Ok...I give up...where the hell is the big stuff supposed to be described in the guide. I have been there twice and ended in a load of squeezes just past a chamber with some pretties in it A ideas welcome ?

There is an inclined bedding plane which you have to get across somewhere in the middle. When I tried it had about 7.5 inches of height and I consequently got stuck and had to be pulled back out. There is also a bypass whcih can be found by going straight up (left) from the bedding into some narrow crawls, but once again I got stuck on a hairpin where I could not get my legs round!

A small friend went through the bedding and said it was still some way to go to get to the big stuff but having never got there (nor likely to now!) can't help more sorry!

The bedding is extremely low at the start but gradually eases.  The bypass for me was worse, the hairpin bend nearly broke my back and there was an awkward rift squeeze beyond.  Both ways unite in a rift streamway which ascends a couple of cascades and then becomes yet another low crawl which isn't immediately obvious as it appears to close down.  Finally you emerge in the final chamber which is quite nice but it's debatable wether the effort rquired to get there is worth it.

gus horsley said:

Finally you emerge in the final chamber which is quite nice but it's debatable whether the effort required to get there is worth it.

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Surely not. 

Its a well know fact that how awesome/stunning/pretty etc. a chamber is, is directly proportional to the nastiness of the squeeze/duck/grovel and the number of mates your are trying to entice through the same squaller that you just endured. 

Yes thanks guys but I have been through the low bedding crawl to the streamway, then up into a chamber with some nice stal but then where? I nearly broke my ribs following my wife through a bedding beyond the supposidly tight stuff, I then discovered that there was an easy bypass......could someone please come up with an answer....

Not sure that youve been all the way.
Route finding is tricky but you end up in some stompy stuff, going up and down some boulder piles, before eventually reaching the final nicely decorated end chamber, but theres plenty of nice stuff on the way too.
Clive westlake took us there.

You're right, there is some pretty stuff at the end.  My problem was that, after nearly coming a cropper in the "easy bypass", I had the option of a return past a bend which gave me an enormous amount of trouble on the way in, or the extremely low bedding.  I ended up doing the latter but it was an awful experience for a bloke of my build.  I'm 6ft 2 and weighed 15 stone at the time.  The return trip therefore detracted from the pretties somewhat.

I'll do my best to describe the route but it's been a few years since I've been there (and it's one of the closest caves to my home as well - about 15mins away!)

Not sure which nicely decorated chamber you got to so I'll start from the tight bedding (which is the only bedding I can think of that is tight enough to break ribs and is beyond other less tight bedding crawls.)

Wind your way through the largest parts of the bedding into the stream at the far end. Crawl upstream (left) and you soon enter a small 'chamber' with the way on being upstream in a narrow rift passage. You soon reach a small cascade where the passage becomes even narrower and the walls are very 'catchy' so that it's difficult to force your way up - it can be done by the slim and it's easier on the way out with gravity on your side.

A larger, alternative route is to climb easily up into a passage on the right (going upstream) that is a few meters before the narrow cascade. Follow the passage into a nicely decorated chamber with conservation tape in it. The way on is to duck under the stal flow (you don't have to cross the tapes to do this) into a canal passage which connects back into the streamway, upstream of the tight cascade. The passage is slightly large here.

Whichever way you go the rift streamway soon ends at another cascade, which is easily climbed into another bedding. Follow the stream, which is coming from the left and crawl along the uncomfortable, channeled bedding. This soon ends in a low, gravel floored streamway. Ahead becomes very low so go up to the left into another, small, well decorated chamber with a large diameter column that has cracked in two, probably due to the boulders underneath being undermined by the stream. The way on is to drop through a hole in the boulders back into the streamway. Upstream you soon reach the first of the large, bouldery chambers. Up and down over a boulder pile and you regain the stream in another, larger chamber, this time with formations. The cave ends at the choke ahead (below a large shakehole in the field above.)

Hope this helps.

Hi, Thanks for that, I have been to the chamber with the tapes and found a route left of the canal that is VERY tight, it nearly broke my ribs.....This leads into the streamway you described so I obviously need to keep pushing on!! Thanks, I shall return when the weather allows.

ecowaller said:

I have been to the chamber with the tapes and found a route left of the canal that is VERY tight

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Er, don't remember anything particularly tight in that area - just follow the canal, it's narrow but easy.