What It Takes To Get The Shot Two - Llygad Llwchr

This is about the 10th edit of this video and although it’s far from perfect, I do sort of like the 'fly on the wall/behind the scenes look at cave photographers at work’ nature of it, so have at long last decided to upload it.

What it takes to get the shot - Llygad Llwchwr promo

Dudley's dynamic duo, speleo snappers Brendan and Mark go questing again in search of the illusive perfect cave photograph. Watch to see how they fare, and why they needed to take a giant inflatable crab with them. Preparation is everything. Witness the skill and determination needed to stay at the top of their game.

The complete video will be available shortly, when the legal wrangling is over and hopefully an out of court settlement has been reached. Meanwhile here's a short teaser.

Wet Wet Wet, An Introduction to Caving In Llygad Llwchwr

Wayne turned up to the club a couple of weeks ago fancying a trip and I suggested taking him on something whilst we were in South Wales over the weekend. My original plan was to do something gentle in OFD, but as we chatted around the tea pot another plan was formed.

Wayne and Loz joined myself, Brendan and Jess at SWCC and together we travelled on to meet up with Chloe and Keith at the parking spot for Llygad Llwchwr.

We begun hauling bags of kit out of the van and gradually Wayne began to realise he hadn't just let himself in for a normal trip.
Kitted up with inflatable dingy, two boxes of camera gear, a bag of flash bulbs and kit for a ladder pitch, we made our way to the entrance where we formed a chain to take the kit up. I wanted to learn the cave so Chloe navigated from behind and we made our way in with Keith taking snippets of video as we went.
In the first river chamber we realised that the water levels were going to be a little higher than normal due to storms of the last week.
We took a quick look at the second river chamber before continuing on to river chamber number four, where we deployed a dingy and introduced wayne to the joys of standing in flowing frigid water whilst Brendan and I orchestrated lighting for an underwater flash bulb shot which created an eerie red glow from the sediments in the peaty water.
After 20 minutes we allowed Wayne a respite and continued caving on to the ladder pitch down to river chamber 4.
Whilst Brendan and I played with some shots in the dry passage below Jess took Wayne through the chest high waters to the end of the passage to see the formations before rejoining us. I had the daft idea of floating flashguns on a boat in the fast flowing passage and soon regretted the idea as water flooded over them. With batteries removed ready to dry them out later we packed our gear and headed out to play in the water slide outside the cave.
Back at the van I realised I'd gone and left my phone and wallet back at the SWCC so we said our goodbyes and a slightly embarrassed me headed off to collect them.

Keith and Wayne in the fourth river chamber (Picture Brendan Marris) 

Loz admires a crystal pool (Picture Brendan Marris)

Chloe in dry passage in the second river chamber (Photo Brendan Marris)

Sod Caving, this is much more fun! By Keith Edwards

Present: Jess Burkey, Mark Burkey, Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney & Wayne Holt-Morris

Llygad Llwchwr – A cave of spiders, water, and two left feet.

I had decided to take a little more responsibility for leading trips and so had offered to take Becca and Amy into Llygad Llwchwr and Llygad LLwchwr Two. The trip attracted an unexpected amount of interest from other members and the group size grew to 8.

The day started in a less than ideal fashion with me showing up to Amy’s 20 minutes late after spending a considerable length of time thoroughly lost driving in circles around Spaghetti Junction due to a motorway closure. Ben also arrived 20 minutes late but as he pulled up at the same time as me, he considered himself to be on time! We met the rest of the group in Llandeilo at 10am sharp for breakfast and before we knew it we had navigated our way to the caves outside of Trapp, and we were changed ready to go.

We first climbed down the scaffold shaft into LLygad Llwchwr Two for a little poke around and to show everyone the impressive formations. Mark stopped to take a few photos then we headed back out.

Ben admiring formations in Llygad Llwchwr Two

On the way to Llygad Llwchwr we stopped for the mandatory posing photo in front of the ‘Caving is a dangerous activity’ sign. 

Everybody flew up the entrance climb, avoiding the spiders, and along to the First River Chamber which was the initial stop on the list. After a little splash around we continued back out and along the passage, past the Column, and through a duck into the maze. We followed some rift and crawling passages to find ourselves at a perfectly smooth slide of rock ending in a muddy puddle. Eight successive cries of ‘weeeeeeeeee’ followed by a splash were heard as we all came down, leading to a nice tidal wave effect as our feet hit the water which soaked the person ahead. After a brief visit to the third river chamber we continued along to the fourth river chamber. It was here that we were perching on ledges avoiding the central deep section of water when Ben lost his footing leading to a domino effect knocking into Andy, Amy and then Becca. The girls managed to keep their balance but Ben and Andy got a thorough soaking. Upon clambering back out of the deep water Ben grabbed hold of the dive rope which happened to be tucked behind my knees, catapulting me into the water as well. Satisfied that Ben had soaked enough of the team we headed back on ourselves and to the second river chamber. Natural belays were used to rig a ladder and lifeline and we popped down into the water. Amy, Loz, Becca, Mark, and I swam down the river to view the very pretty formations in the roof. It was during the swim back up river that Becca announced that she had lost her right wellie, although wasn’t too sure when exactly it happened as her feet were so numb with cold she didn’t feel it slip off! We gave up looking for the lost wellie in the deep water after a matter of minutes as everybody was getting rather cold. However a similar misfortune must have fallen upon a previous unwary caver as we had earlier spotted a lone wellie perched on the side of the second river chamber. In slight disbelief of the luck of it, we went to retrieve the stray homeless wellie. Unfortunately not only was it a left foot wellie but it was also 3 sizes too big leading to a very comical walk back out of the cave.

 left the cave with huge smiles on their faces. It was a day of much laughter and a very successful trip all round.

Loz and Andy at the Entrance

Amy Descending in to the second river chamber

Present: Andy Grimes, Chloe Burney, Ben Marklew, Becca Kirkpatrick, Amy Sawyer, Jessica Burkey, Loz Appleby & Mark Burkey

Trip report by Chloe Burney