With a surprisingly small post-AGM hangover I rocked up at Bagshawe for a rare Sunday trip where I met a very keen Dylan and Sam. After missing last week’s jaunt to the end I was keen to see if my memory from ~8 years ago was true. Then myself and Jon had done a lightweight evening trip to the end in our pre-Team Awesome days and I still remember it being quite a long way…
We decided on one SRT kit between us which Sam agreed to carry in, whilst I carried our new trusted pick axe, courtesy of the DCA Digging Award, donated by Derbyshire Geotechnical Ltd. Dylan carried the innocence of youth and wore it well. Easy progress through the cave and whilst they were climbing Madame Guillotine I spent 10 minutes digging a trench to lower the duck in French Connection – I was careful not to lower it too much as that may lead to us getting sumped in at the bit it was draining into! LOL, that could have been embarrassing.
Once we were all up the 15m pitch in Madame Guillotine we all agreed it really is a reyt faff and having staples here would speed up this trip enormously. From here it’s a nice bit of cave to the dig, but it is a long hard slog. It must have taken us roughly 30 minutes to reach the dig and you can walk for maybe 5% of it! However I was pleasantly surprised to see that the dig was actually pretty comfortable, very easy digging, and reasonably sociable too. We took it in turns, having about an hour each at the face, whilst the team behind had the easy job of hauling and stacking the spoil. In that time we made a full body length of progress and whilst the view ahead is not very enticing, this is certainly a stonking passage heading into blank space that needs following. I also managed to build myself a proper throne at the middle position, complete with draught excluder and head rest. Lush. Plus the trusted pick axe turned out to be the perfect digging tool!
Once we’d all had a go we were getting pretty tired and very cold so headed out. Dylan made a claim that it’d take about 45 minutes. It was actually nearly 2 hours before we had all surfaced – it’s a long way! We then headed straight to the Anchor for pints, snacks, and a full on meal for Dylan! Honestly the trip was body breaking and it has taken many days for my knees and back to fully repair. Totally top trip though and will hopefully pave the way to Derbyshire’s next big find….!
