

Illusion Pot – Kingsdale – grid reference SD700762. Walk NE for 100m ‘ish’ from style over wall. A heavy lid covers a concrete shaft with staples to climb down. This is followed by 4 sections of ladder – no rigging kit needed. A short crawl led to shallow streamway with shingle base. We admired mud and calcite formations as we made our way towards the dammed section. Bits of crawling to negotiate on the way. Bailing buckets were available on both sides of the duck, but we just put our ‘heads down’ and got through quickly! Once past the wet, we entered a large cavern with an impressive aven, complete with dangling rope - the ‘missile silo’. Passage led left and up, with some scrambles/short climbs en route - past more pretty stuff. From the missile silo in the other direction a few more pretties were passed, as we progressed along vandal passage. Just before the end of this passage, a rope hung down a gravel slope into Rushton chamber – this was well decorated with straws. The roped traverse starts here - cows tails needed; this led to a muddy and slippery end to our trip. Well worth while cave – about 2 hours.

Finally, onto N.Wales – and a through trip between Rhosydd to Croesor mines. Descriptions from the ‘net’ were useful, and a reliable call out essential– thanks Lin! It will all fall down sometime, but still proved to be one of the best adventures that I’ve had in quite some time. The mines have been rigged with wires and ropes; thus a series of abseils, tyroleans, bridge crossings and boat rides guide you through the large caverns. We took spare rope and buoyancy aids, although used neither. However, the first rope could do with replacing – we ‘tied out’ a worn part. Would love to do this trip again, armed with camera next time - would definitely always take spare rope and a means of reversing the trip, should things have ‘changed’ in the interim. 6 hour’ish’ – including walk up and down.