Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
Gaping Gill Adventure
Gaping Gill Adventure
Saturday 25th May 2013
A fantastic and very different walk on Saturday.Six of us set off from the Sands at 8am, John & Sue, Fred, Margaret, my son Chris & Me. We parked in the village of Clapham and walked the 3 miles to Gaping Gill arriving about 11am. I was surprised to see so many people and so many tents. We purchased our discs for the 300 ft descent and discovered there was a 5 hour wait. Approximately 25 people per hour was the most that could make the trip. We had a coffee and decided we would go for a walk up Ingleborough. The weather was brilliant, glorious sunshine and we had a great walk, getting back to Gaping Gill about 3.00pm. We sunbathed as we waited for our numbers to go on the board. When our numbers eventually came up it was time to put on the green waterproofs and hard hats. We began our descent about 5pm. It was quite an experience sitting in the chair, dropping down into the hole. For about the first hundred feet it is quite narrow but it suddenly widens out as you reach the roof of the cave. The cave is enormous, much bigger than I expected. There is a constant spray from the water pouring down the hole, which unfortunately gets on the lens of the camera. Fred set up his tripod and set about taking photos with a long exposure time due to the poor light. I’ll look forward to seeing them and put them on the site as soon as I get them. It’s an amazing place, well worth seeing and well worth the wait. We were down there for two hours as there was quite a long queue for the return trip. It was quite cold in the cave but the caving club kept the queue supplied with hot blackcurrant juice and very nice it was too. We emerged into the sunshine about 7.00pm and set off back to Clapham via the Ingleborough Trail, a very pleasant walk. We arrived back in Carlisle about 9.30pm, a long but very enjoyable day. The winch is there till Thursday and roughly two thousand people will make the descent. If ever you get the chance to go then I would recommend it. It’s quite an experience. Thanks to all those who came, a very enjoyable day.
PS.
Freds photos have arrived and great photos they are. The following is Freds explanation.
Some of the photos inside the cave I am pleased with how they came out, although I didn't get the cage in I realised why when I got back home its because the timer for exposure took 3mins 3sec and the speed the cage was travelling but I am satisfied with what I got. It is like if you set the timer on for ten minutes on a street full of people the photo will have no people in it because by the time photo has developed all the people will have walked of .
These photos are on the second slide show
