Deja Rue - Ogof Ffynnon Ddu

We decided not to dig on the Saturday as it was raining when we arrived, more was forecast overnight and we had a few no shows. On Sunday, as we had the heaviest rain overnight since the Summer floods and yet more people dropped out of the original dig team, we decided after a little faffing and tea drinking to explore a remote area of OFD. Jessica had fared well on the hard trip of the previous day, so we headed off deep into OFD to a maze of passages that lie underneath the Great Oxbow series. This allowed us to show Jessica all the tourist areas on the trade routes into the cave, as well as to involve the exploration of some of the cave that we had not visited before. Even with the detours we made good time into the cave and within two hours we were exploring a rarely visited area. A very nicely shaped and well decorated passage - Deja Rue was explored and photographed. At one point in this passage we could peer up into an aven, the top of which, some 60 feet higher is a traverse in the Great Oxbow, that John Smith used to take great delight in sending people across. Near the end of Deja Rue was a small stream inlet which quickly turned into a flat out duck. Keith and myself went through and were quickly followed by Jessica. This led into a massive maze of passages that we were only able to partly explore due to time, looking at the survey there is a great deal more to go at in that area, we are sure to return. On our return we paid a visit to the dig, we were wise to have not tried to pump out and dig, as the whole cave was now flooded up to the middle pool!

Jessica near the end of the downstream passage.

Jessica in Deja Rue.

See more OFD 2 photos here 

The team: BrMa, KeEd & JeHa

OFD1 to Cwm Dwr

This was supposed to be a digging trip that I had arranged to go on, but due to the weather and people not turning up we decided to go caving instead. The trip was to be OFD1 to Cwm Dwr - a through trip (I had been in OFD1 and Cwm Dwr before but not a through trip). Nicole from SWCC decided to lead with Keith and Brendan prompting if she made a mistake. The 'Letterbox' was good fun, and it looked strange to watch some one disappear into what seemed a solid wall of rock from below, mind you the clay crawl wasn't much fun as I counted buttons which had obviously got ripped off a previous cavers over-suit on the way through (so you can guess how tight it was) and poor old Brendan, his long suffering camera box got its own back by giving him a black eye. To be honest I enjoyed the trip and its well worth doing if you get the chance - and the best days "digging" I'd done for a long time!

Mel crawling through the letterbox - Wow look at those nails!

Jessica in the sandy passages near The Smithy.

See more Cwm Dwr Pictures here 

The team: AnGr, BrMa, KeEd, MeWa & JeHa + Nicole from SWCC

Calf Holes to Brow Gill

This was the chance for the novices to take us caving and lead a trip! Provided with an OS map, together with a description and survey of the cave, the group sorted the tackle, James rigged the pitch under our watchful eye, James and Jessica did some life-lining and then Jessica, Heather and Deanne led the way through the cave to daylight. 

The team: MiCl, EmPo, HeSi, JeHa, JaHa & DeWi

Bull Pot of the Witches, Dales

The opportunity to put some ladder climbing skills into practice and to explore downstream. Deanne whizzed up the ladders, Jessica looked liked she'd spent the day in a mud bath and James decided he wanted a jet washer! 

The team: MiCl, EmPo, BrMa, DeWi, JeHa & JaHa