A Yorkshire Weekend

Saturday - Lancaster Hole 
Present: Mike Clayton - DCC/Craven PC, Emma Porter - DCC/Craven PC, Andrew Cross - DCC, Dave Williams - DCC, Neville Lucus - Craven PC, John Allonby - Craven PC, Hadi Kaassamani - Speleo Club du Liban, Firas Fayad - Speleo Club du Liban 
The projected route was into Lancaster Hole through to the main drain and exiting from Wretched Rabbit. The trip took longer underground than expected as Wilf Taylor's Passage was carrying a significant stream. At one waterfall, it was decided to turn back. On the return journey, Neville lost a wellie (never to be seen again) due to the force of the stream. We exited from Lancaster Hole. 

Sunday - Bar Pot 
Present: Mike Clayton - DCC/Craven PC, Emma Porter - DCC/Craven PC, Andrew Cross - DCC, Joanna Campbell - ex-DCC, Shepton Mallet CC, Graham Salmon - Yorkshire Ramblers Club, Hadi Kaassamani - Speleo Club du Liban, Firas Fayad - Speleo Club du Liban 
The intended pot was Swinsto Hole, but this was abandoned due to the high water levels in the Dales. Bar Pot was a suitable trip with the main chamber very impressive as Fell Beck was carrying a significant stream. After the main chamber we visited Sand Chambers, Stream Passage streamway on the way to the start of the South East Extension. After Saturday, this constituted an uneventful trip.

Ogof Ffynnon Ddu II, Penwyllt, South Wales

The route: Top Entrance --> Big Chamber --> Bagpipe Chamber (for Del) --> Arete Chamber Top (for Andy) --> Birthday Cake --> The Clay Figures (for Andy) --> Chasm Passage --> Poached Egg Climb --> Straw Gallery (Photo stop) --> The Crevasse --> Bhowani Junction (to look at the pretty) --> Chasm Passage --> Timo's Table (short break for Brendan and Keith to explore the route to the Prokofiev Series - we'll do this next year and need a back-up team of the thinnest members in the Club) --> Arete Chamber Bottom --> Salubrious Stream --> Trident --> Judge --> Out by the normal route except Keith decided to take the crawl past White Arch. A good time was had by all.

Straw Gallery in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu II.

The Team: Brendan, Keith, Del, Carol, Chris, Mel & Andy G

Limestone Mines, Olwyn Gogh Shaft, North Wales

Keith with the assistance of Brendan navigating found the mine this time. (Last time we failed to find it - both believing that the other one knew where it was!) A 400 foot ladder climb led us down into the tunnel, to breath in the diesel and smoke fumes from the recently departed train. (An audible sob was heard to escape from Keith.) We then headed to the limestone working where we spent about 4 hours taking photos in some of the larger galleries. We then headed out via the upper limestone workings.

Limestone workings in the Milwr Tunnel.

Limestone workings in the Milwr Tunnel.

Present: MCl, KEd, BMa, EPo, DRo & DeWi

OFD I and Cwm Dwr through trip, Penwyllt, South Wales

This was to have been a day on the dig to see if it would be possible to pump water into the cave along the newly discovered roof space, however when we went into the dig the water levels were too high, so instead we went caving. 

Present: KEd, BMa, DRo & CWe

Brickworks Dig, Penwyllt, South Wales

At the dig face nearly all of the in-fill from the 'lost' roof of the passage had slumped in revealing back space in the ceiling. After some digging we were able to climb up into this. The passage here is around ten feet high. Ahead appears to be the continuation of the chocked narrow rift, above is a 4 inch square hole in the roof which is another inlet, but to the left is (as we suspected from last time) another passage and the in-fill does not go quite up to roof level - more black space! We can see about six feet along this passage before it appears to turn right again. This is a very interesting area.

For more details of the weekend see the Dig Page.

The Dig Team:  MCa, KEd, BMa (Sat only), DRo, GSm (Sat & first 15mins of Sun only), JSm & ASt

Hidden Earth Conference, Leek

This year the conference was relatively close to the West Midlands and once again was a great success thanks to the hard work of the volunteer staff. It was a great opportunity to catch up with friends, buy new kit and to be inspired. 

Attendees: Acr, BMa, DWi 
Lecturer: EPo 
Technical Support: MCl

Ogof Draenen, Pwll Du, South Wales

A trip to Canyons East and Canyon West with the purposes of a) visiting a part of the cave we haven't been to before and b) introducing Del to something a little tastier like the traverses in Indiana Highway. No real formations to talk about but some fantastic guano deposits. 

Present: KEd, BMA & DRo