GOC Caving Group shared a joint event with York Caving Club over the weekend of 19th-21st August 2011. We camped in Hardraw, close to Hawes, and on the Saturday some members of the group went to explore caves close by that are relatively short, not much visited, but full of interest. I went with five members of the group who decided instead to take on the challenge of a through trip from Providence Pot via Dowbergill Passage to Dow Cave, near to Kettlewell in Wharfedale.
We drove from Wensleydale to Wharfedale somewhat later in the morning than we had intended but that is, after all, normal practice for cavers. When we arrived at Kettlewell we found they were having a Scarecrow Festival. We parked in an overspill car park, got changed fairly discreetly in among the cars, and walked through the village to the path into Dowbergill valley, taking a look at scarecrows on the way. The best had to be Rapunzel, seated at the top of the church tower with her hair trailing to the ground.
The descent into Providence Pot requires no climbing apart from down the short, scaffolded entrance shaft, but it does involve some strange contortions as you squirm head-first down narrow passages. A final descent and crawl bring you into Dowbergill Passage – the main attraction of the day. It takes several hours to find your way along this narrow rift, even though it is fairly straight and there are no confusing side passages. A stream flows in the bottom and you splash along in it for a while before finding the way blocked by fallen boulders. There you have to climb up and traverse high above the boulders and the stream until you find a safe place to climb back down. Problems like this are repeated many times. The passage enjoys notoriety both for the difficulties of finding the way in a vertical maze and for the scariness of some of the traverses, but when water levels are low the problems are not great. Eventually, we ducked under a curtain of flowstone that comes down close to the water and found ourselves in Dow Cave. In fifteen minutes, or maybe less, we were outside again, something over a mile from where we had entered Providence Pot. The whole journey had taken a few minutes over four hours.
That evening we went for a meal in the pub in Hardraw where we sat right by the piano and were entertained by a pianist who seemed to know every tune written between 1890 and 1990 and beyond, and also had many interesting anecdotes to tell.
On Sunday morning we all opted to go for a walk – partly because we were tired from the day before and partly because it had rained hard all night and caves were likely to be flooded. We walked first to Hawes and had breakfast there, and then went on a circular walk, out along one path southwards and back along a stretch of the Pennine Way. The weather varied between sunny, cloudy, and drizzly but there was never enough rain to make us wet. We were back in Hawes before the creamery closed and took the opportunity to buy an assortment of cheeses. We had reached the right-hand end of the title of this article and it remained only to drink lots of tea, eat scones and cheese cake, and drive home.
It was a great and varied weekend. A special welcome to Sally-Anne and Bernie – new members who came along for the first time. A special thank you to Matt and Gary for arranging the weekend, and Richard and Nicky for their faultless navigation through Dowbergill Passage.
