Craig a Ffynnon

A trip into Craig a Ffynnon was to be our next trip this year. The plan being to reach the Hall of Mountain Kings. After meeting for breakfast at Luigi’s, we headed in and enjoyed the decorated ceilings that greet you early on near the entrance. We continued our way through to the bottom of the ladder where we rigged a simple lifeline to assist our progress up to the bottom of the corkscrew. Alex made good work of leading us up and out into the main chamber, which at this point it was a slip and slide all the way to the hall. After staring at the magnificent formations for a while, Alex and I crawled our way into the next section for an explore, until turning back to meet back up with Lucy who we’d left having a picnic back in the hall of mountain kings. On our return to the corkscrew, we passed several members of the ‘Caver Keith’ fan club that had travelled up from Cardiff Uni for the day. We stopped and chatted for a while then went our separate ways. On our return to the entrance, and as water levels were looking favourable, we also ventured into the Northwest Inlet for the first time too. This was another successful trip that resulted in a post trip debrief with Ronald at the golden arches! 

Trip Report: Mike Bonner

Photo: Alex Hayes

Present: Alex H, Lucy, Mike Bonner

Caver Keith Tackles the Birth Canal in Cwm Dwr Quarry Cave

Another mid-week trip with the usual team of Keith, Mark and Loz.

Loz, "When shall we three meet again? In passage, chamber, Keith's a pain?"

Mark, "When shenanigans are done, When all hope is lost and gone."

Keith, "That will be ere the set of sun."

Loz, "Where the place?"

Mark, "Birth Canal Series."

Keith, "There to shake hands with death."

With apologies to William Shakespeare.

This time our plan was to go into the Cwm Dwr entrance of OFD to explore the Sand Banks area and as much of the Birth Canal Series as possible. All objectives were met and we even had time to make a short video.

Keith exiting the Birth Canal

And here a short teaser for the upcoming video.

Here's the completed video.

Agen Allwedd

With the plan to get our caving year off to a good start (and to introduce a new member to the underground world) Lucy and I decided to stretch our legs/backs with an easy trip down to the Music Room. After meeting at Luigi’s for breakfast we entered the system for around 11am, and with our newest member Alex leading the way we entered the 1st choke in good time. One by one we popped our heads out into Baron’s chamber and slowly made our way down to the music hall where we had a good explore of a number of the adjoining passages, including the cliffs of Dover. Once we all regrouped, we retraced our steps, nearly missing our re-entry to boulder choke 1 and slowly made our way out. With smiles all-round, we headed to McDonald’s for more food!

Trip report: Mike Bonner

Photos: Sterling 

Present: Lucy Bonner, Alex H, Sterling, Mike Bonner

OFD Moonlight Chamber

Another mid-week caving trip. This aim this time was to explore all of the passages surrounding Moonlight Chamber, somewhere I had last visited about three decades ago.

As Loz now knows the trade routes through the system we diverted off the trade route and bypassed The Brickyard. At White Arch we diverted again and explored some of the White Arch Series - passages that Mark and I thought were new to us, until it dawned on us that we had explored them just last year.

Emerging at the bottom of Speedy Caver we then took the Edwards Shortcut route to Cross Rift and soon we were at the climb up to Moonlight Chamber. Last week when we explored the passages behind Shatter Pillar we found a well decorated, taped-off passage. This time we found the other end of this passage. I must return and take some video.

After Moonlight Chamber we proceeded to Midnight Passage where we knew that there are high level passages leading to the far side of Moonlight Chamber. The climb up begins at a rift to the right-hand side of the pool that leads to Northern Lights. These passages have seen very little traffic over the years and great care is needed as there is a lot of loose rock, everywhere! We explored the whole of this area and were able to look back down into Moonlight Chamber at the level of the huge white stalactite which hangs down from the ceiling. This is an area that really only needs to be visited once!

On the way out we stopped to make a short video, something we'd first tried out last week.

Here's the result.

Cavers: Keith, Loz and Mark

Route Finding in OFD

The aim of the trip was to explore the passages between Moonlight Chamber and Shatter Pillar and hopefully find a connection.

However on the way in we decided to look at the passage which starts at the squeeze down at the bottom of the Corkscrew. A right turn off this passage leads to sand crawls which link to the passage between The Judge and Swamp Creek. Mark struggled a little to get through the squeeze - a result of too much over indulgence during the Christmas festivities. We ignored the right turn and continued along the passage which popped out above a stream. The stream is Salubrious but upstream of the Corkscrew! The connecting passage goes round in a complete circle - something one is not aware of, and it is quite disorienting. I've attempted to mark this on the survey segment below.

Mark then discovered another passage branching off from the one we had just come along. He set off leaving Mel and me some way behind. The passage had to be traversed along. Soon it became quite tight but a climb down a hole in the floor led to a lower level passage. Which way had Mark gone? We could hear him calling but couldn't determine which direction his shouts we emanating from.

We climbed down and soon found Mark coming back towards us. Apparently he was trying to communicate to us that he had climbed up onto a boulder pile and wasn't sure he could climb back down safely.

We now had no idea where we were. Both Mark and I didn't recognise the passage. We continued forward passing a branch on the right and came to a tricky climb up. Mark climbed it. After dithering for a few minutes I followed prompting Mel to call it 'flying pensioner' climb. Mel followed.

Mark was ahead again and shouted back to us. This time we could hear what he said, "I know where we are. I've just popped out into Chasm Passage." To say we were a little confused was an understatement. How had we got here? To show Mel exactly where we were, we set off along Chasm Passage as far as Timo's Table.

It's been several years since either Mark or I have been to OFD 3 but we both remembered that one of the linking passages from Arête Chamber to Chasm Passage popped out into Chasm Passage roughly where we had recently emerged. So where was this passage? We set off to find it.

Eventually it dawned on us. The passage we are looking for was the passage we had just come out of, one we had negotiated many times but failed to recognise. We had no excuse. Now knowing where we were it was a simple task to go back along the passage and down 'flying pensioner climb, but instead of climbing back up we continued along and popped back into Salubrious exactly opposite where we had left it some time ago, thus completing another part of the OFD jigsaw and proving just how difficult it is to navigate one's way through parts of OFD by just following the survey.

After this we set off on our original mission and headed for Shatter Pillar. Behind Shatter Pillar we took the passage that leads to the squeeze down into Lugubrious Passage which we crossed over, and soon we found the connecting passage to Moonlight Chamber. Mission accomplished.

From Shatter Pillar we took a passage which connects to Cross Rift. In this passage we took a little bit of experimental video for a future CK production. The filming was completed in a Mark-sized passage just past The Crossroads.

Mark in the tight spot.

A serious discussion.

A need a Haribo!

Intrepid Explorers: Loz Appleby, Mark Burkey & Keith Edwards

''Back to caving'' weekend at White Walls for few members of Dudley Caving Club. Five of us booked the White Walls CC with the plan to do a trip to Aggy. After excellent breakfast at Luigi's in Abergavenny we set of for a steady trip. This was lead by Firas, suffering from a dodgy knee, accompanied by ever cheerful Grandad Graham, happy chappies Dave, Bartek and chapess Paulina. We made a quick progress through the entrance series with significant number of audible grunts by some members of the party. 

Graham in entrance series

The progress was even faster as we entered the wider passage of Baron Chamber and towards the Main Passage. After negotiating 2nd Boulder Choke we eventually got to the slippery part of the Main Stream Passage where the dancing started. 

Graham & Dave in the Main Stream Passage

Negotiating 2nd Boulder Choke

Our turn around point was the Northwest Junction, but we managed to go on for a bit towards the Turkey Junction. On the way out, after even more funky dances on the slippy streamway bed, we had enough time to visit Main Passage all the way to Music Hall. 

In the Main Passage

After all night of rain, next day we had a pleasant wet trip to Eglwys Faen where few pictures were taken. 

In early October Emma, Paulina, Mike & Bartek visited Morocco for another session of cave rescue training with. About 30 cavers turned up from different parts of Morocco. Successful training weekend included theoretical session, workshops and a practical underground. Local cavers had a chance to improve their skills on incident management, communications, casualty care including stretcher packaging and some basic rigging techniques.