The Adventures of Another Pooh
Caving Explorations and Escapades
by David Yeandle

The Adventures Of Another Pooh
Caving Explorations and Escapades
by David Yeandle   

US price: $13.95     UK price: £11.99
Format: Paperback
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: 154
ISBN: 0-595-22466-0
Publication Date: Apr-2002

The Adventures of Another Pooh is a light-hearted and amusing look at the eccentric world of caving, and conveys at first hand the excitement of original exploration when entering a cave system or diving into unknown subterranean waters for the first time.

David Yeandle started caving in Somerset at the age of sixteen. He quickly became addicted to this adventurous sport. As soon as he could he moved to Leeds so as to be well placed to explore the more extensive cave systems of northern England. He was given the nickname “Pooh” by a Leeds University caver called “Minitrog”.

This book is a light-hearted and amusing look at the eccentric world of caving.

The author is also a keen traveller and has visited many remote places in Asia and Australia. After years of wandering he ended up working in oil exploration and one of his most interesting assignments was being part of the fire-fighting operations in Kuwait after the Gulf War.

The Adventures of Another Pooh may be purchased from the following on-line bookstores:

Note: Sadly, the author David Yeandle was tragically killed in a paragliding accident in Spain in April 2002.  David has been posthumously awarded the Ghar Parau Foundation's Tratman Award 2002 for The Adventures of Another Pooh.  The 2002 award was for the best contribution to British Speleology in Print for the year 2003.  

This is an extract from the opening of Chapter One ("Langcliffe Plot"):

I could hear a skylark singing high above the moor.  I stopped walking and gazed around the sky trying to spot the bird singing this lovely song.  It was one of those summer days when the Yorkshire Dales is the best place to be in the whole world.  The sun shone in a near cloudless sky and a gentle breeze sent ripples through the meadow grass in the fields below me. The River Wharfe wound its way lazily through the valley bottom and dry-stone walls soared improbably up the steep hillsides into the fells above.  I was glad to be in this beautiful place; but soon I would be leaving it all, for the harsh underground world of Langcliffe Pot.

"Come on Pooh," called Dave Brook as he walked on up the hill. "No time for day dreaming!"

As usual, I was at the back of the group.  I started walking as fast as I could, fearful that I would be left behind and not be able to find the entrance.

As I carried on up the hill the view across Wharfedale became even more glorious as bleak moorland, hidden becks and distant tops came into view above the fertile valley. To me Wharfedale seemed deeper and grander than the Dales in the Ingleton area.  Perhaps this was my youthful imagination, spurred on by the knowledge that Langcliffe was potentially deeper than any of the caves over in the ‘classic’ areas. I felt both excited and apprehensive at the prospect of this trip. We were planning to dig at the end of the cave and both Dave Brook and Iain Gasson thought the chances of a breakthrough good.

 Somewhere under Wharfedale, there must surely be ‘The Black Keld Master Cave’ and perhaps Langcliffe was going to be the way in.  I was very happy to be going on a ‘pushing trip’ with these legendary cavers.  I wanted to prove my worth on their team.  This was, I felt, a chance at the ‘big time.’

Read the entire first chapter on-line

Message from Charles Muller, Diadem Books:

I deeply regret that the author David Yeandle died in a paragliding accident in Alicante, Spain, just weeks before his book The Adventures of Another Pooh was released. Here is an early  photograph of David and an email I received from his friend Tony White in Australia:

Charles,
I am an old caving friend of Dave and saw him at the end of January [2002], a wonderful get- together after many years. He asked me whether I had a photo of him from the 70's wearing an old great coat and silly hat as he wanted one for his book. After I returned to Australia he reminded me by email that he was very keen to use it. Well, I found one taken in the Dales up at Nick Pot in about 1972 and he asked me to scan it and send it over.  That was shortly before his tragic accident.-- Tony White

The photograph shows Pooh and AB (Alan Brook) up at Nick Pot on the Allotment. I believe it was in June 1972, the weekend before we all got trapped by floodwater down Langcliffe Pot. Dave was very fond of that hat.-- Tony White.