Lathkill Head Cave Top Entrance

Pete Wagstaff had sent an email saying he was taking a prospective Orpheus member called Alice on a caving trip today and Karen and I joined them as well as Ashleigh Richardson.
The two of us started the day with breakfast in the Old Smithy café in Monyash and the arrived at the Orpheus hut at 10:00 where we met the others.
After the rope, etc. was sorted out we drove over again to Monyash to park in a layby near the start of Lathkill Dale where we got changed into caving gear and then walked across to the lidded entrance of Lathkill Head Cave in a field above the dale.
Pete chucked me a collection of karabiners after tying the rope to the back-up anchor which is a metal stake in the ground near the shaft and I descended first rigging as I went, glad to get into the cool atmosphere of the cave after the warm walk over in caving gear.
I clambered down the short entrance shaft and dropped through the constriction into the small chamber below and to the side.
After rigging the Y hang formed by a short calcite column and a section of iron bar stuck tightly in a hole on the opposite side, I abseiled down to the next rebelay formed again as a Y hang but this time using two “P” hangers.
There is a deviation here to keep the rope away from the sides of the smaller hole beneath which drops down into the large chamber below called “The Waiting Room” and usually it is difficult to spot the small piton to which the deviation sling or cord is attached, but luckily someone had left a long sling from a previous trip, so it was easy to find.
I dropped down the final section of rope passing some very nice bits of calcite formations and after landing on the steep floor of the chamber and detaching my descender from the rope and shouting “rope free” to Pete who was following me above, I walked down the slope to sit on a boulder and wait for the others to arrive.
Soon the rest of our group were down in the chamber and while the rest planned to make their way as far as they could into Lathkill Cave, Karen and I decided to forgo the pleasure or the long, low crawling this would involve and started to head back to the surface.
Karen prusiked up first and waited in the small chamber at the foot of the entrance shaft. After I ha joined here, I took off my SRT gear and placed it out of the way and with help from Karen to provide somewhere for my feet, I passed through the small and awkward constriction to the foot of the shaft. I always find this awkward due to the size of my upper body and the length of my legs, but with someone below me providing a foothold, I usually get through fairly quickly.
Karen pass through my SRT gear and also hers and I hooked this to short length of cord hanging from the lid frame. I waited while Karen started to get through the constriction in case she also need a bit if assistance, but she managed it by herself fine.
I clambered up to the lid and opened it and climbed out into the warm sunshine and pulled the gear hanging below out onto the surface , shortly followed by Karen.

We re-closed the lid, collected up our gear and walked back to the car to get changed. As usual, again returned to the café for a snack and brew of tea and then left for home.