What to Expect on a Beginners Trip

All the bookings are made well in advance and a deposit is usually required from the group to ensure that places on the trip are secured. We will advise the scout leader in charge which cave we will be going down in advance of the day.

We have our list of caves that we visit on a regular basis.

Transport for the scouts is usually sorted out by the leaders and parents of the scout group taking part in the activity, though if you are stuck then the club can often help out with lifts. Please ask!

A typical day will start with everyone meeting at Altham Terrace at 8.30am on the planned day. All the equipment will be checked and booked out (someone from the club would have been down earlier in the week to sort out and charge all the lamps that are needed) and all the paperwork from the leaders and scouts will be checked before we depart. After checking to make sure that all the drivers know the precise location where we will be meeting up in Derbyshire, we set off.

The journey to Derbyshire takes between 1 hour and 20 minutes and 1 hour and 45 minutes depending on which cave we are visiting. These can vary between mines in the Matlock area or caves/ mines in the Stoney Middleton area. There is usually a public toilet within a few miles of the caves and sometimes a shop as well. A brief stop here and we continue to the parking area where we will park up, get changed and have something to eat.

Once changed we check to make sure everyone is kitted out correctly and away we go having first checked of course that all bags are stashed away out of sight. Depending on which trip we do will depend on what equipment is necessary and this will be split up between all the group members. As we have just eaten, the only food that we take down the cave would be a chocolate bar. The trip may involve crawls, rock & ladders climbs as well as normal size walking passages. Variety is the name of the game. The trip will last between 3 & 4 hours and will be enough to tire out most leaders and hopefully a few scouts as well.

Once out of the cave its time to get changed again, depending on what cave we visit will depend on whether we keep dry or get wet (we would however always recommend that you take a complete change of dry clothing). Then its time to finish off your packed lunch, have a drink, talk about the cavers badge, issue any log books, finalise any outstanding payments for the day and wash the equipment. As everyone involved has helped get the equipment dirty then it is expected that every one helps to clean it up and this is done in a local stream or river.

We expect to leave Derbyshire by about 17.00 and be hope to be back in Lincoln by 19.00, though this can vary by up to an hour either way.