Sunday 28 September 2008

Hagg Gill Pot

After breakfast at the campsite, we headed for Deepdale Bridge to find Hagg Gill Pot. On the way we stopped at Raisgill Farm as in the "Selected Caves" book but they knew nothing about it. Further up the road we saw some kids in caving gear and as we got nearer recognised Dave Elliot as the instructor in charge so we stopped and asked where to ask permission. Karen introduced herself (as BCA Training Administrator) and he said it should be Hagg Gill Farm, further up the road. We stopped further up and told Pete about this and he agreed to go and seek permission while we found a place to park. We found space next to Deepdale Bridge and when Pete arrived he said he couldn't find Hagg Gill Farm and we had done our best to get permission so we'd go anyway.
We got changed and walk about 250 metres up the road to Hagg Gill. Mick wanted to leave by 3:00pm so he walked with us to the entrance and afterwards went of a short walk. We slid the lid across and saw a scaffolding-lined shaft about 5 metres deep with a narrow hole continuing down the 15 metre pitch.
Pete tied on the rope and abseiled down. He re-belayed the rope to a scaffold cross-piece and headed down the remainder of the pitch. Karen followed and as she was getting onto the rebelay, I clambered down the scaffolding. Once Karen was at the bottom, I attached my descender to the rope and tried to follow but couldn't get through the short narrow bit. I shouted down for Pete and Karen to go on while I had another go. You could see that after a couple of feet it opened out but I just couldn't get through. I tried with my bobbin on my short cows-tail but it was still tight. I dangled with my jammers on thinking maybe I could down-prusik, but it was too tight.
I clambered back up and walked back to the car and got changed. In the meantime a car had parked in the middle of the track next to the bridge - but it was a family who were playing about in the river so they could have moved the car if needed. I laid my caving gear in the sun to dry and sat by the water and after a short time Mick arrived back from his walk and after he had given me a coffee, he said good-by and headed off.
I waited for a while then got in the car out of the cold wind and waited until Karen arrived. Pete had brough extra ropes, planning to have a look at Langstroth Pot, which was in the locality, but he couldn't find it and he arrived soon afterwards. Once Karen had got changed, we headed back to the campsite as Pete was getting changed and started to pack up and get the tent down. Pete arrived soon afterwards and we had a quick coffee and headed home.

Saturday 27 September 2008

Birks Fell Cave, Wharfedale

The two of us set off from Winster yesterday at around 6:30pm and arrived in Kettlewell in Yorkshire (the village where the film "The Calendar Girls" was based) about 3 hours later. We had to look for the agreed camp site, Fold Farm and after a bit of a search, we found it. It was fairly busy, mainly with "Duke of Edinburgh" groups, as we found later in the morning. They were all in their tents by 10:pm and very quiet so, after a pitching the tent (first time it was used even though I bought it many months ago!) and a quick brew-up, Karen and I joined the sleeping throng.
The problem was that the DoE groups were up before 7:00am and cooking breakfast and getting ready to pack up and head off by 9:00! I got up just after 8:00 and got the stove going. after a quick trip to the port-a-loo, the only facilities besides a tap for water, we started on cereal for breakfast and not long after, Pete W arrived after driving up this morning. Not long afterwards, Mick H also arrived - he had arrived last night as well but had spent the night in Kettlewell Youth Hostel. As he could book for this evening, he decided to also camp and put his tent up. The camp site was an overflow from the main one nearer the village centre and was in a lovely, quiet spot with rabbits on nearby grassy slopes and a heron not far away near a stream. It had been fairly cold last night with a clear sky and loads of dew in the morning.
We set off a few miles up the road to the car park in Buckden and got into our caving gear and started the route towards the cave by walking down the narrow road for a short distance then following a winding track with a loose stone surface. We left Pete checking in at the farm, but he soon caught us up.
After a short search, we found the entrance and Karen headed in at about 11:30, while I followed with Mick and Pete coming next. After a bit of rift passage we came to a small chamber with the expected continuation, "The Bradford Crawl", a flat-out crawl with a rough ceiling of eroded limestone. The problem was that there wasn't much room! It appeared that recent floods had washed stones and gravel into the crawl and raised the floor by a few inches. Karen had a look and realised it was too small and I agreed after trying to get in. Pete managed to crawl through for the fifteen feet or so to larger passage and I started digging out stones and gravel from the floor while Pet started doing the same from the far end. Once we had done this, I came out for a rest and Karen had a go at getting through the crawl and was soon through. I decided to give my shoulder a rest and head for the surface so told Mick to follow on. As he doesn't like this sort of cave passage, I wasn't surprised when he had a couple of half-hearted tries and gave up. Pete and I convinced him to try Agni and he set off feet-first and was soon through to the other end.
I said good-bye to the others and headed for the surface. Once at the entrance, I had a rest and then decided that my shoulder didn't feel to bad after the rest, so I stashed my bag containing my SRT kit and headed back into the cave. I thought I would just follow the others taking my time and possibly get as far a the first pitch (15 metres). I was soon back at the Crawl and passed this then into hands-and-knees crawling followed by easy-walking passage, some clambering and climbing and a nice chamber with and easy climb down. Soon I reached hands-and-knees crawling on a sandy floor with elbow-deep water. After a short distance, a couple of boulders partly blocked the way at a right-angle bend. Once past the boulders, the passage was still low and a bit narrow with a rough floor. I decided I had gone far enough (the others told me later I had nearly reached the first pitch) and again headed back to the surface.
I reached the entrance for the second time at nearly 2:00pm after 2 and a half hours underground and laid out my SRT kit in the sun to dry and then sat in the sun looking at the views of Wharfedale for about 45 minutes. I then packed everything up and headed back to car park and got changed. I went into the nearby cafe and had a beefburger and chips and then back to the car where I waited for the others and they arrived about three quarters of an hour later.
We tried the cafe again for a snack, but it had closed. So, it was back to the campsite where Pete put up his tent - a new one he had got from Oxfam for £10: apparently a Glastonbury remnant! Other small groups of DoE kids started arriving and also pitching tents. Later we went to the Kings Head in the village for a meal but they weren't doing meals as the chef hadn't turned up! So we had a meal at the nearby Bluebell Inn instead.

Sunday 21 September 2008

Giants Hole, Peak District

Karen and I drove to the Orpheus CC cottage and met Boyd there. The plan was to take James H., who was planning to join the club, on a trip into Giants Hole. Once James had arrived, we collected the ladder and lifeline and headed for Peakshill Farm. We entered the cave at around 12:30 pm and followed down Garlands Pot, the Crabwalk, Eating House, Maggins Rift to finally traverse back above the Crabwalk then back down to the streamway and again back at Garlands Pot.
Once the pitch had been de-rigged, we headed for the surface and were back in the sun at 3:30 pm. Once back at the car park we changed in the warm sun, maybe for the last time this year, and headed back to the Orpheus cottage. After a tea, I erected our new tent which I bought several moths ago and haven't yet used, as we are planning to camp next week in Yorkshire.

Saturday 20 September 2008

Walk via Kinder Downfall, Peak District

It was sunny and warm for a change and Karen and I drove to Hayfield and parked in the car park. After putting on our boots and setting off we found Chris Haywood parked in the road about to set
off for a walk with his dog. His dog was barking at us but Chris said he would be fine once he had started walking. We headed off a short way along the lane and then uphill in some fields on a path. Once at the top Karen had a few minutes rest and we let Chris head off with his dog. He was heading for Kinder Downfall as well but via a slightly different route.

We continued along a path which wended its way below the plateau of Kinder Scout which gradually gained height. There were good views to Kinder Reservoir and into the distance and we were soon
passing Cluther Rocks. Continuing on the path we reach the gully of Red Brook and clambered up along the gully and were soon on the footpath following the edge of the plateau. We could see
Chris and his dog further along the path heading for the Downfall and we were soon there ourselves. While Chris continued around the other side of the natural amphitheatre formed by the Downfall we stopped just above the top of the waterfall of Kinder Downfall to have our sandwiches.
After lunch we continued on along the plateau edge until we reached the route leading down to
Kinder Reservoir. We dropped down this path which was steep in parts and passed to men struggling up the rough path pushing and carrying mountain bikes - this looked like hard work! Continuing on downwards we crossed a small wooden bridge in William's Clough and we soon walking beside the
wall at the edge of the reservoir. Once passed the reservoir, we dropped down the cobble-stoned path leading to an old sheep wash next to the stream leading down-valley from the reservoir dam
and then followed the lane leading back to the car park.

Monday 15 September 2008

Animal Rescue near Winster, Peak District

It was 3:30 in the afternoon and I was at work when Karen sent me a text message saying she was on a Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation "shout" with a calf fallen down a mine shaft in a field near Winster and Elton. I left work a half an hour later as usual and after arriving home fed the cat then grabbed my gear and drove the couple of miles or so to where there were several cars parked in the road-side. I could see Karen and some others in the field and walked over to join them. There was a whole about a metre and a three-quarters wide in the field with an aluminium ladder across it. This was to allow someone to lay on the ladder and see down the hole. Apparently after the farmer discovered the hole and the calf down it that morning, he called the Fire Rescue service and RSPCA but the Firemen decided they weren't able to get down the hole to the calf and then DCRO were asked to assist. By the time I had got there, the Firemen had gone.
At that time we were waiting for Police with fire-arms to arrive in order to shoot the calf and put it out of its misery as it was about 15 metres down and almost certainly injured. You couldn't see much of the calf down the hole but as Steve was shining a powerful light down the hole, the calf poked its head out from underneath the projecting shelf it was under and mooed. So, there was no way the Police marksman could get a clean shot.
The problem was that there was a lot of old metallic rubbish and large rocks on one side of the hole which was undercut and would almost certainly fall down the hole if disturbed. It was suggested that maybe we could dig out a platform and pull the rubbish and rocks from the hole. Bill asked me and another Team Member who had our caving gear to get changed in case we were needed and we started digging out the rocks and move them onto the platform. In the meantime, a JCB arrived driven by someone living locally and under Terry's instruction the platform was levelled and four long scaffold tubes were stuck into the soil on the far side of the hole by pushing them with the JCB's bucket and then these were covered with wooden pallets and sheeting so that the soil and rubbish wouldn't fall down the hole. Then soil was scraped back from the hole at 45 degrees. By now it was dark and the Police provided flood lighting. Once the loose rocks and soil was removed, the arm of the JCB was left across the hole with the bucket laying on the opposite side. We attached a large nylon sling the the arm and a length of rope after removing the sheeting and pallets from the hole and Keith J. abseiled down a short way to have a look at the sides of the hole and remove small, loose rocks into a tackle bag which I had lowered down on a rope. Once this was done, he continued to the bottom and reported that there was no sign of a calf! It turned out that it had been covered by some of the soil which had fallen down the hole but could still be heard mooing every now and then. Keith dug out the calf's head and reported that there was no safe way of getting the injured calf to the surface. After conferring with the RSPCA vet the Team Doctor, abseiled down and administered a sedative and put the calf down using a captive bolt device.
After Keith and the Doctor returned to the surface, the pallets and sheeting were replaced in order to make the hole safe, the equipment was put back in the Cave Rescue Vehicle and we all headed for home just before midnight.

Sunday 14 September 2008

Caving in Knotwlow Cavern, Peak District

Someone called Matt had contacted Karen by email asking about joining the Orpheus CC and he was suggested to come along to the club cottage today and somebody would take him caving. Karen wasn't well and I arrived at the cottage as a visiting group were preparing breakfast while Ken was getting his digging stuff ready for another trip down Owl Hole. Waggy knew about Matt and was prepared to take him on a caving trip but would have rathered go digging with Ken so I offered to do it. Phil W arrived and was looking for a trip so when Matt turned up we decided on a trip to Knotlow Cavern as it was nearby and Matt had only been in Carlswark before. He is a Grampian SG member who had recently moved to Chapel-en-le-Frith and was looking for a local caving club to join. He had been caving in Yorkshire (and had also been in the Vercors while we were there.
I grabbed the ropes and we drove over to Knotlow Triangle. There was a car already parked there but they must have been in Hillocks Mine or Whalf Pipe Mine as there was no sign of them at Knotlow. First we opened the lid to the 210 feet Knotlow Engine Shaft and after tying the 80 metre rope on, I fed it all down the shaft. We moved to the Climbing Shaft and after opening the lid and tying the rope on, I dropped down the entrance shaft and I had a quick look in the log book and some cavers had been in the cave in recent weeks with no reports of bad air. I continued on along the traverse above Pearl Chamber and reached the end of the rope! I had grabbed the 30 metre red rope from the tackle store instead of the 50 metre red rope as I had intended. As I knew you need at least 45 metres of rope to get down this pitch I realised I would have to use the second rope on this pitch and we would not be able to descend the pitch into Waterfall Chamber. So I explained to the others that we would have to just have a look at Waterfall Chamber and then return to the surface and then if they wanted to, they could drop down the Engine Shaft, have a look around and then come back up the same way. I sent them out to do this while I followed out de-rigging.
When I got to the surface I met Matt who decided not to bother going down the Engine Shaft. We went over to the Engine Shaft and shouted down to Phil "You come up". He shouted "Rope free!". We did this several times as Phil could not hear us due to the noise of the water. Eventually he realised nobody was following down so he started back up.
After changing we headed back to the club cottage for tea.

Saturday 13 September 2008

Walk around Ilam, Peak District


Karen and I parked at a small car park outside of Ilam village and headed down the hill next to the road we had driven up to the bridge in Ilam. As there was an ice cream van in the usual place near the bridge, we had to have one! We followed the path past some ornate cottages into the grounds of Ilam Hall.

After having a look at a well in the grounds we followed down to the path next to the River Manifold. Because of all the recent wet weather, the river was flowing quite deeply. Normally at this time of year, the river is flowing underground. Continuing on past the 11th Century Battle Stone, we continued along the river and past through the small garden of River Cottage where I dropped some coins into the collection box which is payment for being allowed to use the Permissory Path across the garden.

After this we followed the road across a bridge over the river and uphill past a farmyard. We then headed uphill through fields with the view across to Bunster Hill and the start of Dove Dale opening out. Passing the abandoned farmhouse, Upper Musden, we contined on through fields until we reached a track heading up to the right.
We followed this until we arrived at the road. We followed this down a short distance and crossed a stile back into a large field which we followed downwards to another stile and across the road back to the car park.

Sunday 7 September 2008

Walk around Brassington and Carsington, Peak District

After breakfast Karen and I drove to Brassington (a village I used to live in until 2003) and parked in the car park in Wirksworth Dale. We walked to where the road is closed and headed across the fields, along Manystones Lane for a short distance, then joined the High Peak Trail at Harborough Rocks.
We followed the trail to near the old windmill and crossed Manystones Lane again to climb over a stile and follow the path across a large field. We dropped down a long slope then up another and then got views down to Carsington Water and far away into the distance, probably 20 miles or more. Dropping steepl down a winding path, we passed through a gate onto a path between houses and joined the road into Carsington. We turned right and followed the side road until we passed a style onto a continuing wide path which slowly rises until we reached Carsington Pasture.
As we crossed a track into another field, we heard the engines of an aircraft approaching from behind. It flew at a fairly low level straight overhead. It had two propellers, one on each wing and appeared to be of WWII vintage but there were n0 markings, at least underneath.
We followed the path wending its way down past old lead mine workings and down some fields until after passing through some farm buildings, we joined Town Street in Brassington. We returned uphill to Wirsworth Dale where we had parked. As we were taking our boots off, the same aircraft again flew directly overhead! And as it passed, a Spitfire or Hurricane cam from another direction and passed very close to the aircraft and they disappeared from site from within the Dale. I have no idea why these aircraft were flying past.

Saturday 6 September 2008

Alderley Edge Mine

It was an Open Day at Wood Mine, part of the Alderley Edge Copper Mine complex, run by the Derbyshire Caving Club. Karen and I had booked a trip for today at 11:30 and we drove over in the morning.
After being taken around with a party of mainly children led by a DCC member called Paul, for about an hour, Karen was talking to Nigel about arranging another trip in the future. He suggested having another look around for the two of us and gave us a copy of the survey and pointed out a suggested route to follow. We took advantage of the offer and had another hour's worth of looking around Wood Mine. It's a very interesting place, largely walking with a little stooping and a short bit of crawling. It is completely mined with no natural voids and was mined for many years for copper.