Monthly Archives: March 2017

Ogof Draenen – Rifleman’s Chamber, 18th March 2017 by Dave ‘Trig’ Gledhill

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Huw Jones, Dave ‘Trig’ Gledhill, Adrian Burton & Julian Carter (SWCC/MCC)

Streamway photos & Huw in dig – Julian Carter
Rifleman’s Chamber photos – Huw Jones

So there I was, kicked out the front door by the wife with a darren drum full of sarnies and assorted snacks ready once again for a trip into Draenen. This cave really does fascinate me, the sheer size of it is overwhelming and the feeling of being rather insignificant is certainly a feeling I love with caving in the larger systems.

Pulling up at Pwll Du I realised we are not the only ones going under today as a mixed crowd of MCC and SWCC were already kitting up and assessing wind direction in the car park for the chilly change out of kit in a few hours! Giving a friendly nod and a quick conversation, I bade them farewell for the day as Huw, Adrian and Jules turned up.

Fully kitted up and armed with a crowbar, we headed down to the cave. Worth noting is that with any Draenen trip, this is the most dangerous part as soon most of us had already gone head over heels on the slippery, muddy slope to the entrance. This doesn’t matter because soon the ‘sporting’ entrance series will wash our suits off.

Trigger on a traverse in the streamway.

Trigger on a traverse in the streamway.

Adrian in the streamway below Agent Blorenge.

Adrian in the streamway below Agent Blorenge.

Entering the cave is a flat out crawl through a dig with an interesting tight ‘slit’ to slide down, which larger cavers will discover they will get momentarily lodged in, whilst a torrent of water from a diverted drain pipe, enters the rear of your suit! It’s quite arduous but you have gravity in your favour (bare in mind for way out!) and it usually only takes 20 minutes to enter the cave. We are in luck today as we have Huw who played a massive part in digging and breaking through in this caves so it was epic to have a commentary on how it all happened.

After a small pitch with rope in situ, the logbook was reached at Cairn Junction and I signed us all in with my finest hand writing…… Turning right here we continued boulder to boulder (common theme for Draenen) until we arrived at Wonder Bra Bypass, which is a nice (well I think it’s nice) slippery, muddy crawl and easily passed. Turning left and popping out underneath an interesting, wedged slab and made our way to Tea Junction, where Huw reminded us it’s Tea, as in beverage, not T in shape. Bit more boulder hopping and then Jules dropped off his sample pot for groundwater crustacea in the stream, which he was going to collect on exit. We admired the turning for Gilwern Passage but turned left, downstream.

Adrian & Trigger in the streamway.

Adrian & Trigger in the streamway.

Trigger in a deep bit!

Trigger in a deep bit!

Now this is the meat of the trip and it’s worth noting that this stream is long…very long but far from mundane as it tends to change underfoot from ankle twisting worn away limestone to easy going sand and has many a formation, precariously perched rocks and a boulder choke or two. Halfway down we passed the left turn for Agent Blorenge, which is where you pop out after the classic round trip. After this turning Huw pointed up to the left, to Fallout Passage, named because he literally fell out of it and woke up (a slight exageration on Trig’s part!) in the streamway! Now from here on, I remember it getting deep, (See pics!) before it literally felt like it just ended and a muddy slope, with rope out of the stream, is encountered to land you in Rifleman’s Chamber. Moving further up the muddy slope, two muddy climbs, with ladders in place, took us up into Upper Rifleman’s Chamber and the dig.

It’s been a while since it’s been actively dug but the dig itself is still very much established, even with a bottle of red wine ready and waiting. With sarnies guzzled down, Huw and Jules descended the scaffolding to inspect the dig and also release some canned smoke. Then we swapped over so I could have a look in the dig. Very impressive and it seems a fair few hours have been put into this place and let’s hope a fair few more to come….how big can this place actually be or has it only had its surface scratched, with more activity underneath or beyond.

Trig & Adrian at the top of the dig.
Adrian, Jules & Trig in Upper Rifleman’s Chamber.
Huw near the end of the dig.
Essential equipment at Rifleman’s!

Couple of photos and we were off on our way out, back the way we came, to get wet again and Jules positioned to get the best shots at the wet or sporting sections (see pics). Whilst Jules retrieved his samples from the steam, myself, Huw and Adrian had a quick poke around in Gilwern Passage, a lovely decorated passage.

It was after here and even with strict instructions to follow upstream, that I decided to lead us down the wrong passage momentarily (obviously just checking how well Huw knew the cave….honest). Then we began the exit through the ‘sporting’ entrance series, which is always pleasant but was over fairly quickly in 30 minutes and onwards to tackle the muddy slope back to the cars, with me going via a thorn bush.

Apologies if this is a bit of an essay but I’m definitely looking forward to returning to this cave as it’s truly spectacular.
Time underground 6-7 hours.

‘Trig’

Ogof Craig A Ffynnon ’To The End and Back’ 12th March 2017

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Dave Trig Gledhill
Tom Williams
Adrian Burton.

So this would be my first trip into this cave, I’d never really thought much about it until I joined Brynmawr and heard a lot about it so I was pretty keen to do this trip. Tom suggested a generous call out time so we could really see the most and reach the end where it is, oh so close, to the beast of Daren Cilau next door.

The day started by meeting  Tom and Adrian in Asda car park nice and early where I followed them to the car park (layby) to start the age old caving discipline of getting naked in car parks. After a quick ‘’before’’ shot we were off  to the entrance and after a quick faff with the gate we were in and straight away greeted with formations and straws! Through the first boulder choke, up the ladder we went and into a fun wet crawl (well I found it fun as my tackle sack *ahem* floated quite nicely behind me) which took minimal effort.

Before

We reached a junction and I was shown the famous ‘’North West Inlet’’ where we decided that could wait for a hot summers evening maybe. Continuing on, we approached two small pitches. One with a ladder and the other with a fixed handline but feeling slightly exposed at the top. This led straight onto the lovely 2nd Choke. Now this choke was slightly uncomfortable as it climbs and winds upwards but safe in the knowledge that  it could only be easier on the exit we pretty much flew up it.

Our heads poked out of the choke one by one like meerkats….relieved meerkats and we pushed on into ‘’Travertine Passage’’ with its stunning Travertine Dams and formations. Stunning place! But the best was yet to come as next was ‘’The Hall of  The Mountain Kings’’…..WOW what a place, I’d seen this in various books but nothing could prepare me for this place. Thank god for modern cap lamps which helped illuminate this place that day!

After a quick drink and the usual non-caving chat, we set off again to the right through the 3rd choke and on to ‘’Severn Tunnel’’ a nice crawl where at one point many a larger caver has not been able to continue. This uncomfortable passage turns into stooping after 200-250m or so. Here my memory is failing me and all I can remember now is being at a large junction with boulder choke 5 and the pitch down into Promised Land. We dropped the bags off at this point and spent considerable time looking for possible leads which there is no doubt but just need finding or effort. We also went to visit the famous ‘’Helictite Passage’’ a stunning  little passage but with amazing formations where only 2 cavers are allowed at once, now this is why this cave was so strictly controlled in its earlier days.

After a lot of admiration we carried on back to collect the bags and onto the pitch down into Promised Land where we met a small stream. The way on is right but we turned left to go and admire yet another formation in this cave, ‘’The Pagoda’’. Back on track we made good progress hopping boulder to boulder and then turning right we entered an oxbow from the stream which had a few crawls and chokes to overcome before re-joining the stream. We carry on gaining momentum and then suddenly it ends. If only there could be a way on into Daren. We have a breather and drink/food and do the honest thing of turning around to go home to our families to treat them all with our muddy smiles and bruised bodies!

The way out is un-eventful and the 2nd Boulder choke is a breeze with gravity on your side.

In summary its certainly is a highly decorated cave and certainly can provide a good days caving. I cannot wait to return hopefully by the end of the year. No pictures underground sadly.

5 or 6 hours underground…I think.

OFD2 – Salubrious and Selenite 5th March 2017 by Barry Burn

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Barry Burn
Tom Williams
Nick De Gare-Pitt

All photographs by Barry Burn

Having sampled most of what OFD1 has to offer, I needed to get back to OFD2 and start to re-discover the delights that the more complex part of this system presents. So, it was that Tom and I were joined by Nick, an old member of Isca who was returning to caving after a long break.

Meeting at Penwyllt we soon discovered that opting for a trip on a CHECC weekend has it’s own problems with the huge numbers of hung-over students that were milling around looking for their trip leaders. At one point, Tom and I were examining the survey in the common room when we heard a subtle groan and discovered a comatose male student looking up at us and wondering where in the seven circles he had found himself. We offered to show him an eighth one but he just cuddled up under his blanket and tried hard to ignore us.

Tom was on his second trip into the system that weekend having helped out with leading hordes of students around the OFD2 system the day before. He was at pains to point out that technically he’d actually done 1 and a half trips as on exiting the cave with one group, he’d been grabbed, before he could escape out of the entrance, to help show another group around. He pointed out that this was the reason for the state of his kit, although I personally couldn’t see the difference from a normal trip.
Nick GlowingMuddy Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The three of us did the usual trudge up the hill, Tom dripping mud, whilst Nick and I looked more respectable alongside him (although Nick was glowing slightly in his nice new oversuit), to the OFD2 entrance. A pause for a selfie and we were off into the relative warmth of cave.

OFD2 Selfie

OFD2 Selfie

We were soon heading past Big Chamber Near The Entrance and via The Brickyard into Gnome Passage. The plan was to do one of the trade routes down Salubrious and then via Selenite Tunnel to Edward’s Shortcut and then back into Gnome Passage before heading out.

We were soon at The Wedding Cake that is more of a splat, perhaps it should be rename the Wedding Cake Smash. We headed up Chasm Passage for a look at The Chasm before retracing our path back to the start of Salubrious Streamway.

The Wedding Cake

The Wedding Cake

Chasm Passage

Chasm Passage

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
 

 

 

There was a group of students in front of us when we reached the Corkscrew so we waited to allow them to get ahead.

We soon caught up with them though and they asked for directions to the Trident and Judge. We’d borrowed a copy of the old survey and using this we gave them what we thought were the correct directions. Thinking we’d let them get ahead, we decided to go past the junction and have a look around before coming back to for a look ourselves. However, we soon found ourselves at The Trident and realising that the survey may have lied, Tom went back to get them on the right path whilst Nick and I stayed to take some photographs.

Nick at The Judge

Nick at The Judge

Nick And The Trident

Nick And The Trident

Tom reappeared with the students in tow and they were suitably impressed with the formations although none of them seemed able to ‘see’ the Judge. They soon left back up Salubrious and we headed in the other direction to see Selenite Tunnel.

Tom in Selenite Tunnel

Tom in Selenite Tunnel

Nickin Selenite Tunnel

Nickin Selenite Tunnel

We now just needed to head back to Gnome Passage via Shatter Pillar and then into Edward’s Shortcut. The climb up at the end of this has always been a slippery awkward climb but since I was there last, it seems to have become a really slippery awkward bastard of a climb. However, we were soon up and then back in Gnome Passage then back out the way we had come into the cold, sleety outside for a chilly walk back down the hill.

Group Selfie

Group Selfie

Me

Me