Pushing up Daisies on Ystradfellte Common

Using the 'better' weather for an opportunity to visit some of the smaller caves we opted on the Sunday to head to the Parish of Ystradfellte and to the common land that overlies the passages of Little Neath River Cave and overlooks the Nedd Fechan valley below. We parked in the centre of Ystradfellte and headed up the lane to the common in a light mist in search of a shrubbery.

Ogofau Gwynion

With a wide entrance reminiscent of the Cave of Caerbannog we approached with caution, knowing of the tales of the killer rabbit we clutched our Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and approached with trepidation. Fortunately the killer rabbit was not resident having gone to visit the cheese shop in the village. The large entrance chamber is open to the outside and acts as a sheep shelter, the floor liberally covered with a thick layer of evidence. At the back of the chamber a crawl through leads to a second chamber with mounds of red sand in the floor. From this Jess followed a long low passage on the left until it eventual ended in an old dig. We then turned our attention to "F.B. Chamber" not sure what the F.B. stand for but maybe Frank Baguely or Fat Bas@@@d?? The route to this was a flat out tight crawl with a "hump back" of rock in the floor. We all tried but non could pass to we then headed out to have a look at Ogof Gwynion No.2 a short section of low passage ending after 20m.

Jess in the entrance chamber of Ogof Gwynion No. 1 - Photo Mark Burkey

Jess in the Second Chamber of Ogof Gwynion No.1 - Photo Brendan Marris

Ogof Shar Wlad

The weather has now improved as we walked around to find Ogof Shar Wlad, neatly hidden at the base of a small quarried face of rock. We lifted off the covering rocks from the entrance and dropped down the entrance shaft taking care not to dislodge rocks onto those below. This is a very short cave, much shorter that the survey gives an impression of. We explored all passages including the "Main Passage" which is a steeply descending scree slope that is reached via a flat out crawl that provides entertainment as you speed down head first.

Jess Ogof Shar Wlad - Photo Mark Burkey

Jess Ogof Shar Wlad - Photo Brendan Marris

Ogof Dan Y Rhedyn

The final cave of the afternoon was Ogof Dan Y Rhedyn - The Cave Below the Ferns. We lifted the covers off the shaft and rigged a ladder and lifeline off a combination of natural belays and the rusty scaffold bars across the top of the shaft. The whole shaft is loose and at the bottom it lands at the top of a large scree slope. We headed down to meet in the main chamber of the cave before we split up and headed in different directions to explore the cave. Half an hour was spent exploring all the cave including a flat-out dig in the downstream end of the cave that appears to be longer than shown on the survey.

Jess upstream in Ogof Dan Y Rhedyn - Photo Mark Burkey

Mark in the Main Chamber Ogof Dan Y Rhedyn - Photo Brendan Marris

The Ex-Frog

On heading back to the bottom of the entrance shaft we found Jess with what she insisted was a DEAD FROG found in this very establishment not an hour ago.

'E's just pining for the Fjords' she was told.

'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This Frog is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker!

'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't Trod 'im to the Rock 'e'd be pushing up the daisies!

'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig!

'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!

THIS IS AN EX-FROG!!

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey and Brendan Marris

There’s nothing worse than Tooth Cave ache!

There’s nothing worse than Tooth Cave ache!

With Jess dropped off in the Brecon’s I continued on to meet with Brendan at the SWCC hut where we intended to collect a key for our objective of the day, Tooth Cave in the Gower.

Whilst we faffed trying to locate a key we had a chat with Peter Francis who looked at us sideways when we said we were off to Tooth for a photographic trip……’Well I guess there are a couple of shots to be had, but it’s a lot of squalid crawling!’

Brendan assured me that he was just trying to put us off and that he didn’t recall an excessive amount of crawling, so off we headed.

At just over one and a half kilometres Tooth is the longest cave on the Gower. The entrance is a large gate at the foot of a small cliff which leads via a slot to the head of a short pitch. We swiftly rigged and descended in to Bone chamber and followed the obvious route which soon degraded in to…….yep you guessed it crawls!

We passed the Elephant’s Legs formations and continued through crawls filled with cobbles, with the occasional respite of stooping passage. Eventually we reached Big Sump which after the dry winter we’d had allowed us access to the downstream section of the cave and much larger passage way.

We continued on to the rift passages which create something of a maze at the end of the system before retracing our steps to photograph the ‘Christmas Cake’ formation, impressive rift and stream passage and deeply scalloped tubes on our return.

The crawling seemed even longer on the way back out and after a quick divert to take a look at the upstream section we headed out.

Whilst changing I picked out small cobbles which had trapped behind my kneepads, massaged my aching knees and looked over to find Brendan stretching out and doing the same. We had to admit that Peter had been right about the crawling at least, with small bruises starting to form we knew we’d be suffering ‘Tooth’ ache for a couple of days to come!

Mark in Main Passage Photo Brendan Marris

Mark in Big Sump Photo Brendan Marris

Brendan in the lower Main Passage  Photo Mark Burkey

Brendan in Main Passage Photo Mark Burkey

Present: Brendan Marris & Mark Burkey

Keyhole surgery in Craig y Ffynnon

After a lovely night’s sleep at the campsite (my air bed turned itself in to a ground sheet), we set off for Craig y Ffynnon.

I appeared to have somehow been nominated leader, think Chloe organised that , though she kindly opened the renowned awkward lock for me, annoyingly very easily, can’t be that bad I thought.

I led the way towards our intended destination the promised land. I got to the 2^nd boulder choke but couldn’t remember the way on left or right? Then Brendan hinted trying looking up! To thank him I offered to take the tackle bag (with ladder & rope that we’d need for the pitch in to the promised land), up through the choke.

All up through the choke, we were greeted by a blank hall of mud which everyone got through without ending up in walking in wet socks. At some point this became travertine passage & we went over the gower pools, pausing to look at the formations, fortunately or unfortunately neither Mark or Brendan had brought camera, so we continued on to the impressive hall of the mountain king.

Lighting angles and no of flash guns were discussed, before making ur way to bypass 3^rd boulder choke. Then some crawling and some more crawling followed by.... guess what??? more crawling! It was a lot longer than I remember, as had I remembered I won’t have offered to take the bag again.

Finally on to walking passage towards 4^th choke. At some point it was discussed that we’d change our destination to Heligtitie passage as time was getting on and people were feeling tired.

1/2 way through the 4^th boulder choke Bonner and Marc were feeling the effects of Andy G’s Aggy trip, Brendan volunteered to go back with anyone who didn’t want to continue, so Bonner & Brendan headed out to enjoy the nice crawling sooner than the rest of us, but did take the bag!

Out choke 4 we got in to walking passage and big chamber filled with dry mud covered boulders, but soon to come to the start of some formations which develops in to the stunning heligtite passage. Even though I’d been before I’d forgotten just how beautiful it was, which apparently is easy to do, isn’t it Jess?  Marc was pleased he’d slogged on to see the passage, I think with the help of a supermarket energy drink called “I can’t believe it’s not Lucozade”!

We made good progress out, I only went wrong once coming back through the 4^th choke but otherwise uneventful, apart from playing a bit of stuck in the mud where Chloe tried to lose a welly which had the rest of us (well me anyway) in stiches. The mud assisted the slide back through the 2^nd boulder choke and we were soon back at the junction to the north west inlet for a bit of a swim to remove some mud.

At the exit Mark suggested I should try doing the lock, can’t be that hard right? The others carried on down the sunny hill side, Mark & I stayed in the shade & breeze of the cave mouth, while I faffed with the lock eventually getting it closed & able to remove the key. We then got in to the sun, but just as I started to defrost I realised I’d left my car key inside the cave entrance!

 Back up the hill I went in to the cold draft, I think I invented a few new swear words trying to get the pesky padlock undone, finally got that off but couldn’t get the corroded bit of bent bar out the hole in the door, I eventually got it free with the help of more swearing, car key retrieved, all I had to do was lock the door again! I managed this using the element of surprise, turning the key & removing it in one action.

By the time I got back to the cars, Chloe who was car sharing with me, had changed out of her wet caving gear and had been lent a towel by Mark. This would have been a rather unusual site for any non-caver passer by; to see a lady in a towel and a load of blokes standing round in a random layby! Lol. Although I’m not sure it would be the first time we’ve baffled the locals with our strange dress sense and probably won’t be the last either!

Trip report by Loz

Present : Loz Appleby, Mark Burkey, Mike Bonner, Marc Carney, Brendan Marris, Chloe Burney

A Musical Adventure in Agen Allwedd

After following a rather long diversion as the Heads of the Valley road from SWCC was closed, I arrived half an hour late to the Daren Cilau car park to find Rich, Mat, Ian and Phil just finishing changing.
I told them to head off and I'd catch them up as I know Mike and Andy's party would be already at the entrance waiting,  and begun to kit up.
Half way down the track I managed to catch Phil and Ian and together we continued to the entrance to meet up with the other party.
Andy and the others were sunning themselves waiting for us and we begun to sort out who was going with whom. It was only then that we realised that Rich and Mat were missing. We knew straight away that they must have wound up taking the path which would drop them down the valley and much shouting and whistle blowing began until they eventually emerged.
Rich had originally planned on the inner circle trip but was tired out by the climb back up the valley and elected for a slightly more subdued trip with the rest of us.
Our group of six plodded through the entrance series to emerge in Barons chamber after around an hour. We then begun to head down the stream way, but it was all getting a bit much for Pete who hasn't caved for some time. We adjusted our plan and decided we'd head to the music room instead along with a quick visit for the cliffs of dover for most.
On the way out we paused for a few photos and eventually emerged after 5 hours plodding. Pete looked extremely happy to make it out alive and at one point I actually thought he was going to kiss the ground as he exited....until he saw the sheep muck :)

Main Chamber

The guys playing around in the Music Room

Pete emerges from a hard trip

Present: Mat Maylin, Rich Gibbons, Pete Anstey, Ian Millward, Phil Lester & Mark Burkey

Agen Allwedd the Inner Circle

A pilgrimage to St Pauls Dome and the Inner Circle

As the previous trip earlier in the year only got us as far as Turkey Pool, we were determined that our second outing into Aggy would see us reach the inner circle. We gathered at the car park in good time to make this happen and after a number of unscheduled delays we eventually made our way to the entrance.

Double checking that nobody in the group needed to be anywhere later that evening we swiftly made our way in through the entrance series to Barons Chamber.

Dropping off the main passage into the stream way we made our way to the 2^nd boulder choke, where it seems I may have attempted to eliminate Andy G from the group by sending him up into a small choked dead-end – Immediately it all came back to me and I spotted the correct way through and (with only the soles of his boots visible, but his vocal cords still in perfect working order), Andy G was freed from his confined space with the help from Brian and a bit of elbow grease. We continued to make easy work of some climbs down and a short traverse into the main streamway where (with a few slips here and there) we soon arrived at Turkey Pool. At reaching this point we were all feeling positive and continued on our quest to reach the Dome, still making good progress with both time and navigation through Selenite Needle Passage to the entrance to Inner circle. We approached the circle anti-clockwise and with energy levels flagging and the two fairly steep scree slopes to tackle we were all relieved when we reached the Dome of St Pauls.

On our return journey, full of good spirits, it seemed that I may have missed a turning and lead the group into a dead-end passage, with us all crashing into the back of each other! I assumed we must have gone wrong somewhere?? We retraced our steps, but on crawling down the adjacent passage I was convinced we’d never come in this way? Eventually we decided to return to Eastern Avenue and retrace our steps, and sure enough we were originally heading in the right direction and It was me that had missed the small opening on the floor back into Selenite Needle Passage!

With the prospect of making it out before sundown we made easy work on our return through the passages and with a few rest stops here and there we were soon on the last leg of the Main Stream Way… this somehow seems to become longer each visit and with it being Marc C's first visit he was convinced we must have gone wrong somewhere - he was convinced that it didn't seem this long on the way in. We checked the survey and reassured him we weren't lost 'but couldn’t quite pinpoint where we actually might be on the map' Luckily, shortly after this we came to the T junction that leads back into Barons chamber and back into the entrance series.

Emerging from the cave to what seemed to be a nice Summer evening we made our way back slowly to the cars. Brian & Andy G were to leave us at this point and Myself and Marc C headed down to the campsite to meet the other groups. Thankfully they had been waiting patiently for our return so that we could all go out and enjoy a curry together.

Trip report: Mike Bonner

Present: Mike Bonner, Andy Grimes, Marc Carney, Brian McDaid

Wet Wet Wet - Shakespeare's Cave and Northwest Inlet

With two groups going into Agen Allwedd we decided to have a small group pay a visit to two of the more aqueous sites in the Clydach Gorge. We parked up near Ogof Craig A Ffynnon, meeting up with a group from the Chelsea S.S. who were heading into OCAF.

Shakespeare's Cave

We changed and then walked up the road to where the Old Drum and Monkey pub used to sit and walked down and through the underpass. We headed down past Ogof Capel and then crossed Nant Clydach to reach the inlet on the opposite side. After a couple of hundred metres we arrived at the entrance to Shakespeares Cave, where Chloe and Loz took the lead. The water was low, but still rather chilly and we didi not hang around as we made our way through the wet sections of the cave. We took a look at the sump before heading back to the Stratford Bypass and onto the Fifth Duck. Brendan had an issue getting his legs around the bend beyond the duck so the water babes continued to the end of the cave. We reunited and then made our way out the cave looking at one side inlet as we exited.

Ogof Craig A Ffynnon - Northwest Inlet

With the first cave of the day under our belt we headed back to the cars, had a refreshment break and then headed to Ogof Craig A Ffynnon. Once in the cave we made the short journey to the start of Northwest Inlet where the aqueous fun starts. Up to our necks in water we waded through and followed the passage for a few hundred metres, the water getting shallower as we went. We were soon out of the deep water and the passage changed character to be large and tall with several areas of formations. Eventually we arrived at the impressive dig, with its own railway at the end of the passage. We followed this Indiana Jones style until we had seen enough collapses and loose parts to put us off going any further. On our way out we met up with the Chelsea group washing off in the deep water at the start of Northwest Inlet.

We then headed back to the campsite to get set up for the evening. Chloe was able to get her pop up tent erected quick enough to shelter her from the thunder storm from where she could watch Loz and Myself getting drenched putting up our tents.

Present: Chloe Burney, Loz Appleby and Brendan Marris

Ogof Pant Y Llyn the quest for the grail

On our second day we decided to head out west from our base at SWCC. Our target was Ogof Pant Y Llyn located above the only turlough in the UK at the Carmel woods in Glan Gwenlais. Although only a little over 20 miles from SWCC the drive was quite long and we arrived on a gloriously sunny day. We changed and headed to the cave, our first aim to locate all the entrances in the immediate area. There are six cave entrances with three of them connecting into Ogof Pant Y Llyn, each linking into a different level in the cave. We started with the top entrance which has a cosy squeeze at the bottom of a steeply descending entrance passage. Mark tried to enter this feet first but could not make it past the tightest spot. We decided to go in via the most straightforward entrance, the large Lower Entrance. At the back of the short section of large passage a duck is found, formed in the u bend produced by the digging out of the mud to gain entry to the cave. Once through the duck a clamber over boulders this led into the top of a steeply descending bedding chamber, with much loose rock on the upper slopes. We descended following the obvious route until we reached the bottom of this chamber. Here a climb up of about 3m took us to a higher level where a passage headed down dip past some formations to a climb up to a dig. Going the other was we ascended a very muddy steep tube to reach an area of breakdown and a horizontal slot with a half tube in the roof above giving us access to the Upper chamber above. Although very muddy in the lower section, as we headed upwards this chamber became more pleasant. We headed to the left through the appropriately named Totem Passage and then descended into a section of massive phreatic passage out of character with the rest of the cave. A low silted crawl at the end had to be dug out to get into Disappointment Chamber that had a tall aven leading off. We took photos on the way out and then looked for the Upper Entrance connecting with the Upper Chamber this was easily found and Mark decided that he preferred to go out the horrible squeeze than retrace our steps through the rest of the cave. Once above ground we headed to the new entrance and Mark followed this to connect to the main route in.

Brendan in Ogof Pant Y Llyn - Photo Mark Burkey

Mark in Ogof Pant Y Llyn - Photo Brendan Marris

Mark in Ogof Pant Y Llyn - Photo Brendan Marris

Mark in Ogof Pant Y Llyn - Photo Brendan Marris

Present: Mark Burkey and Brendan Marris