Give it a Go! Caving
Dark Magic
Inside a grassy hill near Ashburton is Pridhamsleigh Cavern. Its interconnected chambers leading to an underground lake are ideal for novice cavers. Anita Newcombe joined Richard Hanbury of Reach Outdoors to give it a go!
I
’m meeting Richard at a parking spot close to Outdoors, billed later - we stop here to log our visit on Pridhamsleigh for a private early evening tour of a chalkboard. A very short distance now to the cave’s Pridhamsleigh Cavern. I’ve never been caving before so I entrance which is wide and reassuringly pretty with plenty have no real idea what to expect, apart from the emailed of greenery and vegetation hanging over it. Here Rich instructions advising me to wear a comfortable base layer stops to give a safety briefing and talks me through what to and asking for my shoe size. When I arrive I’m fitted with expect. He emphasises that it will be very dark and muddy a heavy-duty, all-in-one caving oversuit with wrist seals and but our head torches will illuminate our surroundings a long, covered zip up the front. pretty well. The absolute silence in To this is added a sturdy caving Are we ready? Yes I think so – belt with a square link buckle, a here is quite deafening – it here we go! Rich has already told helmet, head torch and a pair of me that the first bit is just like presses on your eardrums well-fitting wellies. I give Richard climbing under a table (do you with deep intensity – it’s a my phone in a dry bag along with keep slippery rocks under your powerful feeling. a small towel so I can wipe my table?). So I scramble through hands before touching the camera. He is carrying other – a bit awkwardly at first, trying to get used to the watery safety kit including spare head torches and batteries. mud already coating my hands. Fairly quickly a big cave Once togged up we stroll up the lane towards the cavern opens up ahead and we stop to perch on a couple of rocks climbing over a stile into the orchard at Pridhamsleigh – this is Crystal Cave. The absolute silence in here is quite Farm. The farmer exacts a small toll (£1.50 each), which deafening – it presses on your eardrums with deep intensity can be left in a box or, in the case of regulars like Reach – it’s a powerful feeling. Rich tells me that these rocks
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englishrivieramagazine.co.uk
October/November 2021 | 23
