Water Icicle Close Cavern

The second Orpheus CC “Open Day” to see the new extensions. Today Keith and I (Karen was still at home suffering with a chest cold) were joined by Mat and Nikki Adlam-Styles, Ashley Richardson, Helen Jenkins, Simon Wynne, Phil Walker, Dave Phillips and Boyd returning again as well to re-survey the old North-West Passage.
Again we all met at The Old Smithy Cafe in Monyash then headed up Derby Lane. Boyd realised he'd left his helmet in the changing room back at the Orpheus hut so had to drive back to retrieve it. In the meantime all the others abseiled down the entrance shaft and headed towards the new stuff. Boyd and I dropped down last and begun surveying using tape, compass and clinometer. There was some confusion over the survey of the new extension when it was tacked onto the survey of North-West Passage. The quoted distance of North-West Passage in “Caves of the Peak District” is 98 metres. The length of the main part of the new extensions, “Urchin Passage” is about 220 metres. Looking at the survey, the new extensions should therefore by about 2 and a quarter as long as North-West Passage. Looking at the combined survey, this didn't appear to be the case. We found North-West Passage is about 139 metres which explains the discrepancy and now the two combined surveys make sense,
Dave had planned on a quick trip as he wanted to also go walking on Kinder Scout. Meanwhile just as Boyd and I completed surveying, we met Nikki on the way out closely followed by the others.
After another trip to the Old Smithy, most headed for home while some of us headed for the Orpheus hut and cleaned gear and tidied up.

Water Icicle Close Cavern

An Orpheus CC “open day” at the new extensions in Water Icicle Close Cavern. Karen had a chest cold but accompanied us to The Old Smith Cafe in Monyash for breakfast where we met Rod Clayton, Boyd Potts and Richard Smith.
After breakfast, Keith and Rod came in my car and we met Ken Morton and Pete Wagstaff as we were changing into caving gear at the end of Derby Lane.
Arriving at the end of North-West Passage, Keith found someone had unlocked the lock used to chain the aluminium ladder we used to climb up to the breakthrough dig and taken the damn lock! All had a tourist trip seeing the new extensions and some dropped down the Elevator Pitch.

A Walk around Fernilee Reservoir, Goyt Valley

A damp day with periods of light rain, drizzle or mist but milder than recent weeks. We parked in a layby on the road from Buxton past Whitehall and followed the footpath leading down steeply for a short distance towards the River Goyt. Here there was a continuing track with a ford across the river but after checking the map, Karen and I realised that we should have followed a footpath crossing our route about 15 metres behind us.

 Catkins

No problem. We turned around and walked back up a short way and then through a gate with a sign for “The Midshire Way” which led to a path through a wooded area parallel to the river. We were soon in a large, open field and stopped to put waterproofs on as the slight drizzle worsened to light rain.
We followed onwards through fields and wooded sections, with the only others around being people walking their dog. The rain lightened to drizzle, stopped the started again every so often so it wasn't too wet!
We reached Fernillee Reservoir and crossed the dam by walking on the road leading to the opposite side then continued along the path along the side of the resrvoir among an evergreen wood. We found a short section of a low wall and sat there having lunch with a few drips from the trees above.

 Fernilee Reservoir

As we were eating lunch we watched a few Long-tailed Tits flying from a small tree opposite us to grab a few of the insects flying in a small cloud nearby.
After lunch, we followed the path to near the end of the reservoir then through a gate onto a lane.

A Kestrel

We followed the lane for a kilometre and a bit then leaving the lane, we followed a path uphill and then along another narrow lane. By now the rain and drizzle had stopped but the cloud had lowered and we lost any chance of a view with surrounding mist. We continued along the path until we reached the gritstone crag called Windgather Rocks.

It was now also quite windy and we dropped down to the foot of the crag and after finding a sheltered spot, we had another break and finished off our hot drinks. Resuming the walk we followed along the top of Taxal Edge then dropped down towards the village of Taxal.
From Taxal it was only a short distance back to the river Taxal and a footbridge to lead us back to the short steep section back to the layby where we had begun.

I wore Paramo Cascada trousers, Paramo Third Element jacket, Contour Navigator boots and Osprey Kestrel 38 rucksack.

A Walk from Hartington to Mill Dale

Karen's parent were staying for the week end and along with Keith, we drove in Karen's and my car to Mill Dale and left Karen's car there and then all of us drove in my car to Hartington.
Parking in Hartington, we followed the footpath leading from the public toilets and across fields to Beresford Dale. Following along the river Dove until we met the road bridge on the road back to Mill Dale.
Having arrived at Mill Dale we had sausage rolls and pasties from the small shop at “Polly's Cottage” while sitting on a wall next to the old sheep wash with various ducks looking for crumbs.
In the evening, all except Keith saw Rick Wakeman playing various pieces from solo albums and from his time with The Strawbs and Yes on a grand piano while he told funny stories in between. An excellent evening with a fantastic pianist.

Water Icicle Close Cavern

Pete Collins is still in Scotland working I had been out of action for the past two weekends due to a virus and/or chest cold and last week Keith and Karen had started digging at the end of Urchin Passage. Unfortunately this was proving to be quite muddy but after a few hours they reached a small chamber beyond.

 Keith in the low, muddy crawl to the dig

They had also began replacing the temporary read and white plastic conservation tape marking the route through the passages with the better solution of solid orange narrow tape supported by stainless steel pegs.

Karen looking at a section with the replacement Conservation Tape

From this small chamber, a way on could be seen but it was too small to fit through. They hoped that removing part of a boulder would allow them to get through but time had run out.
So the plan was to return to this dig and hopefully get past the constriction and see what was waiting beyond.
We met in Monyash café for breakfast and then leaving Keith's car at Monyash, drove up Derby Lane in mine.
We found a small white van already parked there and could see a caver at the shaft entrance. After changing into our caving gear, Keith headed down the shaft rigging our rope as he went followed by Karen and myself.
We stripped off our SRT kit and headed for the end of North-West Passage. Keith set up our aluminium ladder which is now left at the bottom of the climb up and locked to scaffolding. Keith climbed up and after tying the ladder off at the top, Karen followed after I had taken a couple of photos of her on the bottom of the ladder. As I was about to set up the ladder myself one of the cavers we had seen on the surface arrived and I explained that we were going digging and it was still ongoing so it would be best not to follow up the ladder and he was happy with that.
We headed for the dig at the end of Urchin Passage and Keith assembled the drill and started on the obstructing boulder while Karen and I followed him over the short and low muddy crawl then up through a hole into the small chamber.

 Keith drilling the obstructing boulder

Once everything was ready, we returned back to Urchin Passage and Keith tried setting off the charge but there was a muffled “crack” and it was obvious that it hadn't done the job.
Returning to the boulder, Keith found that the charge hadn't fire correctly and replaced it with a fresh one. This time there was a satisfying bang and the job was done. Keith and Karen crawled back through into the small chamber and Keith managed to get past the obstruction. Karen tried to follow but found it was still too tight. I followed them into the small chamber and took a few photos of the continuation. Keith couldn't be seen as the low passage beyond had gone a round a bit of a bend. Soon he was back and reported that the low passage continued but it was largely full of mud. The problem that it could be dug but there was limited stacking space.

 Keith returning from the new passage beyond the constriction

We returned back along Urchin Passage and then headed up Cherty-Two Passage. Keith wanted to break up a boulder in the floor of the dig at the end of this passage. I tool a few photos and a video of Keith drilling the rock and also the chert formation on the wall nearby in the shape of a figure two which prompted the name of “Cherty-Two Passage”.

 Karen looking at the "Cherty-Two"

Once we had finished, we headed back to the entrance shaft and after getting our SRT kit back on, we headed for the surface and back to the cafe!