Antwan
Member
Side Track Cave - a quick evening trip with the camera
I glanced on face book that the usual Wednesday night Peak trip had visited Side Track Cave, a place that has been on my to-do list for a couple of years, add to that Gary turning around before getting to the end and needing a re-match my usual threat in the pub of joining a Wednesday night trip quickly be-came pencilled in the diary as the first Wednesday in march. At the time this sounded like the perfect time for a trip but reality was different, parked on the ?Side Track? to Eldon Quarry with a strong wind and Orrible sleety snow we had to question our sanity and resist the temptation of the Pub!
sidetrack-1-2 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
Once the team of myself, Garry, Keith and Colum had kitted up we descended to short pitch next to the cars, removed our srt kits and quickly found the entrance a short distance along the terrace. Now side track cave for those that don?t know consists of a 160m flat out crawl along a fossil inlet passage silted almost to the roof, at the end of this a small section of larger passage called the Litton Dale Stroll allows you to stand in a section of well decorated passage and this, would be the photographic aim for the trip.
Gary was sent first, that way he couldn't turn around as he was followed by Keith, me and column. Garry and Keith soon shuffled along the passage but after I had only completed 5 metres it was blatantly obvious I wasn't going to get ?The Pig? (my large tackle bag full of photography goodness) through in a timely manor so I quickly reversed and packed into one pelicase a camera and a single flash gun.
The passage was low, and tight in places with a couple of easy squeezes and a few places where the obvious ?wide bit? was quite simply put a trap for the unwary and led to a few reversing manoeuvres.
I had initially set off with colum in tow but soon found my-self progressing alone as column had silently retreated. After about half an hour I had reached Gary and Keith waiting in a slightly larger section where you could actually sit up and a short hands and knees crawl completed the entrance into the Litton Dale Stroll.
sidetrack-cave-derbyshire-3 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
sidetrack-2 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
The formations in the short section wouldn't look out of place in the best Yorkshire cave, straws, stal and flowstone of pure white, micro gour dams and crystal pools, it really was worth the effort and left me thinking about how I could have sent Keith or Gary ahead with a box of gear first! There were some particularly interesting gour dams that looked as if they had formed when the passage still had a steady flow, possibly from some kind of glacial re invasion but now hold up a pool formed form percolation water on the opposite side. In total I took 38 pictures but the mental anguish of the entrance crawl must have been having an effect and I managed to end up with 5 decent shots
sidetrack-1 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
sidetrack-cave-derbyshire-4 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
Heading out, Keith carried my gear and along with Gary (both wearing PVC) quickly disappeared leaving me in my AV Velcro suit stuck to the mud. It was a long exit, 45 mins by my watch and several times I managed to get into positions so desperate I even tried using my head to progress along the passage but I eventually made my exit into the darkness, covered in Derbyshires finest sediments!
Getting changed was a challenge in the freezing wind, shils covering anything I touched withshi Sediment so I decided to strip to my fury and head home as fast as I could, now this should have been okay but I forgot I needed diesel so had to call at a Sheffield filling station covered on mud, dressed in a green fury covered in monsters...
sidetrack-1 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
I glanced on face book that the usual Wednesday night Peak trip had visited Side Track Cave, a place that has been on my to-do list for a couple of years, add to that Gary turning around before getting to the end and needing a re-match my usual threat in the pub of joining a Wednesday night trip quickly be-came pencilled in the diary as the first Wednesday in march. At the time this sounded like the perfect time for a trip but reality was different, parked on the ?Side Track? to Eldon Quarry with a strong wind and Orrible sleety snow we had to question our sanity and resist the temptation of the Pub!
sidetrack-1-2 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
Once the team of myself, Garry, Keith and Colum had kitted up we descended to short pitch next to the cars, removed our srt kits and quickly found the entrance a short distance along the terrace. Now side track cave for those that don?t know consists of a 160m flat out crawl along a fossil inlet passage silted almost to the roof, at the end of this a small section of larger passage called the Litton Dale Stroll allows you to stand in a section of well decorated passage and this, would be the photographic aim for the trip.
Gary was sent first, that way he couldn't turn around as he was followed by Keith, me and column. Garry and Keith soon shuffled along the passage but after I had only completed 5 metres it was blatantly obvious I wasn't going to get ?The Pig? (my large tackle bag full of photography goodness) through in a timely manor so I quickly reversed and packed into one pelicase a camera and a single flash gun.
The passage was low, and tight in places with a couple of easy squeezes and a few places where the obvious ?wide bit? was quite simply put a trap for the unwary and led to a few reversing manoeuvres.
I had initially set off with colum in tow but soon found my-self progressing alone as column had silently retreated. After about half an hour I had reached Gary and Keith waiting in a slightly larger section where you could actually sit up and a short hands and knees crawl completed the entrance into the Litton Dale Stroll.
sidetrack-cave-derbyshire-3 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
sidetrack-2 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
The formations in the short section wouldn't look out of place in the best Yorkshire cave, straws, stal and flowstone of pure white, micro gour dams and crystal pools, it really was worth the effort and left me thinking about how I could have sent Keith or Gary ahead with a box of gear first! There were some particularly interesting gour dams that looked as if they had formed when the passage still had a steady flow, possibly from some kind of glacial re invasion but now hold up a pool formed form percolation water on the opposite side. In total I took 38 pictures but the mental anguish of the entrance crawl must have been having an effect and I managed to end up with 5 decent shots
sidetrack-1 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
sidetrack-cave-derbyshire-4 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
Heading out, Keith carried my gear and along with Gary (both wearing PVC) quickly disappeared leaving me in my AV Velcro suit stuck to the mud. It was a long exit, 45 mins by my watch and several times I managed to get into positions so desperate I even tried using my head to progress along the passage but I eventually made my exit into the darkness, covered in Derbyshires finest sediments!
Getting changed was a challenge in the freezing wind, shils covering anything I touched with
sidetrack-1 by Anthony Matthews, on Flickr
