Beyond Slug World

Having been diverted from finishing Slug World down Lancaster Hole by a distracting illness I decided to return at the beginning of this year and try and conclude it. The end of the dig had degenerated into a sharp, calcite mess coated in gluey mud. Work breaking through the rock was problematic and involved standing on one’s head in order to wield the lump hammer. This I struggled to do as my illness has caused me to become very dizzy when I try to carry out maneuvers like that. So I resorted to attacking the solid looking rock wall in the top of the end choke which, much to my amazement coupled with a few bits of capping rapidly over two visits disintegrated, leaving a simple squeeze through into the continuation passage. Delighted, I scrambled down a little climb and found myself in a roomy chamber looking up a calcite slope with three glistening calcite bosses ranged like a mini Hall of Thirteen in front of me.

Very mini as there are only three bosses and the biggest is only about three metres high but not a bad find in one of the most popular caves in the Dales. Beyond the very delicate calcite slope behind the three bosses is a
small crawl which rapidly finishes with no further potential and a series of connected evens which I bolted up only 6 metres to discover were blind. So I am now happy that Slug World is completed which is a shame but the formations are very nice. I have called them “The Sentinels’ “ because they seem to be standing guard over the entrance to Easegill through Lancaster Hole although hidden away like part of a lost army.
They are worth a quick visit if you are in a queue to get up the entrance pitch but don’t be tempted to go up the calcite slope as it will just get trashed. Believe me the best view is from below and there is not much more to see or explore behind The Sentinels.

Slug

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