Saturday, 26 April 2008

Had hoped to get a trip into one of the Winster mines, but unfortunately it didn't come off - never mind, another time. Paul, meanwhile, had gone off to P8 for a DCRO exercise, so I spent the morning watching some TV and generally dossing (much needed).

After lunch I took another look at the garden and decided that it was far too nice to be indoors, in fact probably the nicest day of the year so far. It was early so I decided to tackle the garden shed (more of a sentry box really), so I spent the next couple of hours screwing and nailing it together and then made a start on varnishing it before I had to leave for the DCRO AGM. Heavy rain was forecast for Sunday, so I tacked one of the polythene sheets onto it that have been covering it up all winter to cover up the bits that aren't yet varnished.

Alt Tues - Slin Tor

Spent the evening with Niki & Mat and some of the Alt Tues crowd (wife Jim, wife Andy, Arthur, Martin and Scott). Arthur and I went AWOL at different times to have a poke around some of the smaller holes, while the rest were exploring another bigger hole.

The fields at the bottom of the hill were full of primroses and wood anemones, very pretty.

When we got back to the cars I discovered that Paul had been called out to a shout at Peak/Titan/JH, which fortunately had been cancelled when the missing cavers turned up at the top of JH.

Went to the Barley Mow for a quick drink and got home just after Paul.

OCC Yorkshire Trip 19-20 April 2008

Paul and I arrived at the NPC on Friday night to find Jim and Boyd already there, so we all headed out to the pub. I was absolutely exhausted and by 11:00 had got to the point where I simply couldn't stop yawning.

Met Keith and Phil Walker in Bernies on Saturday morning and, after some discussion, decided to go to Alum. Water levels were really quite low and it was quite a dry trip down Dolly Tubs, although Paul managed to fall in Plank Pool. Paul and I got as far as the shelf above the Bridge and decided to head back out but the other four bottomed Alum and had a look at the sump.

On Sunday Boyd headed off home after Bernies and the rest of us went on to Kingsdale. Paul's shoulder was playing up again, but he generously offered to rig Valley Entrance for us, so the four of us trudged off up the hill and went straight to the entrance to Swinsto (I think Keith knows where it is now!).

Had a cracking trip down through Swinsto. The 300m crawl was hard on the knees and wrists and the water was really cold, but overall it was fine. I found a couple of what Jim told me were Stonefly larvae. Some of the pitch take-offs were a little scary and exposed - you don't realise how much you rely on a back-up rope until it's no longer there! - but as long as you're careful it's fine. We dropped through the boulder choke into the streamway and crawled and stooped our way along to the main streamway, which seemed fairly short to the bottom of the Valley Entrance pitch. We emerged after about 31/4 hours into the rain.

An uneventful, but very enjoyable trip that I've been meaning to do for ages. Definitely one I'll do again.

Walk & Grovel around Middleton Dale and Coombes Dale

One of Paul Chandler's walks, interesting enough partly in the same area that Niki and I explored last Wednesday.

We headed over the hill from Stoney Middleton and dropped down into Coombes Dale and spent a couple of hours or so on the sides of a side valley looking at some old mine workings and having lunch.

We then went on up Coombes Dale to look at the big gated entrance to Sallet Mine.

From there we headed back down the valley, practically to the stile for the footpath over the hill back to the village and crossed the stream to check out Fatigue Pot. Paul had been telling us about Masson CC trips and digging in there and he hadn't really been selling it (Niki said that if he was a car salesman, he'd be sacked!), so when we saw the flat out, muddy grovel we all looked at each other and decided to stay in the sunshine and enjoy the cracking view of Curbar Edge and Curbar Gap.



Back at the cars, we drove a short distance up Middleton Dale to park near Layby Pot. We checked out both of the entrances and found another hole that Niki and I missed last week, Beech Hole. We then headed back past the cars (stopping for chocolate bars and more sandwiches) and climbed up the other side of the valley to find some more holes. We also managed to clarify which hole was which and discovered that we'd got some of them mixed up last week.

Niki joined me on a day's rambling about looking at/for holes in the general area of Eyam and Middleton Dale, something I'd been meaning to do pretty much since I moved to Derbyshire.


We started out on the road between Eyam and Foolow, managed to find Linen Dale Cave quite quickly and then visited the impressive shakehole where Waterfall Swallet is and the almost as impressive shakehole of Little Waterfall Swallet.

We then turned our attention to Middleton Dale and spent pretty much the rest of the day rootling around finding holes and trying to work out what they were. We didn't get underground very far, which was probably just as well because the Middleton Dale caves are pretty muddy places, but we did have one trip into a mine near the end of the day and Niki showed me how strong she is.

Actually the boulders are made of polystyrene, left behind after a film shoot for Peak Practice but they were rather good fun!!