An above ground stroll around Thors Cave, Staffordshire, September 2016

Myself, Alex, Will, Marc and Tom met at the car park close the public footpath in Wetton at the top of the Manifold Valley in Staffordshire.

We got our refreshments ready and set off down the valley on the footpath, Thors cave quickly came into sight and we opted to check out above it before heading around to the opening and looking inside.

The views from the top were incredible, overlooking the manifold valley we saw a couple of caves in the distance and planned to visit these later in the day.

Searching in the over growth above the main cave, we found a smaller opening and checked it out to see if there was a link or larger hidden system within the hillside. Not this time, let's head down to the cave opening and have a few beers and a break!

We headed back to the path and soon we were at the opening of the cave, working our way up the worn rock face with obvious foot holes to steady ourselves we were in the cave and photo taking commenced...

Beers were passed around and we laughed and joked whilst smoking a few tabs and taking shelter in the coolness of the cave. It was very large and surprisingly light inside except for the rear of the cave which was very muddy, wet and dark. We left this area alone as none of us were prepared for darkness or mud...

About half hour had passed when a strange whistle came from the rear of the cave... What was that??? Tom whistled back and sure enough there again was the eerie whistle followed by "I can see youuuu" We instantly relaxed knowing that some strange individual was messing around the back of the cave. "I wonder how long he's been in there?" "Longer than us and we've been here a while!" "What a weirdo!"

More minutes passed and we had almost forgot about the strange cave dweller when 2 more men arrived to take photo's. "Tom, whistle to the stranger again" He complied, the cave dweller responded and the two photographers looked at us, looked at each other, grinned then we decided to leave them inside with the cave dweller...

It was clear at this point that the two men thought that whistler was with us and they soon followed us out once they realised he wasn't!

It was time to head down into the valley and find that other opening! Oh what a mission we were letting ourselves in for! This turned into a hike very quickly, we soon lost our bearings in the valley as we lost sight of both caves. Will suggested we scale one of the very steep hillsides either side of the path to get to high ground and get the direction we needed.

We all foolishly agreed and started climbing the 45 degree steep hillside for about 150m! We reached top, gasping and bad stitch from the beers and realising once at the top, we were on the wrong side completely!

Lets race to the bottom! Bad idea before we knew it, 5 of us were uncontrollably rolling down the steep hillside massing in a heap at the bottom! Cans shaken up beyond drinkable and dizzier than 10 minutes on the yearly carnival waltzer!

We spent the next few hours walking miles to the next cave, realised it was tiny and nothing important when we got to it, found the pub but it was closed so called it quits and decided to make the return journey back to the cars.

All in all a very eventful trip into the countryside, laughs, bruises, sweat and beers. Until next time folks!