Saturday - 22nd July 2000
People present - Pete Dale, Andy Whitney

Well another Saturday another caving trip! As usual no one had phoned apart from Andy. What is it with the Red Rose? Turn up for club trips for god sake!!! Hell even Duncan turned me down on this one, he'd been called upon to go to Swindon, something to do with his new job as a marriage guidance councillor! (You not what I mean Chunks!)

Anyway today's trip was going to be down a cave me and Duncan had often talked about but never got around to actually doing. Hence why I picked it as a club trip (no getting out of it that way!) Since Chunks had bottled it I was glad when Andy phoned and said he was coming, so we arranged to meet at Malham tarn car park at 10:30am sharp. Unfortunately the night before found me getting rather drunk and thus I didn't rise until 9:45am on the Saturday morning (oops!) Luckily I don't suffer from hangovers and after a mad dash around I was on my way up to Settle in 10mins flat!

After a peaceful 40mins drive (Not 2:30mins Andy!) I arrived at Malham Tarn Where I spotted Andy waiting patiently in his car. We then sped off towards Darnbrook farm to get permission. After a pleasant chat with the farmer, we where parked at the side of the road next to a track leading up the fell. We then commenced getting changed and upon doing so attracted the attention of the local herd of cows! Andy thought they where bulls (Someone should explain the difference to him!)

In a few minutes we where surrounded by them and Andy was starting to get a little concerned by them. I told him not to worry, but he wasn't so sure. Personally I think he is still having nightmares about the sheep that chased him on our way up to Juniper Gulf! Okay this was getting silly now, we where completely surrounded by bloody cows! They were shoving their slimy noses into everything, well Andy's things. He got very annoyed by this and tried scaring the beasts away, but without success. I was now ready all I had to do now was to wait for Andy to decide whether he was using stinky carbide or electric!

We walked away from our cars reluctantly and as we climbed the hill we turned around just in time to see them disappear amongst a mass of black and white bodies. What's the worst they could do? They're only cows for gods sake! I reassured Andy that no harm would come to the cars and that they would lose interest after a bit, I hope!

We set off walking again following the farmers directions (What a lot of good they where!) The track led us to a shooting hut as had been described to us earlier. A tight squeeze saw us past the gate and into the supposed field where the entrance lay. Locating the entrance proved to be a tad difficult to start with as: -
1, We'd never been before!
2, I'd forgotten the O.S. map!
3, We were walking in the wrong direction!

We must have spent at least a good hour or so looking for the entrance. At one point we were all for giving up and calling it a day. We studied the guidebook and sort of pinpointed our rough position on the vast expanse of the moor. Doing this found us both saying "Were in the wrong place!" According to the book the entrance has a cherry tree growing in it so, how hard could that be to spot? Very hard indeed since the dam tree had only the top few inches showing above the surface.

After finding the right area to look in this time we played a bit of, hunt the shake hole! (I won!!) Anyway we where relieved to be peering down the entrance shaft at last!

If you fancy going to have a look down the cave for yourself. The best way to find the entrance is to walk along the Pennine way till it crosses the wall. Then walk down hill along another track over a gate and the entrance is just to the left, you can't miss it!

The book states that the way in lies at the bottom of a square sided shake hole with a free-climbable pitch. Looking down the shaft we had our doubts about this, but once we started our descent it didn't prove too difficult. Once at the bottom you find yourself standing on a mass of loose boulders, (A bit like Notts Pot) with the way on being through a narrow slot down through the boulders in one corner. We kitted up and entered the darkness and doing so where happy to see that we had been stood on a floor of rock with not a lot holding it up underneath! Needless to say this did not impress Andy as usual!

I'd soon reached the first pitch of 4.5m easily climbable but since we had a ladder with us I bodged up some sort of belay off a dodgy flake with two slings! Andy watched the flake without blinking as I climbed down into the dark unknown. From the bottom of the ladder I found two obvious ways on. One which carried on down into the darkness and another back behind the ladder through at squeeze, and up into a fig-8 shaped passage. With the water in the bottom half and a body sized tube in the top leading on into the beckoning blackness of larger cave. I couldn't bear waiting for Andy so off I shot into the crawl only to be stopped by a voice somewhere behind shouting me! "Which way have you gone Pete?" Andy cried, "I'm through here" I shouted back. Once reunited we were soon slithering along the tube and yes result, we could stand up!

Straight ahead the passage beckoned with ominous blackness but no, the book said to take a left into 'Crossover Passage' which we followed past shallow pools, sandy chambers, calcite floors and boulder ruckles, not to mention the odd squeeze. We emerged into the main junction, impressive or what? A bit like Easgill with the passage being large with a cobbled floor with the stream entering in front of us and taking a sharp left to wind and trickle its way down to the sump. Faced with two choices upstream or downstream, Andy chose downstream. So off we walked (Yes walked! Easy caving) until we came to a short climb up into 'Large Chamber' as its name suggests it is just that. Off we raced along the boulder strewn floor until it closed down to a couple of crawls. Hmmm! Where's the stream gone we thought so, we routed around for a few minutes until I had found the way on because Andy had given up! We followed the stream along a nice walking passage negotiating a couple of cascades along the way until, the way on meant crawling so since it only led to a pitch down to the sump we didn't bother and made our way back to the main junction.

Once back at the junction it was time to head upstream along 'Far Stream Passage'. We raced along the fine rift passage under avens and small cascades, until we entered a large chamber with the stream disappearing beneath a boulder choke. The way on looked as if it ascended up over the choke so up i went where once stood on a boulder bridge commenced jumping up and down to prove that it was safe! Andy convinced, so up he came. The stream emerged from a passage in the left wall the shape of an upside down T. Following this led us to a small waterfall of about 8ft which I climbed and found the passage split into two ways on, so I returned to find Andy climbing the waterfall. So in true redrose style, I sat down in the stream and dammed the passage and just as Andy was nearing the top I stood up and let the flood pulse hit him! He wasn't impressed wonder why?

That was all he needed to convince him it was time to leave for the surface. Climbing back down into 'North Stream Passage', I decided to have a quick look along the passage just to see what was there if nothing else. That done we slithered back through the tube and regained the ladder. As Andy climbed the ladder I climbed down into a chamber with ways on leading off in every direction! I paid my respects to some caving bunnies and then left the cave.

Once back on the surface we made a note of the whereabouts of the entrance and made our way back to inspect what damage the cows had done. Reaching the cars we found them to be intact but it seems cows like glass as every window had been licked! We then got a couple of photos got changed and made our way to Settle for some food.

Well we enjoyed ourselves even if you none caving types didn't. What an excellent system with plenty of potential, you can see for yourself as I'm going to be putting this one down again!