Tom Williams, Huw Jones, Helen Stewart and Malcolm Stewart

After a long but pleasant walk from Penwllyt, we were finally at the entrance to Pant Mawr Pot. Huw went down to rig while myself, Malcolm and Helen kitted up and I had one last bite to eat.

Abseiling down in a daylight shaft for a first time made me a bit nervous. All my other abseils have been into darkness, meaning I couldn’t see how far I could potentially fall and lulling myself into a false sense of security. This one was different, being able to clearly see the bottom, seeing how far down Huw and Helen were, really put into perspective how deep I was about to go. What followed was a period of swearing, panicking and holding onto the rope for dear life before I was onto the boulders at the rebelay. Helen made it look so easy, I made a right mess of it. The actual abseil was rather fun, albeit short lived. And before I knew it, I was at the bottom.

It felt like we had left 2016 behind and had stepped back into Jurassic Park. The sound of a waterfall in the distance, ferns high above us and a shaft of bright light piercing the darkness. This is what caving is about! Many a frog had somehow managed the journey from the surface without injury, there seemed to be a thriving colony in the underworld. A newt(?) was a pleasant surprise, I think it’s the first one I’ve ever seen in the wild. After a bit of photography, we started to move downstream, passing the first and second chokes with relative ease. Stopping off at Straw Chamber and the stunningly decorated Chaple, the helictites growing from the walls were a highlight. Travelling down through the oxbow, we arrived at Sabre Junction with the very impressive Sabre shaped formation from which the section is named. There is a rope hanging down from a climb just to the left of the Sabre, but due to the apparent age of the rope we decided against it. Later examination of the original 1959 survey doesn’t make reference to a high level passage there. Onwards through the third choke and a well earned pit stop. A number of small cairns in the area, some very impressively balanced, were the topic of conversation. But we couldn’t decide why they had been built. Next was The Graveyard, which links with The Vestry and The Organ Loft. Huw, Helen and I went off to investigate but shortly returned without seeing them. Next was The Great Hall and The Fire Hydrant, the force and volume of water from which was very impressive. A junction was then met, on the left was The Dead End and to the right the passage continued onwards towards The Sump. Malcolm went to look at the digs and abandoned digging materials, while Huw, Helen and I went to the sump and back. Much fun was had in the slippy mud en route. The fresh looking foam on the roof of the passages gave an indication of the heigh of the recent flooding in the passages. After taking stock of the digging debris left at The Dead End digs, we made quick progress back upstream and to the waterfall upstream of the entrance pitch. Huw made an impressive climb to then appear at the top of the waterfall. We washed our kit in the waterfall and decided to head home. I was looking forward to climbing back up the pitch, only to realise that I’d set my footloop a few inches too short. This made for difficult, tiring and slow progress back to the pitch head. I did get out…..eventually.

All in all a good trip, I wouldn’t mind a return trip to have a look at the higher level parts of the cave, above Sabre junction and into Dilly’s Despair.