Eldonians - Team Awesome, Joe, Hal, Victoria, Mark, Miriam, Dave G, Toogood.
Guides (People who knew what they were doing) - Toby Speight, Jess.
The morning started out with a little hesitation. Well from me at least as Rob had backed me into a corner on leading the trip through Ease Gill. Luckily I had done quite a few trips in this system, but unlucky for me that I couldn't remember hardly anything! Our latest trip with Jeff followed the high level traverse from County Pot to Lancaster Hole which was a brilliant trip but we would desperate to see the main drain!
A little fuzzy. We started on the coffee whilst Rob cooked up a fantastic feast whilst others started to sort gear. In my head I was thinking someone else could lead the trip and I could just take photos but knowing nobody else would take charge I was left with the shit end of the stick!
Enter Toby Speight***
Toby had been mulling around waiting for some other diggers to arrive and had said the previous night that if no one were to top up just before midday he would join us on the trip! And luckily for us he knows the system like the back of his hand - bonza!
It was a nervous wait for me. Hoping the other diggers wouldnt top up. A few more people started to show, but thankfully were not part of his team. Dave Gledhill managed to finally push Bob over the edge and get him to come underground too and with one more loose end (Jess - Suss) Toby finally succumbed to the pressure! We now had a team of 12 for this classic trip. 10 Eldonites and 2 guides! Things were starting to come together.
We kitted up rather sluggishly and started to walk over to Lancaster Hole. County pot is currently rigged because of the collapse in wretched rabbit, so this trip required little gear bar the Lancaster entrance rope. As you could tell, getting 10 people down Lancaster of varying abilities took quite a while and I had moderate sympathy for the three guys waiting behind us - oh well not my circus!
Bob Toogood at the bottom of Lancaster, by RobE
Once relevant people had been appointed happy helpers for the day we dropped the entrance and waited for all to catch up, then headed along the high level passages towards Wilf Taylor's Passage. This was my favourite part of the cave by a mile. We made the little trot upstream to the sump for people to relieve themselves and then once all the team had arrived we then started pootling along downstream. It's a marvellous passage. Clean washed, scalloped to death with some awesome free climbs which make you second guess when you're stood at the top. Again, varying abilities in our team meant this took a while to negotiate the climbs but it also meant that we had time to take in the view. A funny moment was when on one climb. I stopped to help Victoria and Mark decided to pass via a pool in the floor and ended up going chest deep! He was ok though… as most of us, he was melting from all the high level passage and the system being quite dry at the time.
Hal in Wilf Taylor's Passage, by RobE
At the end of Wilf Taylor's passage we finally hit the main drain. To our right, just downstream was the sump where a few people had a little dunk to cool down. Toby reminded us of how active the stream is and how it backs up to height of 30 m from the floor which is totally insane. Also noting that it's still a quick moving stream when backed up which makes the place pretty scary when wet. We started to head upstream and stopped for a couple of photos along the way at the lovely pool after Fall Pot. Rob took a proper dunk here to Luke's disarray! We negotiated our way through the Stake Pot boulder choke before finally reaching Oxbow Corner. After admiring the oxbow for a hot minute, it was here where we climbed out of the main drain and headed up towards the high level route. Jess did a top job up to this point of guiding us through the system but it was here where she started to second-guess and Toby assisted. After a trollop through the high level caverns, we reached main line terminus exiting via the correct crawl for Stop Pot. An awesomely old ladder drops you down Stop Pot and you regain the stream way for a short while. With a little hesitation, Toby eventually got us through the boulder choke via a bedding plane and we eventually hit Eureka junction.
Miriam in Easegill, by JonP
Team Photo, by RobE
We swang left and eventually reached a point where we decided split into two teams. Team A were to head out of County via White Line Chamber whilst the B team were to head straight out via Poetic Justice. The plan was for the B team to beat us out and the A team would catch up near the entrance or the walk over to Bull Pot Farm. I can only account for my own trip which was obviously with the A team which traversed a lovely clean washed passage which eventually ended in White Line Chamber. A lovely pitch in dark limestone with a very thin band of white mineral stretching from the floor to the roof, on first inspection, this looked as though it was a rope hanging down. Once we had had enough we turned around and 30 m back marked a climb up which was quite awkward for some and could have easily been done as a dyno or better even a handline climb. Once up this climb a further climb/prusik lead to a chamber and further crawls which eventually dropped us in the main streamway before the short climb back up into County proper. Joyful of remembering where we were from the last trip we started the journey out and climbed the final pitch. When we reached the entrance we second guessed ourselves (again). We had been pretty quick on our extended route and the B team for sure had not being quicker than us. Luke and I turned around and headed back in hope of finding them, thinking they may have took a wrong turn. We eventually found them at the bottom of an awkward climb and by the sounds of it they were fine but just a bit steady. I waited for the whole party to pass me and we all made our way out to surface and to the glorious sunshine. I think a few were quite relieved to be out!
The walk over was pretty nice and we took an easy jaunt back over to Lancaster Hole to de-rig. Birthday celebrations then began, opening a keg of beer and started to drink in copious amounts - whilst Rob went hungry. Great trip and very grateful for Toby and Jess for all their help. Maybe we'll remember the way for next time.
Good old Bobby Toogood managed the trip fairly easy being the ripe young age of 80! With a few others not too far behind. It sure was a great way to spend my birthday with some people I actually get along with. Thanks.
Bob and Mark exiting County Pot, by RobE