On Sunday morning, after another hearty breakfast, James and I said farewell to the rest of the group and headed towards Ingleton, about twenty minutes by car from Hawes. On the way, we saw the impressive Ribblehead viaduct, and also several minibuses from which people dressed in caving equipment were emerging. Caving is an activity which has never interested me; in fact I think it would be quite horrible. I hate the idea of getting trapped underground, and although I'm not claustrophobic, I don't like the idea of squeezing through very small spaces.
We parked the car at Chapel-le-Dale, and went for a pleasant, although inevitably muddy, 5 km walk around the Southerscales moors which took us past several amazing limestone pavements. James (whose wide-ranging knowledge never ceases to amaze me), explained their formation to me. These bands of limestone have been scraped and exposed by retreating glaciers, and then the slightly soluble rock has been pitted by acid rain. These may look a bit like raised, flat pavements from a distance, but you wouldn't want to walk on them, because their surfaces are very rough and covered with deep fissures, in which scrubby little plants grow. They are spectacular.
There are also lots of collapsed caves, and the streams have a habit of suddenly disappearing underground. We climbed down into a large hole called the Great Douk, which had a waterfall gushing into it which vanished into the stones after a few feet. James noticed a round wooden cover on the ground, and when we lifted it up to peek inside, we realised that it was the entrance to an underground cave system.
James brought a wee bit of limestone home with us and when we poured vinegar over it, we could see it start to fizz as the stone began to dissolve.
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