Report by Jules Barrett
Cavers: Sam Townsend
(EPC), Jules Barrett (EPC)
We arrived at the P8
parking with a load
of kit including ladder, rope, slings, bolt hangers, and other
weirdness. Didn't really know what to expect so had brought a bit of
everything. This got
put into a couple of bags (in fairly unscientific quantities) and we
walked over to Torr Top
Farm at Perryfoot to ask permission. The bloke there was very amenable
to us
going down his cave and we walked over to the entrance in an adjoining
field.
Dr Jackson's begins
with a 6m entrance climb to a
small stream passage. Right through a squeeze (with a weird
pyramid-shaped piece
of rock) eventually leads to the Yoga Hole. At the Yoga Hole, a short
uphill
crawl leads to a small chamber. At the end of the chamber is a bar of
limestone
and the passage descends sharply on the other side of this bar. We'd
heard a
fair bit about this and it definitely takes some thinking
about; being what you might describe as "technical". After the Yoga
Hole a couple of short silted up crawls lead to a
decent-sized sloping rift passage and we reached the head of the first
(8m)
pitch. Here there's one rusty bolt and hanger which didn't inspire
confidence.
We hung our ladder off this and arranged a separate double-lifeline off
some
natural nearby. This for me was the nicest part of the cave (if you
ignore the
fixed gear!). After the second pitch a greasy traverse leads to the
head of the
second pitch. From here we could see the rock bridge in the bottom.
There are
three options from here <see the guidebook> and we traversed
directly from
the head of the second pitch to the continuation passage on the far
side with
some great (and slippery!) back-and-footing.
There's a traverse line in place which we were careful not to load as
it's not
in the best condition. On the other side we crossed the "very greasy
and
dangerous traverse" (again not weighting the in-situ rope) across the
Chasm
to the other side to end in a series of tight, silty, muddy crawls on
the other
side. Having reached the end we made our way back across the traverses,
up the
first pitch, through the Yoga Hole and out.
Dr Jackson's is a very
interesting cave which doesn't
feel well-traveled. The trip to the end is a varied collection of
squeezes,
climbs, traverses and pitches and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It
certainly maintains interest throughout!.
There's a lot of flood debris in the roof and you
wouldn't want to be down there in wet weather. We were
underground for about two hours.
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