Post date: Jul 1, 2018 8:29:37 PM

Team: Al, Petie.

Time: 4 hours

Aim: Continue explorations of the maze of passages off Niger Rift.

A second attempt to locate The Lost Streamway of the Yorkshire Ramblers. Another hot day, the Marlbank was alive with butterflies, buzzing insects, and sweaty-looking sheep. It was with relief that we finally entered the cool embrace of Pollasumera. A strong draft was present in the walking-height entrance passage, the warm air causing stronger-than-normal air circulation through the cave. The cave was more or less bone dry - only a trickle entering the cave - but there was still fresh flood debris in the cave somehow. The walls around the lake area were covered in green leaves, creating a nice patterned-wallpaper appearance. Al reckoned some rain from two weeks ago might have caused the debris.

After bottoming the pitch into Niger Rift we reached the dodgy pitch we’d previously been at in November. Al rigged this through a natural thread using a wire strop and descended. The ‘pitch’ is easily free-climbable, but there are nasty wedged boulders at the top that you would do well to avoid, hence the need for rope. From the bottom of this 7m pitch there was a crawl heading south, not pushed by Al on the last visit here. We headed off. The crawl became a scramble, then a climb down into a dry stream passage. This presumably was the streamway found by the Yorkshire Ramblers in 1959. The water comes out of a narrow crack in the wall, and flowed off under an arch. Just under the arch we met the end, a muddy alcove. Above this Al forced his way 5m vertically up a rift, but it was going nowhere. We surveyed back to Niger Rift, 45m in total.

On the way out I wanted to look at a side passage I’d seen before, opposite the awkward tube that brings you into Niger Rift. Today it was drafting strongly, and not on the survey. After a bodylength this passage reaches a tight muddy drop of 3m. I slid down. At the bottom was a tight downward slither over mud and boulders. I shouted up to Al to rig a sling for the climb and bring the crowbar to deepen the slither.

I squeezed down the slither regardless, entering a grotty crawl with just enough room to turn around. The passage then climbed steeply up a very muddy rift. Six metres up, at the top, a few flakes blocked the way on. A lump hammer would be needed to smash these and get a better view of what appeared to be a passable continuation. Worth a go, but the scrotty awkward conditions are offputting. The draft presumably comes from the surface rather than caverns measureless, but who knows. We surveyed back, returning to Niger Rift an hour(!) after entering the 15m long passage. Anyone thinking of going back here will need a sling to get back up the 3m drop, otherwise it might be a one-way trip.

Passing the scree slope on the way out, we searched for the calcite crystals found by Shane Diffily the previous week. Climb up to the very top of the scree slope, and at the northern end of the passage you’ll find a series of fist-sized hexagonal calcite crystals. Quite impressive.

So in the end, the Ramblers mysterious streamway turned out to be a bit underwhelming, but about what we’d expected it to be. No miraculous connection to Pollnagollum of the Boats forthcoming, but we’re still having fun in this cave.

Petie