Huw Jones, Dai

By Dai MacDonald

It was a miserable morning but we’d arranged to meet up at midday as the rain was stopping, and we timed it well. With it being a through trip and us arriving in separate cars it made sense to leave a car at each end. I did have to remind Huw we’re leaving clean kit in his car where we’ll be coming out. We got the last bits of our caving kit and jumped into my car to leave it at our entrance end.

Kitted up and making our way along the old dram road, we headed to Ogof Drws Cefn.

I’d never been in the entrance before, I’ve heard horror stories of it stinking and full of flies, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Firstly it wasn’t stinking or full of rubbish, or full of flies, but Huw did confirm the flies were a thing. He told me about a trip Huw, Tom, and Dave had done through there in the summer and in the crawls they could hardly see from the flies.

I really enjoyed the entrance, however awkward and tight it is, it’s really nice sections of passage through there. I had no idea where we were going, and Huw’s memory was a little hazy, but it wasn’t too long before we were out and into “Wyvern Hall”. The straws and other pretty formations in there were stunning, and they seemed to be such a crisp white with minimal impurities.

Onward towards “Eliptic Passage” and “Fault Chambers”. When in “Fault Chambers” Huw asked if I’d been to the lower end, and I hadn’t, so we went for a look. This chamber is just amazing, it reaches up so high and dwarfs anybody on the opposite side of the chamber, just amazing!

Next up was “Perseverance”, which you would think would be enough, but for some reason Huw and I decided we’d have a look down a side passage, “Rabbit Run” which was a lot harder than a short section of “Perseverance”, but I’ve seen it now, much the same thought as “Beer Challenge”. The one thing that stood out in this first part of the trip was the bats, including two greater horseshoe bats, the second being in “The Nunnery”. There was a lot of bats, close to what you’d see in the entrance of Aggy.

“Megadrive” is such a massive passage, but also a gorgeously carved out passage, including some absolutely amazingly preserved mud banks. Just before going through “Indiana Highway” Huw said he hadn’t been to the big guano pile in a while, so we wandered over for a look, where I seen the last and final greater horseshoe bat. It’s so crazy to think that bats were using this exact spot about 2000 years ago, and up to roughly, 800 years ago. We were heading for “Lamb And Fox Chamber” after “Indiana Highway”, and when there it always strikes me how huge the boulders are in there, and some seem so precariously perched.

“White Arch Passage” passed quickly, but when we got to “Tea Junction” I got confused and really didn’t recognise where we were, to the point I asked Huw which way it was. He laughed and said I should recognise where I am, and then it all sank in, and Huw suggested following the passage all the way, rather than taking “Wonder Bra”, and once again I hadn’t done that before, so I was more than happy to, but once again, as I came out into ”cairn junction” I was completely disorientated and I didn’t realise where I was until I was more or less at the cairn. We paused for a moment, but both were keen to get to the surface now, we’d taken a lot longer than we expected, but luckily I’d added extra time to the callout.

Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du is the newest entrance to be opened up and it’s got a lot less water than the original entrance, but you’re forced to be flat out crawling through short sections of it, so you end up a lot wetter. It didn’t really bother us until we were out of the cave and the icy wind started hitting us. The walk back wasn’t as bad as I remembered either, I thought the hills were a lot steeper. Finally making it back to the car we were both really cold now, my finger tips and toes were numb, and it wasn’t the best of evenings at Pwll Du, but we were done relatively quickly, apart from me getting tangled up in my T-shirt putting it on. We defrosted in Huw’s car for a couple of minutes before realising my phone was in my car near Ogof Drws Cefn. Once at the car and the callout stood down we went for a coffee at the closest McDonald’s.

It’s always such a great trip in Ogof Draenen with Huw Jones, it’s just nonstop exploration stories from when it was originally being explored, absolutely fascinating!