Present: Dunks, Dour, Al, Phil, Gwyn, Julia, James, Jenny, Tom
Changed in the TSG amidst hordes of cavers. *NB mention the minge (from Saturday night) not mine * and stomped thru’ Castleton in caving gear. This I should add was at the unearthly hour of 9:30am on a Sunday morning. Most impressive for DUSA. Proceeded to go caving at warp/Duncan speed. Dashed thru’ the show cave section and reached a major attraction in Peak Cavern, a slide used to film ‘The Silver Chair’ from the Chronicles of Narnia…. well, it impressed Jenny anyway.
Onwards, away from lights into Peak Cavern proper. Dunks pointed out various bits of PB’s handiwork including a huge frame made of wood and iron which was holding the roof up. A bit of crawling led to the muddy ducks, which weren’t, but were quite soggy. Scampered along until the fixed ladder at surprise view, then we went upstream. Easy going since the water was pretty low, v. nice streamway. I rounded a corner to see Dunks, Dour and Tom looking expectant, so I looked at the floor and carefully failed to fall in the puddle that they were waiting for me to fall in…
Water was definitely low, ‘cos lake sump was in fact merely a grim duck. We all spluttered thru’ some unaware that Anthony had found the sump bypass. Further upstream was Ink Sump. Al, despite imense numbers of lights (well, 5 anyway) decided he didn’t fancy diving this 192m sump, so we turned around, making sure that Anthony was last so we could block the bypass and make him go thru’ the duck.
I was feeling pretty shit by this point, but figured it was just knackeredness. Well maybe it was, but by the time I caught up with everyone I felt rubbish and thought I was going to chuck up. However, having been instructed about the importance of conservation in Peak Cavern I decided this would be a bad idea.
Back to Surprise View Pitch, and I sat and rested in the rift, whilst the rest went to investigate the upstream end of Buxton water Sump. Just before reaching the limits of the show cave we lay in the stream and attempted to wash off our gear, since you’re not supposed to get mud on the gates etc. Passed a load of tourists on the way out, who gaped at us, then out into Castleton. Great cave, and we got out in time for pie and chips!
Julia Bradshaw
Out by 1pm, which makes for 2 hard trips within 24 hours
Al Cook