Eyam Dale House Cave, Friday 28th Feb

So from a group of about 7 people, numbers tumbled down to 3, including me!
So Owen, Karolina and myself all met up at the usual parking spot on the road to Eyam… It felt cold tonight, real cold… Quickly dressing up we were ready to proceed to the cave/mine.

Finding the entrance proved to be more random luck than skill. I'd been here before but, my excuse, at least, is we approached from a different direction last time, and it was more than a week ago anyway, so some searching was goanna be the order of the day!

The lid was found, and two practical blokes could not for the life of us open the lid with the number provided… Karolina on the other hand, realised we were trying to align the digits through the centre, and there was a faint green mark that indicated the digits were in fact to be offset somewhat!

Oh to have young eyes again LOL

So we were finally in… Once again, I barely recognised the mined shaft as I descended… It sits on a bit of a hade, which is typical for Derbyshire mines. The miners shot holes still evident on the way down…

We all hit the deck, where any evidence of mining soon disappeared, and I started looking for the way on… Lots of promising little holes disappear in this modified fractured cavern, but nothing looks really inviting! A hole to our left with a bar over was our first thing of interest. I was convinced I had not done this on the last trip, so we threw a rope over the edge and descended down.

Once again, lots of little bits disappear but nothing that pulled you in to explore further, not that I could if I wanted to, although I am sure others have! Even Oggs had to back off some roomier options!

Oggy lead the way and found a part of the mine that started to look familiar. A free climb down a rift which is the start of the crawl to the pearly gates… Yay!

By this time it was getting a little late, but we decided to head off anyway… Flat on our bellies, I had assured Oggy and Karolina we would not get wet, and everything would be nice and dry; I forgot about the little pools of water that sit in the crawl. And yes, no real choice other than to soak some of it up, as the roof offers no option to crab over it here!

We finally reach the Pearly gates, although I can only imagine the sight that lay before John Beck and others who originally discovered this cave when they were of pure white calcite! Now, they resemble more chocolate covered pearly gates, but still pretty none the less.

This measure of the human body, I have decided, is probably my ultimate limit with squeezes… I generally have to breath out and push quite hard, and my chest sort of plops through, almost like the cork that is so eager to be released from a champagne bottle!

Meanwhile, Karolina and Oggy slipped through with barely any effort….

The whole crawling section here is quite beautiful, and it is worth having a good look around, up, along, sideways… A good photo op but a bit faffy with all the mud and water all the same! Karolina was a little anxious about some of the natural features that adorned the chamber floor, and with nowhere to sit comfortably, she was keen to move on…
Continuing on, we come to a sharp corner, an interesting freeclimb, and now found ourselves in quite a sizable rift.

This area, known quite simply as "The other side" is fairly impressive. Quite clearly a fracture of some sort, perhaps ripped apart by the creation of the Eyam Dome all those eyons ago, I don't think Tow'd man had much to find here… A few car-sized rocks lay glued with calcite to the chamber floor, and the roof remains out of site in many places! There must be more to this place, but engineering a dig here would be quite hellish, so it will probably remain untouched for the foreseeable future. Another interesting feature are the strange "otherly" rocks that lay sat within the 350 myo limestone walls… Not sure if these are later deposits as solutions eroded the limestone or something else, but it gave the place more of an alien feel, one that I can't quite describe.

After having a look around, we decided to miss "Room with a view" and head out. The freeclimb is not easily tackled for shorter folk, but Karolina managed this with no issues – certainly she is gaining her confidence in this regard.

Once out, we hauled the ropes up and now I had been on the surface for a little while, I was really cold, so I ran back to the car and abandoned the other two! Sowyyy!

First thing I did was get the car started though so we'd at least have some warm air once in our dry clothing. Oh and that sky, if only perfectly clear nights weren't so bloody cold!

No time for the pub tonight though, so off home we went…

This is a smashing place which I am sure holds more to discover, but even though it's an easy night's trip, it's well worth the effort!

Olly and Oggy trying to work out a lock	Oggs demonstraiting something	Oggy down hole	Olly with his carbide coloured LED looking like it hurts
K through the (not so) pearly gates	And still happy!

Type of entry: Caving

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