Read my second of four posts HERE.
Today morning, on the second day of my two-day holiday to the Yorkshire Dales, I went to visit the White Scar caves near Ingleton. Ingleton is a neighbouring town to Clapham, and the way to go there was by hiring a private taxi. The guy who came to pick me up to go to the caves was one Ian Whithouse - or something similar to that. I really enjoyed his company.
But even before that, it was the exhilarating breakfast Alan served me in the restaurant. I had expressly told him that I would not be eating pork or sausages; hence, he prepared a full English breakfast with boiled eggs instead of the pork. There were roasted tomatoes, fried mushrooms, a potato hash brown, and some potato chips as well. Additionally, I partook of a bowl of muesli with milk, a few slices of bread with butter and jam, and a glass of orange juice. Tea, of course, was served.
Back to my journey, then. I arrived at the caves an hour before the opening times. and so hanged around the entrance in a room with a few tables and chairs. When the cave opened, I was in the first group. Our guide was Tom, a very knowledgeable and vocal person who made the visit really enjoyable. This venue was much bigger than the Ingleborough caves. The guided tour took around 70 minutes and involved a long walk of over a mile including the return to the outside. There were only six other visitors with me. Hence, we got a very good lesson and demonstrations of the various sounds and sights.
These caves have dummies of human beings whose histories are tied into the history of the caves. There are internal waterfalls, and the flowstones and the stalactites and stalagmites have formed interesting shapes which have been given names based on what they look like - such as Judge's Head, Devil's tongue, Sword of Damocles, old woman's false teeth, witch's hat, witch's fingers. and so on. We also went up a long flight of stairs into an upper cave. On the way, we saw fossils within the walls - of clams, worms and other smaller organisms fixed in stone for over 200000 years - back in time when the caves were under water.
Here are some photos.
After leaving the caves, I went on to return to Ingleton town with a fellow-tourist who gave me a lift in his car. He left me near the start of the Ingleton Waterfall Trail, which would be my next activity for the afternoon.
More on this activity in my next POST.
Today morning, on the second day of my two-day holiday to the Yorkshire Dales, I went to visit the White Scar caves near Ingleton. Ingleton is a neighbouring town to Clapham, and the way to go there was by hiring a private taxi. The guy who came to pick me up to go to the caves was one Ian Whithouse - or something similar to that. I really enjoyed his company.
But even before that, it was the exhilarating breakfast Alan served me in the restaurant. I had expressly told him that I would not be eating pork or sausages; hence, he prepared a full English breakfast with boiled eggs instead of the pork. There were roasted tomatoes, fried mushrooms, a potato hash brown, and some potato chips as well. Additionally, I partook of a bowl of muesli with milk, a few slices of bread with butter and jam, and a glass of orange juice. Tea, of course, was served.
Back to my journey, then. I arrived at the caves an hour before the opening times. and so hanged around the entrance in a room with a few tables and chairs. When the cave opened, I was in the first group. Our guide was Tom, a very knowledgeable and vocal person who made the visit really enjoyable. This venue was much bigger than the Ingleborough caves. The guided tour took around 70 minutes and involved a long walk of over a mile including the return to the outside. There were only six other visitors with me. Hence, we got a very good lesson and demonstrations of the various sounds and sights.
These caves have dummies of human beings whose histories are tied into the history of the caves. There are internal waterfalls, and the flowstones and the stalactites and stalagmites have formed interesting shapes which have been given names based on what they look like - such as Judge's Head, Devil's tongue, Sword of Damocles, old woman's false teeth, witch's hat, witch's fingers. and so on. We also went up a long flight of stairs into an upper cave. On the way, we saw fossils within the walls - of clams, worms and other smaller organisms fixed in stone for over 200000 years - back in time when the caves were under water.
Here are some photos.
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| Main entrance of the White-Scar Cave |
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| At the entrance |
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| Dummy representing the discoverer of the cave, John Long, who found these caves in 1923 |
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| A waterfall inside the cave |
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| Leaking surface water flows in between the crevasses |
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| We walked over these wire meshes as a river flowed under our feet. |
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| A limestone formation |
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| A stalagmite |
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| A calcite stone that forms the limestone caves |
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| This could be Cleopatra even! |
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| In this particular case, a stalactite and a stalagmite have fused together to form a column |
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| This cave's version of a Sword of Damocles |
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| Witch's fingers |
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| Devil's tongue |
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| Tom leading us up the flight of stairs |
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| Fossils inside the walls |
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| Fossil with a conserved phone |
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| A newly formng stalactite is a hollow tube. |
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| A stalactite close up |
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| Hundreds of new stalactites inside the roof of the large cavern |
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| Dummy of a young caver girl who discovered the new cavern above the older cave. The tiny hole next to the dummy is the opening she crawled through |
After leaving the caves, I went on to return to Ingleton town with a fellow-tourist who gave me a lift in his car. He left me near the start of the Ingleton Waterfall Trail, which would be my next activity for the afternoon.
More on this activity in my next POST.
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