A Bear Cave made of Blue John

When we woke up, the morning after our adventure to the reservoirs, we were very excited small bears.  This because Polar had told us, the evening before, that we were going to visit a cave.  She said that there are several caves open to the public around the Hope Valley and they are all different.  She thought we would like Treak Cliff Cavern the best, but she wouldn't tell us why.

We wondered if other small bears lived there, or if it was in a pretty forest.  Because we were so keen to visit, we had our hats and warm jumpers on long before Grizzly and Polar got back from breakfast.

As we drove along the Hope Valley, Polar told us she used to do lots of long walks here when she was a student, getting off at one of the little railways stations and walking along the ridges and through the fields to the next one.  'You can see the views from one of the walks, from Lose Hill to Mam Tor, on one of those funny Channel 4 links with the "4" as a metal man,' she said.  'The road ahead goes through Winnat's Pass, which is the only road out of this end of the valley, as the Mam Tor road collapsed, but we go a little way along it to get to the cave.

Grizzly parked the car along a road that had already started to climb out of the valley and Polar carried us, in our bear bag, up a path with lots of steps towards the wooden huts where the cave entrance and little shop is.  There were some other grown-up humans and four human cubs already waiting for the tour.

A nice man called Mr Sam led us all into the cave, warning everyone that the roof was very low to start with.  Polar told us to tuck ourselves right down in the bear bag as she would have to stoop a lot.  Hanley Bear didn't listen, as he was so eager to see where we were going, and he bumped his head on the rock.

'Ouch!' he shouted.  'I've got cave slime on my hat!'

'You're lucky it hasn't got on your fur,' I said.  'Or you would have to have a bath when we get home.'

When Polar stood up, after climbing up through a long, low tunnel, we could see we were in a big cave.  Up some more steps there were old mining tools and a little waggon.

'There are pretty-coloured crystals in the rocks!' cried Endon.

'That's what the miners used to dig out,' said Grizzly.  'It's a semi-precious stone they call Blue John.'

'What a funny name for a stone!' said Hanley Bear.

Mr Sam explained to everyone that it got the name because the French called it 'Bleu Jaune' because it is blue and yellow, which became 'Blue John'.  It is very special because it is only found in the Peak District, where they still mine small amounts for making pretty things.  There were two miners working in a cave we couldn't see during our visit.

'This would make a brilliant bear cave,' Endon said.  'To make it look nice, we could polish the Blue John in the walls until it was all shiny.'

'We would need to wear our jumpers all the time if we lived here,' I replied.  'It's pretty but, because it's all made of stone, it's very cold. Big wild bears could live in here but we would get very chilly. '

'There's a lot more to see yet, little bears,' said Polar.  Just then, Mr Sam put all the lights out so we could see how dark it was.  We couldn't even see our own paws held up in front of our noses.  We were glad when the lights came on again.

Going up and down even more steps, we started to see stalactites and stalagmites.  We knew what stalactites were, because we have seen them in canal tunnels, but we had never seen stalagmites (which appear to grow out of the ground) before.

A few of them were taller than us bears.  There is one group called the Seven Dwarves (even though there are more than seven of them!)

In the last chamber, we found stalactites that were longer than us and 'flow stones', where the minerals that make the stalactites looked like frozen waterfalls.  Endon wanted to climb them, but Polar kept him safely in the bear bag.

'Stalactites take hundreds of years to form but they are very fragile,' she explained.  'Just look, little bears - don't poke at things with your paws!'

We decided this must be a special, magic bear cave, which only very well-behaved small bears were allowed to visit.  It was lovely to look at but, with all the water running down the walls and dripping off the ceiling to make the stalactites and flow-stones, it would have been too damp for us to live in or even for wild bears to use for hibernating - unless they were magic bears!

When we came out of the cave, we were even higher up the side of Mam Tor.  Polar had been planning to take a photograph of us but instead we sheltered under Grizzly's umbrella and hurried down to get a nice cup of tea, to warm up.

We went home via Monsal Head, where our railway walk would have taken us if we had kept on through the tunnel, and stopped for more tea and some delicious cake at the Post Office in Hartington.  Before we got home, there were more stormy showers, so we settled down for naps, dreaming about the magic bear cave and wondering what our next adventure might be.

Reservoir Bears

After our visit to Miller's Dale and the railway tunnel, Grizzly drove us north across the Peak District, through Tideswell and the Hope Valley and up to a big lake below a very high hill.

'That's the Ladybower Reservoir,' Polar told us.  'It was made by damming the valley, to give the city of Sheffield a reliable water supply.  There are two more reservoirs further up, the Derwent Reservoir and the Howden Reservoir, which is where we're going next.'     

We joined a main road to cross the lake on a long bridge, then turned off and along a narrow road leading up into some woods.  We could smell the fresh scent of pine trees.

'Can we run about and climb in the woods, and play at being wild bears?' asked Endon.

'Not just yet, little bears,' said Polar.  'It's still a long drive to the head of the reservoirs, but you can get out and explore when we get there, if you are very careful not to get lost.'

There was so much forest where we stopped that we decided it would be safer to stay in the bear bag and explore with Polar and Grizzly, as it would have been very easy to get lost or run over by one of the many cyclists following the track around the reservoirs.  

It was quite rugged country and perfect for wild bears, we thought, so before we got back in the car, we practiced growling and being fierce.  Then we set off down the valley again in Polar and Grizzly's little red car.

'Can we explore that castle?' asked Hanley, pointing through the trees at a big tower ahead of us.

'That's not a castle,' said Grizzly.  'That's one of the towers on the Howden Dam.  It was those, and the towers on the Derwent Dam further down the valley, that the RAF Dambusters used for target practice in the Second World War.'

'There's nowhere to stop here,' said Polar.  'But if we drive on down the valley, you can see the remains of a little harbour and a temporary town where the dam builders used to live.'

Polar was right.  There were almost no buildings left and the little harbour was in ruins, but we imagined how it must have looked when there were workers and their families, including human cubs, living here.

At the Derwent Reservoir Dam, there is a memorial to the Dambusters and more about how the dams were built.  Grizzly stopped the car so we could take a look.  We know the Dambusters aircrew were very brave, but we bears always feel very sad when we think about humans fighting each other, because lots of human cubs and animals get killed when there are wars.

We liked reading about how the dams were built, although that made us sad too when we found a village had to be abandoned.  Grizzly said that last year, when it was very dry, the Ladybower Reservoir got so low that you could see some of the buildings.

We could see that there was plenty of water in them now, so hopefully everyone in Sheffield and around that area has plenty of water for their baths and cups of tea.  

It was time for us to go to our hotel for a cup of tea then, as we had another busy day to look forward to in the morning.

Lost Railways and Bear Caves

Earlier this month, Polar and Grizzly took us on a mini-holiday to the Peak District.  Polar told us that the plan was to do some walks and visit a cave.

'Is it a bear's cave?' I asked her.

'No,' she said.  'Although I expect bears used to use some of the other caves in the Peak District.'

We bears were excited about going to places where there would be caves to explore.  We packed our sock jumpers into our bear bag and soon, we were looking out of the car at crags and gorges we had never seen before.  

Polar and Grizzly stopped for tea and toast at a place called Miller's Dale, where there is a nice café in an old-fashioned station building.  We hoped there would be steam trains but there were no trains at all.  There weren't even any rails!

'This railway line closed a long time ago,' Grizzly explained sadly.  'Now it's a cycleway and footpath between Buxton and Bakewell.  We're going to walk a little way along it but stay in your bear bag to start with, as we have a very high viaduct to walk over.'

Grizzly was right.  The railway crosses high above a road and a river.  We held on tight to our bear bag as Polar carried us across, then went to explore some ruined buildings.

'Is this one of the bear caves?' asked Hanley Bear, when we got to a dark hollow under the hill.

'No bears, this is a limekiln, built by humans,' Polar replied.  'It was used to turn limestone rock into lime for using in industrial processes and for growing crops.  It isn't used now but I wouldn't go in there, as it's all wet and slimy.'

We sniffed the air coming from the limekiln and agreed that it was too damp for bears to live in.

The old railway made a great footpath with wonderful views across the river valley to rolling hills and fields of bright green grass full of woolly sheep and skippy lambs.  There were woods to either side full of wildflowers and birds, except when we got to steep cuttings through the limestone hill.  Grizzly and Polar stopped for a drink of water and let Endon practice his climbing.

'Have you found any bear caves?' I called up to him.

'No, Sonning,' he said.  'But there are ferns and little flowers growing in between the rocks.'

We carried on along the path, walking under railway bridges.  We bears decided to pretend we were trains, making puffing noises and whistling when we went under bridges.  Suddenly, we saw something exciting in front of us.

'It's a bear cave!' cried Endon.

'No it's not,' Hanley Bear argued.  'It's a railway tunnel.'

'And there's a train in it!'  I gasped, seeing a light coming towards us.  'Oh no!'  I cowered down in the bear bag and covered my eyes with my paws, expecting a terrible crash when the train ran out of rails.

'That's a bicycle, Sonning,' said Polar, as the cyclist whizzed by.  The smaller bears laughed and I did feel silly. 

The Tunnel had lights all the way through but turned such a tight curve that you couldn't see the far end until you had walked quite a long way into it.  We didn't walk all the way to the other end, as Polar and Grizzly had other plans for us and we had a good way to walk back to the car.  

On the way, Grizzly pointed out a building in the valley called a 'mill', which was a type of old factory powered by water or steam. 

We knew where we were when we passed the limekilns and crossed back over the big viaduct to the station café.  Then Polar and Grizzly settled us down in the back of the car with some snacks and we set off for the next part of our Peak District adventure.