A brilliant Bonfire Weekend at Whitewalls with fireworks, flames, plenty of food and drink and a selection of local caving trips.
The first trip of the weekend took place on Friday afternoon with early arrivals heading into Ogof Cnwc and out via Daren Cilau on the excellent Daren through-trip. An assortment of caving trips took place on the Saturday, the most popular of which was to Ogof Draenen. A team of nine entered the system using the newer entrance of Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du, this was surprisingly wet, but the journey around the Waterfall Series with a detour to Knees Up Mother Brown and Sixth Heaven Chamber gave ample opportunity to warm up again. With time in hand, the trip was then extended with a foray in the opposite direction to the large passage of Megadrive via the traverses of Indiana Highway. A trip to Ogof Craig a Ffynnon also took place as far as Gasoline Alley, where the pool was found to be significantly deeper than it had been in recent months. Obviously no Whitewalls weekend would be complete without a visit to Agen Allwedd, and this ever-popular cave saw five different teams embarking on a variety of trips. The lengthiest of these was to Priory Road via Southern Stream Passage to visit to the fantastic Courtesan formation, followed by the Priory Road round trip. Meanwhile a second party headed to Main Stream Passage for a trip to Midnight Passage, another interesting part of the cave. Main Passage was the destination of choice for a family trip to the Music Room, while another group delved into the niche passages of Africa Passage and Ace of Spades streamway, while the fifth team surveyed The Hidden Chimney, a high-level traverse crossing above the passage.
The evening’s festivities started with the lighting of the bonfire, before dinner was served with a communal feast of chillies, stew and jacket potatoes. This was followed by a firework display in the garden, then more food with an array of puddings. Sunday saw a caving trip to Ogof Capel to see the wonders of the Sssfagticgwp (yes, this is spelled correctly!) Streamway and Slalom Passage, plus a digging trip in Dead Dog Cave.
