Illusion Pot flooding

[Andy Walsh]

the entrance passage and duck flood to 10m (30 foot) deep in 20mins in extreme rain also all (except the "air bells) of the 700m long Perfidia  crawl sump the big passage (Expressway ) is dry this event has been seen!!+flood marks can be seen duck also sumps in rainy days and needs a few dry days to drain

 

[Paulaner]

I would love to get to the end of perfida.  Did you have to sit the flood out ?

 

[Andy Walsh]

No  the flood was seen by divers (I won't name) shortly after Illusion opened up "tide marks" can be seen on the lots of "air bells"as well as fresh + old foam !! in Perfidia  oddly a trip in same you need to take in a drink as no water till 50 m from the end !!

 

[Paulaner]

I had a look down in May crawled for about an hour and then turned around due to time constraints . Got through numerous bell chambers to quite a large bell chamber and the passage started heading in a left direction. . Definitely going to have another cracking at it in good settled weather.

 

[Alex]

Its been on my todo list too, but I think I will need some new knee pads for that one as I would likely wear them out by time I get to the end. (Also would have to drag a tackle sack with me, would likely need some water too).

 

[bren]

thinking of going down illusion tomorrow - rain forcast from lunch heavy in the PM.been down a few times before and bailed the duck but never seen the entrance crawls at the bottom of the pitch react to water.does this section flood completely? would think it would need a serious amount of rain to do this - any advice on times??? cheers

 

[Redmire]

Andy is right, the entrance passages and duck flood badly in very wet weather. I presume the outlet from the duck is quite constricted (it certainly used to be) and the slope at the far side goes up some way before the water can overflow. Many years ago we spent a couple of hours on the far side as the water rose on a very wet day. The prospect of the CRO coming to fetch us was sufficient encouragement to attempt the dive out when the water had gone down a bit. There were two sumped sections (we had mini bottles) and some deep water in the passage leading up to them.

 

[Dave Tyson]

A couple of us did a trip in wet weather in February 2012. It was very wet and had been for a few days, Kingsdale Beck was almost up to the level of the bridge and the moors were sodden. We didn't expect to get very far, but the passages were OK and we spent 1 hour baling the sump. 45 minutes would have been enough, but I wasn't sure how much would flow into the sump while we were on the 'wrong' side. We moved fairly fast and got to see all the features in 90 minutes. We didn't bother with the traverse down to the sump off from Rushton's, but the river at the bottom was very noisy and carried a big flow. The return through the sump was uneventful, the level had gone up by an inch or so.  It was still raining when we got out and headed to the Marton Arms - which was shut 

I guess its more subject to exceptional rain over a short time, so a cloudburst in Kingsdale would be bad news...

Dave

 

[bren]

interesting stuff guys thank you.made the trip - went in early way before rain was forecast.the canal had abut 12 inch airspace. I bailed a good 40 buckets and the duck was about 6inches.Just out of intrest when I was at the formations we heard quite a boom.When we were getting changed I heard the blast siren at ingleton quarry.Is them blasting the cause of the boom.it was quite distinct.anybody else heard this when down there? surely this type of thing must be audioble in other caves or is it the nature of the expressway that would amplify it? any thoughts?

 

[Antwan]

Was it your party taking the pictures that have just been posted on Flickr by dudly bug? They are pretty good 

 

[bren]

afraid not ours are more wellies n arses!

 

[dudley bug]

Was it your party taking the pictures that have just been posted on Flickr by dudley bug?

Dudley Caving Club were in Illusion on Saturday a little bailing was carried out to make the airspace more comfortable.

Some photos from out trips in Yorkshire over the weekend are on the Dudley Blog http://blog.dudleycavingclub.org.uk/

 

[martinm]

niice photo! 

 

[bograt]

Was it your party taking the pictures that have just been posted on Flickr by dudley bug?

Dudley Caving Club were in Illusion on Saturday a little bailing was carried out to make the airspace more comfortable.

Some photos from out trips in Yorkshire over the weekend are on the Dudley Blog http://blog.dudleycavingclub.org.uk/

That really must go into the archives as a Classic shot, more illumination may, or may not improve upon it, but it's still a calender/poster contender ???

 

[Antwan]

Better then my headlight attempt

Small Spaces by Anthony aka Antwan, on Flickr

 

[bograt]

Better then my headlight attempt

Small Spaces by Anthony aka Antwan, on Flickr

Yup, you're right Antwan 

 

[JAA]

I suspect it probably was the quarry yes. I was in the back end of Illusion years ago, and the whole place shook, along with a noise like someone had just unleashed a large quantity of bang. Somewhat unnerving at the time, the approx time fitted with when the quarry had been firing that afternoon.

 

[Pegasus]

Was it your party taking the pictures that have just been posted on Flickr by dudley bug?

Dudley Caving Club were in Illusion on Saturday a little bailing was carried out to make the airspace more comfortable.

Some photos from out trips in Yorkshire over the weekend are on the Dudley Blog http://blog.dudleycavingclub.org.uk/

Excellent photo - we're hoping to make posting photos easier in future, to see like these would be great.

 

[Caver Keith]

Here's a short video from the same trip.

http://youtu.be/TT6z4PiUqN8

 

[Paulaner]

Love the video !