Beyond Our Wildest Dreams

Beyond Our Wildest Dreams - Nirvana

Shortly before our trip to the Vercors in 1997, Alison, Jamie and I had attended a slide show in Dent village hall by the DHSS (Dent House Speleological Society). This was a superb presentation of their recent discoveries beneath the River Dee. They had linked up most of the known caves and found several spectacular new ones. The show culminated with a description of their most spectacular and recent find - Nirvana. This cave was so new that they only had a few photos of the superbly decorated far reaches. They were very keen to protect the formations from damage so requested that any visitors contact them and they would arrange a 'guided trip.'

We first tried in May 1998, but high water levels ruled out the visit - it was rearranged for August. Yet again it was too wet, but Roy Holmes escorted Tony, Ursula and I on the 5th ever trip to the far reaches of Twang Cave - another of their finds. 1999 proved fruitless - the whole summer hardly let up to give the conditions necessary. As it came round to the prearranged date this year, once again it wasn't looking good. We had planned a weekend in the Dales - Penyghent Pot on Saturday, camping in Dent (I think there's a pub there) and Dentdale caving on Sunday. Heavy rain on the Friday led to us cancelling the Penyghent trip, but Roy Holmes was optimistic for Sunday.

Kirsti, Alison & I met up with Roy at his house and after customary tea and biscuits, donned wetsuits in his front room and jumped in the Land Rover for the drive down the valley. After a period of weighing up the conditions it was decided - we were going for Nirvana. We followed the dry riverbed down from Ibbeth Peril to the start of the gorge - anyone who has not walked down here may find it quite impressive! The entrance is pretty well concealed, but soon Roy was pushing his way through the initial squeeze. The cave soon opens up and a short climb down was duly descended (this caused a few problems for the vertically-challenged in the group).

Easegill-like canyon followed and another short climb into the first sizeable chamber. The way out was over boulders and mud banks and led to a steep mud slope with a fixed handline. A short passage led into a narrow rift which soon met with the stream. It wasn't long before the roof lowered and we realised why Roy had recommended wet suits. The crawl is 180m long, but felt like much more with only brief respite where the pitch from Bolt Hole drops in. Otherwise it was hands and knees or flat-out crawling all the way and all of it in the water apart from a short muddy section. A distant roar became progressively louder as we progressed through the canal.

Eventually we could stand up and walk to the source of the roar - a couple of cascades with the stream crashing noisily down them. Kirsti's lamp was looking very dim, but 3 between 4 of us was no great problem. A rope made climbing the cascades easier and soon we were at the foot of a ladder - the Wildest Dreams pitch. At the top was the promised land we had waited 3 years to see - Beyond Our Wildest Dreams. Alison's lamp was also looking dim and a general unease set in. This was getting a bit more serious - we had a spare torch, but we were a long way into a hard cave. I think we all went through similar thoughts - it is only up this ladder, but is it sensible to carry on? There wasn't really any discussion needed - we were all sufficiently uncomfortable with the situation not to continue.

The way out seemed much shorter than the way in - it usually does. We managed to joke about the situation despite our disappointment. Back at Roy's we were treated once again to his excellent hospitality - we were even invited to use the shower to warm up. Nirvana is still there and one day we'll make it - who knows when?

P.S. Kirsti & Alison were using the club lamps (carbide is not encouraged in the Dentdale caves). It seems that at some point one of the chargers has developed a fault. When I thought I was topping up the used cells only one of the chargers was actually working and thus the cells have gradually been losing charge. I think we can consider ourselves unlucky that both happened to fail at such a critical point

	Search this site powered by FreeFind
	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Beyond Our Wildest Dreams - Nirvana

Paul Brooks