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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 22 July 2022

Hits: 1967

Tuesday Nighters out on a Thursday July 21st

We met up with another group at the Substation at seven. It was decided to go in two groups due to the numbers. I also heard a vague mention that another two Eldon members might be in Carlswark somewhere . Our group was led by Katie and included myself, Hal and Julian. Bernie joined the second group and they descended down Flower Pot Entrance while we took the Eyam Dale Shaft. It was nice to descend down the rope and trustingly leave our gear as we planned to take the route out the Gin entrance. It made the difference in the tight squeezes along the way. I was excited to see more of Carlswark than I have previously as it had been a particularly dry month allowing us to get down to the Big Dig easily. The formations down along John Smith’s Passage were impressive-like giant dragons’ teeth and into Shag’s sump. I heard that sump didn’t work out so well for Shag, but it was definitely worth seeing. Popping up from a crawl into a few strangely placed gnomes was a surprise. I in no way condone anything to do with garden gnomes in any way. We met up with Jim and Sam who had been plotting a jump scare on us but thankfully we averted that .I am sure if I had made their acquaintance in the dark the lack of moisture wouldn’t have been an issue for me. After a brief chat we all followed out to the Gin Entrance and our gear was still able to be collected. We met the other group along the road and headed to the Anchor. It was great to sit with ten other cavers who had another great night out caving ..again.

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Written by: Victoria Kocher

Published: 10 July 2022

Hits: 1856

July 9th 2022

At our last AGM Hal volunteered his Victorian Steam Plough named The Chief for the Buxton Carnival. It was to celebrate the Eldon Pothole club after the video footage of the 1962 carnival was circulated. We decided to loosely stick with the theme of cross dressing or washer women as I deemed it. We had the engine out for a steam up on Friday so we parked right outside of the town centre ready to go. On the Saturday morning we arrived ready with a trailer with hay bales and not one but two engines. The steam plough and an agricultural engine owned by Jonathan. Julian got there first raring to get his dress on and he looked pretty good as a beardy blonde. Rob and Katie arrived with their minions who took to dressing as a gang of chimney sweeps. The engines burn quite a bit of coal so it was most welcome. Dave came with his minions and his wife all dressed appropriately. Luke made it after his 10k run with his wife and daughter. Jon and Miriam showed up as well as Soulless Joe and Hattie. Wendy and Mark arrived to join in on the fun. With music on the wagon, water and beer at the ready and a fair amount of sweets to toss we were at the front of the Carnival Parade. I heard it was because we were the slowest entries but I would prefer to believe the Eldon Pothole Club was the best. Buxton was bustling with the superb weather and packed crowds. We picked up Helen and Allan along the way. It was a great day to be together and have some fun as a club! Can’t wait for next year!

Original video from 60 years ago!

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Written by: Jon Pemberton

Published: 30 June 2022

Hits: 1702

The day technically started the night before as we celebrated my birthday in fashion playing chess, drinking beer and being obnoxious! The company was grand but people soon started peeling off and we tucked into bed around 2:00 a.m. I was the first one up feeling a tad rough, I went downstairs to drink a gallon of water before breakfast which eventually sorted me out. After humming and aaring for seemed a good few hours, we eventually decided to descend Aygill Cavers which is located just a 10-minute walk from Bull Pot Farm.

Joe losing at chess, by JonP

We kitted up and left the farm at 11:00 a.m. armed with a vague description on how to find the entrance, we only managed to get lost once. Joe and I descended first remembering to climb a chimney to the left at the foot of the entrance climb… Luke, Rob and Victoria followed. (Team Fivesome!) The entrance series is small and scratty and reminded me a lot of Derbyshire. The first pitch came quite soon and we hastily rigged it with the longer rope intended for the second pitch, but rather than de-rig we decided we could work with what we had. At the base of the first pitch I climb through some rather nice ginging led to a tight rift which Hal would have hated! Luckily he was still tucked up in bed. This soon led to a steep descent leading to the second larger pitch. Here I only managed to find one P-bolt and after a confirmation from Joe of none further back, I rigged the pitch head via this bolt and a natural thread creating quite a convenient Y-hang albeit getting to the rope was slightly unnerving over the large drop below.

Luke enjoying the tight meanders, by RobE

Luke in the awesome stream, by JonP

The cave was beginning to feel a lot more like the Dale's now. Clean washed with a big streamway running along the bottom adorned with lovely scalloping all over the walls! I quickly dropped the pitch and waited for the rest of the party. It was here where I should have left my camera but instead managed to take it on a full tour of the cave without leaving its bag. Once everyone was down we headed a little upstream until the vadose passage began to peter out in crawls. We then headed downstream following the description and found ourselves overlooking a large cascade further downstream via an extremely exposed step into a passage which in reverse was terrifying for me at least. After negotiating the oxbows the cave transforms massively and follows a few muddy crawls passing under boulder chokes and up a climb eventually reaching a large chamber called New Year Cavern. On the opposite side, a continuation of the crawl soon leads to a large stomping passage which is dead straight and massive compared to the rest of the cave. This continues some way until you reach a large boulder choke at the end with an aven in the roof and a dig following the left wall through the choke. A small series heads off under the choke in the stream but not wanting to cause a call out we headed back at this point and I managed to snap a few photos at the base of the second pitch. 

Victoria in the fabulous New Year Passage, by RobE

We reached surface after 3 hours underground and was greeted back at the farm with some lovely sandwiches already made. After scoffing our faces and cleaning up we left for the drive back down south. A great easy Sunday trip and would thoroughly recommend.