A toss of the coin at the Chapel decided the choice of cave and we set off for Nidderdale. Two hours later we were looking at the low water levels of Scar House Reservoir, showing that, despite a light drizzle, the trip was on.
After a bit of a look around we were charging down some excellent streamway in Manchester Hole only a two minute walk from the car. A roped traverse (PPE useful for novices) up mud banks avoids a low section then more excellent streamway leads to an apparent sump.
The way on is an almost 180 turn to the right and a hand and knees crawl in water. We then climbed up a mudbank to the right and this took us up a handline to an exit at Bax Pot. Tom and Kevin pushed on to the left and following some flat out crawling and squeezes in water managed an exit at Lesser Stream Pot. This is a great little through trip though we noted that even on the roped traverse some 10m above the streamway there is evidence of flood debris in the roof.
A short walk down the valley took us to the obvious entrance to Goyden Pot. Straight on from the entrance took us past two drops on the right, equipped with P hangers, to an awkward 8ft climb down. This was negotiated with combined tactics in to a large passage which ended to the right 10m above the Main Chamber. To the left, following the draft down through a barrelled crawl led us via Labyrinth Passage to the streamway near the downstream sump.
Following the water upstream, past a chain up leading to Church Pot, eventually became too tight. Backtracking, a large fork on our left led us up a series of boulder climbs to emerge back at the entrance. Throughout this cave, there is evidence of some pretty catastrophic flooding with trees wedged high up the roof even in the largest parts of the cave. A superb trip suitable for novices but weather dependent.
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