# Ireby to Ireby II 21st July 2013
Me, Henry Exxon and Rosie (The Sheffield Caving Mafia)
Ireby to Ireby II, via Cripple Creek and returning via Skylight passage, is a long hard trip. Dave Ramsey said I’d fit, just, so I deliberately didn’t read up on the trip and just turned up on the day.
Turned out I did fit, just.
After the we descended Ding, Dong and Bell we headed off through Glory Holes and Turtle Crawl. This was a flat out crawl over a sandy base, easy crawling but low. Next was Cripple Creek, aptly named although it could also be called Bastard Passage. Narrow rifts that have to be traversed high up, obstacles, squeezes up and down and interesting rope ladders. All in all bloody awkward and tiring with some obligatory cursing at appropriate places. The hardest bit for me was the initial rift, I wasn’t keen on slipping off the foot holds to get wedged lower down. The rest was basically OK, just hard work. A few of the squeezes were tight but in the direction we were going we could drop down through them. At one point we had to drop down through a slot and underneath there was a sling to aid progress. When I went through I didn’t know if I had hold of the sling or my cows tails. Turned out all right in the end. Dropping through a body sized tube onto a ladder was also an “interesting” moment. Towards the end of the difficult stuff my lower left abs started cramping up, not something I’ve ever had before and not something that comes in handy when crawling!
The passage size suddenly increases at the end of Cripple, there’s a traverse over a large hole and then it narrows again. A drop down a pitch soon brings you to the impressive Jupiter Cavern and from there it’s not far to the fantastic Duke Street II in Ireby II, one of the largest phreatic tubes you’ll see in Britain (?).
One crawl left and it would all be over!
Towards the end of the large part of Duke Street II, a side passage leads off to the Notts Pot sump connection. Part way along, after wading through deep water, there’s a climb up to Waterfall Crawl / Skylight Passage. This is more crawling over sand but this time it’s mostly hands and knees, made more difficult by my abs still deciding to cramp up.The end of the crawl brings you out in the roof of Duke Street and from there it’s a walk and prussik back to the surface.
A great trip, 7 hours underground, tiring and not one I’ll be repeating any time soon.
Dowbergill Passage is easier apparently.