Trip to Illusion Pot/Dale Head Cave -- 21st February 2012

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Trip to Illusion Pot/Dale Head Cave -- 21st February 2012

Group: Steve, Dave

It wasn't clear at the start of the day whether we were going to manage to do this trip at all. It had been pre-arranged some time ago and in the meantime the weather in Yorkshire had conspired to be very wet with 39mm of rain the day before. We set off in dull but dry weather and this deteriorated as we got closer to Kingsdale...

We parked up near the track to the top of the waterfalls walk and changed in breezy, cold and misty conditions. The walk along the track and over the bridge showed just how much water was around, the ground being saturated. Despite the mist the entrance to Illusion pot was reached without any difficulty and we headed down the fixed ladders and into the streamway.

There was a small stream flowing in the passage, more than we had seen on other trips and there was a slightly ominous line of foam on one wall about 500mm off the floor. We pushed on and eventually got to the sandbags guarding the low passage. There was a fair volume of water coming from the cleft to the right of the sandbags and the sump was pretty full. Steve had a quick look and we had a short discussion as to whether to bother baling it or go home. The latter seemed to be a bit pointless so Steve rearranged the sandbags to get a good seal and the two of us started baling with two buckets. We probably shifted 2 gallons with each bucket load and kept it up for about 30 minutes. Dave crawled in and looked to see if the way was clear, the water level had dropped appreciably and it didn't look like there was much coming in. We changed places and continued to bale for another 20-30 minutes. A further inspection showed a clear 150mm airspace. We reckon to have shifted well over 1500 gallons of water.

We grabbed our tackle sacks and crawled though, the water wasn't that cold and we pushed on through to the expressway. There was quite a bit of water coming down the 'missile silo' but none of it was heading for the sumped passage so we pushed on towards the formation chamber. We rigged a bit of rope as a handline to get down the climb just before the pretties and then we very carefully crawled in to look and take a few photos of the formations.

After a careful retreat we headed back to the expressway and along to Rushtons chamber. We could hear the sound of rushing water before we even got to the low entrance of Rushtons. A quick walk down to the rift and its associated traverse line showed that there was fair amount to water at the bottom of the rift. We pondered whether to bother going to the sump (we had cowtails), but in the end decided not to bother and instead took a few more photos in less than ideal conditions due to the misty atmosphere.

After a bit more of an explore we headed back to the sump and exited back into Illusion Pot. The water level was unchanged, a tribute to Steve's earlier sandbag work (being a fireman, he should be able to do this!). Once back out on the moor, the weather had improved a bit and it was no longer misty.

We headed back to the car and changed. The Marton Arms was shut so we drove to Dent and after a quick look at Ibbeth Peril (a lot of water) we relaxed over a couple of excellent pints in the sun in Dent before driving back.

A better than expected conclusion to a wet day in Yorkshire. Overall trip time about 2.5 hours.