Dudley Caving Club: A Day At The Palace. Navigational Adventure Fit For A King In County Pot

For our second days caving we headed off to County Pot. I had joined Brendan on a previous trip in to Wretched Rabbit and up Stop Pot so was eager to 'join the dots' and link this entrance to Eureka Junction.
Although we had taken a line just in case, we found the pitches rigged and quickly made our way down them and the various climbs. We were soon in a chamber where Brendan challenged me to find the way on. Unfortunately for him I'd heard about the awkward Poetic Justice climb and soon found myself thrutching up the smooth calcite. Puffing and panting I awaited Brendan to join me, which after one attempt facing the wrong way he did. Whilst Brendan caught his breath I took a quick snap in the crawls before we continued on.
We were quickly in familiar passage and popping out at the foot of the boulder slope at Stop Pot. On our previous visit we had headed up the fixed ladder and on to Monster Cavern, so this time we headed in the opposite direction and we soon confronted by decorated passage in Gypsum Cavern. We continued on to The Palace where we spent a good time taking photo's before retracing our steps to Holbeck Junction. I stayed high and popped to take a quick look at Straw Chamber before rejoining Brendan. We headed up the boulders at Stop Pot looking for an alternative route Brendan recalled from his Uni days and soon found the low crawl that would exit at Four Ways Chamber. From here we followed the winding passage to the rope climbs to exit out of Wretched Rabbit.
As we walked back in the sunshine to Red Rose we planned our next navigational trips in to the system. We look forward to returning and possibly making it a club trip as it certainly has something for everyone.