Present: Andy, Bec, Dave, Anthony, Al
In the quest for nice easy novice caves near Durham, a 2km long grade II near Brough reputed to have no pitches and lots of pretties sounded too good to be true, so after ringing up the land owner we went and had a look. Planned to meet Al in Barnard Castle. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the layby on the way out of town either. Came off the A66 at Brough and waited there for a bit. He didn’t show up. Got bored and went to Light Trees Farm.
Change was hastened by the attentions of several docile but rather large (and intimidating) cows who attempted to lick Andy’s car clean. Wandered up the stream to the entrance at which point a SOLMEK van appeared. So I went to check that the entrance was passable while waiting for Al.
Guidebook describes the entrance series as a low wet bedding plane enlarging to a taller waist deep passage with two ducks, which rapidly sumps after heavy rain (which it had been doing a day earlier.) The wet bedding was mostly waddling around in a 4ft high passage 2/3 full of water. The waist deep bit was ok apart from the first duck which was the worst bit – 6″ of airspace involving neck deep immersion. However, it wasn’t sumped so I went back and fetched the others.
There was ALOT of whinging through the wet bit. However, once through the cave rapidly redeemed itself. It’s basically a dirty great long rift, which is an easy stomp for 1km. And it’s pretty. Very pretty in fact – stals, straws, flowstone, occasional helictites, all in pristine condition – reminiscent of Magnetometer only better. Looks like it doesn’t get many visitors (I wonder why). A party consisting entirely of geologists couldn’t help noticing lots of nodules and bands of haematite (we think) making the walls of the rift (typically about 5-10m tall) very knobbly. This became tedious when the rift narrowed down and it stopped being pretty, so we went home. Looking at the guidebook I think we got 2/3 of the way along, and it apparently gets bigger again, though we’ve seen most of the pretty stuff.
Stomped back down the monotonous canyon (“Oh look, another array of pristine white straws – boring!”); squealed through the entrance series, and went home, running the gauntlet of the Bishop Auckland “Lets tow a horse-drawn caravan down a dual carriageway” club (or something). Got diverted via a tropical fish shop (four doors down from a chippy I noted) where Bec invested 60p in a goldfish. It was definitely still alive when we got to the tacklestore.
A thoroughly worthwhile trip, almost ideal for novices (1hr from Durham, 5 minute walk in, ridiculously pretty) but the entrance series is a bit intimidating. Worth thinking about if the water level subsides significantly.
Anthony Day