Present: Anthony, Al, Gwyn, James
There were worrying signs on this meet that DUSA might be in danger of becoming vaguely efficient. We left Durham on time, zipped down to Yorkshire, and finished breakfast in double quick time, largely thanks to Bernies being strangely empty. I bought a replacement for the pulley I’d thrown down the Dolly Tubs pitch the week before (grumble) then it was off to Bull Pot Farm, which was also a bit quiet. The remnants of a bonfire outside the Red Rose hut gave us a clue that at least some of Yorkshire was probably nursing a collective sore head.
Got changed and bumbled off in the general direction of Aygill. It didn’t take too much pratting around before we found a fairly small, uninviting looking hole in a pile of boulders which looked a bit like the guidebook description.
Aygill is a silly cave – “Developed at several levels in the Dent thrust” to quote Northern Caves 3 – in which the obvious way on almost always isn’t. Just inside the entrance, the way on is an easy climb giving way to a sharply descending crawl culminating in a short squeeze, most easily negotiated head first (as I surmised whilst trying to break my back having gone in feet first). Thereafter, a tricky traverse with a tacklesack-grabbing slot leads to a chamber from which the first pitch descends. The way on is an unobvious slot in the floor which the others hid down in complete silence – fortunately I’d read the guide book so didn’t have any trouble finding them. A smallish crawl leads to the second pitch, which is jolly nice, and drops into the streamway with myriad ways on.
After splashing down the cascades, we first checked out a dry passage on the left which didn’t go anywhere helpful. The general plan then was to look for the allegedly impressive sump pool, so we headed downstream. Presented with an uninviting low crawl with a puddle in it or a dry alternative, we chose the latter, went round in a few circles and ended up back in the same spot. There being few other alternatives left, it was time to get wet, though this didn’t provoke much whinging since everyone was too hot from all the crawling. (Participants in the Long Churn meet may be sceptical that anyone could ever be too hot whilst caving, but it’s true, honest!)
Even so, the water in the continuing low streamway looked a bit, err, wet, so we elected to go looking for the sump pool down the nice dry crawl instead. Al explored a side passage which he claimed was quite pretty, but after he spent ten minutes grunting and swearing in an attempt to reverse out, there was little enthusiasm for checking this out. Then it was off down the obvious fossil phreatic into the New Year series (apparently.) Some easy crawling leads to Curtain Chamber, which has a pretty calcite curtain in it (such inspirational names these cavers think up) and some more stal-ridden passage. At this point we called it a day and headed out, pausing only to take a photo of a formation which looked rather like Gwyn’s head.
With everyone out safely it was off to the Marton for a pint and a session with the guidebook to try and work where the hell we’d been, before heading back to Durham. We might have made it back at reasonable hour too, had it not been for the dense fog around Catterick. We made it to Richmond before the take-away shut, which was all that really mattered, and a quality kebab (contradiction in terms?) rounded off a fine day’s caving.
Anthony Day