New Goyden Pot

This was the best of the three caves we visited this weekend and it was a lovely sunny morning, too. We parked on the same road as yesterday a bit nearer to the camp-site and further from the dam and changed into caving gear. We needed SRT kit today as there were two pitches to descend but Pete thought because there was a crawl from the entrance to the first one, it might be easier not to wear the SRT kit.
We again reached the downstream and dry section of the river Nidd and walked down the boulder-strewn and rocky river Nidd watching wagtails flying around and a baby rabbit darting past us heading for its burrow.
We soon found the entrance to New Goyden Pot which was in the small stone cliff in the right-hand riverbank.
The entrance was small and roughly rectangular with a short drop of under a metre to a wide but flat-roofed and flat-floored chamber which was easy hands-and-knees crawling for only around 6 or 7 metres to what was obviously the pitch.
Above the drop was an area of scaffolding with all the gaps filled in with sheets of various material obviously to prevent small pieces of rock and other material falling down to block the top og the pitch which opened through some boulders and was a little constricted at the top.
While I was waiting for the other two I spotted a “P” bolt a short way back from the pitch head in the ceiling and then a pair “P” bolts also in the roof nearer to the drop, There was a thin cord with a tied loop attached to one of the scaffold piles at the top of the pitch and further short piece of rope attached to a rusty old “Ring Hanger” of the sort which we used to use in the days of Spit anchors.
There were the deviations we were expecting. Pete tied in the rope to the back-up anchor in the ceiling and I attached “Y hang” to the other two anchors. Pete handed me his collection of karabiners and assorted slings which I clipped onto the top of the tackle bag and attached my descender to the rope and started to drop through the top of the pitch only to have one of the slings catch on a piece of rock behind me and get stuck!
I was able to get my weight off the rope a nit and Pete flipped the end of the rope off of the projection to release me. I moved the collection of karabiners and slings from the top of the tackle bag containing the rope to my belt and set off down a bit to attach the second deviation karabiner.
I then had a look around and saw a lovely fluted shaft which was much better than it looked from above which was covered with a jumble of boulders.
I dropped down to the foot of the 18 metre or so pitch and removed the rope from my descender and had a look around the chamber I had reached. There was a bit of flowstone on the walls and a large rift-shaped opening nearby with the sound of a streamway rising upwards from it.
When Karen arrived with the second rope and tackle bag I attached the rope to another “P” bolt again in the ceiling about 2 metres from the drop and then to the two “P” bolts in the ceiling either side of the rift and then dropped down the pitch in the large rift to break through into a large tunnel carrying a lovely streamway!
I was soon in the ankle-deep water and detaching my descender and shouting “rope free”.
I was thinking of the first cavers to have entered the passageway from the river bed only to find that first shaft and this pitch immediately after it straight into such a large and lovely stream passage. That must have been some experience!
Once joined by the other two and having stripped off the ow superfluous SRT kit, we set off downstream again looking out for any side passages. Pete particularly wanted to have a look at a chamber called The Planetarium.
We reached the large downstream sump which was deep with a sharply-dropping floor and then turned around to go back upstream and enter a large and obvious side passage.
After a bit of walking, a little crawling and some clambering up, over and through gaps in boulders we arrived in a large chamber with circular depressions in the ceiling which we took to be The Planetarium.
We clambered up some boulders and blocks in one corner and followed a sandy-floored passage very like the upstream sump passages in P8 when water levels are very low.
This brought us to a short clamber down followed by a second climb-down which was a little awkward and to avoid aggravating my leg injury I decided to wait a bit while Karen and Pete went to investigate where this led to.
After a few minutes I heard voices coming from behind me in the direction of The Planetarium and I returned there to see a caving light shining up through a large hole in the other corner of the chamber.
A minute or two later Pete popped through the hole followed by Karen. After a quick look at a short climb up in the far side of the chamber, we returned to the main passage and streamway.
We returned back upstream and passed the rope dangling down the pitch and followed the river upstream. There was a small side passage with a slope of clean-washed rocks and I followed this through a narrowing to hear a small waterfall.
I clambered up the side of the waterfall to a second higher waterfall. From here there was a short climb with no low foot-holds but it did have a knotted handline with a sling attached to allow you to gain a metre or metre and a half in order to reach the foot-holds.
I gave Pete a helpful shove and he clambered up to have a look. He returned a few minutes later to say he had popped out at the surface through another entrance with a wooden lid a short way along the river bed from the main entrance.
We returned to the main streamway again and soon found the end of the easy upstream section very close by where the ceiling nearly met the water with a small amount of airspace which appeared to continue a fair distance.
As the airspace was very small and we were only wearing furry suits, we elected to nit continue any further.

So, it was back to the pitch to don SRT kits and return up the ropes and back to the surface after an excellent and enjoyable trip.