Light Work in Ogof Craig A Ffynnon

With Christmas and foreign caving trips out the way, it was back to caving in the cold and wet of the UK. Ed was joining us for his first trip with The Dudley and so we decided to head to South Wales for a trip into Ogof Craig A Ffynnon to visit the Hall of the Mountain King. With a good number of people in the party and a sedate trip planned we decided to pack up a tripod and lots and lots of flashguns to take into the cave to re-photograph the fantastically decorated chamber. As is the tradition we met at Luigi's for breakfast before driving around to the cave. The day was bright but cold so we changed quite quickly before heading into the cave led by Mr Burgess. Even though there was no rain a good stream ran along the footpath and water was high in the cave, with foam lines indicating that parts had sumped during the heavy rain earlier in the week. The trip was uneventful, but brightened up with regular vocalisations from Ed as we made our way through squeezes, low sections and especially the wet bits. We arrived at the Hall of the Mountain King to unpack the photographic gear while the rest of the group had a look around. Mark found that a Daren Drum with four flashguns and a set of walkie talkies had leaked, making the contents unusable. Batteries were taken out of the units and wiped dry with cloths before we set up with the working kit we had. A tripod was set up and with the help of the group, the nine working flashguns were placed in the chamber or hand held to take two shots that were then spliced together to give the wide shot of the chamber below.

Hall of the Mountain King - lit with 9 flashguns

While the gear was packed up some of the group headed into Hurricane Alley through the flat out crawl into the start of the Severn Tunnel. Much noise was made by certain people as they went through the squeezes and wet bits. Mark Burgess had a cut to his eyelid as he banged into rock in the squeeze, emerging bleeding and swollen. We then regrouped and headed out noticing that the water levels had dropped somewhat while we had been underground.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Chloe Burney, Mark Burgess, Ed Simkins and Brendan Marris

Wet Wet Wet - Shakespeare's Cave and Northwest Inlet

With two groups going into Agen Allwedd we decided to have a small group pay a visit to two of the more aqueous sites in the Clydach Gorge. We parked up near Ogof Craig A Ffynnon, meeting up with a group from the Chelsea S.S. who were heading into OCAF.

Shakespeare's Cave

We changed and then walked up the road to where the Old Drum and Monkey pub used to sit and walked down and through the underpass. We headed down past Ogof Capel and then crossed Nant Clydach to reach the inlet on the opposite side. After a couple of hundred metres we arrived at the entrance to Shakespeares Cave, where Chloe and Loz took the lead. The water was low, but still rather chilly and we didi not hang around as we made our way through the wet sections of the cave. We took a look at the sump before heading back to the Stratford Bypass and onto the Fifth Duck. Brendan had an issue getting his legs around the bend beyond the duck so the water babes continued to the end of the cave. We reunited and then made our way out the cave looking at one side inlet as we exited.

Ogof Craig A Ffynnon - Northwest Inlet

With the first cave of the day under our belt we headed back to the cars, had a refreshment break and then headed to Ogof Craig A Ffynnon. Once in the cave we made the short journey to the start of Northwest Inlet where the aqueous fun starts. Up to our necks in water we waded through and followed the passage for a few hundred metres, the water getting shallower as we went. We were soon out of the deep water and the passage changed character to be large and tall with several areas of formations. Eventually we arrived at the impressive dig, with its own railway at the end of the passage. We followed this Indiana Jones style until we had seen enough collapses and loose parts to put us off going any further. On our way out we met up with the Chelsea group washing off in the deep water at the start of Northwest Inlet.

We then headed back to the campsite to get set up for the evening. Chloe was able to get her pop up tent erected quick enough to shelter her from the thunder storm from where she could watch Loz and Myself getting drenched putting up our tents.

Present: Chloe Burney, Loz Appleby and Brendan Marris

Speed Caving - Ogof Pont Gam to Ogof Nant Rhin

After much deliberating we decided on a plan to complete an Ogof Pont Gam to Ogof Nant Rhin through trip. We had visited Ogof Pont Gam twice before, but never exited via Nant Rhin, so the aim of the day was to complete the through trip. We packed the tackle into two small kit bags knowing that we would never get a full sized bag through Pont Gam. We met with Keith and Jess at Luigis before making our way around to the old Heads of the Valleys road. We parked up and changed further down the road and then called at the house opposite when the resident arrived to check for permission. After a few bits of surface video we entered the hole and made our way through the cave. The pitches had been re-bolted and there were ropes that looked OK in place, though we rigged with our own ropes that we had brought along. The short climb between the first and second pitches was rigged with a handline too. We fought our way to the top of the Third Pitch and descended into Aven D'Oznog. Dropping off our SRT kit we then went through Ogof Nant Rhin to exit into the gorge. It took a considerable amount of motivation to force ourselves back into the cave to complete the return journey. Some navigational difficulties followed on the return through Nant Rhin with half the group missing the climb up to Pont Gam branch and so explored the full delights of Nant Rhin. When all had assembled in Aven D'Oznog we headed back up the ropes derigging and taking video as we went.

The Video

A very short but also quite testing trip.

Present: Keith Edwards, Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Chloe Burney and Brendan Marris