To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Been Before Poem by David Pass

6 miles of passages are dry
On Casterton Fell in June
Kirkby Lonsdale is close by
Ease Gill flows into the Lune

We wandered up a dry stream bed
Which had cut through limestone rock
We went into a cave that led
To a crawl and then a block

"I can't get through" Paul said to me
But I thought I'd have a nose
The gap was tight but I could see
That beyond the ceiling rose

Feet first into the slot I went
A squeeze but then room to stand
I turned and looked and then I bent
I could move the floor by hand

I braced and pulled the slab to me
Down it slid, more space was left
Paul followed now the way was free
New to man - this secret cleft

Past stalactites and down a pot
To a chamber underground
In '63 that was the lot
A way through was later found