Aggy – Grand Circle

Not a great start on my part, I decided to use the van so I couldn’t drive my normal route up the hill to Whitewalls, so drove further up Heads of Valley road not away I have been for a while only to find someone had moved the roads about & I got a little lost, so needless to say I was late meeting Mark.

Aware grand circle is long trip, on arrival I hastily started getting changed in to caving gear to realise I’ve forgotten a key piece of kit, my suit! 

Fortunately, Mark has an extensive caving wardrobe and after he’d stopped laughing, he offered me his smallest spare. Yes, it was a bit roomy but by the time I’d added my array of protective gear it didn’t look that silly. 

We quickly got through the entrance series and down to the streamway taking the turn at the northwest inlet. It gets very slippy underfoot here and we re-enacted Bambi on ice, sliding our way along until we reached the narrows where the water gets chest deep. It was very cold and I’m glad Mark had talked me out of going without a suit, we traversed tiny ledges to keep from going neck deep!

Can’t remember next bit ????

We make good progress and get to the 4^thBoulder choke??? Mark goes first, disappearing up and around in to the 1^sttight section, I can hear lots of scuffling, puffing and panting. He doesn’t sound happy and asks if I can help find something for his feet to push off, I crawl in to the bottom of the choke to check, but there’s nothing! He reports he can’t get past the next squeeze, I ask if he can come back out but he reckons not as he’d pushed hard to get through the 1st squeeze thinking that was the tight bit, but the 2^ndis worse.

I crawl back out to see if I can find a small boulder to wedge to give Mark something to push off, thinking it’s a long way back around to get out if Mark can’t get through! I find a suitable rock and use my weight training skills to heave it up in to the choke and sure it up as best I can, hoping is doesn’t move and fall back on to me. 

There was a lot of groaning and tiny increments of movement from Mark as he attempted to inch his ribs over the constriction, he’s through, both of us are very relieved! He reckons he might even get a tiny bruise 😊.

Onward, we reach the turning for the southern streamway and start along it, exclaiming how it’s not that bad and don’t know why people moan about it so much!

About an hour later we were both cursing, say it was worse than we remember, with what seems like endless switching between stooping and crawling passage. Very glad to exit in to the main passageway and headed out. Bumping in to Richard on the walk back to find we’d made it round in about 7.5hrs. 

Present: Loz Appleby & Mark Burkey

Trip report Loz Appleby

Agen Allwedd Erse Passage & Beyond

Trip report to Follow

Jess & Kay in Main Passage (Photo Brendan Marris)

Jess in Main Passage (Photo Mark Burkey)

Jess near Trident Passage (Photo Brendan Marris)

Kay near Trident Passage (Photo Mark Burkey)

Kay and Jess in the first chamber, Erse Passage (Photo Brendan Marris)

Jess in the second Chamber, Erse Passage (Photo Mark Burkey)

Kay in the final chamber, Erse Passage (Photo Brendan Marris)

Present: Jess Burkey, Kayleigh Wood, Mark Burkey & Brendan Marris

Getting Around To See The Swiss Village In Aggy

Having been led once on our infamous 'Outer Circle' trip I fancied both seeing if I could find my way around the Inner circle and seeing The Swiss Village, so a trip in to Aggy was decided for Saturdays trip.
Brendan and I met with Chloe and Mark at Luigi's for breakfast before heading to a quite busy White Walls.
There were no less than 5 groups heading in to Agen Allwedd this fine Saturday morning, and so we kept a reasonably sedate pace in through the entrance series.
My navigation held through to Selenite needle passage, where I would have missed this completely without Brendan there!
After this I had no problem with navigation the rest of the trip and so we took a little time to take a few photo's just for a change!
We exited within our call out time for which Jess was grateful and made our way to the Indian in Crickhowell to refuel before heading on to the SWCC for our next days adventures.

Navigating Turkey Stream Way (Photo Brendan Marris)

Gigantic Junction (Photo Brendan Marris)

Selenite Needle Passage (Photo Brendan Marris)

Swiss Village (Photo Mark Burkey)

St Pauls (Photo Mark Burkey)

Present: Mark Burkey, Mark Burgess, Chloe Burney & Brendan Marris

An Ace Adventure In Agen Allwedd From Any Perspective

Our original plan for Sunday was to do an inner circle trip in Aggy, but as there had been heavy rain for the preceding couple of days, and the fact that Chloe turned up after having had only 2 hours sleep the night before, a rather more gentle trip was planned.

The wind and rain buffeted us as we walked the track to the entrance, almost blowing Jess and Chloe off the path at one point!
Glad to be out of the elements we were soon warmed up as we made our way though the entrance series with Jess leading the way through to Barons Chamber.
We continued on with me taking full advantage of the easy passage to play with some different angles photographing Main Passage before dumping the camera gear and heading past the Music Room, Cliffs of Dover and in to the Ace of Spades Stream and Aven Series.

The area is a real 3D maze and the avens had an impressive volume of water cascading from them. At one point Jess led us around a sharp dog leg and in to a very muddy phreatic tube. The tube had an awkward spike of calcite protruding from the ceiling followed be an equally awkward squeeze to emerge head first 8ft above the floor. Past the spike Jess called back for me to grab a welly to stop her from slipping too fast.
I looked through the oppressive bit of passage not looking forward to following her.

Jess was the only one of us who had been in this area of the cave before and eventually coaxed me through with the knowledge that it linked back with the rest of the maze.
Chloe and Mark didn't find the awkward manoeuvre any easier, but managed to join us in the small chamber.
With everyone grouped we pushed through another impressively aqueous aven to find a small chamber blocked with boulders. I had a good hunt around but couldn't find a way on......At this point Jess admitted she hadn't been in this part before and just hadn't wanted to try and climb up to the squeeze by herself!
This proved to be as interesting as she feared and Jess, Chloe and Mark required assistance to get back in the tube and through. This left me flapping like a fish out of water trying to get in a position to get back. Fortunately ,once in the muddy tube, it was heading down dip and the squeeze proved easier in reverse.
We continued investigating every passage until I found a flat out crawl to a particularly loose and uninviting dig. As I backed up a sizeable chunk of rock displaced pinning me. Too heavy to lift I managed to roll it off and was very happy to get back in to more stable passage with nothing more than bruising.
Chloe was looking pretty tired and my adventures with the loose choke made us decide to quit whilst we were ahead.
The exit proved happily uneventful and we were soon hurriedly changing in the damp night air before saying our good byes and heading home.

Gypsum crystals in the floor of Main Passage

Jess leading the children (Playing with perspective shots)

Present: Mark Burgess, Jess Burkey, Chloe Burney & Mark Burkey

A Musical Adventure in Agen Allwedd

After following a rather long diversion as the Heads of the Valley road from SWCC was closed, I arrived half an hour late to the Daren Cilau car park to find Rich, Mat, Ian and Phil just finishing changing.
I told them to head off and I'd catch them up as I know Mike and Andy's party would be already at the entrance waiting,  and begun to kit up.
Half way down the track I managed to catch Phil and Ian and together we continued to the entrance to meet up with the other party.
Andy and the others were sunning themselves waiting for us and we begun to sort out who was going with whom. It was only then that we realised that Rich and Mat were missing. We knew straight away that they must have wound up taking the path which would drop them down the valley and much shouting and whistle blowing began until they eventually emerged.
Rich had originally planned on the inner circle trip but was tired out by the climb back up the valley and elected for a slightly more subdued trip with the rest of us.
Our group of six plodded through the entrance series to emerge in Barons chamber after around an hour. We then begun to head down the stream way, but it was all getting a bit much for Pete who hasn't caved for some time. We adjusted our plan and decided we'd head to the music room instead along with a quick visit for the cliffs of dover for most.
On the way out we paused for a few photos and eventually emerged after 5 hours plodding. Pete looked extremely happy to make it out alive and at one point I actually thought he was going to kiss the ground as he exited....until he saw the sheep muck :)

Main Chamber

The guys playing around in the Music Room

Pete emerges from a hard trip

Present: Mat Maylin, Rich Gibbons, Pete Anstey, Ian Millward, Phil Lester & Mark Burkey

Agen Allwedd the Inner Circle

A pilgrimage to St Pauls Dome and the Inner Circle

As the previous trip earlier in the year only got us as far as Turkey Pool, we were determined that our second outing into Aggy would see us reach the inner circle. We gathered at the car park in good time to make this happen and after a number of unscheduled delays we eventually made our way to the entrance.

Double checking that nobody in the group needed to be anywhere later that evening we swiftly made our way in through the entrance series to Barons Chamber.

Dropping off the main passage into the stream way we made our way to the 2^nd boulder choke, where it seems I may have attempted to eliminate Andy G from the group by sending him up into a small choked dead-end – Immediately it all came back to me and I spotted the correct way through and (with only the soles of his boots visible, but his vocal cords still in perfect working order), Andy G was freed from his confined space with the help from Brian and a bit of elbow grease. We continued to make easy work of some climbs down and a short traverse into the main streamway where (with a few slips here and there) we soon arrived at Turkey Pool. At reaching this point we were all feeling positive and continued on our quest to reach the Dome, still making good progress with both time and navigation through Selenite Needle Passage to the entrance to Inner circle. We approached the circle anti-clockwise and with energy levels flagging and the two fairly steep scree slopes to tackle we were all relieved when we reached the Dome of St Pauls.

On our return journey, full of good spirits, it seemed that I may have missed a turning and lead the group into a dead-end passage, with us all crashing into the back of each other! I assumed we must have gone wrong somewhere?? We retraced our steps, but on crawling down the adjacent passage I was convinced we’d never come in this way? Eventually we decided to return to Eastern Avenue and retrace our steps, and sure enough we were originally heading in the right direction and It was me that had missed the small opening on the floor back into Selenite Needle Passage!

With the prospect of making it out before sundown we made easy work on our return through the passages and with a few rest stops here and there we were soon on the last leg of the Main Stream Way… this somehow seems to become longer each visit and with it being Marc C's first visit he was convinced we must have gone wrong somewhere - he was convinced that it didn't seem this long on the way in. We checked the survey and reassured him we weren't lost 'but couldn’t quite pinpoint where we actually might be on the map' Luckily, shortly after this we came to the T junction that leads back into Barons chamber and back into the entrance series.

Emerging from the cave to what seemed to be a nice Summer evening we made our way back slowly to the cars. Brian & Andy G were to leave us at this point and Myself and Marc C headed down to the campsite to meet the other groups. Thankfully they had been waiting patiently for our return so that we could all go out and enjoy a curry together.

Trip report: Mike Bonner

Present: Mike Bonner, Andy Grimes, Marc Carney, Brian McDaid

Agen Allwedd

With the green light from Wal (the team weather man) informing us that the anticipated snow was now forecast as rain, we arrived at Whitewalls on Saturday morning at 09:00 as planned. With a light dusting of the white stuff and the biting wind blowing we wasted no time changing into our gear and we were soon on our way to the entrance to Agen Allwed.

Our objective was to reach ‘Inner Circle’ but more importantly to enjoy ourselves, give myself and Andy Williams the opportunity to lead and to make sure we resurfaced on time so that Wal was back home for his evening of entertainment.

The four of us signed in for 10:00 with a 17:00 exit time and headed off for Barons Chamber, as we had all previously been in this system before (although for some of us 7+ years ago) we made easy work of route finding through the 1^st boulder choke, and within a short time we had reached the chamber.

After a quick check of the survey, we headed down the mud and boulder floor of Barons chamber. I was leading, keeping a close eye out for the opening to main stream passage which would appear on the right. After descending the mud slope the passage quickly reduced down to a crawl, at which point Andy G advised I should check the survey - the tone of his request raising suspicion as to whether I was guiding them the right way! With the stream flowing towards me and not away from me it was soon clear that I was trying to lead the group up Meander passage, which was a bit of a 'Meander' the wrong way!

Back on track we crawled and squeezed our way towards and through the 2^nd boulder choke.  This involved some interesting route finding between boulders, a number of down climbs and a challenging traverse near the end of the choke.

At this point the survey mentions a "...long section of mostly roomy streamway..." but what we weren't expecting was a much longer (much, much longer!) section of mostly roomy streamway. As time elapsed, I was beginning to think that we must have somehow missed the Northwest Junction, however reassurance from Andy that the chances of missing the junction was highly unlikely due to it being a fairly obvious point, I carried on leading us down stream.

No sooner had we finished this conversation the Northwest Junction came into sight. After another quick rest stop we continued up Turkey Streamway, passing the Beehive Inlet and Calcite Gallery. Keeping an eye on the time we all agreed that we would soon start the long return journey back. Keen to reach a notable point within the system before we retraced our steps I checked the survey. Knowing that we had already passed Turkey Junction I could see that there were only 2 more passages to our right to pass before we would reach Turkey Pool. We continued along the passage and within a short time we reached the corner to Turkey Pool. Andy W and myself had a quick (chilly) dip in the pool before making a u-turn and heading back out, pleased that we had made it to this point.

Andy W took the lead and retraced our steps to the 2^nd boulder choke, we scrambled back up the number of big drops we had encountered on our way in and continued to make good headway through the rest of the choke. Soon we were back in Barons chamber and enjoying watching Andy W search for the entrance point back into the 1^st boulder choke. 

Sticking to the rule of keeping right at all junctions we made our way back to the entrance, signing ourselves out at just before 17:00, so we had made a good judgement to end our trip when we did.

A chilly, but less windy walk back to the car and a much needed (and well deserved) stop off for a pint on our drive home made for an excellent end to a successful trip.

report by ... Mike Bonner 

present ..Mike Bonner, Andy Grimes, Steve Wallis, Andy Williams

Going in Circles - Five Girls & a Fat Bloke!

After 12 hrs of caving on the Saturday, on Sunday Jess and I staggered in for breakfast to find half the group had decided one day's adventures had been enough for them. This left us with only 6 people looking to go underground. Loz had talked Mel in to doing the outer circle route in Aggy, so it was decided that although it's not a usual Sunday trip, we'd give it a go.
We arranged a 10pm call out with Keith figuring that as we weren't taking camera kit this should give us plenty of time & after the usual faff the group made their way down the escarpment. We logged in at the entrance at 12.30pm and Mel led us through the entrance series to Baron's Chamber in good time. At this point Loz took over the navigation, and as I'd done the Grand Circle route a couple of weeks ago with Brendan, I was able to help through to Northwest Junction. We headed up the Turkey Stream Way and Loz pointed out the other end of Coal Cellar Passage where hopefully we would all be emerging later at the end of the circle. Fun and squeaks were had at Turkey pool and then we headed on to Turkey Chamber.
At this point navigationally everything went a little awry. Loz could remember bits of her previous trip but not in which order they came. At first we thought we were looking for a smaller passage off from the boulder slope and begun down St Valentine's Passage before it became obvious that this was definitely not a trade route and headed over the boulder slope to the correct route toward the Sand Caverns. We were soon crawling and stooping our way down Selenite Needle Passage. Loz thought she remembered a sandy crawl and we made our way through and down a rift in to a series of passages, again it became obvious after a while that this was not the way on and we reversed our way out of what we would later find out was Spiral Passage. Back en route and this time Loz recognised the junction at Eastern Avenue and we stomped our way around the inner circle through to the very impressive Dome Of St Paul's where we spent a little time gazing up at the spectacular ceiling before continuing on. Making our way in to Midsummer Passage we again had navigational difficulties and spent the next hour squirrelling around looking for the way on. Jess pointed out that time was against us and it was decided that if we didn't find the drop in to Coal Cellar Passage in the next 20 minuets that we would have to admit defeat. I found a polished flat out crawl that had been dismissed earlier and pushed through to obviously well travelled passage. We located the squeeze and Loz led the way. She spent a good 5 minutes trying to remember how she actually got through the last time and I began feeling a little uneasy as I saw her struggle through the awkward rift and drop the other side. I then had a go next and found that as well as snug it was extremely awkward and after a couple of attempts backed out to catch my breath and let Chloe have a go. Chloe also found the obstacle quite awkward, but was soon through. I elected to have another go and managed this time to get within a couple of inches from dropping through, with my legs rested on Chloe's head, but I just couldn't find a way to go any further. I couldn't push any further with my arms and couldn't get any purchase with my boots, so again backed out to let Mel and Crystal through. With my oversuit stripped off I had one last go, but again found that it wasn't how tight the obstacle was as much as I just got to a point where I couldn't keep any momentum. Now very aware of the time I sent the group off. We agreed that they would leave a note in the log book to let us know they'd got out ok. Tired and miffed at not getting through I kitted back up. Jess looked as tired as I felt, but I asked her if she felt up to pushing the pace a little so the others didn't have to wait too long at the hut for us and she agreed. We completed the Inner Circle route and continued on, missing the drop back in to the Turkey Stream Way and went on into Frozen River Passage. Fortunately we realised we hadn't been past these pretty formations on the way in and soon found ourselves back on the correct route. We put our heads down and kept pushing on and soon thought we could hear voices. We caught the group at the first climb up to the 2nd boulder choke. Loz looked the freshest out of us and it was agreed that she would run ahead and try to get out to halt the call out. I went with her to assist on the rope climbs till she felt happy and then returned to assist the rest of the group. Crystal looked pretty done in by this point and dug very deep to keep herself smiling and plodding on. We eventually reached the log book at 11pm. Loz had put a smiley by our names to show me she had got out safely. By the time we reached the Hut we found that Loz had a bit of trouble finding the key to get to her phone and Keith had done the prudent thing and initiated the call out. Fortunately a couple of the team live not far from White walls and had come to check things out and found Loz there. We were very glad to have not needed them and all learnt a lesson when it comes to not exceeding the agreed call out.

The Team

Turkey Pool

Present: Chloe Burney, Loz Appleby, Mel Bell, Crystal, Jess Burkey and Mark Burkey

The Battle of Trafalgar. A trip to Iles Inlet & The Courtesan

For our first trip of the caving year I have been privileged to tick off another of my bucket list of trips. I had seen stunning photographs which Brendan had taken of the Courtesan formation and read horrendous accounts of the trip to it with the mile long Southern Stream passage and numerous squeezes and contortions to get to this stunning area of the cave.

Sounded like just my kind of thing, so an email was put out and a team of six arranged to meet at White Walls for 9am.
After changing in a cold drizzle we made our way down the escarpment to the entrance, logging in at 10.15am.
We made good time through the entrance series arriving at Barons Chamber after only 45mins and were in good spirits as we dropped out of Main Passage in to Southern Stream.
I had only been in this passage once before on our Grand Circle trip and it hadn't seemed too bad. For some reason, not sure if it was the fact I was carrying a hefty camera box or the cold I still hadn't managed to kick off, but the slog up the stream definitely felt more tiring and monotonous this time around.
We arrived at the climb out to Priory Road after 3 hours of caving. Another 20 minutes of sandy, mostly stooping passage, followed till we reached the start of Iles Inlet. This is a collection of very impressive digs in sandy passage creating numerous contortions, U-bends, dog-legs and squeezes. I had been quite nervous of this section having read other trip reports where people had trouble with the dog-leg squeeze / contortions, but these turned out to be more fun than fright and the entire group followed Brendan through with ease.
Even though I had done some research and had survey with us it would have taken some time poking around route finding had it not been for Brendan being there. The descriptions and survey itself give the impression of the route being far more straight forward than it was.
With almost 4hrs clocked up Brendan announced we had reached the junction where Corkscrew Chamber split from Trafalgar Passage.
First we headed up Trafalgar to take a look at the impressive formations, helictites, urchins, stalactites and stalagmites, the passage ending in a sand filled dig.
After this we returned to the branch up to Corkscrew Chamber. Again I had read two reports of people coming all this way only to find they could not get through the last squeeze in to the chamber.
Brendan thrutched up the awkward tube first and I followed........I have to say after a month of turkey and mince pies I was expecting to have far more trouble than I did. In fact I found this last obstacle quite easy, my leg dropped down a slot and found foot holds easily and there turned out to be no actual squeeze.
What you enter in to is just gob smacking. Immediately you are face to face with the Courtesan itself and brilliant white formations are just everywhere. As you begin to look at the delicate crystal structures and calcite formations you notice the very unusual corkscrew helictites which give the chamber its name.
With everyone through we took some time to try and photograph some of this extraordinary chamber. Loz had a squirrel off toward Broadside whilst we did so and re-joined us as we exited for a couple of quick shots back in Trafalgar.
After over an hour it was time to begin our exit. Everyone had chilled down somewhat and Jess handed out some of our spare hand warmers which were immediately stuffed in all sorts of places that I shan't go in to in this blog!
Again the Iles Inlet proved little problem on exit. Chloe found at one point it does make a difference which arm you put ahead of you in a squeeze through....having your arm pinned under you apparently  doesn't help much as you try to thrutch through a U-Bend.
Soon we were back in Southern Stream Passage and Brendan's warning on the way in that it feels a lot longer on the way out was spot on.
Forever we crawled flat out through water, or stooped between rock. Occasionally we'd be able to stand at full height, but this would just be a tease and would only last a moment before you were stooped or on your knees again.
Finally we arrived back in Main Passage where everyone stretched out their backs and were glad to be able to walk stood upright.
We reversed our route through the choke and rest of the entrance series to exit in to the night skies after around 10hrs underground.
We had hoped to stay over at White walls, but unfortunately there was no one around at the hut. After a brief discussion we decided we'd head to Abergavenny for a meal together before heading our separate ways.

A chilly walk down the escarpment

Mel putting a hand warmer where other hand warmers just can't reach!

Mel at The Courtesan

Chloe at The Courtesan

Jess in Trafalgar Passage

Brendan in Corkscrew Chamber

Loz in Trafalgar Passage

Present: Mel Bell, Chloe Burney, Loz Appleby, Jess Burkey, Brendan Marris & Mark Burkey

Agen Allwedd

Mike had opted to lead a group into Eglwys Faen on Sunday and he and Lucy both liked the idea of a trip into ‘Aggy' on the Saturday. I still had no firm plans but had full permission from domestic chief of staff for the weekend so over a few pints of tea in the windmill I volunteered to lead us into Aggy and then make up the numbers for Mike on Sunday. Andy W had no plans for Saturday so the four of us decided upon a trip to the Music Hall and back.

We set off at 10:00 hrs from the CSS hut and arrived at the entrance in good time. We kitted up outside and then Lucy volunteered to lead us into the system with the brief that the way to the First Boulder Choke was to keep turning left.

We had a few concerns over the route description, the survey, and the actual route on through the choke and as Lucy called back to us that "it's getting very small and tight down here" she didn't see three big blokes look at each other thinking if the passage was tight for her how on earth are we going to get through. We retraced our steps and decided to look for another possible route forward and as we were doing so we heard voices in the dark. Unfortunately it was another DCC group who had followed us into the system and as they had been into the system before they went passed us and on down the route that Lucy had lead us into.

We waited for them to pass as we didn't want to play follow my leader, and then we continued to explore our way through into the main passage. Lucy had done the right thing by retreating when she felt it was too narrow to go on, but after passing through into the Baron's Chamber she realised that it was easier than she had anticipated. This was the whole focus of the trip for all of us really; having a go at leading a group along a passage that none of had any experience of and seeing where we ended up.

We headed along the main passage following our progress on our cave surveys and identifying the passages off to the sides that we wanted to spend some more time exploring on the way back. In the music hall we met up with the other group again and after exchanging some banter and groan worthy jokes we headed back to explore Southern Stream Passage.

We followed Southern Stream Passage for a short way and then took the side route off into Sandstone Passage but Mike was the only one who managed to pass successfully through the tube into the passage itself. After acknowledging that the round trip that continued on through Southern Stream Passage would be a committing venture, we headed back to the short drop down into Northern Stream Passage. This was smaller and had more water flowing through it and after a short distance along it we decided that we could all say we had been in the passage and as it went nowhere else but simply got smaller and smaller we would happily retreat back to the Main Passage.

We headed back out of the system and once back at the area of the First Boulder Choke we all felt that we had not quite done enough caving so we again so we proceeded to spend nearly an hour exploring all of the different potential routes out from the chamber before again hearing the approach of the other group. They passed out through the passage that we were just about to head down and we unfortunately had to follow them out. But we had done a lot more caving than they had!!!

Once back outside we headed back to the club hut and despite my keen attempts the others would not start "just jogging the last little bit back" to make our call out time, so we were over our allotted time by 2 minutes.

Overall a great day caving in great company and we all learnt a few things along the way!

Trip report: Andy Kempster

Present: Mike Bonner, Lucy Collins, Andy Williams and Andy Kempster

A Grand Day Out in Agen Allwedd

Mark was disappointed to miss the Outer Circle trip last week, so his consolation prize was the Grand Circle. We stayed at Whitewalls as Sunday's trip would be in Draenen and met up with Mike Green from Gloucester S.S. who is now also a Chelsea S.S. member.
We arrived at Whitewalls after the obligatory breakfast in Luigis and met up with Mike who had stayed over on the Friday night. After changing we made our way to the cave, making it underground at the leisurely time of 11:30am. It is over ten years since I had last done this trip and we headed off to do the trip anticlockwise to replicate my first trip in the hope I would remember some of it. It appears that some of my memory is still functioning and we made our way through the First and Second chokes, down the Main Streamway. We slipped our way down the streamway for about a kilometre to reach the area of Deep Water and the Narrows. We then arrived at the Third Choke to find the route through a little longer than I remembered it, but presented no problems at all. We then were quickly at the Fourth Choke and climbed up the tight route through boulders cursing the camera boxes. Biza passage I had no memory of apart from I knew it took quite a while last time. I remembered none of it, but we made our way through slowly but without fault. The handline came in useful for the climbs down to the streamway at the end. Fun was had at the first cascade as we all got a little wetter than we had planned here. We slipped our way further downstream, pausing to take photos at the cascades and also some formations on a high level section of passage. Eventually the streamway becomes more phreatic and the floor is covered with silt and gravel, so no more slipping, well almost... We head down past Southern Stream to visit the sump, before we head back to the Southern Stream inlet to begin our long slog out. This was as awkward as I had remembered, but had less crawling, but the stooping and squeezing is quite tiring and we were glad when we emerged into the Main Passage. It was now just a stroll to the entrance series, where we polished off a bottle of pop that we had left in Barons Chamber and made our way out.

Mel and Jess - Main Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Mel and Mike - Main Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Mel viewing formations - Above the Main Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Jess at a cascade - Main Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Mel in the Lower Main Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Southern Stream was not as crawly as I had remembered, but sustained stooping makes it very tiring.

Present: Mel Bel, Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Brendan Marris and special guest Mike Green from Gloucester S.S.

Deja Vue on the Outer Circle

In March 2005 we had a trip where a member of the party would not fit down a squeeze into Coal Cellar Passage, splitting the party and making an epic trip.
Surely history could not repeat itself?

After walking to the entrance in all our gear in glorious sunshine it was nice to get in the cool shade of the cave, though there was talk of just spending the day sun bathing.
I led through the entrance series to Baron’s Chamber where Brendan took over ...
We head down Main Stream to the 2nd Boulder Choke stopping to do some filming of the where Loz was caught nearly slipping off the step around the corner. We then look at the traverses from Keyhole Chamber and take the alternative route in the stream. We were soon at Northwest Junction and off into Turkey Streamway and began the Outer Circle, pausing for photos in the streamway, and then continued to Turkey Pool for a quick dunking and cries of “joy” at the freezing water, followed by giggling from others until it was our turn!
We continued the Outer Circle via Sand Caverns and Selenite Needle Passage we completed the Inner Circle following Eastern Avenue to the end and back before heading clockwise around the outer route including the Dome of St. Pauls completing the circuit and then heading through to Midsummer Passage and found squeeze down in to Coal Cellar Passage.
Brendan had a play in the squeeze, trying to remember how he’d gotten through previously and produced some interesting noises. I had a go next, with guidance from Brendan on the best angle of attack and shining his Scurion in to the dark space I was lowering myself into. I got though. Rob was next up, helmet and belt were soon off and several attempts at finding optimum angle were made, along with more interesting noises ☺. To add to the challenge of the squeeze Rob started getting cramp in his left leg, but he kept on wriggling and was through, valiant effort! Brendan had another ago but decided he required some ribs removed first.
So 6hrs in we split in to 2 x 2, Brendan and Keith are to head back round the Outer Circle (I reckon Brendan just wanted to do Turkey Pool again ☺), Rob and I are to follow Coal Cellar passage. We agree to meet at the junction with Turkey stream in an 1hr 30mins, expecting Rob and I to get there 1st as we have less distance to cover.
Now this is not how I imagined my 1st experience at leading to pan out! I’m reliably informed by Keith that it’s a “fairly straight forward” route “just follow the most obvious passage” until we get to Turkey Passage. We start to proceed down the boulder riddled small stream way on hands and knees, poor Rob starts suffering with cramp again but he braves it on, fair play.
The way on is not so apparent as we can’t see past the next boulder, still on hands and knees we weave around, under and over small boulders, dropping in and out the water. Not far in and we come across a junction, a dry, hands and knees crawly rift passage goes off to the right, I look left at where the stream continues to see more boulders and a narrowing passage. I recall Keith’s words “follow the obvious passage” so we follow the dry passage for a bit, spurred on by hearing a muffled drum of water over rock as we crawl on. However as we’re supposed to meet with Turkey Streamway and this is passage dry, I decide we should turn around and go back to the junction, but I am reluctant to leave this passage as it is easier going than the stream.
Back in the stream we crawl for a bit then get to a squeeze over a boulder, Keith didn’t mention any squeezes but it looks polished, I wriggle through to see if just around the corner is a nice wider walking passage. Unfortunately it’s more of the same, narrow hands and knees stream way littered with awkwardly placed boulders, obscuring the ‘obvious’ way on. I call back to Rob, who is busy wedging himself in the squeeze, I try to sound optimistic and tell him the passage does continue on. Off comes the helmet and belt again with cramp kicking in once more, but with mega effort and determination, Rob is through. Onward, the passage develops in to tall narrow rift which we crab walk our way along, interrupted by the odd boulder to clamber under or over, but it’s a relief to be able to stand up!
The rift starts to narrow and I’m touching both sides, it doesn’t look polished, we climb up and traverse a bit not sure which is best high or low. It widens and I drop down while Rob stays high, we both scout for signs of the ‘obvious’ route!
It widens further so Rob drops down as well and we continue in the water which varies in depth. In a narrower section of the rift we get to a wedged boulder about my shoulder height, but can’t pass under, Rob kindly gives me a leg up. Once on the boulder I wriggle forward on my stomach, unhelpfully the rift widens to the point my shoulders will no longer wedge me, my legs are still trapped at the narrow bit, I involuntarily slide forward head first in to space, arms pressing the walls to try to slow my descent, at the point I need to learn quickly how to do gymnastics or I’m landing on my face, my legs come free and hit the floor first. Rob just pops over the boulder.
A time check reveals we’ve been going 1hr 10 going through this “fairly straight forward” passage, I say to Rob if this doesn’t meet with Turkey Streamway soon we may have to turn back. Rob suggests 10 more minutes. The passage does start to widen and we come across a pile of boulders, I think I hear voices (but at this stage I could well be hallucinating!) then I see the glow of a head torch, it’s Keith, both parties equally relieved to see the other but we refrained from high 5s, knowing we still had a fair trek to get out. Still not actually at the end of Coal Cellar Passage I follow Keith to hear a yell from behind, it’s Rob, his head torch had conked out! On the plus it took his mind off the cramp in his left leg....

Rob Campbell - Turkey Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Rob Campbell - Turkey Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Loz Appleby - Turkey Streamway - Agen Allwedd

Loz Appleby - Turkey Streamway - Agen Allwedd

We then plod out to see the dying rays of the sun disappear over the hills as we walked back along the tramroad.

Report by Loz

Present: Loz Appleby, Keith Edwards, Rob Campbell and Brendan Marris

A Musical Introduction to Caving

After  a long trip in Ogof Draenen on the Saturday I think it's fair to say we were all suffering a little from lack of sleep for our Sunday trip in Agen Allwedd for Melissa's introduction to the motley Dudley crew and Caving in general.

Keith, Brendan, Jess and myself managed to drag ourselves to Abergavenny to meet with Melissa and start the day proper with the obligatory Luigi breakfast, whilst Chloe and Loz had a little extra bunk time back at 'White Walls'.

We gave Melissa a decent introduction to procrastination both at Luigi's and back at the Caving hut before finally deciding we could put it off no longer and we'd have to venture underground.
Unfortunately Keith had to be back early and with all the tea drinking time was already getting on, so it was decided that he and Brendan would walk us to the cave to wave us off whilst the rest of us would see if we could find our way through to the 'Music Hall'

Melissa seemed to enjoying the entrance series with it's many crawls, climbs and rift passage and had no trouble with any of these. We were soon through the boulder choke and making our way down the impressive main passage.
Brendan had advised making note of where we exit the choke for the return, so after taking a moment to catch our breath we continued on to our main objective.
Reaching 'The Music Hall' we again took a quick break before having a poke around the the 'Cliffs of Dover' and heading back via diversions to take in the Southern and Main Stream Ways.

Reaching the slope up to the Boulder Choke, thinking it would be fun to let Melissa guide us out,  I quickly realised I hadn't paid quite as much attention as I'd thought and we were soon hitting dead ends causing me to retrace our steps to the drop down I'd missed the first time.
Fortunately this was the only error and we were soon completing the entrance series back out in to a bright, but chilly afternoon.

We finished the day with Myself, Chloe, Loz and Melissa having a quick run through Eglwys Faen to exit via the Waterfall whilst Jess headed back to White Walls to get the kettle on.

Melissa seemed to particularly enjoy the flat out crawl in water to exit, exclaiming 'Holy Bum F**K' as she entered the icy water…up to this point I'd thought her such a polite lady…..still she should fit in a treat at Dudley :)

Present: Melissa, Laura Appleby, Chloe Burney, Jess Burkey & Mark Burkey

Agen Allwedd - and the mystery of the tyre tracks....

Monday's trip was to be the Outer Circle at Aggy. This started with the obligatory breakfast at Luigi's before heading up the hill to Whitewalls where we changed and headed along the tram road to the cave. We were a little pushed for time and it was clear by the time we were in Turkey Streamway that we would not be able to complete The Circle. We decided instead to head up Coal Cellar passage and visit Twin Avens Chamber and the Coal Cellar itself. We then headed out of the cave. On the way back as we reached the Main Passage we noticed tyre tracks in the mud floor. We scratched our heads in disbelief that someone may have brought a bike into the cave. Some days later this video appeared - it was unicycles rather than bicycles in the cave...

Unicycle Caving from Garrett and Garrett Videography on Vimeo.

Present Brendan Marris, Loz Appleby, Rachel Dearden and Richard Dearden

Should have gone to Specsavers – Agen Allwedd and Eglwys Faen

Ian in the entrance series

This was my first trip into Aggy for several years and the first time I had seen the Main Passage by Scurion light and what an impressive passage it is. The trip was arranged for the newer members of the club and the planned destination was the Music Hall and Cliffs of Dover.
Five of us met up at Luigi’s in Abergavenny for the customary brekkie and then Brendan and Keith collected Chloe from the car park in Crickhowell. On finding Whitewalls open we asked if we could change inside. Jess left her clothes in the changing rooms and retrieved them after we thought we had explained to the whole party that Whitewalls wouldn’t necessarily be open when we got back.
On the way to Aggy Mark was sent to do the short through trip in Eglwys Faen. On arriving at Aggy I tried the key in the lock and found that my bad luck was still holding – it fitted.

The Cliffs of Dover

The trip to our destination in the cave was fairly uneventful except that Chloe found that she needs more practice on traverses and Keith and Brendan walked past the entrance to Southern Stream Passage thinking it was the next passage on the right.

On the way out we stopped at regular intervals to take photos and video and remarkably no one complained. The cave does seem like a completely different place and much nicer with 4100 lumens of light. On the way out we did manage to find Southern Stream Passage and did the first few metres.
On the way back to the cars we stopped at Eglwys Faen and this time five of us (Brendan excluded) did the through trip from the Main Entrance to the Waterfall Entrance. As Brendan had decided not to join us he was loaded up with boxes and bags and dispatched to the exit. This cave too seems like a completely different and much nicer cave when well illuminated. On exiting, the waterfall was flowing freely and the small passage leading to daylight was half full of water so a thorough soaking was guaranteed.
Back at Whitewalls Mark found that he had left (or it had been left) his spare Scurion battery outside Eglwys Faen and had to walk all of the way back to retrieve it. Still, although this is a long walk, it required slightly less effort than when he had to go back down Knotlow Engine Shaft and back up when a re-belay had not been untied. The rest of us found Whitewalls was indeed locked up. Under my car was a black plastic bin liner full of clothes. Chloe hadn’t heard what we had said about the hut being locked up and had left her clothes inside but some kind person had saved her embarrassment.

The Music Hall

The Main Passage

Later in the car Brendan realised that when he had put his contact lenses in inside the changing rooms he had not picked up his specs. Fortunately he had been to Specsavers but on returning home was going to have to turn the house upside down to find where he had put the ‘spare pair’. Then on Monday I received an email from Ian saying, “Would you have contact details’ for anyone at the club hut yesterday, as I managed to leave my glasses in the back room when we were changing in the morning.” He went on to say, “My intention is to send the contact person a S.A.E. with a spare spectacle case that they can pop them in and post back to me (that will save a car or even a train journey, now who had to do that once before??” The new members learn very early on how to take the p*** out of the chairman!

The Main Passge

The Team: Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris, Chloe Burney, Jess Harding, Mark Burkey and Ian Millward

Agen Allwedd, Llangottock

Richard, a friend of Chris', had been caving a couple of times and was looking for a more tasty trip and so off to Aggy we went. Our plan was to do the Inner Circle route and so off we set. By the time we reached Coal Cellar passage it was clear that we would need to return so Richard could get his train back, so we fell short of our objective.

The team: Brendan (report), Chris & (Richard - a friend of Chris')

Iles Inlet, Agen Allwedd, Llangattock Escarpment, South Wales

A long and arduous trip taking in most of the length of Southern Stream Passage which had to be negotiated in both directions. We wasted a lot of time trying to find the way into Priory Road as our written laminated route description has suffered from water ingress and was virtually unreadable, and the survey seemed to imply that we should climb up above the stream and find a passage on the right. The route is actually much easier but requires a fair amount of hands and knees crawling. Eventually three members of the team got to see the formations in Trafalgar Passage but with two members left behind in separate locations we ran out of time and were forced to exit without taking any photographs. A rash decision was taken to abandon the photographic gear in the cave and to return during the week after Christmas to find Corkscrew Chamber and take the photos. A very tired team, regretting the decision to ditch the photographic gear emerged after ten and a quarter hours underground. 

The Team: AnCr, KeEd, CoJe, BrMa & ChWe

The Outer Circle, Agen Allwedd, Llangattock Escarpment

An event packed day out in which Brendan was late due to immobilising his car on a garage forecourt, Keith evacuated the CSS changing rooms by evacuating his ..... (too much information), Jason met his nemesis in Coal Cellar passage and Chris proved too rotund to negotiate a tight rift.  After taking photos, doing more of the cave than was strictly necessary and backtracking we emerged onto the frost covered escarpment after 10 hours underground.  Finally we were too late for a pint and a meal so ended up having an Indian meal in Abergavenny.

Chris Webb crossing the Turkey Pool.

Chris Webb in Selenite Needle Passage.

Chris Webb viewing the Swiss Village mud formations.

See more Agen Allwedd photos here

Present:  JCa, BMa, KEd & CWe

Agen Allwedd, Llangattock Escarpment, South Wales

A five and a half hour trip taking in the Music Hall, the Cliffs of Dover and the top end of Southern Stream Passage.  Some time was spent taking photographs in the main passage.

The Main Passage in Agen Allwedd.

See more photos of Agen Allwedd here.

Present:  PAn, JEd, KEd, AGr, BMa & MNo