No, this isn't a report about sweeping tourists out of the cave, more a short tale of unplanned conservation on a tourist (or if you prefer, sporting) trip.
Earlier in June we were ploughing up the M6 late afternoon and cogitating as we quite often do on our evening ventures. Eventually we decided to pay a visit to the Ribblehead area and rattle off a few caves on the southern side. I'll spare the details of the other caves, but the second cave on the list was Cove Hole.
Arriving at a pleasing looking open hole we clambered down and soon found our way in to the cave obstructed by two tubs, the skull of a menacing ram, branches, a bag or two and assorted barbed wire. A few minutes later and we'd cleared it all to one side and continued on our trip.
As we followed the pleasant stream passage we encountered yet more tubs washed in by floods. A few were stacked and we continued on our way. Once at the end and on the return journey, having collected a few tubs together and a big clump of barbed wire clinging to a stal, we were still thinking of stacking them to the side and leaving for another day. It was then that we had thoughts; we've brought a few this far, we've not got that many tubs, it's not far to the entrance, they got washed in easy enough it shouldn't be too hard to get them out...
A few minutes later and I was wrestling with a single tub (with rubbish inside) trying to squeeze it through a brief narrow section of passage. Quite how the water got it past this point is anyone's guess! Successfully through I turned round and couldn't see Rob, just a rather large pile of tubs (eleven in all) blocking the passage, the tubs occasionally moved back and forth but there was no way through, even moving cobbles had little effect. We had no choice but to break them down into more manageable chunks, even then it was like all-in-wrestling. Comedy moment over with we had a brief reprieve before arriving at the entrance crawl, of about 10m.
A further breaking down of the tubs at the entrance crawl occurred and with a little bit of to-ing and fro-ing all the tubs were successfully removed from the cave and neatly stacked by a wall to be collected at a later date. We hadn't thought about disposal when dragging it out and it was too much for two of us to lug across the fields.
A few days later we contacted Kay (CNCC Conservation) who in turn passed the information to Andrew (Natural England), he then managed to obtain permission for a vehicle to be taken near to the cave to effect removal of the rubbish. Almost 3 weeks after the initial trip I joined Ged (NE-volunteer) who was to drive the Polaris (plus trailer) and assist with the final removal. So a big thanks to all those who assisted with the final removal and last but by no means least the farmer for permission and understanding.
Duncan
Earlier in June we were ploughing up the M6 late afternoon and cogitating as we quite often do on our evening ventures. Eventually we decided to pay a visit to the Ribblehead area and rattle off a few caves on the southern side. I'll spare the details of the other caves, but the second cave on the list was Cove Hole.
Arriving at a pleasing looking open hole we clambered down and soon found our way in to the cave obstructed by two tubs, the skull of a menacing ram, branches, a bag or two and assorted barbed wire. A few minutes later and we'd cleared it all to one side and continued on our trip.
As we followed the pleasant stream passage we encountered yet more tubs washed in by floods. A few were stacked and we continued on our way. Once at the end and on the return journey, having collected a few tubs together and a big clump of barbed wire clinging to a stal, we were still thinking of stacking them to the side and leaving for another day. It was then that we had thoughts; we've brought a few this far, we've not got that many tubs, it's not far to the entrance, they got washed in easy enough it shouldn't be too hard to get them out...
A few minutes later and I was wrestling with a single tub (with rubbish inside) trying to squeeze it through a brief narrow section of passage. Quite how the water got it past this point is anyone's guess! Successfully through I turned round and couldn't see Rob, just a rather large pile of tubs (eleven in all) blocking the passage, the tubs occasionally moved back and forth but there was no way through, even moving cobbles had little effect. We had no choice but to break them down into more manageable chunks, even then it was like all-in-wrestling. Comedy moment over with we had a brief reprieve before arriving at the entrance crawl, of about 10m.
A further breaking down of the tubs at the entrance crawl occurred and with a little bit of to-ing and fro-ing all the tubs were successfully removed from the cave and neatly stacked by a wall to be collected at a later date. We hadn't thought about disposal when dragging it out and it was too much for two of us to lug across the fields.
A few days later we contacted Kay (CNCC Conservation) who in turn passed the information to Andrew (Natural England), he then managed to obtain permission for a vehicle to be taken near to the cave to effect removal of the rubbish. Almost 3 weeks after the initial trip I joined Ged (NE-volunteer) who was to drive the Polaris (plus trailer) and assist with the final removal. So a big thanks to all those who assisted with the final removal and last but by no means least the farmer for permission and understanding.
