Cherry Tree Hole

Yolanda, Ray, Vicky and (report by) Ami

I had had Cherry Tree recommended to me by a random stranger, and with that as all the info I had, off we went.

Obviously KCC legend Ray had been before, though admitted to a rusty memory of the actual cave. The CNCC description has some slightly contradictory advice about parking and the friendliness of the landowner, but despite an initial, sceptical-seeming pause, permission was granted.

Cherry Tree is ‘notoriously difficult to find’, and includes a fairly lengthy uphill walk across the fields to the entrance. But armed with a map and a clear, sunny day, we spotted the tell-tale tree without difficulty. The problem started once we were actually there.

CNCC recommends a 10m rope as a handline to get down the shakehole to the entrance, but goodness knows what they’re measuring that off as it was no where near long enough to reach the ledge. We therefore rigged the 15m rope intended for the first pitch, hoping to make savings on the length later.

As the bolts are high above the entrance, I opted to rig off the scaffolding to save myself the lost 5m. No such luck. I descended to a shelf and promptly hit the knot. I decided I was happy to free climb the last few metres, but it wasn’t an easy task, so Yolanda heroically went back to the top to retrieve our 15m and bring it for Ray to re-rig in its intended spot. During the swap, I did wonder briefly if they had simply hauled up the unsuccessful 10m and wandered off in to the sun without me, but of course such an awesome team were soon down the newly rigged rope. (Anyone going another day, I suggest you want a 15m and a 20m.)

I had done a brief recce while the rope swap took place, so we ditched our SRT kits here and set off through an interestingly tight little traverse over the stream. This involved posting ourselves through a key shaped hole and trying not to let your feet slip low enough to get stuck beneath you.

From here on the description was clear and involved some good old fashioned caving – scrambling, wriggling and even walking – through to the main stream way. We had decided on the ‘tourist trip’ today, meaning we could explore both up and down stream until some impressive chambers.

Downstream was especially interesting, as the route choice beyond Boulder Chamber is either a very tight, wet squeeze, or an extremely hairy, overhung climb. After a little experimenting we found that I fit quite well through the bottom route, and could look back to the top of the climb. This means for future trips, a willing Small caver could take a 5m rope/ladder through and rig the climb from the top, allowing others to get beyond Boulder chamber safely.

They may not wish to do this of course, as double ducks and wallowing in mud seem to be part of the package. Sounds downright awful and right up my street – logged in my head to come back to another day!

After a good explore we headed out. We even had time to detour to North Stream passage on the way, though the route is cut short due to some precarious looking boulders. We were back into the sun in great time. Thanks so much to all for indulging my curiosity on that one.