Sunday 30th November – Pikedaw
There was a lot more faffing than the previous day with some discussion about who wanted to go where and even more debate about how to get to the entrance. In the end Pikedaw won for most of us since a) it was on the meets list b) we had permission to drive to the entrance and c) most of us had never been – some had even come on the weekend because it was on the list. Bez and Isla took Matt to Calf Holes to teach him some SRT and the rest of us set off to Malham. Leaving several cars in the Malham car park we piled into Keith’s and Fiona’s 4x4s for the bumpy ride to the entrance. It has to be said that the weather was stunning again and we really enjoyed the views on the drive over. It’s always good to park right on the entrance and since most of us had changed into furries at the School there was very little reason to put off “changing”. Keith discovered that the wellies he thought he’d forgotten were indeed in his bag (something to do with drinking a lot). With few expectations and less knowledge Pikedaw proved quite interesting. We wandered around the main bits and some of the smaller passages, we climbed and crawled a bit and collected some rubbish. Damian found the paint-tin-dam he remembered from his previous trip. In view of our conservation attempts, Mike and Gordon decided we should “rescue” the old ladder from the bottom of the entrance pitch and tied it on the bottom of the rope to be hauled out. It was a very sociable, leisurely, Sunday trip which in plenty of time to get home early for a change.
Party: Keith, Damian, Fiona D, Fiona W, Jane, Mike, Gordon, Paul
Time: 2 hours
