Clapham Nature Trail & Ingleborough Cave Tour by SADACCA Women’s Group.
Sheffield Environmental Movement (SEM), working in partnership with Access the Dales took 23 women from the Sheffield & District African Caribbean Community Association (SADACCA) on a field trip along Clapham Nature Trail and the Ingleborough Cave, one of the largest caves in the UK featuring thousands of years impressive limestones, stalactites, stalagmites and underground passages stretching hours of miles.
The Clapham Nature Trail is a well known walking route in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The trail follows landscaped woodland and riverside pool paths through the Clapham Estate, leading visitors towards Ingleborough Cave. Along the route are attractive waterfalls, mature woodland, wildlife habitats and views towards Ingleborough, one of Yorkshire’s famous Three Peaks. Ingleborough Cave is one of Britain’s finest caves and has welcomed visitors since 1837.
The cave contains formations created thousands of years. The guided tour provided the women an insight into the geology, history and natural environment of the cave system.
According to SEM’s CEO Dr Maxwell Ayamba BEM, who accompanied the women, “the trip was a life-time experience as this was a rare opportunity to see nature’s wonders”. He noted that although the women, some elderly, and with mobility problems still managed to tour the cave as they said this was a spectacular experience that they dare not miss out.
Dr Ayamba said Access the Dales has been a wonderful partner working with SEM to take elderly people but also those with mobility problems to visit special sites and places that would have been impossible. The women he said, have never heard of Clapham Nature Trail and the spectacular Ingleborough Cave. These outdoor learning experiences according to Dr Ayamba are quite rare in minoritised communities, when it comes to the elderly and the disabled, who appear to lose out in benefiting from the greater outdoor experience.
As all the women said after the tour, “We had such a lovely time visiting Ingleborough Cave with the women’s group. It was our first time experiencing anything like this, and we really enjoyed exploring and seeing the cave and its history and nature features which are quite spectacular, it was so interesting! A big thank you to Maxwell and Debbie for organising such a wonderful trip”.