After a very productive day assessing yet another disabled stile in need of mending, and putting some finishing touches to the forthcoming DCRO Dash fell race route with Roy Rodgers and Pete Dell, Pete and I headed over to Pete's for a cup of tea and a chat about tonight's caving trip.
Devonshire Cavern
The search for the ladder iron continues! A continuation of the fruitless trip described in June.
A well-attended trip into Devonshire Cavern saw eleven of us meeting by the New Bath Hotel. Well, a couple of us weren't too sure of the correct RV, so the arrival of the party at the little door to the right of the Bonsall track was slightly staggered, but eventually we re-grouped near Hell's Well in the great chamber by the old garden entrance. The last time we had a trip into Devonshire Cavern, about a year ago, we had a fairly extensive tour of the higher passages, so this time we decided to take a look at the lower series.
Present: Ann Soulsby, Alan Brentnall, Roy Rodgers & Sam Hough
The planned trip was Bagshawe but we didn't think dipping Sam into the Dungeon would be the best start to his SRT training so we headed off to sunny Matlock.
After getting changed we embarked on the slog up the hills of Matlock which give incredible views from the top. Once inside the cave we headed up the slope to Hells Well where I proceeded to try and dress Sam while Alan rigged the pitch. It is not easy kitting someone else up when only used to doing it for yourself!