Having had a great weekend in Derbyshire I thought I'd write a short trip report and post a few of my naff photo's as it might be useful for someone in the future planning a similar trip...
Friday:
We found our way from Dorset to the caravan we were staying in at Millers Dale having left the sun down south. After a bit of compulsory faffing it was time to find our first cave. There was still a fair bit of snow around but we decided to risk the lanes and head over to Owl hole as planned. The last 300 yards or so of the road up to Owl hole was blocked, so we dumped the car and made our way up the hill on foot. The climb up to the higher entrance was bolted and therefore fairly straight forward using the GB ladder dig trick. Inside the cave we were pleasantly surprised just how pretty the cave was. One of the lower entrances also led to a couple of finely decorated chambers. After many photos and a good look around we were done before dark and time for some much needed food:
Saturday:
Much faffing occurred including forgetting how to find H&H (I'd been there once before). Having bought the latest issue of Descent and sought some advice regarding parking / goodwill fees we headed over to the cave. A quick inspection of the wrong cave entrance on route! P8 was a great trip, though rather wet and cold in places - I'm sure the still melting snow didn't help. The trip is easily done on ladders, however cowtails were very useful on the first pitch to allow the rigger to get the ladder round the corner and out of the water. This did produce a slightly awkward step off the top of the ladder onto the top of the pitch, however resulted in a far more pleasant experience (and a comedy landing from one of the group). Somehow I managed to accidentally take this rather good picture just inside the entrance...
Sunday:
Bagshawe Cavern was the hole of the day. This turned out to be a leisurely trip with no real difficulties. The top half of the cave left us feeling rather disappointed, however having descended the Dungeon into the lower series we warmed to the place. There were some rather nice pretties and a bit of fun wading / swimming / splashing our way across the lake.
Monday:
Finally before going home we had a change of plan and decided on the through trip in Carlswark from Eyam shaft to Gin entrance. Somehow we managed to spend an hour doing this (photo's of not a lot, faffing etc.). As somebody on here mentioned its not much of a trip, however rounded off the weekend quite nicely.
All in all we had an excellent weekend even if the trips were fairly tame and we managed to disprove the rumour we'd heard that Derbyshire has no stal! We'd certainly return in the future.
