Kirk Pot. 15/9/90

Usual day at the farm. Everybody on holiday. Paul W. said he would like to have a look at Kirk pot as the weather had been fine for two weeks. I agreed but asked him to have a look a Sylvester first, as I had found a hole on the opposite end of the entrance rift, looking into an L shaped passage, 5ft. x 5ft. Andrew had come up with us to join the club so he jumped at th chance.

Everything went well until I stepped on what I thought was heather on the edge of a small gorge and fell about ten foot, winding me and giving me a touch of the Van Gogh’s. However with the chance of new passages ahead, we ploughed on. I had seen the hole in Sylvester Pot after recent floods. Paul shot in, like a rat up a drainpipe, followed more slowly by Andrew. I couldn’t even get my hips through! They disappeared down a rift in the floor to shouts of huge and massive and distantly, ‘a Pitch’. After five minutes they were back with Paul cursing “damn bolts”.

Apparently it came into the top passage on to the 70 ft. pitch. After a bit of a struggle getting Andrew out we headed for Kirk Pot to get, as Paul put it, “some real caving”.
Ron was there when we arrived and a good job too, as I went in the wrong entrance. On instruction we were soon down the slide and on to the pitch, but no belay. Paul found a metal stake and jammed it across the pitch and went down followed by Andrew. I decided to hang on at the top as I didn’t trust the belay and told them to go on and look at the sump. The last time John Frankland and Lol German were there they said there was an air space above the sump. However this time, it was so dry, it just tapered down to five inches of water. so back to the farm for tea.

Jim Newton.

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