Notts 2 - 14th Mar 2009

Saturday March 14th 2009

Members present: Catherine Moody,  Jennie Hill,  Mark Sims,  Nicola Gover,  Richard Gover

I absolutely loved this cave! Outstanding in so many ways.

No ropes meant a super efficient trip; we’d finished breakfast by around 11 and were soon heading off to Leck Fell. It took a bit of time for us to get out the car and brave the cold but a swift change later and we were on the way to the entrance, which thankfully wasn’t too far of a walk.

The entrance shaft is impressive in itself and is truly bizarre. Copious amounts of scaffolding, interspersed with some slightly dodgy looking ladders and even a wall of breezeblocks as footholds! Add to that some random sections of house bricks, fibreglass and expanding foam and it all makes for a very interesting descent (around 50 metres in total)

Eventually it all got a bit more cave-like and following a couple more short climbs and passages we reached the main streamway. We explored downstream first, some nice windy bits and small pools which eventually led to a mini waterfall where I think despite trying different ways to avoid the water, we all got rather wet! Round the corner a crawl leads to a sump.

Back upstream there were some truly spectacular formations. At one point there was a succession of “wows” as we each rounded a corner and looked up to see a 13ft column high in the passageway. There was an abundance of curtains and stalactites – some huge, some multicoloured, some both!

At one point we found some sand and stopped to make a sandcastle but I can’t remember where.

Towards the end of the passageway the water started to get very deep – up to my waist and a lot higher on Jennie! Gover continued to have a look at the sump; the rest of us retreated. Did some exploring of the inlets on the return downstream and found lots more impressive formations.

We were all back on the surface by 10 to 5. This was the first time I’d actually been caving and exited in daylight – it was great! The sun even peeked out from behind the clouds on the walk back and I basked in the warmth. Bordering on a grade 1 change, there was no rush as we knew there was still plenty of time to get to Bernies for tea and cake before it closed. We got to Skipton well intime for the early bird deal and were back in York at 8 – hooray for super efficiency!

Definitely one of my favourite trips so far. I’d thoroughly recommend trying to get the permit again.