Swinsto Hole

Again it was breakfast at Bernies in a busy Ingleton as today's forecast was for dry weather and there was a “Wild West Weekend” event running.
We then relocated to the layby by Braida Garth Farm in Kingsdale and after getting changed Keith drew the short straw and set off into Valley Entrance to rig the short pitch above the sump which would be our exit route after we had reached this spot after dropping through Swinsto Hole to the master stream.
We made our way along the slightly worn path up the bracken-covered hillside and I stopped and waited at the end of the steep section to point out to Keith below where we had gone when he had re-appeared on the surface below.
Once he did and had made his way up to join me, we continued onwards much less steeply than before and crossed the Turbary Road when we saw Karen in the distance indicating the route to Swinto's entrance.
Again, Keith was on rigging duty and we followed him in the short hands and knees crawl in narrow meandering passage with water flowing along the bottom to the short first pitch.
I was last down and joined Simon B. and Waggy in retrieving the rope as we were on a “pull through” trip and on a one-way trip to the master cave and then to exit via Valley Entrance. The rope came down easily and meanwhile Keith, Karen and Simon W. has headed off to rig the next pitch with the second tackle bag and rope we had brought, once we had all passed the Long Crawl which is certainly well named!
We continued in this way, with one rope being abseiled down by the three cavers at the rear and retrieved while the other three went on and rigged the following pitch after the tackle bag containing the rope from the previous pitch had been passed forward.
Soon we arrived at the foot of the second stage of the large pitch, which is broken in half by a large ledge where we re-grouped before setting off for the remaining small pitches.
After the final short handline or short abseil depending on your preference, below the final pitch from the alternative route to the master cave via Simpsons Pot, our abseils were over and we made our way through the remaining parts of the cave always following the stream. At one narrow section I removed my SRT harness and kit to pop through first in case of any jams and after Keith had passed it through to me I put it on again and followed the rest as they had passed me.
Soon we were at the final wet crawling and then the easy walking in the stream and very soon were at foot of the short pitch which Keith had rigged earlier.
We were all up the pitch and and then all popped out of the small plastic pipe lined entrance known as Valley Entrance. Luckily, this is only a few tens of metres from the field gate onto the road and right by the parked cars.
As expected, we were soon changed and back at Bernies. Pete and Simon W. were off home after their two days caving.
In the evening we decide to try our luck with pubs in High Bentham which wasn't far from Greenclose Cottage and I drove Simon B., Keith, Karen and myself. We tried one pub but found it was very busy and someone was busily setting up the gear for musical entertainment by the only empty table. So we tried another pub and found it empty. I spotted the meal times for Sundays and they stopped serving meals at 18:00. It was now nearly 19:00. Rats,
We tried the last remaining pub and they stopped serving food at 19:00. Luckily there was a Spar supermarket open so we bought various items and returned to cook them at Greenclose Cottage.

After we had eaten our various meals we were drinking wine or Newcastle Brown we had bought in Spar and Tony Seddon popped in on his way home from a caving trip in Spain. He chatted for some time and then set off for home.