Underground again

I've not been caving for a while, but over the Christmas break I took a trip with Bradford Pothole Club friends down Great Expectations near Stump Cross Caverns in Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Here's what I wrote for the BPC Newsletter:

"The last trip of 2007 was also one of the first for me as I’ve had a bit of a lay off over the last year. It’s fair to say I was somewhat out of practice. The weather had been particularly inauspicious over the previous week. A double fatality, due to flooding, had occurred at Long Churns in the previous 48 hours. I had the snotty remains of a tedious cold and was feeling slightly jaded, just a little more so than the usual turn-of the-year reflective melancholy/hangover. Nevertheless there was beautiful light on the drive up Wharfedale, painting the fields vibrant green. Jackdaws and rooks were being blown around the treetops in joyful festive flocks and I looked forward to catching up with friends.

On arrival at a bleak Stump Cross the van rocked, buffeted by Baltic blasts. Bullet hard raindrops rat-tat-tatted on the windows and I wondered what I was doing here. I was reminded of this as Jeff, Brian, Steve and Malcolm joined me and the banter started - the buzz of good company and the prospect of fun ahead. Later, Terry and Neil arrived and our party was complete with Rick Helliwell, our guide, who’d driven from Hull. We checked in at the caver-friendly Stump Cross café and made the short, wind-blasted walk to the Fort Knox (a locked lid with heavy-duty manhole cover underneath) entrance of Great Expectations.

A slightly awkward shaft, which we laddered, led to a slightly tight hole in the floor that dropped us into a walking, stooping, crawling passage and chamber system, well adorned with stalactites, columns and other pretties. A sickly yellow flowstone reminded me of my cold at its mucosal zenith a week previously. These we explored as Rick guided us from his position at the bottom of the shaft. “Check out the slot in the floor”, “Have you looked up to the left”? “Try climbing over the boulders and up to the right” drifted through the hole in the bottom of the entrance shaft. A good guide knows when to allow their charges a sense of discovery and Rick kept out of the way as he suggested mini itineraries from his niche.

A fairly full exploration took us a couple of hours or so and we were soon back on the chilly surface, life lining each other up the shaft in rotation to allow a rapid retreat to the café for tea. Sliding the hefty manhole cover back into place proved to be one of the more strenuous aspects of the whole trip. More banter and discussion of club affairs followed with season’s greetings and best wishes for 2008 exchanged before departures for home. An easy though thoroughly satisfying trip was had.".