The Late, Late Breakfast Show at Dan Y Lleuad Wen

The plan was to return with additional photo gear and lighting to photograph the larger passages in Ogof Dan Y Lleuad Wen and also explore the Lon Drury extensions below the entrance pitch. The planned rendez-vous for breakfast in Llandovery went a little pear-shaped with only Chloe managing to be at the cafe at the appointed hour of 9am. Twenty minutes later Mark, Jess and Brendan wandered in and we then tucked into a hearty breakfast, Chloe was provided with marshmallows on top of her hot chocolate - the sure sign of a classy establishment. A text from the late Loz Appleby indicated that she was a little behind schedule, only to arrive over an hour late. This was somewhat better than Rob though, who forgot to set his alarm and was still in bed as we tucked into brekky, so missed the days caving.
Once all assembled and fed we headed to Herbert's Quarry, where we changed and headed off to walk across the mountain on a fine, but blustery day. We were soon at the entrance where we entered the cave, stashed walking gear and then rigged the entrance pitch. We first explored the Upper Series and took photos of the Canyon and the fine rock bridge at the far end of it. This was a slightly risky operation as the top of the bridge is covered in a pile of boulders and sludgy sand which made it risky for Chloe at the top and for the people standing below while the photos were taken.

Loz and Chloe at the Rock Bridge - Dan Y Lleuad Wen (Photo by Mark Burkey)

Jess and Chloe in the Canyon - Dan Y Lleuad Wen (Photo by Brendan Marris)

Much time was taken in the Upper Series, before we headed to the rift climb down and short pitch into A Day at the Beach in the Lower Series. Again we explored and took photos in a couple of locations before we made our way back towards the entrance.

Jess and Chloe at the climb down to the Lower Series - Dan Y Lleuad Wen (Photo by Mark Burkey)

Chloe - A Day at the Beach - Dan Y Lleuad Wen (Photo by Mark Burkey)

The final objective of the day was to have a look at the Lon Drury extensions that lie down a 13m deep rift climb below the boulders that lie at the foot of the entrance pitch. All that lay ahead now was the long walk back to the cars.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, The Late Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney and Brendan Marris

Hunting for gold on the Black Mountain

With fine weather forecast we decided to make the most of it and plan a walk to a couple of remote caves on the Black Mountain. We parked up at the track to Llyn Y Fan Fach packed our caving gear and cameras into back-packs and headed off on our journey in our walking clothes. Within 100m of setting off we had a small stream to cross and Mark hopping across the stepping stones, misplaced his footing and ended up falling into the stream. With the prospect of spending the day in wet gear we returned to the van for Mark to change his wardrobe. Re-kitted we then joined the tourists in the walk up towards the picturesque lake. Once at the lake we then traversed around on the contour to take us across to our target area, the limestone exposure of Carreg Yr Ogof.

Ogof Carreg Yr Ogof

After a couple of hours of enjoyable walking we arrived at our first target - Ogof Carreg Yr Ogof, the cave lending its name to this section of hill. We changed and dropped down the entrance located beside an old lime kiln. The lush green entrance gave way to a bouldery passage that sloped down to a constriction that then opened out to reveal the Main Chamber. This chamber was finely decorated, no doubt assisted by minerals leaching out of the old lime kiln above. We then made our way through a tight crawl that ran alongside a boulder collapse to enter the final chamber, at the bottom of which is a fine lake. Mark returned for his camera and a couple of photos of this clear blue-green lake was photographed before heading back to photograph the Main Chamber. After an hour or so of photos we emerged to glorious sunshine and made our way to our second target - Ogof Y Garimpeiros.

Mark in Ogof Carreg Yr Ogof

Mark in Ogof Carreg Yr Ogof

Brendan chills out in the final chamber

Ogof Y Garimpeiros

We arrived to find some evidence of collapse at the entrance, and the wheelie bin lid (used to cover the entrance) some way down in the entrance hole. Half an hour of pulling out loose rock and tidying up the top of the entrance shaft followed before we felt confident to tackle the entrance. Mark entered first and after passing a committing squeeze declared that the entrance was totally collapsed and would take considerable digging to pass. Brendan was then persuaded to go down for a second opinion, which turned out to be wise at the way into the cave had been behind Mark's head and so we entered the start of this large passage. The cave has a distinct character and may not be to everyone's taste! The passage although large is over and through boulders for its entire length. There appears to be not a lot holding the boulders together and it is a little bit of a test of nerves. Route finding is easy and we were soon at the end of the cave, some 50m or so beyond the end shown on the survey. We then made our way back taking a couple of photos as we went, watching the time so we had enough daylight to see us off the mountain. On our way out we had become somewhat accustomed to the shaky nature of the cave, it felt very much less oppressive than on the way in.

Mark in Ogof Garimpeiros

Brendan in Ogof Garimpeiros

Mark in Ogof Garimpeiros

Brendan in Ogof Garimpeiros

Emerging from the cave, things looked a little darker than we expected, the sun was only just above the horizon. It was at this point that Brendan realised that he had not changed his watch to BST and it was clear that it would be dark before we were down off the mountain. We headed back on a more direct route making the final descent to the carpark in darkness with our way lit up bay caving lamps.

A long, tiring but enjoyable day on the mountain.

Present: Mark Burkey and Brendan Marris

A long walk to Carreg Lem

We decided to make the most of the fine weather on Sunday to take a walk and have a look at Ogof Carreg Lem. The cave is located a few hundred metres north of Sinc Y Giedd which makes this quite a walk in from the carpark at Dan Yr Ogof. We set off on the 4km walk taking a scenic route to pick up a few cave features as we headed up the mountain and then round to the large shakehole the cave in located in. The entrance was uncovered and we made our way one by one down through the massive boulders of the entrance choke. The cave was remarkably dry with only a small trickle of water passing through the choke. The long flat ceiling of the large entrance chamber was covered with thousands of water droplets giving the effect of a starry sky above you. We first explored the two branches of the left hand series, but found that Mark was the only one who could post his legs around a very tight corner in one of the passages. We waited for him to report back that this ended at a crawl under a massive boulder propped up by sand. We then took a few photos in the entrance chamber before heading off down the main right hand series. This was followed past some extensive digs to find a flat out crawl Mark and Jess both tried to get through, but was going to need a little digging to get us through, so was left for another day.

Jess in the Entrance Chamber - Ogof Carreg Lem (Photo - Brendan Marris)

Jess in the Entrance Chamber - Ogof Carreg Lem (Photo - Mark Burkey)

Jess in the Entrance Chamber - Ogof Carreg Lem (Photo - Brendan Marris)

Jess in the Entrance Chamber - Ogof Carreg Lem (Photo - Brendan Marris)

We headed back via a slightly different route taking a look at Sinc Y Giedd and Pwll Dwfn on the way.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey and Brendan Marris