Lay-by Pot - 02 Dec 2006

Saturday December 2nd 2006

Members present: Gary Douthwaite,  John Singleton,  Katja Olsen,  Matt Ewles,  Saskia Klerk

It gets a faff factor of 5 for us going down the wrong cave. But a great find. Layby pot is more reminiscent of Moors caving. A very scrotty crawly cave, involving lots of mud and continuous crawling on belly with elbows. Navigationally, not too hard. At the bottom of the entrance ladder (CARE... keep away from the bottom while people are ascending/descending) there is an obvious way on (the correct way) and a narrow slot opposite (we didn't go down but apparently it closes up).

After much EXTREME muddy gloopiness in facy-ness, the passage slopes upwards (still belly-wriggling height) and a pretty chamber can be reached within about 30-45 minutes. Not far down from this chamber a rope is reached, at a dig, which we are sure ascends to the surface. Attempts to free climb using footholes was a bit dodgy so we didn't. Plus we didn't know how far it was from the top. Could be done with jammers, or prerigged with a ladder if the top-way in can be found (we think we did find it on the way to the cave, but it was dark on departure so we didn't go back).

Would make a rather sweet muddy little through trip!