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Published: March 29th 2011
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“So come out of your cave walking on your hands” The response to the plan for the first event was overwhelming. I was overwhelmed by the number of people that refused to read the blog and just wanted to tell me what the blooming hell we were doing. I was also overwhelmed by the number of people that said “I’m not flipping camping, count me out”. And so, for the second trip, I need to make things a bit more people friendly, no camping and no trips to one of the most remote places in the country. Luckily, with one eye on the budget, the second trip is all over in a day.
For those sticking to the concept, listening to the music and trying to work out where we are going from the songs, you are probably guessing that ‘The Cave’ will involve us going to, well, a cave at some point. Those of you that think that I wouldn’t do anything that obvious and perhaps are more on the lines of a cavern, you’re wrong, but you’re also right.
I’m not entirely sure what the lyrics to Mumford and Sons’ biggest hit are getting at, but
to me, it seems to be another song about escape, or rather a sense of moving on from something that wasn’t particularly good. The music is pretty jaunty though, and it’s for these reasons that I’m hoping that we can have a nosey around a cave, then come out to a lovely summer’s day and enjoy the sunshine. When I say cave, of course, I means
caves, for there are two to be visited, and by luck we can buy a joint ticket to visit both. You may have noticed the word ticket, and that means that, rather than finding a cave in the middle of nowhere for us all to find our inner recklessness, we’re off to a couple of family-friendly, tourist caves in the heart of the peak district. Peak Cavern and Speedwell Cavern are two of the country’s most popular caves, one being a cave that you can walk around and the other being a cave that you can get a ride in a boat across. Speedwell cavern also contains ‘The Bottomless Pit’, although I was disappointed to read that this is just a bit of a hole that used to be really deep but has been mostly filled in by miners dumping their waste and tourists testing its name. By dumping their waste I mean the by-product of the mining process not... oh never mind.
I’m guessing that, even after passing through two caves and testing the pure spring water of nearby Buxton (and I hear pure spring water does wonders for the brewing process), we’ll be done by mid-afternoon, so those with better things to do can take the journey south and have their evening free for the usual drunkenness or bland television, depending on your preference. For those, such as me, who might be at a bit of a loose end though, there is a third cavern of the day for us to explore. It will require a bit more driving, as it is around 60 miles to the west, but it is open during the evening, and I have been there before and so can fully recommend it. 60 miles west will take us, roughly, into the centre of Liverpool, home of the famous Cavern Club, where The Beatles started out, now a bit of a shrine to those most fab of Liverpudlians. For such a tourist trap, the price of beer is relatively reasonable and we get the added bonus of listening to good music all night.
So there we have it, not so much the cave in singular as the caverns in plural (and caverns are just caves, but bigger and generally underground, according to the dictionary, so we’re not straying too much on the theme), but hopefully a busy but fun-filled day for us all. As a god of caverns once said, “There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be”. This is where we’re meant to be on May 14th.
P.S. I plucked May 14th completely out of the air, if enough of us want to go on a different date I have no objections whatsoever.
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