Fairy Cave Quarry trip 19/11/2017
Unless otherwise stated, camera, setups, lighting, edits and gallery effects by Tarquin.
Shatter Cave in particular is one of the best decorated caves in Britain. However, with very little time available, I did not want to slow down someone else's caving trip with comprehensive photography, and the camera was therefore left in the car. The subject of the second picture mandated that I go back out and get it. The pictures are therefore not the usual pictures of such a beautifully decorated cave, ignoring the usual stal completely.
Cave spider in Shatter Cave. Some of these have bright yellow abdomens. This particular one is one of the largest I have seen, around 5 cm in leg span - as big as the one that runs across your floor. Thankfully, rather than running across the floor, cave spiders prefer to remain still. Right above your face.
Ring Road's chamber unexpectedly showed that even this close to the surface, it is possible for cryostal to form (perhaps the surface was further away during the ice ages).
At least, I really hope this is cryostal. It seems to have been covered then partly washed off by a drip.
A close-up reveals the white beads that are characteristic.
This part really looks like dumped carbide, but again, there are some rather unusually large pieces at the top-left.
And this set have a more recent translucent stalagmite flow over the top of them, suggesting that they are far too old to have been produced by humans.
This set look like a splash ring, but that is more likely to be caused by a drip landing in the middle of an existing pile of cryostal. The bobbly mud on the right and angular rocks on the left both suggest ice-age permafrost freeze-thaw action, which is one of the key factors in the creation of cryostal.
Dry rot in Balch Cave.
Lighting by Helen Nightingale
Dry rot coating the stal. This could easily be mistaken for plant roots.
Spent carbide; the curse of the former conservation-less caving era, dumped randomly anywhere in the caves - seen here in Hillier's Cave. It is thrown in all sorts of stupid locations, such as here in a gour pool, in the first grotto within the cave. When looking for cryostal, all too often it turns out to be yet more spent carbide. The texture can be the same, but carbide is usually more uniform, without the tiny beads.
Plant roots invading Fairy Cave. The lesser horseshoe bats hang from the long strands like clothing on a washing line.
Modelling by Mandy Voysey, lighting by Helen, Tarquin and Mandy
A herald moth copying the bats.
Electrical junction box in the quarry.
Lighting by Helen Nightingale
Cave spider in Shatter Cave. Some of these have bright yellow abdomens. This particular one is one of the largest I have seen, around 5 cm in leg span - as big as the one that runs across your floor. Thankfully, rather than running across the floor, cave spiders prefer to remain still. Right above your face.
Ring Road's chamber unexpectedly showed that even this close to the surface, it is possible for cryostal to form (perhaps the surface was further away during the ice ages).
At least, I really hope this is cryostal. It seems to have been covered then partly washed off by a drip.
A close-up reveals the white beads that are characteristic.
This part really looks like dumped carbide, but again, there are some rather unusually large pieces at the top-left.
And this set have a more recent translucent stalagmite flow over the top of them, suggesting that they are far too old to have been produced by humans.
This set look like a splash ring, but that is more likely to be caused by a drip landing in the middle of an existing pile of cryostal. The bobbly mud on the right and angular rocks on the left both suggest ice-age permafrost freeze-thaw action, which is one of the key factors in the creation of cryostal.
Dry rot in Balch Cave.
Lighting by Helen Nightingale
Dry rot coating the stal. This could easily be mistaken for plant roots.
Spent carbide; the curse of the former conservation-less caving era, dumped randomly anywhere in the caves - seen here in Hillier's Cave. It is thrown in all sorts of stupid locations, such as here in a gour pool, in the first grotto within the cave. When looking for cryostal, all too often it turns out to be yet more spent carbide. The texture can be the same, but carbide is usually more uniform, without the tiny beads.
Plant roots invading Fairy Cave. The lesser horseshoe bats hang from the long strands like clothing on a washing line.
Modelling by Mandy Voysey, lighting by Helen, Tarquin and Mandy
A herald moth copying the bats.
Electrical junction box in the quarry.
Lighting by Helen Nightingale