Devon I
Ben Richards, James Wilson, Shiva Pingle, Chris Hayes, Julien Jean, Laura Temple, Thurston Blount, Remi Soubes-Goldman, George Wright, Moses Bejon, Kai Vice, Hector Evans
Friday
Oo-ar zurr, thicky gurt vuzzocking clodpole come a-trompling wi' 'is Buckfast an' 'is wellies an' not a lick o' zense in 'im, mazed as me vather's ox's ghost 'e were, oo-ar, proper job I zaid, proper job, but 'tidden proper job nor nowt if thee's not zunk thy Buckfast afore the vuzzy-wren's nested in thy britches an' the trac'or's gone to 'eaven, oo-ar, oo-ar.
Speculative interpretation from Devonshire to English by Google Translate:
This weekend we went caving in Devon.
Ben
Arrival quite early. Ben Honan left us some surprises in the form of our own kit at the door. Chris, Julien, George, and I went grazing in a field of garlic. Chris has some photos that he should insert. Relatively early night, and we had a Geology room, consisting of the classic George, Julien, and I.
Kai Vice
Saturday
Pridhamsleigh Cavern: Ben Richards, James Wilson, Shiva Pingle, Chris Hayes, Julien Jean, Laura Temple, Thurston Blount, Remi Soubes-Goldman, George Wright, Moses Bejon, Kai Vice, Hector Evans
Dog Hole: Ben Richards, James Wilson, Chris Hayes, Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Moses Bejon, Kai Vice
Baker's Pit: Ben Richards, James Wilson, Chris Hayes, Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, Moses Bejon, Kai Vice
Disappoitment Cave: Ben Richards, Thurston Blount, Moses Bejon, Kai Vice
(Relatively) serious trip report: This was our first time in Devon for the first time in 20 years; thus, this will be a somewhat serious report. This was why I made sure to go on ALL the trips — I'm just so dedicated to caving. For note: none of the trips required SRT, therefore I would categorise Devon as a non-SRT caving area, good for taking freshers, similar to Wales. (I've never been to Wales to cave). The first cave we went to was Pridhamsleigh Cavern (henceforth Prid), which was a relatively small cave. The enterace was a large cavity, and we went down to the right. There was initially a bit of a squeeze and it was quite muddy. At some point, Thurston jumped into a lake, and we'll see if Ben inserts a photo here. I was backlighting from a very smooth hole that Moses and I went down. It was a farily easy cave, and not too large.
Dog Hole had a few people leave, namely Laura, Remi, Hector, and George. I was at first drawn in by the apparent "tall people unfriendly" squeeze, though I never got to see it.The enterance was quite difficult to find, as there wasn't any information on it, despite knowing about the cave, and knowing it was in the vicinity of Prid. Since we exited from Prid, we went back along the path for around 20-30m. If you're planning to go to Dog Hole first (god knows why), turn right after the relatively steep hill. Coming back from Prid, we turned left. There isn't a path, you just need to bushwack up the hill. After the first ridge, there's a bit that flattens out. On the slope to the next ridge, there's two things that could possibly be caves, and the one on the right is Dog Hole. There's also a couple bits of exposed unconsolidated soil/rock. From a photo on the blog that Ben found, (not from ICCC), there was an exposed rock, though it was overgrown, and there were two people sitting on a track. The track was still there when we went there, but only the front one (not the back one), possibly because of the garlic. There was also a lot of garlic in the area, though considering the weed-like nature of garlic, it may have changed when you go visit. The cave itself, that I saw, was quite small. The enterance had a split, but only the left route is viable. The right route ends in a dead end, though James and I saw a large bat. The left route has a squeeze to the right, and after the squeeze there is a gate to the right. Straight ahead there are some waste dumps from a dig, if you go all the way to the end of that passage. There's some glitter, as well, which Chris and Ben spent ages trying to take photos of. (Let's see if any photos are inserted here).
Baker's Pit is apparently the crown jewel of the Devon caving area (other than Reed, which we didn't have acess to), which makes it all the more surprising that it hasn't been visited by ICCC in the past. It's quite large, though I think that the club has a (relatively out of date) map. It was something of a fever dream, with constant switchbacks. At some point, we ended up at the enterance, despite trying to go further into the cave, and not out of the cave. I hardly remember the cave, to be honest, but I (aka Ben who's sitting next to me as I write this) remember most of the ending. Also because I was quite cold during the end of it. We went to the chapel, which was decidedly NOT a catholic one. It was still very pretty (despite the lack of stained glass windows), and we turned around. Ben was very insistent of going to see some red crystals. I was very insistent of going to the next cave, so. I decided to tag along.
Chris and Julien left at this point, so the rest of us were left to our own devices. We searched for a while, going up various dead ends and while I was tired enough to not pay attention. I distinctly remember going up a miserable squeeze, which opened up into a chamber which was roughly a T junction. The left side of the T had two tunnels, one of which had some volcanic ash. There was a tunnel up ahead (so perhaps not quite a T junction...) which apparently went nowhere, according to the smallest member of our group. There was also a tunnel to the right, which Ben thought may have finally led to the red crystals, but ended in mud. We eventually decided to leave, and on an off chance, decided to go down a vaguely random path.
We ended up in red chamber, thanks to James' (usual) pottering around and wandering off, after many ages of searching. The red crystals were perhaps some sort of hematite, though another geologist may disagree with that. Maybe a calcitic hematite. I'm not entirely sure. Geology aside, we eventually made our way to the exit, fumbling our way back out to the exit.
Disappointment Cave was actually relatively large; after around 5m of crawling in a relativley squeezy hole, it turned right, and then eventually doubled back, and opened up into a cavern. The cave then opened up into a T junction, where I turned right (others would say that I doubled back yet again) and saw some relatively nice curtains. I would say that Disappointment Cave is actually worth a vist, especially for 5 mins on a Friday night, though it is relatively muddy. Some lovely photos were taken (see if Ben (Richards) ever uploads photos...), though I didn't go any further. The cave probably takes aroudn 20 minutes at most, and the main cavern (at the T junction) can fit 4 people very comfortably, and maybe 8 people at a stretch (for a sense of scale).
Fun stuff (not to include in formal trip reports): Honestly a better caving region than the caves I've been in the Mendips. Perhaps because of the caves I've been to, but the quality of the best Devon has to offer is better than the worst Mendips has to offer. It was quite fun seeing multiple caves, even if the enterances had many insects and the walk to Pridy had a dead fox amongst decomposing apples, both red moulding to brown. colour lost; gone to feed the earth and the crystals leeching that red
"I don't care what you need to do, I just care about me," "please don't sign this because jobs will have HR departments that can find this" -- Unnamed Cornish caver whose name rhymes with Borj
the wild garlic is also phenomenal, I was sweating garlic in the cave, which was quite shocking. I spent over 7 hours caving, which I was quite happy with. The lack of SRT was genuinely a tragedy.
Kai Vice, first explorer (that wrote stuff down) of Dog Hole and Disappointment Cave
Have to add onto Kai's great report that the burnt down abbey at the top of the hill is well worth a stay if you're at the Pengelly - spooky and atmospheric, and was the inspiration for hound of the baskervilles. Also I will edit some photos promise.
Ben
Sunday
Kelly Mine: Ben Richards, James Wilson, Shiva Pingle, Chris Hayes, Julien Jean, Thurston Blount, George Wright, Moses Bejon, Kai Vice, Hector Evans
Today was the day we went to survey Janet's mystery mine, under the promise of cream tea if we do so. This turned out to be a beautiful and extremely quaint volunteer-run 100 year old mine of what was effectively glitter. 4 or 5 of the volunteers were there with Janet, who has recently joined the preservation society as a volunteer also, and they opened the whole mine up for us, laid out museum displays and gave us guided tours - not to mention a full cream tea afterwards! We were thoroughly heartwarmed by their kindness, and the scale of their operations there were really quite impresive. Two fully operational adits, a lower one about 150m long and an upper one about 50m long, were lovingly restored, unblocked, and shored in places to allow access. The workings and machinery were also in amazing condition, and they could fully process the micaceous haematite on site from ore into a beutiful glittery powder.
After some tours of the whole site we split into two teams, one surveying the lower adit and one the upper. Those new to surveying had a full introduction, and I ran around interupting everything to get some photos in the mines which was a lot of fun.
After finding space for a final couple of scones, we headed back home via the hut after what has been a fantastic weekend in the west country. Until next time Devon - see you in 2046!