Before we went down into the caverns we took a short walk around the area. There is a literally broken road that passes around the caverns. I guess they must have built the road a while back without the knowledge that it would collapse later on for whatever reason.
The broken road from the top.
The Blue John Cavern is named because of the Blue John stone that can be mined from the cavern. In fact this is the only place that Blue John can be found in the world! To this day Blue John is still mined from the cavern by hand. They're not sure how much of it is left, and they only mine it in the winter months while the summers are reserved for the tourist visits. The stone doesn't have any use other than for jewellery, but it is very fragile.
They used to use children to mine the caverns, unfortunately they don't do this anymore. So the kids have to be sent to school and adults mine the stone.
An example of the tools used to mine the cavern and a map of it.
About two thirds of the way down the cavern the lights suddenly went out around us! The guide only had one torch and started to say that this was unexpected and they have some gremlins in the light system. He would have to run up to the top to flick the trip switch to turn on the lights again. At first I thought that this was part of the tour and a hoax, but it turned out to be totally true!
Since he had only one torch and no one else had one, he had to take it up to the top leaving us in the complete darkness. He led us down to the next main cavern and then took the only torch upstairs. We would have been in total darkness if it weren’t for a few mobile phone lights and my camera screen light. We must have been left there for around ten minutes or so.
Debbie walking along the narrow cavern tunnels.
It did occur to Debbie and I that the tour guide could have been a complete nutter and not part of the tour guides. He could have led us down there and abandoned us there for his own mad schemes!
Fortunately this wasn't the case and a while later he did turn on the lights and eventually return to continue the tour.
The calcite deposits built up from the flowing water in the cavern walls.
The steep steps that we had to take into the depths.
Exploring more caves.
A very confident explorer, obviously without a clue as to the possible danger that he's in.
The tour lasted around an hour and was quite good considering how small the caverns are. It was quite good to see the caverns and it was a shame that you couldn't explore more of the other paths on your own. We had seen about two thirds of the cavern depths and the rest would require some climbing equipment. Someday it would be great fun to come back with a pot holing tour and the equipment required to explore further.
Blue John! We're rich...
On Sunday Dave and I took a half-day bike ride around the cavern hills. We started off in Castleton and our route was to take us up to the top of the Blue John cavern hill Mam Tor back down and back up again all before lunch,
From Castleton we followed the tarmac road up to the entrance of the Blue John cavern via the broken road. From the start the top of the hill looked quite daunting but in the end it wasn't too bad. You could have taken the direct road up to the Blue John cavern up a road known as Winnats Pass or The Devil's Arse!
The broken road at its worse.
From the Blue John cavern entrance we continued to follow the road further up to the top of the sister Man Tor hill. It was quite tough going to climb up to the stop straight away and we had to walk the last hundred yards, as it was much too steep and rocky to cycle all the way up.
Once we reached the top the view was worth the extra effort.
From the top we took the ridgeline along the hill. There were two paths to follow, one was labelled as a footpath and the other a bridlepath. We obviously took the bridlepath. It started to get quite boggy again after a while and the Dark Peak started to earn its namesake once again.
Towards the end of the ride along the ridgeline we encountered an older bloke on a bike cycling the other way on the footpath. A stonewall divided us so we couldn't see how much easier it was to follow the footpath, despite it being illegal.
Dave got to the bloke first and started to chat to him. As I caught up I cycled over a particularly muddy section and came off my bike rolling off into a stream! The bloke watching me laugh and roll into the stream must have thought what an idiot. Still I had fun and nothing was hurt other than my pride and muddy clothes.
The start of the route long the top of the hill.
More great views along the ridgeline.
After talking to the old man we came across a break in the wall and we crossed over to a great rocky single track. For a few hundred yards we were in single-track heaven on our mountain bikes. It was really good fun to follow the trail bouncing off the rocks on our bikes.
After that at the junction we had some sand to deal with before the path started to descend along the back of the hill. What a descent it proved to be. Towards us came a couple of scrambler bikes and I was quite surprised that they were allowed along the same route that we were on along with some walkers as well.
About half way along the descent, with walkers slowing us down, as we couldn't really over take them either.
Along the descent we came across some walkers. Dave stopped to let them walk a suitable distance away. I stopped a little further up to get some great shots with my camera.
Once the walkers had walked out of sight we continued down the hill. I must admit it would have been much easier to do the descent in one long go rather than have to stop half way down. When I tried to restart I suddenly realised how steep the descent was. Getting on my bike made me feel quite unstable to get going again. Nether the less I managed to start cycling again and once I got going the rest of the descent proved quite a bit of fun if a little hairy in places too. I must have walked a bit of it when there was a big drop on both sides and the path was only a few inches wide.
The view up from the bottom.
From the bottom of the other side of the hill we followed a trail that started of as a gravel trail but then turned to tarmac. Well saying it was tarmac would be complementary as it was more large potholes than tarmac. Some of the potholes also has some big drops on either side of tarmac, which were only inches wide.
At one point I almost came off my bike along the narrow tarmac. I was trying to concentrate on looking ahead rather than worrying about what might happen if I came off the tarmac into the holes either side of me. I wobbled a bit on my bike and had to lean a bit to straighten up the bike. Fortunately I made it to the main road.
Once we were back on the main road we had a great winding road climb back up to the top of the hill. I started off on the climb and quickly got into a rhythm that I felt I could keep till the very top of the hill. Once I had got to a certain point nothing short of being run over by one of the many passing cars would have stopped me from getting to the top in one go.
I think Dave must have suffered from delusions on the ride up as he said he saw a female road biker overtake him and he enjoyed watching her bum as she cycled past. I however came across a male road cycler who I chatted to on the way up! He was definitely a male as we had a good conversation about the advantage of a road bike over a mountain bike on a road climb.
Dave making his way to the top of the hill.
We had completed three quarters of our planned route for the day, but had to really get back home by now. So we took the main road back to the Blue John cavern and back down the broken road to Castleton.
It was a great half-day ride and according to my guide you could do the entire route without putting a foot down if it was completely dry and you were good enough. I think I have a while yet to get that good! It was a really good route because we encountered all types of terrain from tarmac, rocky, sand, muddy, boggy, grass trails. Lots of tough uphill climbs and fast downhill descents. One that I'd love to do again with more time to complete the entire route next time.
