Long weekend to Wales
Friday 29th March 2013
We left in good time
this morning and went via the Wessex cave club to get a key for the cave we are
going in tomorrow. We then set of for
Wales. We didn't get very far before I
wanted to stop to take some photos!
Actually we only got 10 mins down the road to Cheddar Gorge! There were some beautiful icicles on the rocks
by the road.
Eventually we made it
to the caravan at Llangors (we have stayed there a few times now!) with a
brief stop for some lunch at the services just before the Seven Bridge. We arrived about 14:30 and unpacked the car
and got changed ready for our first caving trip.
The cave on the menu
was Porth-Yr-Ogof. We explored the dry
sections of the cave first – through the maze and into the creek.
We continued into the great bedding cave and into waist deep
water!! We found one of the entrances
and left the cave to have a look at the resurgence from the outside – it is not
safe enough to go through without buoyancy aids and a flotation device!! Coming back we went into one of the other
entrances and rejoined the stream way.
We headed back and found white horse pool. We considered wading/swimming through. Tim and I decided it wasn’t worth getting
completely wet but by the time we voiced this to Matt he had set off!!! He didn’t seem to make quick progress and
found the cold took his breath away! We
hung around so we could laugh at him – I mean help him out and film him!! We made our exit though the upper stream
way. It was a good trip and a good start
to our holiday.
On our way back we
passed some iced up waterfalls.
Back at the caravan we got the dinner on and had showers to
warm up! After our dinner we looked at
the photos we took, relaxed and looked at the surveys for tomorrow’s trip.
Saturday 30th March 2013
We got up about 8.00 and had a bacon and egg sandwich for
breakfast. After checking the surveys
and getting our kit ready we set off for Llangattwg Mountain. Today’s trip is Agen Allwedd. The road conditions were good considering all
the snow that was around. We parked
outside the Whitewalls caving club and made our way up the track along the edge
of the Llangattwg Escarpment. The path
was very snowy and icy; it was a fairly chilly walk!! We saw some more of the icicle formations.
Eventually we arrived at the entrance – The cave is entered
by the Ogof Gam entrance as the Official Agen Allwedd entrance is permanently
locked for bat conservation. The Ogof Gam entrance is a small locked door at
the end of the track we were following.
As we got inside we found the log book and wrote in our
trip. Just round the corner we were
faced with some amazingly beautiful ice formations. Sadly the photos just didn’t do them
justice! The first section of the cave
was a narrow rift passage following a small streamway. As we got further down we passed a couple of
stream inlets coming in on the right. We
passed two passages - Angel Roost and Queer Street, next we were faced with the
first bolder choke. The choke was about
50m long and a pain in the arse all the way through! Navigation was a
particular challenge. It was a great feeling when we got out the other side –
we had been told to have a good look at where we exited the choke as when you
come back to it at the end of a trip it all looks the same and takes a bit of
searching to find the right route. We made
ourselves a cairn as a marker! The chamber
we had emerged into was called Barron’s Chamber – a large and impressive sized
chamber/passage. Tim had a photography
session while Matt and I distributed some light.
We continued round the corner into Main Passage. Main passage is 1200m long and is an
impressive size all the way along. There
were no formations to look at but there were some preserved mud crack
formations along the edges of the passage.
At the end of the main passage we came into the Music Hall – there was a
music stand, some music and some mud figures on a rock in the middle. As we sat in the chamber we were aware of a
humming noise – presumably the reason for the chambers name! – we are not sure
if the noise was caused by water or air flow.
Matt decided to add another mud model – apparently it was an emu!
On our way back we tried some filming – which didn’t really
come out well unfortunately. Tim also
had a photography session.
When we got to the main stream passage turn off we decided
to have a brief look down - we were running out of time so couldn’t go as far
as originally planned. We made our way
back to the first boulder choke and had some water and a chocolate bar before
the last push. It was a relief to be out
the other side of the choke and lovely to feel the passage draughting. On our way out we filled in the log book with
our exit time and made our way out to the snowy track back to the car. We had been underground about 5 hours in total. The walk back was lovely as I had got so hot
in the cave. The air temperature had
increased and some of the icicles had started melting. I’m sure when it cools down tonight they will
form again. A great trip and well worth
going back on another occasion to explore some different sections.
Back at the caravan we showered and got dinner ready –
Jacket potatoes with a variety of toppings.
This evening we relaxed and looked at the survey and route from today’s
trip and had a look at the plan for tomorrows cave.
Sunday 31st March 2013
Easter Day :o)
We started the day rather slowly – the clocks had gone
forward an hour and we were all feeling it!
A bacon sandwich helped matters.
Today’s cave of choice was Llygad Llwchwr and Llygad Llwchwr 2. They took about an hour to drive to as they
are on the West side of the Brecon Beacons.
We pulled off the road by the gate that led into the field we were going
to walk across - we first went into Llygad Llwchwr. The walk was lovely as it was nice and sunny,
Matt claimed that he was not going to go for a swim today as he had learnt his
lesson from Friday! As we got nearer the
river we followed a narrow path above the edge to the entrance of the
cave. There were two entrances one was
sumped and for divers only and the other was about 8 feet above the path.
The cave consisted of high level passages with a few
chambers where the stream way could be accessed. In the first river chamber we were able to
get down to the water easily. Tim climbed
up and over the river to have a look at some of the other passages and take
some photos.
As we made our way back to the main passage we found a
little side chamber with some lovely formations and a pool.
We followed the passage to look over the second river
chamber. There was a second viewing
place higher up which Matt and I climbed up into while Tim was playing cameras.
The third river chamber was accessed by ladder. Tim and Matt went down and I belayed them
down and then up again. The fourth chamber
was easier to access the river. There
was a divers line attached down in it because chambers 5 and 6 are only
accessible by divers with an air bell separating them. The divers next continue into Llygad Llwchwr
2 – digger since broke through from the surface so it was accessible by dry
passage.
We had been in the cave longer than we had anticipated so we
made our way out to have a look into Llygad Llwchwr 2. The cave had only been broken into in 2008 –
a lot of it had been taped off to preserve most of the cave. It was very pretty...
When we got back to the caravan we showered and then went to
a nearby pub called the Black Cock Inn.
We had been there a few times before and the do amazing food – it
certainly didn’t let us down tonight. We
returned to the caravan and watched Father Ted!!
Monday 1st April 2013
We had to pack everything up this morning as it was our last day. After breakfast we left the caravan about 10 and made our way to today's cave - Ogof-Y-Ci. It was snowing a bit but not enough to get in the way of our plans. We parked at the nearby farm and requested permission to go across their land to the cave. We descended into the gorge and very easily found the entrance.
It didn't take us long to get to the streamway - we followed it down walking, stooping and crawling passage, there were a few pretties. Tim had another photo session but the cave was very steamy so it was difficult to get good pictures.
We had a great holiday and some good laughs. Nice to be home even though there is a lot of unpacking and sorting out to do!!
