Daimler hole 29/10/2019
Ian Ball & Ian Vincent.
After much procrastination in the morning It was decided to head up to a cave none of us have done before.
Daimler hole, in the Bruntscar area is infamous for having a Daimler car in the entrance. And It had the benefit of being flat (ish) so with both of us being a bit out of shape, Idea for our first outing since May.
Taking Mr Balls tank (Volvo estate) up the narrow road was interesting to say the least, although he drives slower than a granny in a 10mph zone, it gives the sheep a chance to shift out of the way.
We parked up in a lay-by at the farm to ask permission, and they told us to drive up to the farmhouse up the road and park there as no one was staying there at the moment, this was a welcome development as it saved a fair trek, as there was nowhere really convenient to park, without annoying someone. Something tells me though that driving up the road in winter could be interesting.
So Using Mr Balls trusty GPS, which stated that we were nearer Great Douk than Daimler, we set off and walked through muddy field and gates that didn’t want to open. We stood around for 5 mins looking for the hole as his GPS stated we had passed it and we couldn’t find it, however it was straight in front of him, we just missed it.
The Hole itself was not that inviting, it was overgrown and some gardening had to be done to enter and “guarded” by “Huge” “Scary” Spiders. We climbed down Mr ball leading, the way towards franks delight attempting to stay clear of the water.
At the duck he didn’t fancy it so struggled around the oxbow thinking the water was a bit deep. I investigated the water and decided to go for it, not too deep, or cold thankfully. Then some nicely decorated passage, and the odd sheep’s head, lead to the end of Franks passage. At which point a sharp left tun led us to start looking for the climb up, it was a bit tight for me but Mr Ball squeezed through, there was no way I was managing this so Mr Ball followed the passage the wrong way and popped out 20 meters back where we had just come from, thankfully that climb was a bit easier for me. We then crawled through the roof passage to the top of the climb that I had failed to navigate earlier, then onto the traverse that started just after and after waiting for Mr Ball to find his way through the squeeze I got vertigo (woosed out), and it was decided to tun back.
Mr ball continued with his fear of water, I just motored through the wet stuff, leading the way back to the “lovely” spiders at the exit.
As I popped out the climb, relived not to have become the next spider man due to a spider bite, I looked out as saw the sun setting down the valley. It was quite beautiful, Whernside and Ingleborough looking resplendent in an autumnal sunset, even Mr Ball commented on How nice it was.
Once back to the car both knackered, and forgetting how “delightful” it was getting changed in a cold wind in the open, it was decided to have coffee and cake in Inglesport café. This lead to the most important debate. Daim bar cake or Toblerone cake. Obviously we had to try a slice of each, just to make sure I went for the Toblerone, Mr B went for the Diam bar.
Ian Vincent
