A summer holiday weekend full of exploration, caving trips, surveying and digging.
Remarkably low water levels in the normally very aqueous entrance to North West Inlet in Ogof Craig a Ffynnon offered a perfect opportunity for a number of surveying trips in this part of the cave over the weekend. This began on the Friday, with two teams heading into OCAF, one to re-survey the North West Inlet streamway (now only ankle deep!) up to Things to Come Passage, while the other team donned SRT kit to ascend, explore and survey passages at the top of an aven that had been bolt-climbed and rigged the week before.
The surveying of Things to Come Passage and the digs beyond continued on Saturday, but the main trip of the day was to Llanelly Quarry Pot. The entrance to this cave has recently seen major improvement works, including the installation of a new entry pipe and the narrow entrance rift being made much safer by the removal of loose rocks. The next obstacle beyond is the 20m pitch, which was descended using SRT. An additional deviation anchor was also installed during the trip, providing for a drier hang when water is flowing down the pitch. The team then ventured to both ends of the fine stream passage, visiting first the Midsummer Night’s Dream streamway, then the more challenging Midsummer Night’s Nightmare downstream. Emerging back to sunshine with some time in hand, a short detour was made to see the impressive architecture of the Gelli Felin culverts located only a short walk from the car park, after which some of the team returned to Whitewalls to prepare a barbecue, while others continued down the Clydach Gorge to check out a potential new cave/dig. Other members made the most of the sunshine and spent the day walking, and all enjoyed a sociable evening in the Whitewalls garden with a barbecue dinner and evening drinks around the fire.
Sunday saw one team venturing over to Little Neath River Cave, a fine streamway trip with a very aquatic entrance, perfect for the current low water levels. Others enjoyed some local walking, while more caving trips took place in Agen Allwedd with two different ventures in the vicinity of Turkey Streamway. The first of these was a digging trip to the Turkey sumps, working on a potential bypass to Sump 3, while the second party visited a number of niche side passages in the area including the tight and awkward fun of the Spiral Passage round trip. Monday saw another visit to North West Inlet in Craig a Ffynnon and a trip to Agen Allwedd Main Stream Passage, while the sunshine inspired yet more walks in the equally interesting and varied Welsh countryside.
See CSS newsletter Vol. 67, Nos. 7-9 for a trip report and survey of the Craig a Ffynnon North West Inlet climb and further information on the new Llanelly Quarry Pot entrance.
