Becky, TomTom

10/02/16

It was time to introduce Becky to the world of caving, and where better than an overly decorated Derbyshire cave to give her false expectations. I'd visited Convenience cave a while back with 2 of the ever growing number of Marks in the club. It was a pleasantly sunny afternoon as I drove though the lake sized puddle in order to park up, I now have flood debris in various locations of my cars underbody.

We kitted up in the again false realism of sunshine and headed off on the short wander to the entrance of the cave. I pre-warned than the entrance was a bit squalid, and then a bit squeezy, but that it would all be worth it once we were inside. Not the nicest very first vision of caving but at least the unpleasant is only a short crawl in length.

We passed through the squeeze with relative ease and I got on with my cave tour guiding, giving warning of do not touch what surrounded us. I'd brought the camera along for some first cave tourist pics and with just the single flash gun went quick enough to give another falsism of caving, photography speeds...


Onward I led, pointing out the various features and glossing over the crawls and squeezes past jaggedy bits, taking us to the abandoned(?) dig at the end of the cave. This was a nice spot for a stretch of the legs before the return to stooping on the way out. There's plenty to photograph down there but I didn't want to bore with pics on the very first trip.


We scuttled out and headed for the relative warmth of the lane side changing. Apart from ensuring that spare shoes were brought the trip was a full success, it even involved some pie in the Cheshire cheese, bliss. Another caver to add the the buttery books!

Until next time,

TomTom

http://www.butteredbadger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=387:convenient-introduction&catid=1:trip-reports&Itemid=37

And we (3 Marks) were only thinking on Sunday that you'd probably retired from caving and taken up full time rollerskating.

You should both get your skates on and get down Eldon Hole. Perfect place to learn SRT, in daylight.

Great photos.

Mark

Nice photos TomTom. Its been about 18 months at least since we last had a dig at the end. Was it full of water?
J

Mark Wright said:

And we (3 Marks) were only thinking on Sunday that you'd probably retired from caving and taken up full time rollerskating.

You should both get your skates on and get down Eldon Hole. Perfect place to learn SRT, in daylight.

Great photos.

Mark

Click to expand...

It's all part of the grand plan to get round caves faster, I'm limited to evening digs for some time now.

Big Jim said:

Nice photos TomTom. Its been about 18 months at least since we last had a dig at the end. Was it full of water?
J

Click to expand...

Yeah it was pretty wet and uninviting at the dig site, did you investigate 'up' much at the end?

Yeah, the terminal chamber was climbed but nowt doing. There must be a way on under them boulders somewhere, hopefully to some more pretty stuff then a big pitch to a stream heading off under Eldon Hole to link up with you badgers......

I'd say probably more likely to bore straight off down the vein, in the direction of the Burning Drake Lead mine.

Did you see any Lead when you were digging it Jim? I'm still yet to go in there as you suggested.

Are you free on easter weekend at all? Seem to remember popping out to the quarry last year at easter with AR.

Possibly agree Alastair, from aerial photos it always looked like it wasn't far off intersecting a vein.

We did find a few well rounded lumps of galena whilst digging out the entrance amidst the fill which we assumed given its well worn nature had been washed in and deposited whilst still an active cave. I don't recal seeing much in the way of veins throughout the passage though.

Dunno about easter - not got my shifts at home that far ahead - TBH don't even know when easter is as havtn had bank hols in years so its meaningless to me.
J

Friday the 25th March and Monday the 28th of March.

It looks superficially like Convenience is in part on or close to the line of the Burning Drake vein but we need to bear in mind that there may be hades or offsets on the course of the vein as it goes downwards through the beds. I don't recall seeing any sign of vein in Convenience (admittedly, it's a long time since I was last in there) but if it hasn't quite reached the vein, it can't be far off.

Another thought, has anyone ever dropped the sleepered shaft in the small belland yard just to the south of that area?

No, but I'm happy to join in on an op...

Adam, If you mean the big sleepered shaft in the belland yard Im sure it looks blocked about 10ft below the sleepers.

Alastair, Ill let you know nearer time. My shifts for then haven't been sorted yet.
J

So if it hits Burning Drake Vein where it intersects with the Eldon NW - SE Joint then what?

Conjecture, but I think that the miners might have positioned burning drake right on top of a stream passage. In an effort to drain their mine. It seems like common practice in the area. So I guess there's a possibility of a join between the three? But pure guesswork and no hint of even dowsing.

Is there any record of flowing water in Burning Drake?, could be related to the legendary swallet in Coalpithole?

Thinking about this, Has anyone dived the canals in Giants recently? new technology could reveal more.

I've been toying with the idea for a year or so. Big operation to thoroughly search.


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As far as I know the last dive in East Canal was by Pitlamp - 28th July 1996. 20 years ago 

alastairgott said:

Conjecture, but I think that the miners might have positioned burning drake right on top of a stream passage. In an effort to drain their mine. It seems like common practice in the area. So I guess there's a possibility of a join between the three? But pure guesswork and no hint of even dowsing.

Click to expand...

Also the possibility that they made use of an existing natural shaft when creating the engine shaft at Burning Drake. I'm not aware of any reports of running water in there but I can't offhand recall how much is actually accessible.