Shuttleworth

Old-fashionede early. I sort of have that habit. Also when I am in a YSS caving hut in the Dales. Gwyneth is the same. When I got up I found her in the living room. I had my breakfast there, and a nice chat. And I went to get my stuff ready for today's trip: Shuttleworth. I didn't know the place. I know it only takes two ropes to get in.

In dribs and drabs, the other ladies appeared. And after a while, we all made our way back to Cowan Bridge, and from there to the same parking place we had been the day before. And I thought I'd just get kitted up as the day before. I did not! Looking at my bucket I realised I had left my furry suit in the hut. Stupid! But I had been a bit warm the day before, so I could clearly wear less, if it was a vaguely comparable trip. I decided I would just wear my regular clothes underneath my oversuit and that would have to do. But the other ladies weren't having that. Gwyneth offered me mountain biking leggings, and Ellie a thermal top. That was kind! 

It was a longer walk to the entrance, but still not cumbersomely long. The entrance looked a bit like a raised covered manhole. Open the cover and you see a tube with a ladder in it. At the bottom of the tube a hole was cut in its side. 

Ellie would go in first. There was a bit of faffing. The hole in the side didn’t lead to a level, but to a pitch. There was no floor outside that hole. It seemed a bit difficult to rig. 

It was one thing to rig it, and apparently another to go down it. It took people forever to vanish out of sight! And there was a cold wind blowing. I was missing my furry suit. But the other ladies, who were wearing what they had intended to wear, were cold too.

When I could finally go in I was at least out of the wind. But progress was slow. But the cave is quite narrow in its upper reaches, so I had no idea why. That's frustrating! If you can see what's going on, you can emphasise with it, but if you have no idea what's going on, the only thing you can do is be bored.

After that first short pitch there was a short traverse to a short pitch through a narrow gap down onto a ledge with a bit of a sideways pitch to a next shelf. Progress was so slow! As I was just waiting I didn’t get warm. After that shelf there seemed to be a long pitch, but even that took forever. Once Gwyneth, who was the one in front of me, was on it, I could see it had yet another rebelay. But after that, it was straight down. 

The pitch in the narrow gap

The final pitch(es)

That brought us into a rather large chamber. And in there, we crawled to a different part of the chamber, which has nice dripstone information. That is what we had come for! We walked around, admiring the scenery, and taking lots of pictures. That is; the others did, as we had decided to leave our bags behind by the crawl, and that is where I had my phone. So all the pictures were taken by those who had kept these on them.

Beautiful curtain 

Group pic

Looking at drippies

It was nice but for me, it hadn't been worth the long cold wait and the being home late. But that's the thing about caving; sometimes you're committed! So at least I was warm now, as the crawling warmed me up, and I just enjoyed the views and the company.

When we had seen it all we went back to our bags. Sharon suggested the snack break. But I was conscious of time. I hoped to have a little bit of evening at home! And I know the cat would be getting impatient. So I suggested I start making my way up. That was accepted. Sharon would come after me, helping Mary up. And then the rest would follow.

I thought I'd wait at the top of the little traverse, but they took quite a while. Before Sharon had reached me I decided to go all the way out. The first thing I wanted to do is check that no prankster would have closed the cover of the cave, locking us in. Probably not! But you never know. And the second thing was; one of the things I wanted to do at home was phone my mom. But I could just as well do it right here. As long as I was outside.

I got out, found a sheltered spot, and phoned my mum. That was nice. I also tried to phone Neil but he didn't answer. And by that time I could hear Sharon behind me. She suggested I come back into the tube, in order to shelter more efficiently from the wind. I did that. And together we helped Mary out. 

Out! 

Mary turned out to have all the car keys on her. They gave them to me and sent me ahead. So I could change back into my civilian gear and have a leak. And not much later, the others started to appear. This was the end of our trip! But it was already 5 pm, and it is almost a three hour drive.

We said our goodbyes and headed back to Wales. It had been a great weekend! I had really enjoyed the Lost John’s trip, and going for a meal afterwards. But now it was time to get back to the little cat! I am sure we will do things like this more often.