Pridhamsleigh Cave

Caving is one of those sports that I do quite enjoy, but I don't really go out of my way to pursue these days. There aren't many caves in Devon, and really only one that is easy to get into and good for taking groups into. That cave is Pridhamsleigh, just outside of Ashburton. As well as being the only cave in the area that gets used by groups, it is also one of the muddiest caves in the UK, as anyone who has been in it will tell you! A few years ago I was working as an Instructor and was in and out of Pridhamsleigh cave regularly. But since then I've only been back a couple of times. I got a call earlier this week inviting me to make a trip down the cave, and I couldn't refuse!

Some of the amazing marbled limestone to be found in the cave, here polished by thousands of passing bums!

There was meant to be a small group of us going, but somehow almost everyone else found an excuse to do something different! So it ended up just being me, my good friend Rog H and his extreme sport mad son Ben.

Ben making easy work of the maggots crawl

We had a great trip down to the lake at the very bottom of the cave, and were led all the way by Ben. We passed through a variety of chambers and passages with odd names, such as, 'the bishops bum', 'the coal chute' and 'the bottom-less pit'. Ben even went through the Maggots crawl, however only being 9 years old it wasn't much of a crawl for him!

Ben checks out the bottom-less pit

It was great to be back in Prid, and while I've been to most places in the cave, including some that are quite off the beaten track, there are still places I haven't been and want to go. But at a rate of one trip a year it might take me some time to visit them all!

Ben and Rog silhouetted at the top of the bottom-less pit