Caving - Wales Caving Holiday

Long weekend to Wales

Friday 29^th 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 30^th 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 31^st 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 1^st 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!!