Wapping Mine - 04/09/2011

Sunday September 4th 2011

Members present: Kevin Francis,  Steven Spall,  Toby Buxton

Steven spotted this in CotPD and so we went for a poke around in Matlock Bath, having not really caved that way before. We parked by a hotel and the wandered around a bit looking for a public footpath, once located we jumped through a gap in the wall and found the entrance with relative ease. Almost immediately my light died. Grrr. So I climbed in using Toby's backup backup light, feeling like a real novice.
The lack of light made the place seem quite a frightening prospect cos I had no idea what was happening a foot ahead of me! After stomping through some large chambers we looked at some decent calcite formations. I fettled my light and eventually got it working to find the place was pretty impressive. High roofs with lots of stemples and hanging death.
We were going to look for the connection to the former showcave, Cumberland Cavern, but instead we found the maze and we spent a long time investigating all the nooks and crannies, finding some nice cave pearls for our efforts. Eventually one of our many loops brought us back towards the entrance so we left and went to buy some chips.
An easy dry trip (no need for caving gear) with plenty to see, it would be good to come back and find the showcave part.