Saturday - 8th April 2000
People present - Pete Dale, Duncan Jones, Bruce Stone, Andy Whitney
I was sat at home watching television when who should walk through my front door but 'Cougo' alias Mr Bruce Stone, "where the hell have you been hiding?" I asked (Knowing full well it was his lass keeping him from coming round.) Women eh!! Anyway Apparently he had been ill and off work for two weeks (soft twat as if being ill stops you caving). Well the reason he came round was to see if I was going caving tomorrow "Yes" was the reply and since I had arranged to meet Andy at the farm and Chunks (Duncan) was picking me up at 10am (More like 10.30am). I volunteered him to give Bruce a lift up there aswell.
Well After not a lot of sleep and an early start 6am (Dogs need walking you know). Bruce had said he would be at my house about 9.45am, sure enough he turned up and didn't have any excuses not to go, Chunks turned up eventually and we sped off to Bull Pot. After an exciting drive we arrive at the farm finding Mr Whitney just about to give up on us and go home.
The team was assembled we just needed a trip. Bruce wanted an easy trip to break him back into caving since his last trip was Peak Cavern back in January (There's a lad with a lot of commitment to his hobby). Andy wanted to discover something, Chunks was up for anything and I wanted excitement, we decided on Craftmans Pot in west Kingsdale (I decided!).
Gear packed and we were off, upon arriving in west Kingsdale we where confronted with fog (great!). We found the entrance quite easily, removed the lid which consisted of an old wheelbarrow and a sheet of metal then nominated Chunks to go down first (Well it could be dangerous!).
The entrance shaft of 4m is free climbed on scaffold bars, once reached you are greeted to a flat out crawl in muddy ice cold water at the bottom. Which regretfully is the only way on (Duncan first again). After 3m of what can only be described as pleasant crawling a boulder run in was encountered on the left (scary!!). Next there was a tight squeeze down into a rift, Chunks had a go first and after three or four attempts ending in a comical head first approach, I said "Stand aside and let a proper caver try." First attempt and straight through "Easy!" I sarcastically shouted back and told them to come on down, but Chunks had to take his SRT kit off.
Three of us down and one to go unsurprisingly Andy must of gone at it wrong because he got stuck half way down the rift. Since there wasn't anything Duncan and me could do due to the tightness of the passage we decided to carry on down the cave. After negotiating another awkward bit we where at the top of roughly a 4m vertical slot which lands precariously at the top of Hickory pitch 14m space at last.
As Chunks descended the pitch Bruce caught me up and after listening to his complaining for a moment Chunks shouted rope free and off I went down. As I abseiled down the pitch I noticed quite a few menacing boulders in the rift that were supported by what could only be described as fresh air! Once Bruce reached the bottom I asked him were Andy had vanished to. Bruce had helped him back up out of the squeeze; it seems that Andy's nerve had made a sharp exit from the cave so apparently he went to retrieve it (chicken).
The way on is down through a lovely loose boulder choke onto a very loose boulder slope with only one solid wall in sight (Guidebook says, " extreme care needed" no kidding). I lost count of the number of rocks we dislodged just by breathing on them. At the end of the slope you are confronted with a 30m drop, Dickory pitch luckily you only have to descend the first 8m onto a boulder bridge, I didn't feel like the full 30m since you would have been abseiling next to walls of hanging death! Once upon the ledge you traverse along the rift across the top of dock pitch to another Boulder Bridge, which is followed. Unusually this is where Bruce's courage got up and left. At the bottom of the pitch a stream enters which flows off down the cave into the sump. Chunks and me had a quick look around and decided to make a hasty retreat after it started to rain rocks from above! Must be Bruce knocking them down.
The exit was going good apart from me being the last one. When I reached the top of Dickory I vacated the rope and clipped onto the traverse line from the pitch above, which was just in time because what I was standing on decided to part company with my feet (Very scary!).
After regaining my footings I quickly made my way up the pitch. Looking up at the slot it appeared tight and tricky but was surprisingly easy due to lots of hand and foot holds. I eventually caught up with Bruce and Duncan at the first tight squeeze, after a lot of grunting and groaning Chunks was a the top then it was Bruce's turn. He struggled quite a lot (probably because he's a bit dimensionally challenged). Personally I don't know what they where complaining about I found it remarkably easy. As I crawled through the muddy bit Andy greeted me with his camera for some snapshots of me in the mud, photos taken we emerged into the daylight.
The fog had lifted and it was quite sunny. As we set off walking back to the car I asked Bruce where he had put my SRT kit, great he had left it down the cave on the other side of the muddy bit (he'll pay for that one day).
SRT kit retrieved, muddy crawl passed four times (I know how a turd feels now) Surface reached again. We met Andy's dad who had been walking in the area while we where caving and went back to the cars to get changed. Once changed we had a quick look at Andy's photos then set off home after stopping at the chip shop of course?
Craftmans isn't an easy trip to say the least but if you can negotiate the first 20m then you will be rewarded. It is also worth noting that its characteristics are completely different than that of Bull Pot, which is only about 50m away. Al in al it's a good trip well worth a visit with some possibility of extending it since it ends about 25m above the sump level in rowten. Go do it!