Shacktivites
New member
Back in May, with exams finally over, I had a chance to go caving and try to get my fitness levels back up after three weeks of inactivity. A bbq on Wednesday night acted as a vague planning session where it was agreed myself, Nadia, Rowan, Kristian, Nathan and Bobby would be doing Prov to Dow leaving after Kristian?s exam finished at 11 the next day. I was informed I?d need a wetsuit, a first, and thankfully I had very recently acquired one. Thanks Jane Allen.
Thursday started with quite the panic as I woke up and checked my watch ? 11.45am. Jumping out of bed I ran around throwing things into a bag hoping I hadn?t forgot much whilst simultaneously messaging to check what the plan was. Apparently I hadn?t missed anything and all I needed to do was get my stuff together to leave. An hour later I was sat in the car with Nadia and Rowan driving out to the Dales in glorious sunshine feeling a lot more calm. We met the others there with perfect timing and started to get changed. The main problem then was the 26 degree heat which meant the walk in wetsuits would not be fun. Despite everyone constantly telling me cavers are happy to walk scantily clad around one another I?ve never quite taken to the idea, so whilst the boys all stripped down to boxers I managed to slip into a buff as a makeshift skirt. Excellent. No knickers on show today.
Highlight of the day was around then as a woman walking her dog spoke to Kristian whilst he was stood around in just his underwear. The dog was pulling hard on the leash and she simply said ?Oo sorry, he thinks it?s a bone? before continuing on to suggest that Kristian could take his pants off as soon as he got onto the walking track. Much to our horror Kristian did take this advice walking up stark bollock naked. Not something I needed to see. The heat really was uncomfortable for everyone although Rowan pranged more, regularly sitting down and huffing but after 30minutes we got to the entrance.
Everyone was keen to get somewhere cooler. There was a bit of wrestling with wetsuits required but we were soon underground clambering over boulders and threw a few crawls. Nadia?s excellent directions kept us going with comments like ?yeah, just carry on?. The resistance from the wetsuit made for quite the workout but it was worthwhile as we managed to find some great puddles to lie in. I enjoyed the first part of this trip less and so admittedly the route is somewhat hazy in my memory but it is all pretty clear from when we started to go up the climbs. Myself and Nadia had stayed in the stream way for longer but managed to pull ourselves up a hand line to meet up with Rowan and Bobby who were sat at the bottom of another climb. We weren?t sure about whether we should be going up but we couldn?t quite see a way down below either. Nadia headed up first and warned that it wasn?t the best of climbs being energy consuming at the bottom and squeezey at the top which I certainly encountered myself. The relief was at least that with it being smaller there was no real risk of falling all the way back down as you could just wedge yourself in and continue to struggle up. A lot of complaints later and I made it up whilst simultaneously managing to worry Rowan that he might possibly struggle at the top. Thankfully he had no real issues. I guess my lack of upper body strength was more of the problem than anything else. Bobby followed up without complaint and we moved on to catch up with Kristian and Nathan.
We took a higher passage, avoiding a bit of a hole, continuing over a few more bouldery bits and along a bit of a rift. I let Rowan ahead to check out the passage and Nadia and I caught up with the others just as they looked at a very large hole that had to be traversed. Kristian wasn?t sure what was ahead and with no great leg span I wasn?t keen to get across without any real assurance of what was beyond. Nadia agreed and we decided to head back down the terrible climb, Bobby coming with us. Thankfully Nadia scouted out an alternative route downwards and we soon found a way back to the streamway, our wetsuits now fully necessary as we encountered waist high water. It was pretty calm at this point and we managed some ninja like gliding through the water making it to the window in the rock that Nadia recognised. We climbed through and after a bit more streamway caught up to Nathan.
I was at the front of our convoy and as I approached, Nathan said something along the lines of ?watch this? before completely submerging himself, going under a duck. Having never done a duck before and being quite scared of them I was not wholly impressed and made a couple of surprised, squealing noises. Nathan reassured me that it really wasn?t far when he emerged and both he and Nadia gave some quick advice on how to get under. My main worry stood out as being that I didn?t want to get my helmet stuck on anything which meant going deeper under the water. I insisted Nathan not let go of my hand and took the plunge before I could think about it anymore. Less than 5 seconds later I was through and gasping at how cold it was, slightly freaked out but proud I?d managed something I was terrified of.
Everyone else got through without a problem and we moved into Dow cave where the water level was knee deep at most and it was a lovely big stomping passage. We passed Buddah?s temple and the rest of the cave was a doddle, although I may have still been a bit dazed from the duck. We emerged out to beautiful warm weather where Kristian and Rowan were waiting for us and we all enjoyed being able to comfortably take of some layers to bask in the sunshine.
I later thanked Nathan for not telling me about the duck or else I would have freaked out for most of the cave (I should really start looking into where I agree to go caving). So despite not at all enjoying that, I was thrilled I?d done another new challenge and actually managing it without any consequences. It certainly meant I enjoyed the leisurely pace we took for our walk back to the car. Great trip. Would recommend.
(GIF featuring Bobby, Nathan and Rowan after a successful trip)
Thursday started with quite the panic as I woke up and checked my watch ? 11.45am. Jumping out of bed I ran around throwing things into a bag hoping I hadn?t forgot much whilst simultaneously messaging to check what the plan was. Apparently I hadn?t missed anything and all I needed to do was get my stuff together to leave. An hour later I was sat in the car with Nadia and Rowan driving out to the Dales in glorious sunshine feeling a lot more calm. We met the others there with perfect timing and started to get changed. The main problem then was the 26 degree heat which meant the walk in wetsuits would not be fun. Despite everyone constantly telling me cavers are happy to walk scantily clad around one another I?ve never quite taken to the idea, so whilst the boys all stripped down to boxers I managed to slip into a buff as a makeshift skirt. Excellent. No knickers on show today.
Highlight of the day was around then as a woman walking her dog spoke to Kristian whilst he was stood around in just his underwear. The dog was pulling hard on the leash and she simply said ?Oo sorry, he thinks it?s a bone? before continuing on to suggest that Kristian could take his pants off as soon as he got onto the walking track. Much to our horror Kristian did take this advice walking up stark bollock naked. Not something I needed to see. The heat really was uncomfortable for everyone although Rowan pranged more, regularly sitting down and huffing but after 30minutes we got to the entrance.
Everyone was keen to get somewhere cooler. There was a bit of wrestling with wetsuits required but we were soon underground clambering over boulders and threw a few crawls. Nadia?s excellent directions kept us going with comments like ?yeah, just carry on?. The resistance from the wetsuit made for quite the workout but it was worthwhile as we managed to find some great puddles to lie in. I enjoyed the first part of this trip less and so admittedly the route is somewhat hazy in my memory but it is all pretty clear from when we started to go up the climbs. Myself and Nadia had stayed in the stream way for longer but managed to pull ourselves up a hand line to meet up with Rowan and Bobby who were sat at the bottom of another climb. We weren?t sure about whether we should be going up but we couldn?t quite see a way down below either. Nadia headed up first and warned that it wasn?t the best of climbs being energy consuming at the bottom and squeezey at the top which I certainly encountered myself. The relief was at least that with it being smaller there was no real risk of falling all the way back down as you could just wedge yourself in and continue to struggle up. A lot of complaints later and I made it up whilst simultaneously managing to worry Rowan that he might possibly struggle at the top. Thankfully he had no real issues. I guess my lack of upper body strength was more of the problem than anything else. Bobby followed up without complaint and we moved on to catch up with Kristian and Nathan.
We took a higher passage, avoiding a bit of a hole, continuing over a few more bouldery bits and along a bit of a rift. I let Rowan ahead to check out the passage and Nadia and I caught up with the others just as they looked at a very large hole that had to be traversed. Kristian wasn?t sure what was ahead and with no great leg span I wasn?t keen to get across without any real assurance of what was beyond. Nadia agreed and we decided to head back down the terrible climb, Bobby coming with us. Thankfully Nadia scouted out an alternative route downwards and we soon found a way back to the streamway, our wetsuits now fully necessary as we encountered waist high water. It was pretty calm at this point and we managed some ninja like gliding through the water making it to the window in the rock that Nadia recognised. We climbed through and after a bit more streamway caught up to Nathan.
I was at the front of our convoy and as I approached, Nathan said something along the lines of ?watch this? before completely submerging himself, going under a duck. Having never done a duck before and being quite scared of them I was not wholly impressed and made a couple of surprised, squealing noises. Nathan reassured me that it really wasn?t far when he emerged and both he and Nadia gave some quick advice on how to get under. My main worry stood out as being that I didn?t want to get my helmet stuck on anything which meant going deeper under the water. I insisted Nathan not let go of my hand and took the plunge before I could think about it anymore. Less than 5 seconds later I was through and gasping at how cold it was, slightly freaked out but proud I?d managed something I was terrified of.
Everyone else got through without a problem and we moved into Dow cave where the water level was knee deep at most and it was a lovely big stomping passage. We passed Buddah?s temple and the rest of the cave was a doddle, although I may have still been a bit dazed from the duck. We emerged out to beautiful warm weather where Kristian and Rowan were waiting for us and we all enjoyed being able to comfortably take of some layers to bask in the sunshine.
I later thanked Nathan for not telling me about the duck or else I would have freaked out for most of the cave (I should really start looking into where I agree to go caving). So despite not at all enjoying that, I was thrilled I?d done another new challenge and actually managing it without any consequences. It certainly meant I enjoyed the leisurely pace we took for our walk back to the car. Great trip. Would recommend.
(GIF featuring Bobby, Nathan and Rowan after a successful trip)
