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 Tunnel Top

Sundays trip was to be a slightly more gentle Tunnel Top trip to try and find the Cascade Aven extensions.
We lost Chloe at the entrance and she decided her cold was getting the better of her and retreated to the parked cars to look after the cakes.
With just the 3 of us left Brendan and I took a few photo's at the entrance before poking around all the passageway around the calcite slope.
After a couple of hours we decided not to leave Chloe for too long and begun to head out. As Brendan made his way up the entrance pitch Mark Burgess went for a poke around below the pitch head and when he came back he said it seemed to continue down a tube, so whilst he made his way up the pitch I one to take a look and continued on down to a drafting rift which I'm sure is the Cascade Aven series and we will have to return to explore!

Calcite Cascade (Photo Brendan Marris)

Calcite Cascade (Photo Brendan Marris)

Present Mark Burkey, Brendan Marris & Mark Burgess

Tunnel Top and The Paul and Barnabas Extensions

Having feasted on a fine breakfast at Luigi's in Abergavenny Chloe, Loz, Mark and Jess headed to the Dan Yr Ogof car park whilst Keith and Brendan grabbed the key from SWCC.
All changed we plodded up the hill and then dropped the entrance pitch in to Tunnel Top entrance. We were soon across the traverse and down the calcite slope where the group removed their SRT kit and headed off in search of The Paul and Barnabas extensions.

Mark admires the formations

Mark and Chloe had scouted the climb up on a previous visit so we wasted no time reaching the foot of this.

Keith navigating the tight rifts

Mark climbed up first and rigged a belay to bring the others up and Keith and Jess headed up the tight rift to continue the route followed by Loz.  Chloe then had some fun pushing up through the rift and finally Mark followed.
Brendan , suffering a servere bout of man flu, decided he'd had quite enough fun and elected to pootle about back at the base of the climb.
Mark and Keith went up in search of Pearl passage before joining Jess who had squirrelled off leading through crawls, further rifts and canals until finding the twin 'Paul and Barnabas' formations. Mark popped up a roof tube for a quick look at the stream way and cascade before re-joining the group and reversing the route.

Brendan in the entrance series

Collecting Brendan on our way out we were soon changed and warming up on the drive to the Beefeater before the M50 where we finished the day as it started .....feasting on a good meal :)

Mark admires the formations

Loz exits the pitch

Photographs: Jessica Burkey

Present: Chloe Burney, Loz Appleby, Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris, Jessica Burkey & Mark Burkey

Tunnel Cave

After having done the 3 highest peaks on mainland Spain last weekend Jess and I felt somewhat prepared for the arduous hill climb to the entrance to Tunnel cave in South Wales.

We had arranged to meet with Andy and Mel at the roadside diner for Mel to fuel up for breakfast, but Mel had taken her car for a change and as we didn’t recognise any of the vehicles, we wound up pulling in and out of the stop thinking they had already made their way to SWCC only to get a call telling us we needed glasses and had driven straight past a bemused Andy and Mel J

Re-grouping we collected the key for tunnel and headed off to Dan-Yr-Ogof car park.

After an half hour plod up the hill we paused to regain our breath. I rigged the entrance series, down the shaft to the second pitch, and was soon at an impressive calcite slope. Here a hand line is in place part way down, this continues around a quite exposed traverse, and drops down another steep calcite slope to balcony ledge and on to Cascade Aven Chamber. Andy, Mel and Jess soon followed and here all SRT kit was dumped in preparation for the rift passages.
Straight ahead the route took us down a couple of climbs, one with a hand line in situ, although all were easily free climbable, though quite high, and on to some classic rift passage. After an awkward climb up we continued to traverse and crawl in the tubes and rifts following the description & looking out for Marble Arch Passage on the left to show we were on the right track. Eventually we came to a low sandy flat out crawl with a couple of squeezes. Deciding that I’d obviously missed something we back tracked and found that we should have dropped a little lower in the rift and we had actually taken Marble Arch Passage itself. Back on track we made our way to Saddle Corner and climbed up to a small left hand crawl into yet more traversing rift to Cross Junction. After more awkward climbs the passage began to open out and we eventually arrived at the air lock doors where we paused for a couple of pictures and a well-deserved break.

Jess At The Traverse

On the way back we tried to follow the rift at a lower route, which found us losing our way once again and after analysing the cave description Mel realised we had made our way to Xmas Grotto. We had dropped out of the rift at a very awkward climb down and wasted half an hour finding an exposed traverse to take us back on track. Mel bypassed this finding a very tight climb up that none of the rest of us could follow and Andy was in fine verbal form letting us all know his displeasure at having to traverse at high level again!  Faced with yet another awkward climb down, around a corner and sliding down a tube with nothing to hold on to for the last six feet, Andy ordered me ahead so he could stand on my back to get down. Jess went next and rather than stepping off my shoulders wound up sitting on my head and pinning me to the boulders!!!
Back to the entrance series we de-rigged as we made our way out and were soon back on the hilltop looking forward to a drink in the pub on the way back.

The Team At The Air Lock

A very impressive entrance series with a fun high route to what must be the only cave in the country to have a set of UPVC doors at its heart!

As ever my thanks go to everyone involved, although I’m not sure we’ll persuade Andy to do a return for the through trip!!!

Present: Andy Grimes, Mel Wakeman, Jess Harding & Mark Burkey

No Escape From Tunnel Cave

With wet weather ruling out access to Dan Yr Ogof, attention turned to helping Richard and Shaun looking for leads in Tunnel Cave. The plan for the day was to head up to the very end of the Right Hand Branch of Tunnel Cave and look for high level and digging leads in this area of the cave. Keith and Brendan joined Richard and Shaun bringing camera and video kit to add to the digging and bolting kit carried by them. The cave is extremely dry and we only paused on our way to Steeple Aven to cool down as we overheated on our way in. Once at Steeple Aven the pace slows down somewhat as you climb up into the terribly awkward Switchback Passage. This is typical of a lot of Tunnel Cave as you traverse in a roof tube above a tight rift passage below. This continues for a good distance with a well decorated grotto and section of walking passage in the middle of it to give some respite. Eventually we drop down from the roof tube into the end of the unfortunately named "Final Chamber". At the end of this high vaulted chamber a choke is encountered in the floor that must have some digging prospects, but our route was to climb up into a tight passage and wriggle though an awkward choke. This then in turn led to a very tight wet squeeze over calcite to enter a chamber containing fine sediments, which is the current limit of exploration. Two small inlets feed a small calcited passage in the floor with no real prospect of being pursued, while in the far wall a inlet from a calcited passage showed no prospects either. The final hope was an aven in the roof which was bolted by Richard to find that this too closed down to yield no opportunities. With leads in this part of the cave ruled out we exited, taking a few photos on the way out to record this rarely visited section of the cave.

Keith near the the end of the Right Hand Series.

Richard and Shaun climbing up at the end of the Final Chamber in the Right Hand Series.

Richard bolting up the aven at the end of the Right Hand Series.

Shaun in the Final Chamber in the Right Hand Series.

Shaun in a decorated grotto in the Switchback Passage in the Right Hand Series.

Shaun in a decorated grotto in the Switchback Passage in the Right Hand Series.

See more Tunnel Cave photos here

Present: Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris, Richard Frost and Shaun

Tunnel Cave, Swansea Valley

This was to be our second attempt to provide a trip into DYO of the North Wales cavers. Yet again the weather foiled our plans and we instead had a trip into Tunnel Cave through Cathedral showcave. A trip up to Christmas Grotto and Steeple Aven proved a poor substitute for DYO.

Keith in Steeple Aven

Keith and Evan (on the boulder) in Steeple Aven

Heather in a phreatic tube near Steeple Aven

The Team: Brendan (report), Heather & Keith + Evan (NWCC)

Tunnel Cave and OFD 2, South Wales

Chris and myself took the opportunity to join the WBCRT practice in Tunnel Cave. Four hours were spent bringing a casualty through the cave and then out of the show cave. After having ice cream and tea, Chris and myself headed up to Top Entrance to search out and explore the Bedding Chambers.

Chris views the formations in Shale Chamber.

See more OFD 2 photos here 

The Team: BrMa & ChWe

Tunnel Cave, Tunnel Cave, Swansea Valley Area, South Wales

This replaced the rained off intended trip to the main streamway in OFD and was organised as a SRT training trip for Del and Mark. After walking up hill to the cave Keith realised he had left the cave key in his car! Nevertheless 1/2 hour later we were ready to descend. This meant that the trip was shorter than intended and we didn't get as far as the show cave door.

Derek on the traverse in Tunnel Cave Top Entrance.

Derek on the traverse in Tunnel Cave Top Entrance.

Chris on the Calcite slope in Tunnel Cave Top Entrance.

See more Tunnel Cave photos here

The Team: KeEd, BrMa, DeRo, MaRo & ChWe

Tunnel Cave, Swansea Valley Area, South Wales

A very short trip from Top Entrance to 5m Pot Chamber.

Jim Durr ascends the First Pitch.

Jim Durr climbs the steep calcite slope.

See more Tunnel Cave photos here

Present: JDu, KEd & BMa