A seriously wet weekend meant that we were restricted as to where we could cave, and with Jess being the Duty Officer at SWCC it was just Mark and myself that headed up to Top Entrance to go and have an explore of the complex Deja Rue area of the cave. We headed into the cave quickly following Cross Rift to Midnight Passage and then heading up and past the turning to the Skyhook Pitch. A short climb down led us to a passage with an ascending boulder slope, where a body sized hole leads into a boulder floored chamber. Heading straight ahead of this chamber we found ourselves in a tall passage with a stream running in the floor. After a short distance the stream enters from the right and we continue in a dry passage ahead. Soon we are crawling through Hayden's Dig to enter the impressive Deja Rue. This vaulted passage gently meanders as it descends and is followed until it becomes sandy floored and the ceiling height lowers to enter a silted sump. Just before the sump is a small inlet passage where a flat out crawl leads past a couple of dead ends to enter a small chamber with a pile of old bang wire and multiple ways off. This is the start of a very complex area we headed off down one of the exits to the chamber and followed a maze of passages, at each junction selecting a route onward that took our fancy. Eventually en exclamation came from ahead "Come this way I've found a chamber with loads of ways off and a pile of bang wire". Arriving in the chamber it is pointed out that this is the same chamber as at the start of the circuit. We head off again now to take in each of the passages that we missed on the first circuit. We complete additional circuits until we arrive back at a familiar passage. Here we find the end of a bang wire, "lets follow the bag wire, it will take us back to the start" I exclaim, then to realise the error in my plan as we had approached this from the other end. With all passages we found explored, apart from going up the pitches that we would have to come back to with kit, we decided to head back.
Deja Rue - Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 2
Deja Rue - Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 2
Deja Rue - Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 2
Deja Rue - Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 2
A very complex area that was well worth a visit. We will return sometime with SRT kit to ascend the pitches to reach Merthyr Vale and the higher level passages.
Present: Mark Burkey and Brendan Marris
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