Huw Durban, Taylor Durban, Morgan Specht, Huw Jones

We met at 9am at an almost deserted SWCC. There wasn’t a duty officer that weekend but one of the two SWCC members that were around sorted us out with a key.

We got changed and walked up to Top Entrance. It was a chilly morning and I was glad I’d brought hat and gloves. Morgan lead us to Gnome Passage, with a loop via the Big Chamber Near The Entrance. To start with I couldn’t see much as I could only get the two dimmest settings on my lamp plus a bit of flicker if I tried for a higher setting. When we got to Gnome, I decided I needed to do something about it and took the batteries out and then reinserted them. Sorted!

This was as far as Morgan had been in this area of the cave before. It was Taylor’s first time in OFD and Huw D said he hadn’t been in OFD2 for 25 years! We dropped down to the lovely Salubrious streamway and headed down stream. Morgan started taking photos as we went along. Unfortunately there was a problem with the memory card which resulted in there being no photos to show. We turned left after a while, to see The Trident and The Judge formations and carried on beyond, along the nicely decorated passage to the formations in Swamp Creek.

Returning to Salubrious, we turned right at the next junction. There was a passage up here, that I’d spotted on the survey, that I remembered had a really nice crystal pool. I’d only ever approached the passage from the other side before but the survey showed it was the first turning on the left so we couldn‘t miss it could we? After a little while we all felt that we’d gone too far. We should have turned around but of course we didn’t! We came to an s-bend with a funny little window in the middle and then an awkward rift. Beyond I arrived at an enlargement at a cross-roads. There was no cross-roads marked on the survey. The passage we were looking for was to the left so that’s the way I went, through a slightly muddy crawl, into a larger area with a booming echo. I called the others through but then discovered that the passage closed down at a grotto! We back tracked to the cross-roads and took the branch straight on, instead of left. This also closed down so we decided enough was enough and we should get back to somewhere that we knew where we were. Back at the cross roads again, I was certain that the remaining branch would take us back to Salubrious, upstream of the turning to The Trident and The Judge, which it did via an interesting little climb down. Later, on our way out, Morgan and I had to have another look. Morgan soon spotted the passage we were looking for – at the top of a 15’ overhanging climb!

Huw D really wanted Taylor to have a look at the Main Streamway so we decided to do that instead of heading over to the Midnight Passage area. First though, we headed for Selenite Tunnel. We briefly met another party returning from The Trident, before turning right into Selelnite and carefully crossing the chasm that is President’s Leap. Selenite really is a stunning bit of passage. Nicely scalloped walls of black limestone lined with pure white calcite, a flat mud floor and nice formations. Just a pity it doesn’t go on for longer. We waited for a short time at the other end, at Shatter Pillar, for Morgan to take a few photos and then followed an equally as nice passage down to Cross Rift. We turned left, admired more formations in the ceiling and made our way to Maypole Inlet via one wrong turning.

Here we got out the rope I’d brought and used it to line Taylor on the climb. We twisted our way down Maypole to the ladder and the climbs down to the stream. It had been very wet and we weren’t certain if we’d actually be going into the stream. It looked fine though, high but not dangerous so in we went. It was forecast to start raining in the early afternoon and it was now 12.30! We had a very quick look up and down the streamway before climbing back out. Huw said he’d definitely been there before (he had done a through trip in the past) but he had no recollection of Maypole at all.

Back up the ladder and the climbs and we had a quick bite to eat before the steep trek back to the entrance. Between Gnome and The Brickyard, Morgan pointed out a rock feature that is a useful landmark to choosing the correct route. He gave it a name that I don’t think any of use will forget in a hurry! He claims that someone else told him. You’ll have to ask Morgan.

Morgan Specht, Huw Jones, Lee Garbett

Early on a Sunday morning at the beginning of December I drove from Abergavenny about 50 minutes through the beautiful countryside around Brecon en route to Penwyllt in the Swansea Valley. Penwyllt is the headquarters of the South Wales Caving Club who are the gate keepers for the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave systems. There I met up with Huw and a new man to the club named Lee. Lee’s other half Carolyn had meant to come but after doing her first BCC trip into Aggy earlier that week she was still a bit stiff and decided to give this trip a miss.
We changed into our gear and Huw grabbed the key and signed us out on SWCC’s caving board. Cavers on the whole are very enterprising with their approach to gear, producing bespoke and homemade/altered gear and Lee was no exception. He came to South Wales from the peak district and a climbing background, having done some caving, where he claims that he didn’t have much use for a helmet. The helmet he pulled out of his gear bag was an impressive creation. He had adapted a helmet with black duct tape to hold several head torches.
We walked down the hill to the cave entrance, about a 20 minute walk. This was a new way of approaching the cave for Huw, who said that years ago you had to drive down the hill, park and use someone’s drive, but recently the right of access and land had been secured by the club allowing us to walk down from the club.
We approached the entrance, descended the ladder and opened the gate to enter OFD 1. The plan was to do the round trip. Huw had printed out the surveys and route descriptions and highlighted our route. He gave me the opportunity to lead the trip and do the route finding. We got our bearings and set off through the lower section which had been set up to be a show cave with concrete floors and railings, now gone. We made our way to the Toast Rack which is a junction, either going straight on through Pluto’s bath or up the fixed step ladder that takes you up over a six foot smooth flowstone step. We went up and came shortly to another junction, where we took a right under some fine curtains and headed to the Step, which was a nice series of steps down into the main Stream Way. The Stream Way was brilliant, a long winding passage with rushing water carving great shapes and scallops into the rock. Crossing the pots is the main hazard at this water level and is fun because you have to balance on a rolling scaffolding bar which is attached on the upstream end. None of us swam, but we did fill our wellies! We made our way along to Lowe’s Chain which is a smooth 4 meter high wall with two fixed ropes hanging down it. We passed this and went on up the stream to a waterfall and the end of the passage, where I climbed up over a natural stone bridge to have a look at the entrance to the Waterfall series. It was a precarious climb and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with a fear of heights or a priority on self-preservation. I carefully climbed down and we made our way back to Lowe’s Chain where we climbed out of the Stream way. The climb wasn’t too tough, but this could prove to be the most difficult part of the trip for some cavers.
This took us up into the Rawl Series, a dry blocky series of passages, chambers, and chokes where Lee discovered the value of wearing a helmet. The cave here is similar in character to OFD 2 further up the hill. The route took us up and back around on ourselves until we arrived at Pi Chamber where we went left, and I found the way on behind a boulder which dropped us steeply down a small phreatic tube (a long way down surprisingly) to the beginning of the bolted traverse 50 feet above the Stream Way. If you don’t like traverses, cow’s tails are advised to attach yourself to the cable, but it is a wide and flat ledge that can be done without them. The start is the scariest bit because you have to slither over a polished bolder and carefully get your foot on the ledge beside the drop! I managed without attaching myself to the cable, tucking my elbow over the cable and slithered along the wall when the ledge narrowed!! Exciting!!!
After the traverse the passage meanders until you pop your head out of a dig and then crawl back to a recognizable junction where we saw the hanging curtains earlier. We had finished the round trip and done if fairly quickly so we headed back down past the curtains and scrambled up a smooth flowstone climb on the left and made our way to along Column Passage to The Column, which is well worth the visit. We then went back down to the stream to a fork which lead us back up to the Toast Rack, this time crossing Pluto’s Bath. I successfully crossed it without getting soaked due to my long legs. Lee got a bit wet!
We made our way out and back up the hill, to the showers and changing facilities at Penwyllt. It was a great trip and you can see why it’s a classic caving must do for any aspiring caver. It takes less 4 hours, its good practice for navigating, it has every variety of cave challenges, none of which are too extreme or unpleasant and it’s stunning. It’s a lot of fun and having a warm shower and a roaring fire to follow it up makes a perfect day.

Morgan Specht