Cave : Swinsto Hole / Kingsdale Master Cave
Date : 10 November 2001
Speleologists : Martin Beale (HPCC), Tom Brunt
Style : pull through
Grade : 4
Equipment : 20m rope, 3 maillons for Valley Entrance. 2 * 30m rope for pull through
Cave time : 4h54m
Approach time : 15m + 3m
Quality : ***

This Swinsto Hole / Kingsdale Master Cave trip was one of the best I have done. This was certainly the best exploratory trip I have done. Swinsto was a wetter cave than Simpson's (indeed, you can get quite frigid in and under the waterfalls), but this just all adds to the experience. Saying that Swinsto is better than Simpson's does not denigrate Simpson's at all : they are both brilliant trips.

Tom and I kitted up in the fog. The distant sound of carbide pots being filled suggested that we needed to get a move on if we were going to have the cave to ourselves. We charged into Valley Entrance towards the Master Cave. I was a little concerned at the level of some of the puddles in Valley Entrance. I think this was something of an illusion : as I do my midweek caving on Mendip, I assume that any puddle that isn't muddy is due to recent rainfall. I had forgotten that caves can be clean and inviting. I rigged the drop into the Master Cave and lobbed the ropes into the river.

Out of the cave and up the hill we went. Tom was sweating like an ox in his new wetsuit as we passed some frozen puddles on the way to the cave. We had memorised the description well and went straight to the cave. This cave is much easier to find than some!

A crawling passage of around 30m led to the first thundering waterfall. As with some subsequent waterfalls, it was difficult to stay out of the water. I was instantly cold before we set off on the infamous Swinsto Long Crawl.

The savagery of the Long Crawl is overstated. The whole passage is made of beautiful sculpted limestone : both walls and floor. This makes the going a little more pleasant on the knees. There are sections where you can just about stoop. In only a couple of places was it necessary to flat out crawl in the water. Probably the biggest criticism of the crawl is that the air gets very humid in the passage and it becomes very difficult to appreciate distance and the splendour of the passage. Eventually we heard the roar of the first waterfall.

There were several waterfall pitches in a row. On most of these pitches, the water would pour over a lip as the ropes went gracefully to the side. Only at the bottom of the rappel would you end up in the spray and deluge. I made a conscious attempt to try to hold onto the rope despite my instinctive reactions in the cold. I packed the bags as Tom pulled the ropes : for some reason, I seemed to feel I could stay warmer by stuffing the ropes in the bag.

The two large drops were really good; especially the second one (these drops are sometimes described as a single pitch, but that seemed like spurious advice to us). The second drop raps down the left side as the water gets projected rightwards : all very spectacular. We were both laughing at the bottom with the sheer exhilaration of it all (Tom was laughing more as he wasn't freezing cold).

Continuing down the stream, we passed through the strange Spout Chamber where a loads of water issues from a very small hole in the sidewall of the chamber. Eventually, we joined Simpson's at the final waterfall. Tom downclimbed this waterfall as I rapped down (Tom was clearly growing more confident in his wetsuit).

It is an act of god that it is still possible to get out through the boulders at the bottom of Swinsto Great Aven into East Passage (?) and thus complete the pull through trip. We passed a cold looking party of 15 (!) speleologists as we passed through the wet crawl towards the Kingsdale Master Cave.

It was at the junction with the Master Cave that the exploration really began. We left the bags and went upstream. The roof soon lowered and we were flat out crawling in the river. The bed was a little annoying as it was cobbled : that's the way it is. Thankfully, we plopped out into a passage. It looked like it would be difficult to find our way back the way we had come (crawling through a river in the side of the passage wasn't the most intuitive thing for us). We turned right at the dry passage and rejoined the river.

It was in this main section of river passage the Kingsdale Master Cave showed us its true majesty. Initially wading through the stream, within 100m we were chest deep in freezing water. Tom was leading and directing me to the shallowest part of the cave. It was just brilliant. We came across a T junction. Standing in more than waist deep water trying to decide which way to go was both unnerving and exciting : earlier on Tom had said to me that the chest deep water was no place to hang around. We were now faced with the prospect of spending significant time exploring these semi-flooded passages.

We assumed that the first massive sump that we found was the Rowten Sump (right at the junction). We went back to the T-junction and for the sake of completeness decided to have a look at the left hand branch. This was an even more staggering passage. Again the water was waist and chest deep. There were curtains on the roof in places; the whole passage was scalloped. We realised that we were in a serious bit of Hades when we passed some diving gear. At this stage, in retrospect, I am sure that we were at the Rowten Sumps. Looking at the sumps, I doubted that I would ever be free-diving my way from Rowten to the Master Cave.

There was one last passage to explore that we had passed on the way to the Rowten Sump. The passage emerged out of the water to yield a low cobbly crawl. After 20m of the cobbles, I was yearning once more for the water, but the cobbles just went on and on. Eventually, we were immersed once more, this time in a frothy pool. This last sump was massive and obviously went somewhere : we know not where.

Tom and I were grinning and laughing as we waded out through the water filled passages : this has been an amazing exploration. We were spared of the final crawl through the river where we had built the little cairn. By following the massive passage on our right, we rejoined East Passage just downstream of the wet wallow : we were back at our bags.

Unfortunately, the downstream section of the Master Cave is all too brief. We were almost running through the stream. We passed beneath the 15 speleologists we had crossed earlier : they had rigged ropes along an upper traverse out of the Master Cave. Though tired by this stage, the short section of SRT went smoothly and swiftly : it was good to be on the ropes once more after the wading sections of passage.

Tired, but elated, we sped out of the final passages of Valley Entrance to emerge into daylight (almost unheard of for AHPES!). A manic drive was not even needed to make it back to Inglesport for a well deserved Belly Buster (TM) (well, I had a whole Belly Buster and Tom did his best with his plate). Obviously, we carefully studied the West Kingsdale survey in Inglesport cafe and mapped out the passages that we had explored.

What a trip! Truly brilliant!