Eglwys Faen

On entering the system through the Oval Entrance we headed left to explore the Eastern Series. We made our way through the crawls and squeezes leading to the 4m free climb, as this was my first leader trip I was a little apprehensive when faced with what could be a nasty drop, I turned to my two experienced cavers for advice and without hesitation Andy K lowered himself into the opening and one by one guided the rest of the group down. Once we had all regrouped Lucy pointed out that the chamber behind her would be worth checking out. This actually turned out to link in with the main route to the canal, which unfortunately for Lucy was flooded to a level slightly higher than the tops of her wellies. On reaching the sump (normally dry according to the survey) we were faced with a flooded passage, with only a small air gap between water level and the roof of the cave, we discussed the various options (one being that as it was my choice of cave I should be the one to go ahead and investigate) but Ian made a valid point that we could always come back another day and why not continue to explore the ‘dryer’ areas.

With this being the most favoured option we retraced our tracks, making easy work of the 4m climb back to the Aven Entrance where we made a left turn into the Main Chamber. We spent a couple of minutes taking in the scale of the cave until continuing on over to the Western Series. This passage began following a small stream which soon turned from a walk, to a stoop, to a crawl along a smooth sandy surface down into Grump Sump. From here we continued over the concrete dam and along the passage until just reaching the boulder choke. On our return we poked around in a number of smaller passages, but not fully trusting the survey and hearing that some areas of the cave could be unstable, we didn’t want to venture too far from safety.

We retreated back to the Main Chamber where we took a quick rest stop and then headed off to explore the Inner Chamber to the back. This quickly reduced to a long crawl which, with the previous days aches and pains rearing their ugly heads, we decided to leave it for another day. We resurfaced through the Main Entrance agreeing that it was a good cave to finish a good weekend of exploring.

Trip report: Mike Bonner

Present: Mike Bonner, Lucy Collins, Andy Kempster and Ian Millward

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

Eglwys Faen & Pen Eryr: Caving's too tight to mention

Not having any work this week, and we'd had a txt from Chloe asking to let her know if anyone was caving on Tuesday, Jess fancied a play in Eglwys Faen. I mentioned to Brendan we were doing this and he said he'd be available and we could combine it with a jaunt around Ogof Pen Eryr.
We met at the very sociable time of 10am for a Luigi breakfast before heading off for the Car park.
We quickly found the entrance in the cliff face and followed Brendan through. After trying the Corkscrew Squeeze on both sides Brendan decided it was easiest done on his left and slid through. I followed with a fair bit more grunting, to be followed by Chloe who had 'a moment' getting her hips through, and then Jess.
After this the cave opened out to easier passage before reaching a boulder choke, then a slide over an awkward boulder. Brendan led the way, I tried a couple of times and couldn't get an angle that would allow me over. Chloe slid through to the one side with ease so I copied her example and slipped down to join them followed by Jess. After this it was easy caving with crawling and a corkscrew choke leading to larger passage and finally the terminal chambers where we paused for pictures. In reverse the slide over the boulder was much easier, but Chloe and I found the drop back through the entrance squeeze far more interesting. Jess led the way, making it look easy, followed by Chloe who again really struggled getting her hips through.
Time for the chunky caver next.... I tried every angle before realising there just wasn't going to be an easy way to do this. Coming up I'd been able to push off with my feet to get through, but going back gravity wasn't going to give the same umph. Jessica tried pulling on my wellies, Brendan tried stamping on my head. Jess wrapped my boots with a sling which just added to the feeling of being trussed like a hog for roasting and I realised I was going to have to do this myself. Trying my best to relax (which involved a slight quivering lip whilst breathing in followed by manic wriggling when all air had been expelled from my lungs) I gradually moved millimetre by millimetre until after a week or so I finally popped through. Brendan exclaimed that he was starting to get worried for a minute there....not for my sake....he would have been stuck on the wrong side and didn't fancy having to eat his way out! ;)

Jess and myself at the corkscrew squeeze

Jess in the corkscrew squeeze

Chloe crawling in to the final calcite chambers

Me in the final calcite chamber

Finally freed from the cave we all skipped down the hillside to the cars which we jumped in to drive up to White Walls and the second cave of the day Eglwys Faen. We entered via the large entrance and paused for a couple of pictures before heading off right in to the wet crawls to Glump Sump. After a poke around the passages we headed back to the main chamber and on through to the climb up to 'The Warren' where Brendan and I shot down the passage exploring with Jess and Chloe bringing up the rear. After a good poke around some of the interesting digs at the end of the passage we headed back with no sign of Jess or Chloe. There were only a couple of alternatives, both of which would dead end, so I wasn't too worried and decided to head back to the ladder to see if they were there. Arriving back at the entrance to 'The Warren' Jess gave me a stern telling off for shooting off. Chloe was complaining of her shoulder hurting and Jess had been worried that they may have needed to head out before us. Fortunately we had arrived back to re-group just minutes after them so it hadn't been necessary. I was given some evil looks when I suggested going out via the waterfall to take more pictures so we made our exit via the more straight forward main chamber.
Changing back at the car, whilst being eaten by midges, Chloe showed off the bruises she'd sustained whilst doing the earlier squeezes to her hip and shoulder which I have to admit were quite impressive and I could see why she had been in discomfort!

Main Chamber Eglwys Faen

Present: Chloe Burney, Brendan Marris, Jessica Harding & Mark Burkey

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

Eglwys Faen, Llangattock Escarpment, South Wales

looking across the Main Chamber in Eglwys Faen

See more Eglwys Faen photos here

Present: MCl, BMa & EPo + Guests