Agen Allwedd Inner and Outer Circles trip 09/12/2017

Unless otherwise stated, camera and setups by Tarquin, modelling and lighting of big passages by Tarquin, Claire Vivian, John Roe and Si Lowis, lighting of close-ups by Tarquin, edits and gallery effects by Tarquin.

1. The Hafod road around Mynydd Llangatwg from from Brynmawr. Across the Clydach Gorge are Gilwern Hill (441 metres) and my childhood home of Llanelly Hill, with the Cefn Coch ridge (571 metres) ridge of Coety Mountain in the background. Just ahead, the road runs above a 70 metre slope and cliff, with nothing more than occasional wooden posts beside the icy road.
2. Further along the road. The Sugar Loaf (596 metres) and Skirrid (486 metres) have become visible on the left.
3. Stunning view over the Black Mountains. Mynydd Llangatwg (530 metres) in the Southeast Beacons on the left, then the Black Mountains: Mynydd Llangorse (515 metres), Mynydd Troed (609 metres), Pen Allt-mawr (719 metres), Pen Cerrig-calch (701 metres), Crug Mawr (550 metres) and the Sugar Loaf (596 metres). Finally, on the right is the Blorenge (561 metres), at the end of the Southeast Beacons.
4. The stunning 200 metre cliffs of the Llangatwg Escarpment, and the superb Cwm Onneu Fach valley which runs around the debris hill.
5. The largest part of Aggy's Main Passage.
6. I was on the look-out for cryostal, and this certainly looked like it, on top of some fallen rocks. However, this is in Turkey Streamway, right before the downstream end of Turkey Pool - a former sump. It's a highly unlikely place for cryostal to be found, since the river would have washed it away during floods. It is more likely to be debris washed onto the rock.
7. But these crystals sit on the same rocks, with no obvious place to have fallen from, and they don't look like flood debris. It really looks like it might be crogenic, but then where did the straw come from, since there are none on the ceiling? Perhaps it all fell from the wall before the rocks shifted into their current position.
8. The enormous Sand Caverns, part of the older drainage system. The mud is very wet here still. Modelling by Claire and John
9. Sand Caverns.
10. The nodular bed making up the ceiling of Selenite Needle Passage.
11. Crystal growths in the nodules.
12. The lumps appear to be fossilised brain corals, surrounded by purple mud.
13. Textured surface of the coral, and a crystalline cross-section, showing the internal growth pattern of the coral.
14. Selenite growing around the crystals of a former coral.
15. Cross section through an enormous brain coral. Modelling by Claire
16. Beautiful white growths on the wall of Selenite Needle Passage.
17. White growths.
18. White growths.
19. White growths.
20. Dry crystal pool in an undercut in Swiss Passage. Lighting by Si, Claire and John
21. Dry crystal pool on the gravel. Lighting by Tarquin and and John
22. Dry crystal poool. Lighting by Si
23. Swiss Village, miniature mud hoodoos in Swiss Passage, with pebble caps protecting the towers from falling water. Lighting by Tarquin, John, Si and Claire
24. Swiss Village hoodoos. Lighting by John, Si and Claire
25. Swiss Village hoodoos. Lighting by John, Si and Claire
26. Drip splash in Scree Passage.
27. First Scree Slope.
28. Natural dry stone wall above First Scree Slope.
29. Stal in the ceiling above First Scree Slope. These are the beginnings of helictites - and if this were Draenen, it would be covered in them - but sadly they never really get properly started. Lighting by Tarquin and Si
30. Definite cryostal on the floor of Scree Passage - until here, most piles of dust turned out to be just spent carbide, or powdered rock from rockfalls. Lighting by Tarquin and John
31. Here, the cryostal is made up from little beads and spikes.
32. Cryostal.
33. Second Scree Slope.
34. Dome of Saint Paul's.
35. Saint Paul's Passage, the largest in the cave.
36. Cryostal looking like a gold nugget in Saint Paul's Passage, about 3 cm long.
37. More nuggets.
38. The ridiculous squeeze dropping into Coal Cellar Passage. Lighting by Tarquin