Great Douk & High Douk

Yolanda, Tom, Tim K, Pete, Nick, Ray, Ryan (2nd KCC trip) and Saskia (1st KCC trip)

Yolanda comes up trumps again… 2 more novices to (hopefully) swell our growing ranks. Ryan had been caving once before with KCC (unfortunately in Great Douk again) and Saskia was a total beginner, although I believe she has some climbing experience.

With such a good turnout and the recent dry weather, we were guaranteed a great evening… and it didn’t disappoint. A leisurely change and walk up soon brought us to the impressive Great Douk shakehole.

Ryan showed his experience (of this particular hole) by traversing into the entrance along a high shelf…

…thus avoiding the climb up the waterfall.

Once inside, the hole in the roof appears pretty quickly, looking better than ever on this occasion.

A bit of easy walking led to an oxbow crawl on the left, which everyone took, apart from yours truly… for purely photographic reasons. The crawl ended with bit of a tight squeeze back into the main passage.

Eventually the main passage got lower… and lower…

… until we eventually popped out of the top entrance. The views of Ingleborough and the surrounding Dales landscape were breathtaking. Unfortunately so were the midges!

Not yet satisfied, we set off in search of another short series of caves, High Douk Holes. These took some finding. We initially tried to find the top entrance, instead finding an entrance that led only to a chamber filled with midges, which we named Midge Hole. No idea what it’s really called. Yolanda didn’t seem to like the midges.

Eventually we entered High Douk Holes via the easier to find bottom entrance, which is conveniently located next to Hardrawkin Pot (next week’s destination), following it through various underground sections, punctuated by daylight where the shallow roof had collapsed. Eventually progress was halted by an extremely low section, blocked by fallen rocks, but High Douk was well worth a visit.

A very enjoyable evening indeed. Thanks to Yolanda for leading us. Some hardier types retired to the Marton Arms for some well-needed rehydration. Roll on Hardrawkin!