Illusion Pot

[Andrew W]

Having only been down Illusion in settled weather when the former sump has been completely dry, does anyone know how quickly it reacts to rain in conditions such as we have now?

 

[Alex]

Not sure on the quickness but there is plenty of buckets there lol. I have had to bail it on the way in but not on the way out I wager it would take a while as there is no were close to dump the water on the inside side.

 

[Andrew W]

Alex,

Do you happen to remember what time of year it was and what the prevailing conditions were like when you had to bail it? How long did it take to bail?

 

[skippy]

Alright Andrew...The weather is looking a 'little' more settled for the Dales this weekend

 

[Fulk]

Andrew ? the impression I get is that as the sump seems to be fed by percolation water (??), it's not easy to predict what's going on down there . . . but I guess there's been a lot of percolation recently!

 

[badger]

I was in illusion over May Bank Holiday, when the weather was not particularly nice, Sump was dry.

 

[Alex]

Took about 20 minutes to bail, could have done it in 10 but it would have been a very wet duck. Only the last section (a couple of feet) was actually sumped when we started.

The weather, I cant quite remember. I think it was fine when we went in but it had recently chucked it down heavily the night before.

 

[Andyj23UK]

i dont know how quick it responsds to rain - but it responds to " cpc speed bailing "

 

[Andrew W]

i dont know how quick it responsds to rain - but it responds to " cpc speed bailing "

Indeed. I timed my arrival at the duck just in time for the bailing to be finished.

For anyone interested the duck was open when we reached it but with only a couple of inches of air space at the far end. First man through just treated it as a sump. 10 or 15 minutes of several people simultaneously bailing gave us a good 6 inches of air space at the far end which was plenty.

 

[mrodoc]

If you do visit the cave please take care of the formations. DO NOT follow the advice for viewing them posted on one site on the internet. You will get mud over them and it is pointless as the best view is from the other side. On Mendip there would be some tape there to warn people. As an aside we did it  in dry conditions and there was no water in the so called sump at all. Mind you it did look as thought it could get a bit wallowy at times.

 

[Brockers]