Friday 3rd October 2025 - A trip I will remember for a long time.
The main precursor for this trip was last Sunday when I bumped into Simon Cundy who mentioned that a few weeks after Jon and Joe went to Lower Cales Dale Cave (and found the sump still high) he was walking past and noticed the draught at the entrance unusually high, suggesting that the sump had dropped further and may have become open. Whilst this was very exciting it had rained quite a lot since then, especially during last week whilst I was in Albania, so probably conditions have changed. However later that day I visited Lumb Hole and Cressbrook Dale and they were exceedingly dry still, suggesting that water tables were still very low. I was keen to check out LCDC but I then had to work away for a week, during which I kept thinking about it.
I eventually got home and my planned work for the Friday was cancelled and without much hesitation I went to check LCDC out. Driving there through rain and with “Storm Amy” about to arrive that afternoon I was not hopeful, nor at ease! I parked at the head of the dale, donned a wetsuit and started jogging down Lathkill Dale in the rain. I knew my callout time could (hopefully) be quite tight and i wanted to create some videos of the journey, so I was automatically in a bit of a rush. I arrived at the entrance and my excitement started to race as I felt the wind draughting in my face! However I knew that even when the sump is up the Dog House draughts into the second chamber quite well so wasn’t counting my chickens just yet. However once I got past there and below Figure 8 chamber and still with the draught I was very confident it was going to be at least slightly open.
I’d never been past Figure 8 Chamber before but the stories I’d heard of the sump area were vivid like I’d been here before, so when I get to the junction into Armoured Mudball Chamber and saw there was no water at all my excitement went through the roof! For 22 years of my caving life I’d wanted to be in this exact position and here I now am.
The way on is mostly dry apart from a few deep puddles here and there, and the deep mud cracks remind me that I’m in a sump. After 50m I pass an aven with quite a trickle of water coming down which instantly puts me a little on edge as I’ve no idea how quickly this place reacts. Does that aven always flow? How long would it take to fill the sump? I try put those thoughts to the back of my mind and push on. Another 50m on gets me to the first aven. This is probably 10m tall and gave me a weird bit of comfort knowing that if the sump does fill behind me then at least I can sit here for a few days before I die of hypothermia.
Beyond a low gravel crawl had to be dug open which took 5 or so minutes. I think this is called the “Sand Blaster” and according to John Beck’s old notes it also needed to be dug in 1976 and 1990, the only other two years that I’m aware this cave has opened. After this it’s easy hands and knees crawling for ~200m through Friday 13th Passage until a large T-junction is reached and shortly after the choke up into Twilight Zone. I climbed up the choke very waringly and for good reason as from above it looks awful, big boulders perched everywhere. This put me into a tall, drippy chamber with what looked like a few ways off at the top, but I carried on the obvious and draughty route back down the other side of the choke towards the Thursday 13th Passage, the breakthrough point from 1990.
As I slide feet first down this boulder choke and into the bedding passage below I feel I sharp spike in my right leg. Kinda committed to the descent I push on through and eventually get my head down low enough to see the splintered end of a rotting sledgehammer sticking through my wetsuit leg. Thankfully it hadn’t pierced my skin. Funny I had totally anticipated the danger of natural objects (big heavy rocks) and not from man’s crafts.
Thursday 13th Passage is much of the same, lots of hands and knees crawling intercepted by tall cross rifts. A small section that’s stooping height helps the mind and body. After 100m I reached the turnoff towards Dawkes Crawl in Lathkill Head Cave. Amazingly this was taking a draught, meaning that the passage beyond here draughted even more. It also suggests that the main source of the draught is not LHC, making the digs further on more exciting. Also this inlet looked very clean washed, whereas the passage upstream is quite muddy, suggesting that Dawkes is maybe the main active feeder for LCDC?
Another 100m and probably another 8 cross rifts laid ahead. One of the rifts has a boulder pile that the way on is squeezing through the blocks in the floor. Again a little scary given my remote situation, but all fine. Next was the Datbob choke, which I tried to pass in a similar low level route, but it got too tight. Eventually I squirmed up into the chamber above and found an easy route back down the other side into the continuing passage.
Rob Eavis in The Cales Dale Stroll
From here the cave finally gets going as I start The Cales Dale Stroll. For basically the first time in the whole cave (valley) you are rewarded with the ability to walk along a passage. It feels detrimental to akin this to Carlswark as this location this is so much more rewarding. I soon passed the low and uninviting Fallopian Tube to the right and then reached the terminal choke. This is indeed terminal looking, such that it doesn’t even look like anyone has bothered to dig it. It is large boulders totally surrounded by thick sandy mud, giving an impenetrable feel. How dare the cave just start to give and then quickly deny the explorer so stubbornly.
It is obvious that no water emerges from this terminal face, whereas 10m back a pile of clean, black boulders under an aven suggests that at least some water may come down from above. And easy climb up and then a tentative final manoeuvre got me into a low wide bedding chamber. Loose boulders delicately perched over my route up ensured I explored this chamber very carefully! I headed north first into a low passage which looked like the water sometimes came out of. This went for maybe 10m, and a little digging got me slightly further. A good draught and an open sight beyond make this a brilliant spot, and I’m sure with only some light tools progress could be made here. Across to the southern side of the chamber I only checked out one lead and it didn’t look very promising. There seems to be quite a large, old collapse here which makes this area different to the rest of the cave and hard to judge.
Now at the end of the cave and my roughly calculated turn-around time to make my callout having already past I knew I had to make a move. Climbing back across the chamber and down the aven was the first obstacle and I wasn’t comfortable about doing it, but all fine. Next hurdle was the choke out of The Twilight Zone. I was really careful downclimbing this and still quite a bit of stuff fell and collapsed as I descended. Thankfully mostly small stuff and I made it through fine, but I was certainly glad to be past that. I was making good time but it’s a relentless lot of crawling and through Friday 13th I had to stop and catch my breath a couple times, heart beating audibly through my thin wetsuit. As I approached Armoured Mudball Crawl I was relieved to see it was still dry and open, those silly mindgames of being sumped in finally put well to bed.
I emerged on the right side of the sump section in only 45 minutes, well ahead of schedule and calculated I had time to go take a quick look at the Fume Room, a draughty side passage which I’d heard a lot about from Moose many years ago. It’s about 60m to the end, through quite a muddy passage following a bang wire throughout. The end is a large, airy choke with a way on above which I was not comfortable to climb on my own at this late an hour. However to the West there’s a small hole into blackness that I couldn’t fit through. Maybe this is accessible from the above route, but if not it looks an easy dig and the draught is strong from it, so a good prospect indeed. Annoyed to leave this opportunity unclaimed but relieved to be heading to safety, I turned around and headed out.
I made daylight after 3 hours and 10 minutes, nearly 3 hours more than I was worried I might be underground! The walk/jog back to the car in torrential rain helped clean my wetsuit but not raise hopes of ever(!) getting back in there. In fact in the 24 hours after leaving the cave it rained 55mm, which is more than the average monthly rainfall from February to August this year! Fingers crossed other’s get to enjoy this cave in the next few weeks and maybe even extend it a little….
Video from the trip available here: https://youtu.be/P3HnaZq62c0