A South Wales Weekend - The Water-Gate Affair

Graham constructs a gate for the dig

The Team: Roger Bryan, Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris, Graham Smith & John Smith.

Knotlow and Wharf Mines - Where's Andy? Why didn't he untie that flipping belay?

So one Thursday evening it was suggested that an exchange trip from Knotlow to Wharf Mine was on the cards.  Andy hadn’t had a decent outing to test himself for a while and had always wanted to have a go at the Engine Shaft and Meccano passage.  There was to be another party coming in via the Wharf Climbing Shaft and I really fancied giving my shiny new pantin a workout, so said I’d be happy to join Andy and Mel coming in from the Knotlow side.  As is often my downfall, after hearing that there was a squeeze in the Meccano passage, and with Keith’s uncanny assessment that it might be ‘a little cozy’ for me, flooded, coffin and suicidal came up in my Google foray!

After a good hearty breakfast we were off.  I was a little nervous, but excited at the same time.  I like to imagine anything that worries me to be so horrendously bad that when I actually encounter it it’s a pleasant surprise.  Unfortunately this is in perfect contrast to Jess who likes to arrive oblivious, so my nervous chatter in the car on the way to the mines was not well received.....

Mark: ”So do you think that the guys on UK Caving Forum were kidding when they put that they wouldn’t do Meccano again and that it was suicidal, tight and wet?”

Jess: “If you don’t shut up I’m going to shove that Pantin where it’s not designed for!”

I decided on quiet and contemplative after this.

At the Engine shaft Andy and Bartek swiftly rigged.  Andy was describing the descent to me and how you had to swing across the passage before reaching the bottom, but I was only half listening as SRT is the bit I enjoy and was concentrating on the flooded stage.  All rigged and ready to go Andy commanded, “Right Mark, down you go!”......That’ll teach me.

The descent was smooth, the passage was obvious and I happily tied in a belay and backed it up down the passage to give those following a line to clip in to.  Down came the others and we removed our SRT gear ready for the crawl.  Andy explained that he’d untie the rope so that if the others decided against the ascent out that we could pull the rope up from the top.  

Into Meccano we went with Andy in the lead.  We soon reached the flooded section.  The passage was roomier than I’d imagined (I have a wonderful imagination) but the water was coming up fast.  Andy ahead was in good voice with expletives being used frequently, much to Mel’s amusement.  Once the water had forced Andy’s head to the ceiling and his chin in the water he decided he was not a happy bunny and ordered a retreat to drier land to talk through if we had missed something.  With water now in just about every cavity and no room to turn around we shuffled backward down the passage till we could all re-group.  After Andy kindly offered the lead to Mel, Myself and Jess (All of us graciously declining) he decided that it was helmets off and he’d show us how it was done.  Down the passage he went expletives and all and was soon calling back that he was through and at the squeeze.  After a few cusses and grunts he was through, Mel of course shot through like a whippet out of cage.  I looked nervously down the passage and called to Andy to have a look back through and see if he thought I’d get through. After being assured that if I got stuck that he’d pull me through by my ears I gave it a go......and......turns out that some trip reports are made a little larger than life.  Imagine that!

Very happy with myself for fitting through and skipping along through to Wharf we met Keith and Bartek on the way.  Brendan was wandering around further back muttering something about Mines, but looked less enthusiastic than I’d ever seen him.  Andy was on a roll and already headed off up the route out and I decided to hold back and let Jess go up first whilst I popped on my new toy to see if it made the prussic up any easier.  After some interesting rift and re-belays I was happy with my new piece of kit and was soon up and out.  I mentioned to Jess as I emerged that I’d like to do a larger SRT pitch and try out the pantin on a good sized prussic to which she grinned and told me that Andy wanted to see me. Apparently Andy hadn’t realised that I had tied in at two points and only untied the one, so it looked like I would get my chance at a larger prussic a little sooner than I’d anticipated!  It was now quite cold, windy and spitting with rain, so it was almost pleasant to get out of the weather and in to the shaft. Everything was smooth on the way down.  I untied the belay and pulled plenty of rope through the chest croll knowing that there would be plenty of bounce on the rope and stepped out in to the shaft. I was pretty chuffed with myself that I only dropped around 6ft and begun my prussic back up. I hadn’t counted on just how much bounce there would be on the rope and pin-balled around the shaft each time I stepped up!  After 10 minutes I’d gotten the hang of the rope but realised that after the trip and prussic out of Wharf that I was going to need to take it steady............45 min’s later I could hear Keith shouting something about hurrying up and I’m sure it was most encouraging had I been able to make out all the words.  Back at the top of the shaft I looked around to let Andy know that I thought it a little inconvenient that he’d forgotten the 2^nd belay but as soon as he’d seen the steam rising from the shaft he knew I’d almost reached the top and retreated to the car.

The day was finished with some lovely cake back at the cafe and even Brendan seemed to have stopped mumbling about mines and enjoyed a cuppa.

Mark

Bartek in Hillocks

The Team: Andy Grimes, Bartek Biela, Brendan Marris, Jessica Harding, Keith Edwards, Mark Burkey & Mel Wakeman. 

OFD 2 - Into the Labyrinth

Where Mark 'The Chin' overcomes his fear of traverses, Wal, for once in his life, doesn't wander off (too far anyway), Gary discovers the delights of Meander 'Boil in the Bag' over-suits, Jess dares to criticise her leader for slight navigational errors, Sinead manages to go caving without screaming (too much anyway) and Keith gets verbally abused.

The trip was arranged for new members Sinead and Gary.  The trip was a meander around a number of passages in top entrance as it was too wet to go to our planned destination - Top Waterfall.  The route through the cave was - Big Chamber, Bagpipe Chamber, Arete Chamber, Cairn Chamber, The Labyrinth, Salubrious Streamway - downstream, The Crossroads, Cross Rift, Shatter Pillar, Selenite Tunnel, The Crossroads, Trident/Judge, Salubrious Streamway - upstream, Arete Chamber - from the other side, Gnome Passage and out via White Arch.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience although some members of the team were more than a little knackered on the way out.

The team on the traverses just beyond Big Chamber

Keith and Gary negotiating President's Leap

Wal climbing the waterfall in Arete Chamber

When it became obvious that a Top Waterfall trip was not possible I did moot the idea of taking the group into Cwm Dwr, but was persuaded against the idea as it was suggested that Mark might not fit through the squeeze.  As we were out of the cave well before our call-out time Mark asked if I would take him a short way into Cwm Dwr to see if he would or would not fit through the squeeze.  I asked Brendan who was Duty Officer for the weekend if he would like the pleasure of leading the trip for Mark.  It was difficult to hear his reply as I was outside a window of the club in a bitterly cold northerly breeze and he was inside the club basking in the warmth provided by the new central heating system, but he shook his head and said something which sounded like 'fork cough'.  I'm not sure what that means.

Jess joined us and we set off down the drainpipes and along the watery crawls.  In a short while we were at the infamous 'Grade 2 Constricted Space' crawl where with a little huffing a puffing Mark managed to feed his body through, although I don't think he would have before some kind soul bagged up large quantities of the stones.  Jess then said, "You were thinking of bringing the new members into here."  I nodded and she replied, "You sadistic bustard."  I don't understand why I was compared to a large bird which has been extinct in Britain for nearly 180 years and I'm sure when Gary and Sinead do go to Cwm Dwr - probably during the caving weekend of 2nd/3rd April they will think it's a lovely cave.

Keith at the entrance

Bustard - is there any similarity?


Video Trailer



Video Highlights of the Trip


The Team: Mark Burkey, Gary Chapman, Keith Edwards, Jessica Harding, Sinead Herlihy and Steve Wallis
Photos by Mark Burkey

Yorkshire Caving - Heron Pot

Having taken part in the Peak Cavern trip photographic extravaganza for Jess' birthday, we thought we'd better take a camera to Yorkshire for Mark's birthday caving weekend.
Saturday saw us joining Heather and some friends from Crewe to do an SRT trip in Bull Pot of the Witches - with 15 of us shimmying up and down ropes it became an exercise in logistics as well as ropework! As we were out by half 3, we popped off for a quick through trip from Calf holes to Browgill to finish the day off.
Sunday we set off to find Heron Pot - as recommended by Andy G. Armed with O.S. coordinates but having mislaid the GPS, we nonetheless managed to pinpoint the pot straight away - or so we thought! It fitted the description perfectly so we kitted up and slid in to the first chamber...to find that we way on was a very tight flat out passage. We hummed and hah'd over the fact that Andy said it wasn't a tight cave, and the description didn't mention it either. Climbing back out rather despondantly, we then noticed a very obvious cave entrance only feet away, which we'd been standing with our backs to, doh!
Once we got into the real Heron Pot we really enjoyed the trip - full of formations, interesting passages and not much water. The pitches weren't the most straightforward to rig but by combining Andy's advice with the couple of descriptions we'd taken, Mark managed to rig the pitches quickly and efficiently. We explored the cave down to the start of the through-trip wet crawl, including a climb up to a well-decorated chamber and a look at the upper fossil series, which is accessed up a calcite slope. We decided to give the "long wet crawl" to the valley a miss as we weren't doing the through trip, and returned to the pitches.
At the bottom of the first pitch I managed to swing right into the waterfall as I started prussicking up, which was a real incentive to prussick fast as I spluttered to Mark "Hold the rope! It's not going through my ascender!" It was at this point Mark remembered Andy had mentioned something about a deviation??? Sure enough, half way up there was a p-bolt that wasn't mentioned in either of the descriptions, but would have just kept that rope out of the waterfall :0(
We were back at the car and toasty again just as other cavers were popping out of holes all over the hillside - such is the beauty of Yorkshire!

There were formations throughout the cave, including the famous "pickled onion" formation (above).

The passages were full of calcite curtains and flowstone.

Present: Heron Pot - Mark "the chin" Burkey and Jess "Globetrotter" Harding

Sanctum - A spot of armchair caving on the horizon

Peak Cavern - A Cinematic Extravaganza

Deep in darkest Derbyshire a team of crack cavers go to probe the inner depths of the place that the locals refer to only as the Devil's Arse.

Will Adrian ever fit into his oversuit?

Will Sinead ever escape the clutches of darkness?

Will Andy ever go caving again?

Will Mel ever speak to Keith again after seeing the film?

Will Wal ever shut up?

 

Trailers for the soon to be released  Peak Cavern - The Movie

The Complete Movie

Group 1 - The first photographic trip 
Chief photographer - John Smith, Props Manager (Rocks) - Adrian Stanley, Chief Model - Sinead Herlihy and Chief Lighting Engineer - Andy Grimes

Group 2 - The second photographic trip 
Locations Manager Christine Wilson, Chief Photographer - Bartek Biela, Photographers First Assitant - Paulina Biela, Photographers Second Assistant - Dominik Mokrzecki and Chief Model - Heather Simpson

Group 3 - The third photographic and video trip 
Director of Photography - Keith Edwards, Chief Stills Photographer - Brendan Marris, Stunt Coordinator - Graham Smith, Leading Lady - Melanie Wakeman and Best Boy (Grip) - Steve (Wal) Wallis 

Group 4 - Floating cavers who could not remember which group they were with. 
Jessica (Globetrotter) Harding and Mark (The Chin) Burkey

The crew assembled in the Chapel, and fortunately for Adrian there were so many there to help him get into his oversuit. We decided that due to the wet weather and high water that we would not go through into Speedwell, and so we divided into groups and headed to the cave. John's group headed to the Main Streamway to commence their photos. The second group headed to Neil Moss Chamber to take photos before heading into the Main Streamway. The third group headed into the Main Streamway to take some photos and to fill Adrian's  tackle bag with rocks when his back was turned before heading to Neil Moss chamber on the way out. Mark and Jessica could not decide who they were with and moved from group to group in a vain effort to avoid being involved in the photos.

The crew in the Chapel - Ready to go. Photo Bartek Biela

Jessica and Heather at the start of Pickerings Passage. Photo Bartek Biela

Heather in Moss Chamber. Photo Bartek Biela

Paulina on the Surprise View ladder. Photo Bartek Biela

Wal and Mel pause for a moment in the Upper Gallery.

Wal and Graham in the Upper Gallery.

Wal about to jump across the main streamway.

Wal jumping across the main streamway.

Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 1 - With a new pole for the streamway

Our plan was for a round trip with a deviation into the Waterfall Series to take some photos and video. There had been some recent posts on the caving forums warning that the third pole from the pots in the main streamway was missing. This concerned us as apart from making the trip potentially dangerous it would also mean that we were likely to get very wet. We had to form a plan...
The solution was obvious, we needed a to find a spare pole to take along so Keith and Brendan could keep their feet dry. 
At the Club on Thursday night we looked across to Dominik Mokrzecki and asked "How do you fancy a caving trip on Sunday?"

Keith uses the new pole to keep his feet dry at the third pot.

We headed upstream in OFD 1 making use of the new pole in the third pot in the streamway to ensure that the photograher and videographer remained dry. At the end of the streamway we headed up the traverses that take you up to the Waterfall Series and then followed the Dry Way to the West Leg to take the photos.

Keith climbs up to the West Leg in the Waterfall Series.

Dominik in a well decorated oxbow passage in the Waterfall Series.

Keith in a well decorated oxbow passage in the Waterfall Series.

A detour was taken to Crystal Pool Chamber, Keith headed off first with Dominik, while Brendan stayed at the bottom of the climb that he really did not like the look of. Some video was taken in the chamber before Keith and Dominik headed down into the Annex. This was tight going down and proved to be a real struggle on the way back out. On leaving the Waterfall Series we headed to the climb into Lowes Passage and started our way on the Round Trip. This part of the trip went like clockwork, which was just as well as we had taken so much time with photos and video in the Waterfall Series.
With the Round Trip complete we headed back up stream to pick up the photo gear and to take some video clips in the streamway. 

See more Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 1 photos here 

The video of the trip

Present: Keith Edwards, Brendan Marris and Dominik Mokrzecki