Friday evening I drove to Crummack Lane and set off for The Allotment. The walk is a trek, a lengthy and hilly affair, and not the easiest to navigate in the dark so I my eyes were glued to the screen of my trusty old gps.
The bucket on the gate is now a flag, tonight steadily fluttering to the north east. There is also a sign giving the direction of Rift Pot, Long Kin East and Juniper Gulf.
Blindly stumbling around I managed to find the crescent shaped hole, tonight you could clearly hear the water before seeing the chasm. I set about rigging, with a couple bits of tat for a traverse line I rigged the 25m pitch with a 20m rope and arrived on the cascades with no issues with high water. Passed the dripping wider section and across to the 2nd pitch a dry, sandy 14m pleasant descent.
Next up it is the bad step. Not well named, but I put a sling round a flake just in case the way out with wet rope is more difficult.
The 3rd pitch is slightly tight at the top from a rigging approach but once happy there was no rub points it was down into the spray from the streamdI'd been above most of the way. Up and over some boulders putting in a travese line, I looked for evidence of the recently disposed of large boulder reported at Eurospeleo. I couldn't see where it was from, but once down the 4th pitch I can say where it ended up! Chunks of hewn rock all over the chamber floor like a grey stone jigsaw.
Getting fairly wet now I set off on the short section of passage to the sump but decided to return once I thought of the climb out comparitively dry versus wet and heavy. Empty the boots, unclip the small flake rebelay and get going.
Steady on the way out, heavier bag, wet kit and becoming tired, exiting the gulf to no rain was nice. I only got lost twice on the way back, walking around in circles trying to find the field wall, then going straight past the flag. It was a foggy night, nothing too dense but once again I was glued to the gps screen and it was good, got me back to the car before the slight overnight rain.
All in all a decent trip out.
