DRAENAN ENTRANCE IV – A NEW HOPE

DRAENAN ENTRANCE IV – A NEW HOPE

Part One - “Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny,

consume you it will”

A long time ago in a cave passage far, far away…

A group of cavers

including Keith and Jess

endeavored to reach a beautifully decorated chamber

in the far reaches of Ogof Draenan…The trip entailed light years of

stumbling over greasy boulders…millenniae of thrutching, over sticky mud floors…many

tears and groans of agony and vain attempts to use the force…This mission was completed

in no less than 13 HOURS by the intrepid explorers, making it the longest caving trip and

hardest physical feat EVER in the life of poor Jess…

A few lightyears passed…

Lulled into a false sense of security by Mark,

(Who said he found our lack of faith disturbing)

Jess, Mel and Joe agreed to embark on a little “routefinding trip” into Draenan.

Some gentle exploring around the entrance, we thought! Tucking a choc bar and a capri sun

into our suits, we set off. 16 HOURS LATER we emerged into early morning daylight, with

broken bodies, bleeding knees and murder in our hearts. Mark had failed to mention that

the “routefinding” was to the Gerion – pretty much the same trip that Jess had done a few

years before (and sworn never to attempt again). Unprepared as we were, without any

dihydrogen monoxide, we had been reduced to drinking sludgy cave water, and eating some

weird thing made of sugar and peanuts, that Mel had brought back from some foreign

planet, just… to… survive.

So …

you can imagine my trepidation

when, after months of almost no caving at all,

my foray back into this dark world was to be another trip into Draenan…

I HAD A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS…

Part Two - “These are not the entrances you’re looking for”

Jedi masters,

Bartek and Paulina

came up with a plan to find the new entrance,

(Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du) mentioned in Descent Magazine,

go into the main cave, then go out via the traditional entrance. Maps were consulted and

terrain was surveyed. Teams were chosen and soon we were heading to parts unknown.

“This is the Way” called Mark,

and descended down a steep ravine, through dense vegetation,

only to be met at the cave entrance by those with a GPS and an obvious path.

Once inside, there were crawls – but nothing too terrible, and soon we were in bigger

passage, with conservation tape. Obviously we were in known passage…but just where?

Bartek, Paulina and Dino were in Draenan for the first time, and Loz, Joe and I had been

there only a few times. Out came the surveys, descriptions and compass, but to no avail. But

the force was strong with Mark, and indeed, this WAS the Way. To T Junction, anyway.

Greasy boulders to the left of us, greasy boulders to the right of us, stretching into the

distance. The potential for hours and hours of type 2 fun lay ahead. But all was not lost - An

early call-out had been set, so we could head out of the original entrance with heads held

high. The mission had been accomplished!

Draenan Entrance IV – A New Hope

CREDITS

Directed by Paulina and Bartek

Written by Jess

Locations Mark

Associate producer Dino

Soundtrack Loz

Archive material Joe

Photography Mark and Bartek

Starring Paulina, Jess, Dino, Loz, Joe

Dranen entrance passages. Photos Bartek Biela

White arch chamber. Photo Mark Burkey

Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du entrance ladder. Photo Mark Burkey

Navigating The Deepest Cave In Britain

Some Route Finding and Learning Surveys.

Having been with Dudley Caving Club for around 5 or 6 months, and getting plenty of trips under my belt, I recently decided its time for me start learning some of the main cave systems with the hope of starting to lead trips toward the end of this year.

The obvious place to start had to be Ogof Ffynnon Ddu. This system seems to be a regular retreat for DCC and for obvious reason, plenty of cave to go at and plenty of drinking opportunity! Having been only 3 times previously, two through trips and some poking around/route finding with Loz and Mike in top, I felt very vaguely familiar with OFD 3.

I put out the email and had one response, from Mark. If I was going to get us lost, Mark was certainly the right man to point me back in the correct direction! I arrived very early Saturday morning, deciding I couldn’t be bothered to get up early and make the meet time of 10am that I had decided on. After waking up to a beautifully sunny view across the mountains and making a brew amidst the eerie silence that was a sleeping, hungover uni society, Mark arrived. We had a short discussion and decided on a through trip from Cwm Dwr to Top Entrance. I’d never been in Cwm Dwr before, so this was a little bit of a drop in the deep end for my first navigation trip!

I purchased the necessary parts of laminated survey, and after mark pointed our intended route out on the full survey in the common room, we got changed and made our way over the the Cwm Dwr entrance. The first warm sunny day I have ever walked to a cave, and it was only 2 and a half minutes away!

After dropping down the concrete chute, I basically managed to go the wrong way before getting into the entrance series. I missed the right turn following the water and climbed straight up into the choke. As I realised it didn’t go, I turned to see that Mark had followed me, but he didn’t have his camera box with him. This confirmed to me that I had already gone wrong! A bit red faced, I made my way back down and pulled out the Cwm Dwr survey, only to find that the entrance series wasn’t on the sheet I had with me. Mark led on through the entrance series until we hit the choke, when I took over. Taking it slowly, picking my way through, we emerged into Big Shacks. I was already finding it difficult to match specific features in the cave to the survey, as the Cwm Dwr sheet I had was not coloured. Or this was my excuse. Mark pointed out the way forward on the survey, and we moved forward.

Passing through Big Shack 1, turn off the right between two left turns which head to Big Shack 2, we were on the main route. The cave itself was easy going at this point. We pressed through to the traverse which cuts out the 100 meters or so of walking passage. Here I had a bit of a wobble trying to pass the very exposed deep hole, but eventually managed the quick couple of long steps over and we carried on through to take the shortcut through to Piccadilly, converging with another small group who seemed a bit lost!

We stopped to take some photographs at the waterfall approaching Piccadilly. Thankfully I wasn’t too wet so didn’t get cold for these ones! Stopping every so often to check the survey and orientate myself, we cracked on through Piccadilly and round into Flood Bypass. No real dramas here until I went the wrong way at The Confluence. Mark gave me a few seconds and then, not wanting to turn to add an extra half an hour onto the trip, decided to let me know that actually it was Right, not Left!

Picadilly Waterfall

From here continued upstream, stopping to get cold and take more photos at the Marble Showers.
Then it was the pots, 15 or so. All deep enough to get very wet and some wide enough to have no choice, but I did manage to not fall into any of them! I’m not sure about Mark, although I’m sure might not have mentioned it if he had...

Marble Showers

Missing the exit off to Great Oxbow, but quickly realising that I didn’t fancy going underwater, I turned around and saw mark waiting at the climb out of the streamway. After some more photos at a traverse over some white water, we made it to Maypole Inlet, which I have only done twice, once up, once down. Mark was struggling/swearing a bit with his camera box through here as it was a little bit too large to be comfortable in the narrow passage. Passing another lone caver going in the other direction, we both made it up the 35-foot climb without too much bother.

Main Stream Way

I was fairly confident from this point, having been through a couple of times - and the coloured survey helped! An uneventful march up to the Crossroads followed by mark getting a bit excited about finding a small passage into the maze which he hadn’t done or didn’t remember. He did an excited loop and we carried on up Salubrious passage, through the corkscrew and onto pass the wedding cake. Some boulder scrambling through Brickyard later we emerged into the low sunlight at about 4pm.

All in all I a successful trip for me, I went wrong a couple or more times, but Mark was there to set me straight!

Sunday morning saw a rapid round trip in OFD 1, as I had never done it before. As a self-proclaimed non-fan of traverses, Mark lent me some Cows Tails for them. Turns out they were not as bad as I thought they would be and so didn’t bother with them. Out, back and changed for 11am, we managed to make a brew and get that down us before the students awoke, then off home.

Present: Mark Burkey, Joe Watkiss

Trip report: Joe Watkiss

Caving for Andrew

We lost our son Andrew James Millward on 27^thApril 2017 aged 33 when he took his own life. He had suffered bouts of depression brought on we think from his time serving with the Warwickshire Fusiliers in Iraq in 2007.  He was a serving Police Officer with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary working at Harwell in Oxfordshire commuting there daily from his home in Birmingham.

His colleagues from Harwell and in particular those from his unit have been of tremendous help and support over the last year to both his wife and two daughters and ourselves. His sister also ran the Birmingham Marathon in his place and memory last year.

l wanted to do something special to say ‘thank You’ to his close friends on his unit, rather like cavers they have to rely on each other in difficult moments. As a proud member of Dudley Caving Club, yes us lot, what better way than to organise an ‘Adventure Fund Day’ caving in south Wales.

Our guide for the day 6^thMay would be non-other than ‘Caver Keith Edwards’ himself, ably assisted by Jessica Burkey and Kayleigh Wood.

We met in Abergavenny at our usual breakfast haunt of Luigi’s before moving on to South Wales Caving Club to allocate caving gear, change and make our way up the hill to OFD2. The five from Harwell had become four as one could not face his gremlins of going underground, but to be fair he did travel with his colleagues in order to support them and saw them off from nearly the entrance.

There was much nervous laughter and banter from our visitors as we made our way in and to their surprise it was, as we know, much larger in that entrance area than they had imagined. We pointed out land marks on the way such as Gnome Passage and the Wedding Cake and the Corkscrew certainly racked up the excitement. We made our way down to Salubrious and crossed the steamway and headed for the Columns where Clark Friend was able to give our visitors an interesting talk on how this part of the system had evolved.

Time was pressing now so we took the quickest route back which involved an interesting slide down a rift, exiting to the left part way aided by a safety line to avoid the continuing drop. We emerged to brilliant sunshine, amid exhilaration and relief to pose for pictures before making our way back to SWCC where my wife and other family members had prepared a BBQ.

Viewing the survey on wall in the long common room our visitors were amazed at the size of the OFD system and thrilled to plot their route in and out.

Following our meal and a short speech the final cherry on the cake was the presentation as a memento of the day of ‘UK Caving .com’ mugs to our visitors kindly and generously supplied by Jane Allen. All in all a great day out full of happy memories and possibly a couple of new members for D.C.C.

My sincere thanks to everyone who helped out that day. 

Ian Millward, Dudley Caving Club.

                        

Through to Cwm Dwr was a bit of a stretch for Mel!

Mel arrived to a wet Welsh morning on time at 10am. We waited half an hour or so to see if Los was going to make it, but decided she was probably still in bed when the clock reached twenty to eleven and so headed up the hill for a through trip to Cwm Dwr.
No camera today so the going was quick and we were soon dropping in to the main stream way. After the first half dozen pots Mel decided it would be easier just to jump in them, and as we were moving at a reasonable pace she didn't get a chance to chill down.
After an hour and a half of caving we exited the stream way in to Cwm Dwr and as we had made such good time we decided to do a couple of add on's. First we popped up Heol Eira, which was prettier than I'd remembered. We then headed up in to the Upper Smithy for a poke around.
Mel found a couple of the climbs rather strenuous and by the time we had reached the exit crawls her legs were cramping up every time she bent them.
We slowed the pace and took breaks for her to stretch out and still exited at a very reasonable half past 3.  A good fast paced trip which offered the chance to refresh my navigational skills in some of the less explored area's of the system.

Looking like she's posing, Mel grimaces as she tries to stretch out her legs ;)

Present: Mel Bell & Mark Burkey

Craig a Ffynnon. A damp introduction to caving.

We had promised our latest recruit Rachel a day trip for her first underground adventure.  After plenty of procrastination around the tea pot on Thursday evening we eventually decided upon a Welsh classic, Ogof Craig A Ffynnon.

We introduced Rachel to the Dudley tradition of a full breakfast at Luigi's cafe before heading off to park near the old lime kilns on the old heads of the valley.

As we changed it looked like it would be a busy day in the cave as several of the Gwent caving club arrived and begun kitting up.

One of the Gwent groups went ahead and we followed in. 

Rachel was soon oohing and aaarrring at the decorated chambers as we made our way. At gasoline alley we caught the other group and so opened up the camera kit to waste a little time and take a few snaps. 

After 10 minutes we could no longer hear the others and so the gear was packed up and we continued on. Rachel had no problems with any of the climbs, crawls or water and soon we were at her he first real challenge, the boulder choke.

I led in and could hear her scrambling along behind me. After 10 minutes we emerged the other side. I looked around to find Rachel struggling between boulders, a huge grin on her face....always a good sign :)

Next we slipped and slid through the mud and on to the Hall Of The Mountain King. Here we took Rachel through the bypass to see the start of the Seven Tunnel before heading back in to Travertine Passage for a quick photo before retracing our steps to the entrance to the North West Inlet. Here Keith wanted to grab a little video of people coming through the flooded passage. We each took it in turns to jump in the icy water until we were all thoroughly chilled and then headed out in to the sunshine. I would be staying on for a Sunday trip with Mel, but the others would be heading off so I said my farewells and waved them off after a good fun trip.

Rachel in Gasoline Alley

Rachel admires the formations 

Travertine Passage

Present: Keith Edwards, Kay Wood, Rachel Rushton & Mark Burkey

A trip to the airlock in Tunnel Top

After a much better nights sleep we chose Tunnel Top Entrance for our relaxing Sunday trip. I had done this years ago with Andy G & all I could remember of the trip was that navigation wasn't always straight forward and that it was quite physical.

We headed up the hillside above DYO in beautiful sunshine. I had managed to persuade Loz to 'Offer' to carry the rope up and so was enjoying the stroll. This was a far cry from the first time I had attempted to find the entrance and had wandered for almost 2 hrs before discovering it. This time we headed straight there.
Loz's mate Michelle was going off walking and so we got her to be our call out.

We again made swift progress down the pitches and traverse and were soon heading in to the cave. We kept high and right and aside from a single blip had no issues with navigation.
The trip is pretty physical and uses quite a bit of upper body strength and both Loz and Kay were getting pretty overheated. We had planned to go off and explore a bit but decided that could wait for another day and so picked our way back through the passage taking note of the other routes as we passed them for a further trip in the future.

Loz de-rigged on the way out and we emerged from the cave to find our call out anxiously awaiting us......well actually she was asleep on the grass, but I'm sure it was anxious sleep though!

Tunnel Top Entrance

Kay and Loz at the starting climb to Marble arch passage

Success! we made it to the airlock door.

Michelle anxiously awaits our return!

Present: Kay Wood, Loz Appleby, Mark Burkey & Rescue Call Out Michelle

A trip to The Far North. Dan Yr Ogof

Kay and I headed down the SWCC on the Friday to get a decent nights sleep before our big trip on the Saturday. Unfortunately Plymouth Uni had other plans and were outside partying till 4.30am, at which time they decided a spot of naked caving was on the plans and headed off to Cwm Dwr!

We met Los at the DYO car park at half ten, kitted up and headed in.

Low water levels and only taking a point and click camera meant we made good time and we took the usual round trip route past Cloud Chamber in.  Only a single ring was available at the green canal and so Kay elected to get wet whilst Loz and I went over the top and abseiled down to join her.

Our swift progress continued as we made our way up the Rising and through to the Great North Road.

After Pinnacle chamber we decided to take The Meanders in to the cave and after just under 4 hours were sitting at the final choke.

As Kay had never been to this part of the cave before we went for a look at The Mostest on the way out and headed back via The North Bypass. We took the lower series out and were back in the sunshine eating cake for 7pm after a good 8hr trip underground.

He's behind you!!!

Loz in the long crawl

Loz at the final choke

Kay at the final choke

Present: Laura Appleby, Kay Wood & Mark Burkey

3rd Time Lucky, An OFD Through Trip

For Ollie's 3rd ever caving trip he was keen to try something a little more ambitions I suggested a through trip and told them to decide which one.
As Kay and Ollie discussed which through trip to do, Clive Westlake wandered over and introduced us to a chap called Tarquin who was looking for a decent length trip for a Sunday .
He was most keen on a through trip and asked if we fancied an ofd1 to top trip, and so the decision was made.
We made swift progress through OFD1 with Tarquin giving us a full descriptive history of the cave. We paused for a while at the letterbox as I tried to better a shot I had previously taken there before continuing on in to the main streamway. The water levels weren't too high and although we often had to jump in to the deep water it wasn't too strenuous. We again took a quick shot before leaving the streamway and once we arrived at the crossroads Kay took over the navigation out.
A thoroughly enjoyable day in good company.

Ollie entering the letterbox climb

Kay in the main streamway

Ollie learns that just one more shot isn't always quite truthful!

Present: Ollie Woodward, Kay Wood, Tarquin & Mark Burkey

A Run Around Top....More Like A Marathon!

Ollie's first outing last week to Bagshawe Cavern hadn't put him off and he turned up on Thursday evening keen for more and so a weekend at South Wales was arranged to try and beat the enthusiasm out of him!
We stopped off for the usual breakfast to start the day at Luigi's in Abergavenny before heading on to the SWCC. Upon arrival we checked the river and found this flowing well so the streamway would be out of bounds for todays foray and a run around top entrance would be the trip of the day.

After changing and walking up the hill we headed in.
Kay was kind enough to carry the 2nd peli box as I wanted to test some new flash guns and we took a couple of test shots straight away to see if she would have to lug them around the entire trip.......she would :)

We begun with the awkward climb up to the mini columns and in to the bedding planes to show Kay the head of the practice srt pitch in to Gnome passage. From here we headed down speedy caver and across to Gnome passage, down Edwards Shortcut and for a look at the pretties in Frozen River. We continued down Edwards Shortcut and cut across to Shatter Pillar and took the usual route through Selenite tunnel and over Presidents Leap to take a look at The Trident & Judge formations. A quick divert to Swamp Creek and then up to Peter's Pretty Passage.
I really thought that would be enough for Ollie's first trip in OFD, but he was still game and so we headed up Salubrious and over toward the bottom of Arete Chamber, turned off in to the Snowman passage and cut across to come out in Chasm. We went for a look at the head of the Crevasse before taking a look at Bowani Junction, Straw Gallery and back to Timo's Table. We took the crawls behind Timo's Table back to the base of Arete and the the direct route up the Corkscrew Climb, Past The Wedding Cake in to Gnome Passage, Through the Backyard and Out.
Fortunately that seemed to be enough of a warmup for Ollie and so after a quick look in the club dig, we retired to the local Indian Restaurant to make plans for the next day.

Ollie Admires The Mini Columns

Kay Slides Down The Calcite At Speedy Caver

Ollie Examines The Helictites In Peter's Pretty Passage

Kay In Straw Gallery

Present:
Ollie Woodward, Kay Wood & Mark Burkey

The Dudley, Caving and Cakes - The Box Set

As the Yuletide offerings on TV are a little disappointing this year I thought I'd treat my fans and upload the full series in one easy to watch package complete with the added bonus of outtakes (or should it be outcakes?). So why not sit back, relax and hit the play button.

Caver Keith Goes In Search of the Real Santa Claus

X Certificate Rating

WARNING: This video contains highly disturbing images and should NOT be watched by children or anyone of a nervous disposition.

Before his big day Santa has to practice coming down chimneys. Recently The Dudley embarked on a highly covert mission with the aim of attempting to capture rare footage of Santa in his lair practicing his chimney climbing skills. The team were successful with their assignment but got a little more than they bargained for! They are all now receiving therapy and may eventually regain their sight.

The Dudley, Caving and Cakes - Episode 5

The 5th and final episode. Watch to find out who never makes it out of the cave and who has eaten all of the cakes.

The Dudley, Caving and Cakes - Episode 4

Here is part 4 of Dudley Caving Club's five-part subterranean serial. Last week we left Kayleigh battered, bruised and broken.
Is there anything cake can't do?

The Dudley, Caving and Cakes - Episode 3

How is Chunky going to get out of last weeks predicament? Who's going to end up in trouble this week? Watch episode 3 to find out.

The Dudley, Caving and Cakes - Episode 2

The next instalment of our caketastic adventures can now be viewed on YouTube.

The Dudley, Caving and Cakes - Episode 1

From the Caver Keith Film Studios comes this heart-warming tale from the underworld of triumph over adversity, where friendships are made and broken, adventures abound and cake rules supreme.

This is part one of a five part mini-series which ends when Mark ...... Sorry, you will have to watch to find out.
Episode two will be uploaded next Thursday - 24th November.

A photographic trip in to OFD II

A German photographer had contacted Dudley Caving Club to ask if we would be able to take him underground for a photo shoot and so Jess and I offered to escort them. 

We met up at SWCC and proceeded to spend the next 8 hours underground giving instruction and taking snaps. We only managed to get as far as Selenite Tunnel and back, must be some kind of record!!!

Selenite Tunnel

Swamp Creek

The Chasm

Present: Mark, Jess, Michael & Claudia

Ogof Tee - Stuck in the 19th Hole

Our second cave for the day was just across the valley from the first. We headed up the track onto the hillside adjacent to the Merthyr Tydfil golf course. After a short distance we arrived at the shakehole and made our way down through the massive and loose boulder choke to arrive after a few minutes in a rather shaky gritstone collapse chamber. From here we followed some low crawls, often over fallen boulders to make our way to the end of Ogof Tee, where a strong draught beaconed us down a route through boulders.

Low crawl in Ogof Tee - Photo by Mark

Loz in a small alcove in Ogof Tee - Photo by Mark

Loz in a small chamber in Ogof Tee - Photo by Mark

The route was very tight at first and the belled out, so a line was rigged and then we started to descend. The climb was not as bad as first looked and soon Loz and Brendan were awaiting the arrival of Mark. The squeeze through the boulders was far to tight for him so a few minutes of rock bashing took place to take off the sharp pointy edge of the one boulder that was stopping his descent. Soon Mark was able to just squeeze through and we prayed that this would be a one way trip. We were now in Ogof Cil Sanws and we followed the strong draught through some boulder digs and tight sections to meet a trickle of water entering a low wide section. We could see plenty of airspace and so we went through to and area where we could see daylight. Some frantic digging through snady sediment allowed us to reach daylight at the Ogof Cil Sanws entrance high up in the side of the Danydarren quarry.

Low wet crawl near the entrance to Ogof Cil Sanws - Photo by Mark

Present: Loz Appleby, Mark Burkey and Brendan Marris

Twll Clogfaen - Gone in a Flash

Today we were joined by Loz and the plan was to complete two short caves and take some photos in each of the sites. After kitting up we descended through the impressive scaffolded entrance series to meet the small streamway. This was followed to the first pitch where a descent of the fixed ladder brought us to a decorated grotto.

Formations after the first pitch - Photo by Mark

We paused for a few minutes for Mark to photograph this area before heading downstream to the second pitch. Here some time was spent with Mark taking photos from the top while Brendan photoed from below.

Looking down the main pitch - Photo by Mark

Loz approaching the top of the main pitch - Photo by Brendan

Once the photos were done we headed to the low flat-out crawls of the lower streamway, Mark wisely leaving his camera behind. Once close to the end of the streamway we paused for some photos, but within a couple of minutes Brendan's flashguns were waterlogged in this low wet area and we gave up on the photos for the day. A quick diversion to the aven inlet followed before we exited the cave.

Mark crawling in the lower streamway - Photo by Brendan

A game of hide and seek with the nut off the entrance lock finished off the trip.

Present: Loz Appleby, Mark Burkey and Brendan Marris

Was it all a dream?

Brendan and Mark have been threatening to take me caving for some time but it's only a few weeks since my pelvic scaffolding was surgically removed and so far too early to contemplate a return to the underworld.

Last weekend it was forecast to be a sunny, if a little cold, so I decided to mosey on down to South Wales for some gentle therapeutic walking.

Here I am strolling along minding my own business. After this my memories are very vague but I'll try to piece together what may have happened.

I seem to recall hearing a diesel vehicle, possibly a van approaching at great speed from behind.

Who are these two suspicious looking characters? They look like they might be up to no good. Could they be hatching a cunning plan?

After this everything went dark and it is as if the rest of the weekend has been wiped from my memory, but over the last couple of days I've kept having vivid dreams in which I'm caving again. It's all really rather distressing.







These dreams always seem to feature me in exposed locations and they invariably end with maniacal laughter. I know they are just dreams but they are so authentic they could easily be real.

In one particular dream I'm making my way along narrow ledges with nothing below me and only my crutches for support. I wake up in a cold sweat, but then a thought strikes me. Perhaps crutches are the ideal caving aid for those cavers who do not like traverses.

In another dream I'm falling down a deep hole, deep enough to cause massive injuries, (and I dread having to go back to hospital) but I'm saved from this by my crutch jamming across the hole.

And then my dreams get even more bizarre. Falling is a recurring theme. Falling, falling, falling ... forever falling.

A bit like this.











And then suddenly I'm in the company of Brendan and Mark. I've no idea where they came from. They wish me well and they say they hope I'll be caving again in the not too distant future. I thank them and they drive off.

A lost weekend!




THE VIDEO