The most evil underground place in the world

[MSD]

Crescent Pot takes some beating, I agree.

However, I think Spectacle is even worse. When we did it the first flat out crawl was full of dead sheep, which had died sufficiently recently to be still full of maggots. And that crawl is small, so there was no avoiding them.... Splutter crawl is horrid. Then the final pitch is definitely the most scary pitch in the Dales. There is no decent rock to belay from and stuff tends to just fall off the walls or ceiling without warning. Oh, and when you get about half-way down the rock has as many sharp teeth as a shark, menaning that a rub point would really not be a very good idea.....

 

[Cave_Troll]

I'm sorry if i'm missing something here but...
If the cave required me to crawl through either actual manure or several dead sheep i'd go and do something else.
New rule. Any claims to be the most unpleasant place in the world must rely on just the unpleasantness of the cave or mine.
dumping 5 tons of toxic chemicals so that you have to do the cave in an NBC suit does not count.

 

[cap n chris]

I agree with Cave Troll. Strangely, though, my last trip to Little Neath River Cave involved going first through the entrance section whereupon I had the honour of clearing away spiders, cobwebs, leeches, maggots and all with the accompanying stench of rotting flesh - the weird thing is I actually enjoyed it! The water was nice and warm, too.

 

[MSD]

But what counts as "part of the cave or mine"? If water, mud and man-made heaps of deads count, why not maggots?

Equally, it can be fun with more exotic things. I once caught a decent sized trout in my hands whilst diving in Nidd Heads. I could have cooked it for tea if I wanted.

 

[kay]

spiders, cobwebs, leeches

These are a welcome bonus, surely? Though I'm not particularly fond of

maggots

 

[darkplaces]

Lowered myself into sallys rift cm's away from big hairy spiders watching me. (well they were big and hairy in my minds eye).

 

[hoehlenforscher]

I agree with Cave Troll. Strangely, though, my last trip to Little Neath River Cave involved going first through the entrance section whereupon I had the honour of clearing away spiders, cobwebs, leeches, maggots and all with the accompanying stench of rotting flesh - the weird thing is I actually enjoyed it! The water was nice and warm, too.

and I once had the pleasure of coming face to face of a very much alive goose in Little neath, just before the wet squeeze at the end of the entranc e series. Took him out on the reurn trip and gave him back to the farmer. Felt very guilty though. It was only a few weeks to christmas and I reckon the goose was only hiding!!

 

[Peter Burgess]

Midnight Traverses OFD - but only because of what nearly happened to me there! On a trip in the early 1990s, I was being led through the traverse by someone who found himself a bit off the route, and in a place with sloping and narrow ledges. My boots weren't particularly wonderful and I suddenly felt both feet slipping off at the same time, 60 odd feet above the streamway. Only by throwing out both arms sideways did I stop myself from dropping like a brick. The blood still runs cold when I think of it.

 

[Broken Chris]

OK so where is the most goddam awful part of a cave going.

The bottom of Odin Mine - Derbyshire
Its cold, wet, haunted and muddy. Oh and there's 40m of stacked deads above you held up by rotten wood.

Do you mean the bit after where you drop through all the scaffold bar stemples? :shock:

 

[mudmonkey]

Down past the scaff, down some more, then down some more under bits where the traditions that hold the roof up are fast being forgotten (it IS tradition, the bits of 200+yr old timber are purely atmospheric....)

 

[hell little caver]

Well Cave_Troll, would that be the dig above the sump at the end of Cohesion crawl. walk through/around the sump pool, to get into an effectively flatout crawl leading off. Crawl along with the bucket, and get to the end, where there is no room for you and the bucket. Therefore, you lie in water, digging at full stretch, putting spoil into the bucket behind you - at full stretch, while being unable to turn your head at all. Then reversing back down the flat out crawl, with the bucket being pulled repeatedly into your head by the other diggers.

i was taken the by trevor and i was trully the most horrid place i've been to will some one take me in the nice bit of peak cavern next time?

 

[Cave_Troll]

M'dear, I know my memory's going with age, but i probably tried to warn you that it was indeed one of the most unpleasant places in the world.
By way of an appology if you ever need someone to show you the way fom Titan through to Peak let me know...

 

[AndyF]

This is an easy question ...

linky

Don't yer just lurve yanks...

 

[BCMCXIV]

Crescent Pot takes some beating, I agree.

However, I think Spectacle is even worse. When we did it the first flat out crawl was full of dead sheep, which had died sufficiently recently to be still full of maggots.

Unfortunately Crescent has now gone the same way... last time I was there the farmer had dumped bags of dead lambs down the entrance shaft... and the whole place stinks to high heaven... you abseil down on to one bag and then have to crawl over it... absolutely foul. What's more, the water carries all the runoff from the rotting bodies down into the low flat out crawl making it vomit inducing. I won't be going back there in a good while... which is a pity, because it is a great, great cave.

 

[danthecavingman]

:shock: Surely deliberately fouling a stream / watercourse is illegal! Shouldn't things like that get reported.

 

[Cave_Troll]

indeed, should be reported to the eniroment agency i think.
of course the cynical amongst us would say that if we complain the farm might just ban access or dumpa load of rocks down the entrance

 

[graham]

indeed, should be reported to the eniroment agency i think.
of course the cynical amongst us would say that if we complain the farm might just ban access or dumpa load of rocks down the entrance

Indeed, but if you cannot go down there anyway ...

 

[BCMCXIV]

indeed, should be reported to the eniroment agency i think.
of course the cynical amongst us would say that if we complain the farm might just ban access or dumpa load of rocks down the entrance

Yeah, that's what we thought. My first instinct was to complain... but that could lead to severe measures being taken... potentially the whole of East Kingsdale could be closed down... because it is all run from Braida Garth... and to close the best caving area in the known Universe would indeed be a tragedy. So we decided to bite our tongues and keep schtum... better to lose one cave than to lose dozens.

The cave is still passable if you can hold your nose (and your stomach). I would hope that the dead carcasses would have rotted a bit more by now... but most of them being in plastic bags won't help... I think I'll give it another few years yet...

 

[Pitlamp]

To take peoples' minds off upsetting the farmer in Kingsdale (please don't do that!) - if you really want to know about horrible passages read the CDG's Peak District Sump Index Update 1997 page 34.

 

[hoehlenforscher]

Blame the EU on this one! Us farmers used to be able to bury our sheep, which most of us did responsibly with out any problem. Enter the EU and ban this practice which means it now costs over £20 to dispose of a sheeps carcase and £10 for a bag of lambs. Now if aq sheep commits suicide down a cave shaft how is the farmer to know? If he digs a hole and buries it he is liable for prosecution. Old ewes are only worth £5-£10 so why pay £20 to dispose of themn when they die. BUzzards, foxes, badgers and insects need to live too. And the incineration of all dead animals is a complete environmetal disaster. We can bury humans but not sheep. What a joke. So yeas it is wrong what the farmer has done, very wrong, but I for one know why he is doing it.

Local trading standards are currently responsible for this type of dumping so if anyone wants to get the farmer into trouble (and risk access difficulties) then thats your contact. Better still, find a deep pit that goes nowhere and politely tell the farmer you know why he is dumping his sheep but could he please dump them in this shaft and not the more popular one!! :?