Bull Pot - 4th Jul 2010

Sunday July 4th 2010

Members present: Chad B,  Marcus Roby,  Marion Holloway,  Mark Sims

I walked into Bernies and was greeted by Chad saying that Boggarts was off that day due to his knee and Gingling the previous day, and I wasn't desperately pleased to hear Bull Pot being suggested as the alternative. Since no other suggestions appeared, off to Kingsdale it was. Perhaps it was retribution for mentioning on the way that it'd been too long since I visited Kingsdale!

I wasn't too annoyed at doing Bull Pot - although it's short, it was about 2 1/2 years since I'd been, and it had been my second ever ringging trip in pretty wet conditions, so I wasn't sure if my memory would reflect how I'd feel about the cave now. Sure enough, the thundering water I remember from below the 2nd pitch was nowhere to be seen, and the bottom of the third pitch was positively tropical compared to the last time I was there.

The faff level would have been much lower had we found the cave sooner. I had the vivid memory that to get to Bull Pot you went up to Rowten, turned right past Jingling and Bull Pot was about 30m further on on the left hand side. No idea where that came from! about half an hour later wandering around the fields in pouring drizzle (I think that's the only way to describe it!) Chad was successful. I'd like to take no responsibility for the cave finding (or lack thereof) as Chad had been there much more recently!

The caving itself went very smoothly with some great rigging by Maz and a quick derig between Marcus and I. It was only on the way out that we realised this was only the second time I'd ever caved with Marcus! Weird.

Although not what I had in mind first thing in the morning, it was a superb day, finished of with a pint and a pizza in the Game Cock Inn :)