Today's trip involved George, Jas, Jonny, Bartek and Dave as well as multiple parts of Ogof Draenen. Although it involved fewer parts of Draenen than first planned, as will become apparent.
Anticipating that the Round Trip would take 10-12 hours with navigation and photography, it was an early-ish start into the cave. True to form, Bambi (aka Dave) took a very impressive slide on some mud by the cars, falling flat on his back before the caving had even begun. Suddenly those slippery Draenen boulders didn't seem like such a good idea…
Heading in through the new entrance that joins Upstream Passage, we made a strong start to the trip, making it to Elliptic Passage in just over two hours. This was despite post-Christmas lethargy in some members of the party, and Bambi’s nemesis: the horribly slippy boulders throughout much of Upstream and White Arch Passages.
Passing into Wyvern Hall, the way on was easy to find, not least because several members of the party had got totally lost in this section of cave a year or two ago, and thus lots of it looked very familiar! Armed with the description of the cave, we made rapid progress through the various tortuous rifts and passages to Isotonic Weirdways and from there to Ponderosa Chamber via more rifts, a tight upwards squeeze and a slightly sketchy traverse. (The traverse was fine in itself; it was getting onto it with all the loose rock that was the less pleasant part).
A quick photography shoot in Ponderosa Chamber was in order before we hunted around for the Didgeridoo Pitch. Having found this, we debated whether it was indeed the correct way on and not merely some horrible slither into an inescapable abyss. Despite the in-situ rope being described as a “handline” in the description (which incidentally is excellent) this was very clearly a full-on pitch, albeit one which could - with care - be down-climbed. Jas “The Beast” volunteered to do so, and having backed himself up with a prussik started the downwards slither.
After much shouting up and down the pitch, it was decided that it was indeed the Didgeridoo. However, with time passing and dropping the pitch being a point of no return, there was an opinion amongst some that it would be better to turn back. We briefly debated splitting the party, however it was decided that this wasn't a good idea, and Jas was required to struggle and fight his way back up the Didgeridoo, earning his moniker in the process. Note to future selves: perhaps it's best to decide that you're going to turn round before you send a member of the party down a strenuous climb. Judging by the annoyance in Jas’ voice when we asked him to come back up, I think he shares that opinion!
From here, we reversed our footsteps and made swift progress back along the Wyvern Extensions Main Route to rejoin Elliptic Passage. Here another photo was in order, and after packing up we made our way through Fault Chambers where we met a couple of cavers on their way to the Lucky Thirteen Extensions. The rest of the trip back to the entrance series went quickly, although Bartek managed to catch at least two of the party out with his vampire impression, causing some alarm (and Jonny to crawl faster than he had done at any other point of the trip!).
On a side note, Bartek took us back to Indiana Rift from Megadrive via Northern Loop instead of crawling along the ledges either side of the trench and dropping down the boulder pile. This added fifteen minutes or so onto the trip, but it took us through some beautiful passage, with no horrible boulders and no crawling. In fact, it was the nicest bit of caving on the trip; it's just a shame it was on a route that added time!
Before arriving back at the entrance (exit?) series, there was time for one more practical joke. Bartek (hereafter called “Tigger”) seemed to have found bundles of energy and decided that leap-frogging Jas, George and Jonny by taking Carpet Crawl why they continued to Tea Junction would be great fun. Bambi followed reluctantly, before Tigger shot off down Wonderbra Bypass to lay in wait as a vampire again…only to find that George and co were on the verge of turning back, worried that one of us had fallen. This extra effort seemed a little excessive to Bambi, who waited at Wonderbra Bypass, musing how most normal people seem to expend energy on caving trips instead of acquiring more…
Arriving at Cairn Chamber, all that remained was the entrance series. A bit of photography at the top of the four meter climb allowed time to look around and spot Strawberry Passage, which - always being in a rush to get out on previous trips - is something I’d never looked for before. Before long, the awkwardness began, but as always, it was relatively short-lived. Although by this point, Jonny (who christened himself Eyeore) had had more than enough of Draenen and was despairing of ever seeing the outside world again. After a final struggle, we exited the cave and all that remained was the trudge to the car, getting changed and a delicious meal at a Turkish Restaurant in Abergavenny.
Cavers:
George ("gorgeous")
Jonny ("Eyeore")
Jas ("The Beast")
Bartek ("Tigger")
Dave ("Bambi")
Trip report: Bambi
Photos:Tigger
