L
littlebear
Guest
Friday Evening
After grabbing everything and slinging it in a bag I headed off to pick up J from Skipton station. It took me a couple of extra minutes to navigate to the station than expected having only been a pedestrian when visiting previously. Fatigue being the only excuse I managed to leave the town on the wrong A-road, after a bit of a detour we arrived safely at the Youth Hostel (YH) having lost a quarter of an hour... we tucked into a pepper &mushroom stir fry I threw together and then headed off to the pub. The glitter ball was going and the local youths were enjoying a game of darts. After a few rounds we headed over to the Craven Heifer, which was a bit quieter although there was some extraordinarily quiet live music. Having had a good natter and watering we headed back before the front door of the YH was locked.
Saturday
J made an attempt at poaching an egg and then I knocked up the rest before we kitted up and set off for Valley Entrance (SD 698774) . We went to look at the first pitch, which is a very short trip as per our plan.
Having made excellent time we moved the car up the road a little and took a wander round Yordas Cave (SD 707790) . Due to the recent showers the waterfall was impressively thunderous and it was good to have a proper headlamp and see the true size of the chamber. I had visited Yordas once before when on a climbing weekend, sadly I only had a mobile phone camera LED with me and was only able to walk in and admire the silhouette of the entrance itself before leaving.
There was a local adventure weekend group to the left of the entrance. Facing the wall on the left is a muddy scramble with plenty of space. The right is a crawl where the water pool exits the chamber and flows downstream. Entering the left side enables you to go down a small descent that allows you to exit through the crawl you had seen on the right in the main chamber. We wandered into the left side and watched people disappearing but as they were using a rope to aid the climb down we turned back, washed off the mud in the main (ankle deep) pool and headed back to the car.
It was still pre-lunch time, just, so I suggested we continue on to Upper Long Churn (SD 773757) instead of getting food, especially since we were already wet. We stopped off at a payphone to update the callout and nipped into a garage for J to grab some snack food.
We parked at Selside Farm and paid the fee (at present, 50p each). After quite an uphill stroll we came to two fenced in pots. To the left, the entrance of Long Churn was marked by a Tree, which J commented was more of a bush since it was only a few metres tall. As you step over the stile the entrance to Upper Long Churn is the furthest scramble on the left. Again the flow of the stream was fast and good fun. An easy walk upstream finds you at Dr. Bannister's Handbasin. The waterfall fell at an angle as the water screamed down into the plunge pool. The water levels were lower than J had previously experienced but the recent rainfall was making for a really excellent trip underground. J wandered around at the waterfall end, skirting around the ledge surrounding the deeper plunge pool and I was quite interested by the high central roof, which goes unnoticed if you stay on the ledge near the chamber entrance. The chamber shape reminded me of an old fashioned spinning top... the ones with a thinner outer ring and then a more spherical centre.
We sat and had a breather opposite the waterfall and then before we got too chilly headed back to explore the side tunnels we had left unexplored. A few disappeared quickly but that was obvious from the main stream way. Some left the main passage and returned. As we walked down stream we found a crawl on the right hand side, which relentlessly continued, big enough to kneel and move forward in, with plenty of room to use your arms to balance. Eventually we came to a fork which had a central column and adjoined lip before the passages separated. I crawled down the left side and decided that I was a bit too portly for that direction so I rolled over the small lip separating the fork and headed feet first down the smaller, but more optimistic, right hand exit. Unlike the other, which was larger and narrowed, this route, which had appeared narrower, opened out and it was easy to go back to headfirst and crawl on for a little way.
Soon after this we came to Double Shuffle Pool, a smooth steep slope into deep water where a joint in the rock created a high roof and deep central pool. J easily stepped down and climbed across above the pool to the left. Looking at J, who is taller than me, having to stretch and already being soaking wet I re-jigged my belt bag containing the car keys and backup lamp; attaching it to my helmet, lowered myself into the pool and swam the metre across to the ledge on the other side of the chamber. A stooped walk led to a small step down; widening to a small chamber before the passage continued bending to the left where we came across another group of cavers.
Past this, the passage became larger with two levels... the upper led nowhere... so dropping through a squeeze and side-stepping out into a larger area J went off to scout out whether it was worth going any further. J climbed back up and I went down to have a nosey too. A little further on was a two-metre drop followed by a scramble pitch into another water filled chamber. The drop was sufficient that we would not be able to return back up again so we turned back. As I side-stepped into the crack to climb up to the higher level I discovered that the wet cotton over suit was finding it hard to move across my top due to friction, massively limiting how far I could reach my arms behind my back to get the required handholds. A bemused J watched as I disappeared out of the crack only to hear the clink of my belay belt hitting the ground whilst I unzipped the top half of my over suit, tied the arms round my waist and replaced the belt... the wet material was a bit like a straight jacket to get off so it took sufficient time for J to worry what I was up to (;o)). This accomplished, it was a quick climb up and back past Double Shuffle Pool to rejoin the mainstream passage instead of turning left into the squeezes that we had originally travelled through.
Choosing not to exit on the right through the low, but wide, entrance nearest to us - we walked back upstream and left through the daylight flooded entrance on the right. As we stepped out we could see that we had exited through Lower Long Churn, which is next to the entrance we had originally gone down.
Having had a really fantastic time, doing Lower Long Churn as well as Upper, which we had not originally intended to do, we celebrated (after a change and shower) with an around-the-world-baked-beans-on-toast feast at Inglesport. I had a Danish and J had an Indian.
After a good gossip we only just had time to grab a survey of Long Churn (poster: 'Alum Pot & the Long Churn Caves © Inglesport 2000'), before the downstairs shop closed. We headed to the pub and after much deliberation on where we had been between Double Shuffle Pool, travelling on, turning back and returning to the main stream passage we concluded that an accurate survey (highly trusted) and two cartographers with bad memories makes bloomin' good conversation. We got in some burgers before the Craven Heifer stopped serving food and after another round headed back to the YH.
Sunday
J master-chef'ed the 3-minute egg and made us some fantastic eggcups out of the egg carton we'd used up. Since we'd not had much time in the shop the evening before we had a good look round Inglesport.
We defected briefly to Bernie's for a glance round and then got on our way to Dow Cave (SD 983743) . Fully kitted up, J in his wetsuit and oversuit busied himself around the car before finally, head bowed, admitting he had left his helmet and lamp in the YH. 61 miles later and lesson learnt we headed into Dow Cave.
Having had a much-appreciated bacon butty (whilst J had grabbed his helmet) I was well set for Dow. The boulders at the entrance and roof falls along the stream way looked precarious despite their long-standing stances. Another upstream walk, calmer than Long Churn, led to deep silt meanders where you skirt along ledges with intermittent sand beds to wade along. We took a look at the Hobson's Choice boulder collapse and its warning signs and then headed back to detour briefly into Dowbergill Passage. As the water reached chest height and we noted the time we headed back to the car, dried off, changed and headed off to Skipton. J was in plenty of time for his train and I headed off to catch my brother in Leeds as I'd not seen him in a while.
The transportable giant ice rink was in Time Square... bit pricey but looked good. My brother and I took a look and then decided a nice curry would be more satisfying, then I treated him to the pictures - "Hot Fuzz" - I highly recommend. I've now seen it twice and it's really funny. Also it mentions "Point Break" one of my favourite films, so there you go. When I left Leeds I got pulled over by the boys in blue themselves and had to hold back the sniggers as a Bill Bailey look-alike in stab-vest asked me what a car registered in $%^&* was doing in Leeds at midnight on a Sunday. I think it was the fact that I was sticking to the speed limit that had them suspicious, thankfully I hadn't had any alcohol so after a glance at my licence I was waved on.
Fantastic caving weekend - I really enjoyed Long Churn but all the caves were fabulous [though please note we stuck to the easy parts, there is much more than I described, except Yordas Cave which is a very small site with one big chamber, the crawl and scramble mentioned are very short in Yordas]. Well done J for the perfect 3-minute eggs and soldiers.
After grabbing everything and slinging it in a bag I headed off to pick up J from Skipton station. It took me a couple of extra minutes to navigate to the station than expected having only been a pedestrian when visiting previously. Fatigue being the only excuse I managed to leave the town on the wrong A-road, after a bit of a detour we arrived safely at the Youth Hostel (YH) having lost a quarter of an hour... we tucked into a pepper &mushroom stir fry I threw together and then headed off to the pub. The glitter ball was going and the local youths were enjoying a game of darts. After a few rounds we headed over to the Craven Heifer, which was a bit quieter although there was some extraordinarily quiet live music. Having had a good natter and watering we headed back before the front door of the YH was locked.
Saturday
J made an attempt at poaching an egg and then I knocked up the rest before we kitted up and set off for Valley Entrance (SD 698774) . We went to look at the first pitch, which is a very short trip as per our plan.
Having made excellent time we moved the car up the road a little and took a wander round Yordas Cave (SD 707790) . Due to the recent showers the waterfall was impressively thunderous and it was good to have a proper headlamp and see the true size of the chamber. I had visited Yordas once before when on a climbing weekend, sadly I only had a mobile phone camera LED with me and was only able to walk in and admire the silhouette of the entrance itself before leaving.
There was a local adventure weekend group to the left of the entrance. Facing the wall on the left is a muddy scramble with plenty of space. The right is a crawl where the water pool exits the chamber and flows downstream. Entering the left side enables you to go down a small descent that allows you to exit through the crawl you had seen on the right in the main chamber. We wandered into the left side and watched people disappearing but as they were using a rope to aid the climb down we turned back, washed off the mud in the main (ankle deep) pool and headed back to the car.
It was still pre-lunch time, just, so I suggested we continue on to Upper Long Churn (SD 773757) instead of getting food, especially since we were already wet. We stopped off at a payphone to update the callout and nipped into a garage for J to grab some snack food.
We parked at Selside Farm and paid the fee (at present, 50p each). After quite an uphill stroll we came to two fenced in pots. To the left, the entrance of Long Churn was marked by a Tree, which J commented was more of a bush since it was only a few metres tall. As you step over the stile the entrance to Upper Long Churn is the furthest scramble on the left. Again the flow of the stream was fast and good fun. An easy walk upstream finds you at Dr. Bannister's Handbasin. The waterfall fell at an angle as the water screamed down into the plunge pool. The water levels were lower than J had previously experienced but the recent rainfall was making for a really excellent trip underground. J wandered around at the waterfall end, skirting around the ledge surrounding the deeper plunge pool and I was quite interested by the high central roof, which goes unnoticed if you stay on the ledge near the chamber entrance. The chamber shape reminded me of an old fashioned spinning top... the ones with a thinner outer ring and then a more spherical centre.
We sat and had a breather opposite the waterfall and then before we got too chilly headed back to explore the side tunnels we had left unexplored. A few disappeared quickly but that was obvious from the main stream way. Some left the main passage and returned. As we walked down stream we found a crawl on the right hand side, which relentlessly continued, big enough to kneel and move forward in, with plenty of room to use your arms to balance. Eventually we came to a fork which had a central column and adjoined lip before the passages separated. I crawled down the left side and decided that I was a bit too portly for that direction so I rolled over the small lip separating the fork and headed feet first down the smaller, but more optimistic, right hand exit. Unlike the other, which was larger and narrowed, this route, which had appeared narrower, opened out and it was easy to go back to headfirst and crawl on for a little way.
Soon after this we came to Double Shuffle Pool, a smooth steep slope into deep water where a joint in the rock created a high roof and deep central pool. J easily stepped down and climbed across above the pool to the left. Looking at J, who is taller than me, having to stretch and already being soaking wet I re-jigged my belt bag containing the car keys and backup lamp; attaching it to my helmet, lowered myself into the pool and swam the metre across to the ledge on the other side of the chamber. A stooped walk led to a small step down; widening to a small chamber before the passage continued bending to the left where we came across another group of cavers.
Past this, the passage became larger with two levels... the upper led nowhere... so dropping through a squeeze and side-stepping out into a larger area J went off to scout out whether it was worth going any further. J climbed back up and I went down to have a nosey too. A little further on was a two-metre drop followed by a scramble pitch into another water filled chamber. The drop was sufficient that we would not be able to return back up again so we turned back. As I side-stepped into the crack to climb up to the higher level I discovered that the wet cotton over suit was finding it hard to move across my top due to friction, massively limiting how far I could reach my arms behind my back to get the required handholds. A bemused J watched as I disappeared out of the crack only to hear the clink of my belay belt hitting the ground whilst I unzipped the top half of my over suit, tied the arms round my waist and replaced the belt... the wet material was a bit like a straight jacket to get off so it took sufficient time for J to worry what I was up to (;o)). This accomplished, it was a quick climb up and back past Double Shuffle Pool to rejoin the mainstream passage instead of turning left into the squeezes that we had originally travelled through.
Choosing not to exit on the right through the low, but wide, entrance nearest to us - we walked back upstream and left through the daylight flooded entrance on the right. As we stepped out we could see that we had exited through Lower Long Churn, which is next to the entrance we had originally gone down.
Having had a really fantastic time, doing Lower Long Churn as well as Upper, which we had not originally intended to do, we celebrated (after a change and shower) with an around-the-world-baked-beans-on-toast feast at Inglesport. I had a Danish and J had an Indian.
After a good gossip we only just had time to grab a survey of Long Churn (poster: 'Alum Pot & the Long Churn Caves © Inglesport 2000'), before the downstairs shop closed. We headed to the pub and after much deliberation on where we had been between Double Shuffle Pool, travelling on, turning back and returning to the main stream passage we concluded that an accurate survey (highly trusted) and two cartographers with bad memories makes bloomin' good conversation. We got in some burgers before the Craven Heifer stopped serving food and after another round headed back to the YH.
Sunday
J master-chef'ed the 3-minute egg and made us some fantastic eggcups out of the egg carton we'd used up. Since we'd not had much time in the shop the evening before we had a good look round Inglesport.
We defected briefly to Bernie's for a glance round and then got on our way to Dow Cave (SD 983743) . Fully kitted up, J in his wetsuit and oversuit busied himself around the car before finally, head bowed, admitting he had left his helmet and lamp in the YH. 61 miles later and lesson learnt we headed into Dow Cave.
Having had a much-appreciated bacon butty (whilst J had grabbed his helmet) I was well set for Dow. The boulders at the entrance and roof falls along the stream way looked precarious despite their long-standing stances. Another upstream walk, calmer than Long Churn, led to deep silt meanders where you skirt along ledges with intermittent sand beds to wade along. We took a look at the Hobson's Choice boulder collapse and its warning signs and then headed back to detour briefly into Dowbergill Passage. As the water reached chest height and we noted the time we headed back to the car, dried off, changed and headed off to Skipton. J was in plenty of time for his train and I headed off to catch my brother in Leeds as I'd not seen him in a while.
The transportable giant ice rink was in Time Square... bit pricey but looked good. My brother and I took a look and then decided a nice curry would be more satisfying, then I treated him to the pictures - "Hot Fuzz" - I highly recommend. I've now seen it twice and it's really funny. Also it mentions "Point Break" one of my favourite films, so there you go. When I left Leeds I got pulled over by the boys in blue themselves and had to hold back the sniggers as a Bill Bailey look-alike in stab-vest asked me what a car registered in $%^&* was doing in Leeds at midnight on a Sunday. I think it was the fact that I was sticking to the speed limit that had them suspicious, thankfully I hadn't had any alcohol so after a glance at my licence I was waved on.
Fantastic caving weekend - I really enjoyed Long Churn but all the caves were fabulous [though please note we stuck to the easy parts, there is much more than I described, except Yordas Cave which is a very small site with one big chamber, the crawl and scramble mentioned are very short in Yordas]. Well done J for the perfect 3-minute eggs and soldiers.
