Mel in the Letter Box

OFD1 to Cwm Dwr
Saturday 27th October 2007

This was supposed to be a digging trip that I had arranged to go on, but due to the weather and people not turning up we decided to go caving instead.  The trip was to be OFD1 to Cwm Dwr - a through trip (I had been in OFD1 and Cwm Dwr before but not a through trip).  Nicole from SWCC decided to lead with Keith and Brendan prompting if she made a mistake. The 'Letterbox' was good fun, and it looked strange to watch some one disappear into what seemed a solid wall of rock from below, mind you the clay crawl wasn't much fun as I counted buttons which had obviously got ripped off a previous cavers over-suit on the way through (so you can guess how tight it was) and poor old Brendan, his long suffering camera box got its own back by giving him a black eye.  To be honest I enjoyed the trip and its well worth doing if you get the chance - and the best days "digging" I'd done for a long time!

The team: AnGr, BrMa, KeEd, MeWa & JeHa + Nicole from SWCC

Jessica in the sandy passages by the Smithy

Deja Rue - Ogof Ffynnon Ddu
Sunday 28th October 2007

We decided not to dig on the Saturday as it was raining when we arrived, more was forecast overnight and we had a few no shows.
On Sunday, as we had the heaviest rain overnight since the Summer floods and yet more people dropped out of the original dig team, we decided after a little faffing and tea drinking to explore a remote area of OFD.
Jessica had fared well on the hard trip of the previous day, so we headed off deep into OFD to a maze of passages that lie underneath the Great Oxbow series. This allowed us to show Jessica all the tourist areas on the trade routes into the cave, as well as to involve the exploration of some of the cave that we had not visited before. Even with the detours we made good time into the cave and within two hours we were exploring a rarely visited area. A very nicely shaped and well decorated passage - Deja Rue was explored and photographed. At one point in this passage we could peer up into an aven, the top of which, some 60 feet higher is a traverse in the Great Oxbow, that John Smith used to take great delight in sending people across. Near the end of Deja Rue was a small stream inlet which quickly turned into a flat out duck. Keith and myself went through and were quickly followed by Jessica. This led into a massive maze of passages that we were only able to partly explore due to time, looking at the survey there is a great deal more to go at in that area, we are sure to return.
On our return we paid a visit to the dig, we were wise to have not tried to pump out and dig, as the whole cave was now flooded up to the middle pool!

The team: BrMa, KeEd & JeHa

Derek at the Landing, descending a rope to the streamway

Swildon's - Short Round Trip, Priddy, Mendips
Saturday 10th November 2007

I awake to the soothing sound of birds chirping and the first rays of the days sunshine streaming through my window. I turn to look at my clock, to my horror see that I should now be picking up Keith and Del, from West Bromwich, an hours drive away. A mad dash and I am on the road making apologetic phone calls to Keith and Jessica.
We arrive in Wells nearly an hour after our planned time, making a trip into Bat Products to meet with Jessica and part with some of our hard earned cash. We then proceed to the City Arms to partake in a full English breakfast with complimentary jam doughnuts for afters.
Our plan was a trip into GB cavern and we do a tour of the caving huts trying to find a key to the cave. All attempts fail and instead we fall back on to plan B - The Swildon's Short Round Trip.
All the troubles have plenty of airspace, and bar Brendan having a little moment in the Birthday Squeeze the trip goes without a hitch. Jessica tackled the sump with style and found it to be the best part of the trip.

The team: BrMa, KeEd, JeHa & DeRo

Dan in the Waterfall Series

Jessica and Mark in the Rawl Series

OFD 1 - Waterfall Series and the Round Trip
Saturday 17th November 2007

We head to Penwyllt in a convoy of cars to find workmen at the bottom of the hill doing work to the telegraph poles. The engineers vehicles are blocking the road and there seems to be little prospect of them moving quickly, so Chris and myself decide to walk up to the Club to get a key for OFD1. 15 minutes later as we walk past the quarry, the fleet of cars pass us after eventually being let through.
We head into the cave via the streamway and then go up the traverse into the Waterfall Series to avoid climbing up the waterfall.
An hour or so playing in the maze of passages up there saw us return down the waterfall and then complete the round trip via the escape route.

The team: BrMa, KeEd, JeHa & DeRo, MaRo & ChWe + New member Dan

Jessica in the streamway

Dan Yr Ogof
Sunday 18th November

Mark had not been able to make any of the previous Danny trips and was feeling a little left out, so knowing we were in South Wales for the weekend, requested a trip on the Sunday. A round trip with an excursion up Bog Passage was planned, Mark going out and buying a wetsuit so he could go through the Green Canal.
I awoke on Sunday morning to hear the Welsh sunshine pattering on the window. It had rained a good part of the night and on arriving at Danny, the river was well up. With it still raining it would be foolish to spend too much time in the cave, we meet up with a couple of diggers who loaded us up with scaffold bars to ensure that we did not float way through the lakes. A quick dash through the cave was made to Corbels Chamber before we returned. The lakes were now another 3 inches higher, and would have sumped by the end of the afternoon. A little time was spent taking pictures in Lake 1 before returning via Hereford for a meal and pudding served in a fish bowl.

The team: BrMa, MaRo & ChWe

The team: AnGr, LeTu, MeWa & StWa

 
Heather at the junction of Wonderbra Bypass and the Beyond A Choke Streamway

Ogof Draenen
Saturday 1st December 2007

This was to have been a trip to Craig A Ffynnon, but without a key for either this or Agen Allwedd we turned our attnetion to Draenen.
Intermittent very heavy rain outside the made the entrance series a little moist in places so there was no chance of our party overheating.
The rope climb down into the main cave provided a sporting diversion for our damp group of intrepid cavers and raised the adrenalin levels of some members.
Once we were all safely down we headed to Gilwern Passage.  At the boulder choke we spilt the party, with Brendan returning and taking photos with one group while Keith took the rest to continue to the Hearts of Olden Glory Streamway.
We all met up at Wonder Bra Bypass and headed out together.

The team: KeEd, JaHa, JeHa, BrMa, HeSi & ChWe

 
Heather in Gilwern Passage

 
John viewing calcite flows on one of the walls of Neil Moss Chamber

Peak Cavern, Castleton
Sunday 16th December 2007

The trip was to be to Neil Moss Chamber and we made an uneventful progress through the muddy ducks to the start of Pickering's Crawl that leads to the Chamber.
Brendan being navigationally challenged missed a squeeze up and continued to lead the more gullible in the party through some horrendous squeezes into a long crawl following a howling draught. (After looking on the survey later, there should be some reasonable sized passages / chambers there to look at on a future trip). John and Graham were having nothing to do with this and waited while we returned.
The climbs up the mud banks now followed with people taking one step forwards and two backwards fighting their way up the slippy banks.  Horizontal squeezes up in the air and rope climbs followed to add interest and sport to the trip.  Everyone got through even if they had to have a couple of goes.
A break was taken in Neil Moss Chamber followed by some photos, before we made the easier down hill return to Pickering's Passage.
Having plenty of time to spare we then went to the Surprise View.
A trip down to the sump was made before we headed back out the cave and froze as we headed back to the TSG hut.

The team: , JeHa, BrMa, CaNo, HeSi, GrSm & JoSm

 
The Main Streamway

 
Keith at the junction with Slalom Passage

Ogof Capel, Clydach Gorge, South Wales
Friday 28th December 2007

This cave is one I have wanted to visit ever since I bought my first copy of the South Wales guide book, but until recently it was only accessible to cave divers as just inside the entrance are two sumps.
Now a new route dug through a boulder choke in Ogof Gelynnen allows entry to this spectacularly decorated cave to non divers. The cave is gated and access is strictly controlled to preserve the delicate formations.
The upgrade of the Heads of The Valleys road to a dual carriageway threatens this cave, as the unstable entrance passages pass less than 10m below the current carriageways.
Due to heavy rain on the day we turned back at the ducks and took photographs on the way out.

The team: , KeEd, BrMa & ChWe + Rachel & Richard from WMCEG

 
More spectacular formations