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Thursday 18 January 2018

Under Ingleborough


Cave systems like White Scar Caves are formed by groundwater and underground streams dissolving the limestone rock, sculpting out tunnels and caverns. It's an amazing subterranean landscape, with streams, waterfalls, huge caverns and strange formations of stalactites and stalagmites, pillars and flowstones, formed when the calcium carbonate dissolved in the dripping water builds up over thousands of years.


It's quite difficult to photograph. It's much darker inside than the photos suggest, with key features picked out by lights. You aren't allowed to use flash or tripods so I had to use the highest ISO my camera allows, with a slow shutter speed and wide aperture. A lot of my pictures came out really too blurred to use. The metal walkways are rather bouncy too with a group of about 20 tramping along them! But I think you can get an idea of what it was like from these pictures.


Some of the formations have been given names, like the one above. There was 'the judge's head' (a small stalagmite that looked like a head wearing a wig), 'the witch's fingers' and 'the devil's tongue'.


Wherever you are, underground, you can hear flowing water, and sometimes the waterfalls and streams are visible.


Deeper into the system there were some huge caverns, quite awe-inspiring.

9 comments:

  1. Much better photos than I managed when I was there several years ago!

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  2. Natural caves are amazing the way they develop over hundreds of years. You captured the size and formations beautifully here Jenny.

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  3. Amazing! We went into a cave in Kentucky. I could feel the claustrophobia in my bones. The beauty in a cave is undeniable.

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  4. Brilliant photos. I've taken underground ones but they never come out as good as these.

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  5. Hi Jenny - fabulous photos ... and thanks for sharing with us - congratulations on obviously a fascinating day out - cheers Hilary

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  6. That last pic is incredible, Jenny!

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  7. Wow they are amazing but a little creepy looking.

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