Wet day in Yorkshire

Clouds sat low.

Drenched.

Low pressure pushing stair rods of rain.

No chance of last week’s escape by climbing higher.

A day when tacit acceptance that anything outdoors was just going to be wet.

And get wetter.

Best to accept and find what excel in the rain.  Waterfalls.

The Yorkshire Dales are full of them.  Racing over limestone.  Emerging from tunnels and diving down holes.

Water sculpted landscapes with a hidden underground world.  Caves.

 

Places I had never had any great inclination to visit.  Until I found Phong Nha in Vietnam.  It turned my head.  I realised the beauty hidden underground.

Yodas cave is a far cry from Son Doong.  A mere hollow in the ground by comparison.  But with a history of visits from Wordsworth and being a ‘show cave’ which warranted a charge of ‘two shillings’, it had a hint of attraction.

It’s here.  First problem solved.  No more signs to Yordas.  No man wanting two shillings.  A wooden gate and a notice deterring motor vehicles.  But to what?

Hardly a walk.  A few steps up the hill towards the trees.  The low cave entrance wore a mantle of autumn brilliance.

Naturally prepared, my pathetic head torch with failing batteries, lack of tripod and general inefficiency ensure a return at some time to see more of this  little cave.

Hidden behind a vertical slab, water pours in from above.  Torrential on a wet day.  With little resistance in the relatively vast space of Yordas, it potters sedately over the 50 or so metres before squeezing through the exit.

Mindful that flood water could soon cause a lake rather than a trickle, it was not a day to hang about for long.

Now thoroughly wet, there was no reason not to scramble over the sodden rocks and walls. Watch the water funnelled in from the fells to its natural drain.

Yordas didn’t tempt me to don marigolds, wellies  and wetsuit to squeeze further underground.  The vast warm chambers in Vietnam were a totally different proposition. But for a wet day in November, well there are worse places to be.

Even if we did give up and head indoors to Inglesports for a climb.