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Yorkshire Dales
Apr. 10th, 2004 02:55 pmA few piccies from our climb up Whernside last Wednesday - not brilliant weather for photography, as you will see, but you get the idea.
( Take a look )
( Take a look )
Apr. 10th, 2004
Going underground
Apr. 10th, 2004 03:03 pmI haven't done much caving recently, not since having the kids. Very small children and caving trips don't really mix too well. And I thought I didn't really mind.
On Tuesday I got underground - Upper Long Churn, not exactly a taxing cave - and it suddenly hit me how much I've missed this. The smell, the sounds, the quality of the light - cave passage viewed by flickering carbide flame. I got a rush just being there, right then, down one of the easiest things in the Dales. And afterwards I stood in the bar with a pint chatting to other cavers, some very old friends, some new, but all - I realised - my people. How could I have forgotten this?
It's like a drug. You think you've kicked it, think you can take it or leave it. But I realised on Tuesday that I've missed it so much. I still really want to do this. It's not nostalgia - I don't want to be me as I was before the kids, doing this. I no longer want to do difficult or squalid stuff. I have nothing to prove to anyone. I just want to do some of the classic trips: a Swinsto pull-through, one of the finest sporting stream pots in the country; Black Shiver Pot, with a classic deep and airy final pitch; a visit to Gaping Gill main chamber, the size of St Paul's Cathedral, with Fell Beck thundering into it from the surface with a deep rumble that you feel before you hear it as you approach along the cave passage; a trip to the magnificent Duke Street at the bottom of Ireby Fell Cavern; a wander through the caverns of the Easegill system. I want to knock off some things I haven't done yet, like the superb shaft of Juniper Gulf, or finally bottoming Rowten (having been thwarted three times for reasons not of my making).
It still grabs me. I still need to do this.
DH feels this way too. We've strayed away from something that was important to us, and we're poorer for it. So while we're still young enough and fit enough, we're going to try to do something to remedy the situation.
On Tuesday I got underground - Upper Long Churn, not exactly a taxing cave - and it suddenly hit me how much I've missed this. The smell, the sounds, the quality of the light - cave passage viewed by flickering carbide flame. I got a rush just being there, right then, down one of the easiest things in the Dales. And afterwards I stood in the bar with a pint chatting to other cavers, some very old friends, some new, but all - I realised - my people. How could I have forgotten this?
It's like a drug. You think you've kicked it, think you can take it or leave it. But I realised on Tuesday that I've missed it so much. I still really want to do this. It's not nostalgia - I don't want to be me as I was before the kids, doing this. I no longer want to do difficult or squalid stuff. I have nothing to prove to anyone. I just want to do some of the classic trips: a Swinsto pull-through, one of the finest sporting stream pots in the country; Black Shiver Pot, with a classic deep and airy final pitch; a visit to Gaping Gill main chamber, the size of St Paul's Cathedral, with Fell Beck thundering into it from the surface with a deep rumble that you feel before you hear it as you approach along the cave passage; a trip to the magnificent Duke Street at the bottom of Ireby Fell Cavern; a wander through the caverns of the Easegill system. I want to knock off some things I haven't done yet, like the superb shaft of Juniper Gulf, or finally bottoming Rowten (having been thwarted three times for reasons not of my making).
It still grabs me. I still need to do this.
DH feels this way too. We've strayed away from something that was important to us, and we're poorer for it. So while we're still young enough and fit enough, we're going to try to do something to remedy the situation.
