These are some of my trip reports that have been published externally on other websites. They are perhaps best seen on those external websites, as they may have accompanying images that were taken by other people and cannot be included here. However, they are copied here to ensure that the content is not lost.
This cave very quickly made my wishlist when I heard about it over 20 years ago. For various reasons, access had traditionally been quite difficult and the opportunity for a visit never came up. I recently decided to join SWCC after many years with some of the other local clubs, and within a few months, I was on a trip to Otter Hole.
Widely regarded as Britain's best decorated cave, it has a lot to live up to, compared with the likes of Dan-yr-Ogof and Ogof Craig a Ffynnon. Certainly the helictites in Ogof Draenen would be tough to beat. But Otter Hole manages to hold its head above the rest when it comes to the grand, continental-style stal decorations. So much so that it has been designated a SSSI with a warden system controlling access, and making sure that the cave manages to remain in extremely good condition despite the impressive mud encountered on the way in.
Almost unique, the entrance series is something of an endurance test, beginning with a choke and series of low, muddy crawls, followed by a tidal sump that presents its own timing issues. It opens only during the lowest parts of the tide, so the standard trip times are either the 6 hour racing game - getting in and out during a single low tide - or the 12 hour over-tide trip - going in at low tide, and coming out at the next low tide. The latter allows for longer, more relaxed trips, so this was the option we had selected. The wardens are given a carefully planned set of tide times to work with, taking into account how long it takes the cave to respond to the tide, but even these can be complicated by the timing of the tidal flow within the Wye estuary, and the flow of water in the cave's own river. Many trips are abandoned because of tidal issues, and one friend had tried 5 times before finally getting into the cave. During winter, floods are too frequent, and the entrance series can be partly or completely blocked by flood water or silt for months at a time, so access is restricted to the calmer months.
Of the 5 of us (four plus leader), only Helen and I had caved together before, with most of us meeting in the car park for the first time. Our warden (Pete Mason) appeared in an unwashed oversuit and introduced himself - there's no point in washing kit before a trip into Otter. Sadly, one of our party confused their calendar and failed to appear, but because of the tide times there was no option to delay, and we left the car park only a few minutes after the agreed time.
A lengthy trudge down the valley sides, sweltering in the heat even beneath the trees, brought us to the entrance, located in a cliff just above the tidal banks of the Wye. On our way in, we quickly dropped through the choke into the bedding planes, liberally coated in the tidal mud that gets washed in during floods and high tides. 150 metres later, beauty treatment fully applied, we squirmed our way into the lengthy choke that fills what would have been a larger passage, where an otter had once been encountered some decades before. Giant, elaborate stals were everywhere, but so covered in mud that they were nearly impossible to make out. This would have been a beautiful place before the tidal mud took over.
The mud became deeper and deeper, frequently stealing wellies and hiding the rocks so that each step and climb was a guessing game, until we reached the river, which flowed out of the tidal sump and into an impenetrable rift. From there it makes its own way to the Wye a short distance downstream. Depending on conditions and recent floods, the sump can be a very lengthy sump, a squeeze-sized eyehole requiring a swim and tricky climb, completely blocked with mud, or just a nice, open rift with a sandy floor. It was fully open, and we breathed a sigh of relief; the trip was on. Beyond the sump, the mud became even worse, until a ladder offered a glutinous route up into the top of a tall choke. A rescue dump and rescue phone access point made a small chamber feel safer, but in flood, a high tide can cause the cave's river to fill this section to the roof. The river passage continued beyond in very enjoyable style, with a grand curtain display hinting at the splendour to come, eventually passing through chokes and ending at Sump 2. As we reached this point, the tide would already be rising up and preparing to fill the tidal sump.
Several scrubbing brushes tied to a rock indicated that it was time to clean ourselves and each other off in the cold river, to avoid dragging tidal silt into the rest of the cave. The cave is a great example of ongoing conservation. Now the difficult part begins, through Mendipian Way's narrow rifts, squeezes, and lengthy choke. Plastered in regular cave mud, squirming through the choke, and climbing up and down several little climbs, we eventually dropped into a large, fossil passage, and the real cave began.
The formations started almost immediately, with even the first set justifying all of the work required to reach them. But with each corner, the displays surpassed the previous ones. Curtains upon curtains, straws with arrowheads and carrot-bottoms, enormous columns, flowstone, crystal pools, ancient broken stals calcited into new creations. Most immaculately white, and only a small, muddy path leading around their edges. A final turn, and the Hall of Thirty's grandeur outshone everything before it. It is hard for a picture to convey just how much there is to look at. Everywhere had something: giant stalagmites, perfect stalactites, orange, white, flowstones, more stalagmites, and yet more stalagmites. The stalagmites are certainly not as large as their namesakes in the Salle des Treize in the Gouffre Berger, and the giant gour pools were absent, but they made up for it with sheer numbers and variety. This is where the shorter trips end.
The next section of cave had yet more grand stal, but several showed the jet black staining from historical petroleum pollution, the stink of which filled the air in one place, with cavers warned not to touch the toxic byproducts which could cause illnesses. Then the stal vanished as we reached the camp. An inlet was captured in a tarpaulin, with a bad smell and furry growth in the water hinting of an ongoing problem with part-digested sweetcorn pollution. The kind you don't want to drink, but formerly the only water in the cave that was safe to do so.
Beyond a large chamber and muddy crawl, the stal began again, firstly with smaller decorations, but rapidly filling the passage with yet more continental-style flowstone and abundant curtains. These culminated at the incredible display of Long Straw Gallery, sporting several straws some 4 metres long, and a wall covered in translucent helictites, overshadowed by several immense stal columns and crystal pools. The passage continued through nearly continuous stal, to where gour pools became the dominant formations. Many sported large lily-pad platforms, elevated at several levels above the current water level, and formerly underwater formations similar to those in the famed Lechuguilla Cave. A sudden abrupt end to the formations at the start of an ancient phreas marked the Tunnels junction. Tunnels Right was off-limits to protect the very vulnerable stal (flowstones and a large crystal pool), so we headed towards the far end of Tunnels Left. The formations decided to start again, and although less grand than before, would still have been considered an admirably fine display in any other cave, with several superb grottos. The passage then descended deep into a former sump to reach a small inlet and outlet. The inlet was rather a meagre end to such a grand passage, and its sump marked the end of our route.
Returning through the stals, while no longer a surprise, was still a magical, unforgettable experience. With the sump now open, the petroleum smell had dispersed within the cave, and we only caught up with it at Mendipian Way. A navigation error nearly took us into the start of Crystal Balls Passage instead, but sadly its pom-pom formations are off limits, and the mistake had to be corrected. We had seen so much stal already that it didn't really hurt to miss a little more. The squeezes in Mendipian Way seemed to have shrunk, but we all made it through to the river, and shared a drink of bottled tap water. Heading downstream, the tide line could be seen on the muddy walls, becoming deeper as we approached the glutinous mud of the tidal sump. Much of the preceding passage had been flooded to a depth of 3-4 metres metres during the high tide. The mud proved quite tiring, and most of the party were happy to reach the beddings. Less happy when reminded that 150 metres of flat-out crawling in mud was in store before the entrance. Squelching and splattering, squeezing, climbing, slipping, and occasional face-kicking, until the heat-wave of the surface finally hit us. Otter Hole, there and back again, 10 hours.
I paid a quick visit to the tidal banks around the resurgence, and the choked lower entrance to the cave, but only found deer hoof prints instead of otters. The final trudge up to the car park seemed much longer on the return, with a detour to the "bath" (an elevated pipe dribbling stream water which can be used for washing faces in preparation for the pub). Refreshments and garlic bread in the sun at St. Arvans, and the day was over. 20 years I waited for that, and it was everything I had hoped for, and more. Massive thanks to our warden Pete for guiding us around this superb cave, to the meets secretary Claire for arranging it all, and to Helen, Dave and Nigel for the company!
Another of those caves on my wishlist, Reservoir Hole had traditionally had access problems, but access is now possible with a formal warden system. Once again, the trip was set up by our club meets secretary. With a last minute substitution of warden, a change from morning to evening, and three separate changes in team members, it really does help to have someone patiently taking care of the arrangements.
Located below the tallest cliffs of the Cheddar Gorge in Mendip, its presence had first been suspected when the construction of a small covered reservoir was plagued by water sinking through its walls. A draughting hole at the foot of the cliffs above the reservoir was the start of an extremely long digging project, which eventually uncovered a streamway, enormous rift passages aligned on a series of faults, and then finally the crowning glory of one of the largest chambers in Britain, adorned with spectacular formations.
This was to be my first attempt at cave photography in over 9 years, and by far the largest underground space I have ever tried to photograph. Definitely a little rusty. My two flashguns were rated for 30 metre and 15 metre use, which would not be enough for a chamber that size, but Morgan had the foresight to bring a second 15 metre flashgun. With two slave units, it should have been possible to take the pictures on bulb setting and manual firing of the first flashgun. However, one of the slave units consistently failed to operate, so we resorted to using manual firing of two of the flashguns. Without a tripod, shaky hands and slight timing differences between flash firings meant that there might be some unexpected duplication and ghosting in certain areas, but this is a limitation we would have to live with - it only affects a single picture. Unless otherwise stated, camera, setups and edits by Tarquin, flash and modelling by Morgan, Dave and Mike.
The trip began at dinner time on a bank holiday weekend, competing with the droves of sightseers for parking space. We handed over our signed liability waivers and access fees, and headed into an oddly placed hole above the reservoir - the hole which must once have been a sink taking water from the gorge before the gorge was cut deeper below it. Surrounded by a host of cave spiders, their eggsacs and shed skins, and a single sleeping lesser horseshoe bat who seemed not to know what time of year it was.
The sloping little passage soon reached the Stanton's Drive dig, and the beginning of the finest example of underground engineering that Britain has to offer. The boulder choke had been neatly rearranged into a perfect dry stone wall, leading into Moonmilk Chamber, whose walls were covered in a thick coating of soft, white moonmilk, with a pristine bobbled surface texture. In the floor, the Main Dig began, following a seemingly insane path downwards through a boulder choke for a depth of some 45 metres. Step after step, climb after climb, all neatly arranged into dry stone walls, and perfect spiral staircases of rocks. Mostly with no scaffolding or shoring (though one section had a few sleepers). Every bit as impressive as the final chamber.
A tiny inlet brought a sudden change in character, as the cave broke into a large phreatic tube; Grand Gallery. This short-lived spectacle ended at the climb into Topless Aven, the first immense rift soaring some 30 metres up into the darkness. A handline served to deter cavers from accidentally touching the formations. From here, the route split, with the original digger trying ahead into Hard Times, then giving up and trying upwards instead, eventually finding Golgotha rift. The most impressive extensions were then found by retrying at the end of Hard Times, with the original digger sadly missing out on the major breakthrough which had been so well earned. In order to avoid tracking mud into the decorated parts of the system, we went ahead first, through the Hard Times crawl, and into Resurection, another immense aven lying on the original fault. A ladder climb part way up the rift gave access to a balcony where a double ladder pitch dropped into an immense fault rift.
This is the beginning of the Frozen Deep, the largest chamber in Britain by surface area at 2981 square metres, but second by volume at 39328 cubic metres (after Gaping Gill's Main Chamber). Ahead, the far point of the chamber was some 79 metres away, with calcite flows decorating almost every part of the rift walls, and a superb grotto in the rift ahead. Morgan set up the ladders and lifelines, and we took our turns to enter the vast space. As we dropped into the rift, it became apparent that this was just one end of the chamber. To the right, a 40 metre wide archway adorned with two stupendous stal colums and a lengthy stalactite, gave access to the vast open space of the chamber, disappearing for 71 metres into the darkness. This was no ordinary space, and lighting it would certainly be a challenge.
We started by heading towards the grotto, passing a stal slope climbing 30 metres up the wall, topped with a giant stalactite. The grotto itself was quite stunning, though in order to preserve the floor, the only possible viewpoint is a little obscured, and it is hard to photograph, with no way to provide a sense of scale. It is definitely best seen in person rather than in a picture. Scratches on the overhanging fault wall from falling boulders at first seemed to make no sense, until they were explained as the scratch from a boulder slowly descending on the surface of a melting ice plug, constantly being pushed into the wall by the ice. Something none of us had seen anywhere else before. The dustings of mud on the rocks all over the chamber were revealed to have a similar origin, essentially the moraines from the underground glacier, which filled the space that must have existed for eons before the last ice age.
Heading through the archway into the other three quarters of the chamber, the size could be really appreciated. The stal became less prominent, though still admirable. The paths climbed down little ladders and created a looping route through the phreatic arches, where the oversized scallops on the walls showed that this colossal chamber was an active phreas in its largely original state, and not the result of a collapse. At the far end of the chamber, a hole in the floor dropped to the lowest point of the cave, which we avoided because of its mud. Up in the ceiling, some 52 metres above, avens accessed a series of roof passages, climbing high up to separate tops, including the highest point in the cave. On the right at the end of the chamber is the ascent into High Country, whose passage ends very close to the floor of the gorge, apparently close enough to hear the traffic. We avoided this so that we would not bring its mud back into the chamber. It would have needed SRT kit to do the roof passages anyway.
Instead, we returned, taking our pictures on the way back to Topless Aven. The other team members proved to be admirable models, patiently obeying commands shouted across the huge spaces, and retaking each shot with each little adjustment. Cave photography is a slow, cold process. Turn a little left. Aim the flash a little higher. Put your foot on the rock. Try not to look like you are peeing on the stal. Close your oversuit because it makes you look ... big boned. Light up that stal so I can focus. Light up the scene so I can frame the shot. Ready? Lights off. Open. And FIRE! Close. Nearly right, but the middle flash didn't fire properly. Can we put the more powerful flash in the middle position instead? Try again.
At Topless Aven, we climbed up another set of grand dry stone walls, rising 25 metres through a boulder choke. No scaffolding, no cement. Just dry stone walls, vertically climbing through a boulder choke. Crazy. Suddenly another change, and we were in Golgotha rift, the old main destination of the cave, and truly impressive in its own right. It climbed far into the distance above us, becoming steeper and steeper. We left the main camera at the bottom, and climbed up the roped climb through the hole far above us. This led to another rope climb, followed by a ladder and another rope ascent leading over an enormous boulder. At last we could see the muddy roof, where a final climb through a hole reached a dry-stone walled walkway, ending at a dig - Herbert's Attic - and one of the highest points in the cave. A large stalagmite is supposed to look like a skull (the reason for the name of the rift), where Morgan's compact camera took over from my DSLR.
The return through the boulders seemed a waste of height, since we would have to drop 90 metres back to one of the lowest parts of the cave just to re-ascend over 65 metres through the entrance chokes. The bats appeared at Topless Aven, flying around us as we made our way through the cave. At the bottom of the Main Dig choke, the sounds of the bats flying through narrow tubes created a very odd effect, combined with a strange roaring noise that sounded more like a collapsing choke. Once we emerged from the cave, these sounds were identified as the engines of the cars racing up and down the gorge, some 20 metres above where we had been standing. Clearly the cave had more surface connections than were currently known.
This really was a fascinating and very beautiful cave. Not just for the huge size of the chamber, and not just for the stal, but for the fault controlled rifts, the phreatic tubes, and the underground glacial moraines of the Frozen Deep. It is possible that the chamber may at some point have a route created for tourists, so that it can become another show cave like the others in the gorge. But the original entrance has its own attraction for cavers; the engineering has to be seen to be believed.
Thanks to Morgan and Dave for the company, to Mike for showing us around this awesome cave at such short notice, to all for making the pictures possible, and of course, a massive thanks to Claire for arranging yet another excellent trip.
The caves in Fairy Cave Quarry have a special place in British caving history; some of the best decorated caves in Britain, found by quarrying, then progressively destroyed by the quarrying, with the quarry master torn between protecting the caves, and maintaining the quarry's output. (See the film A Rock and a Hard Place for more on that story.) But while taking away, the quarry also exposed further caves, including ones with even better decorations. And so far, a set of caves on my wishlist that I had never visited, despite a long history of Mendip caving.
It wasn't on the SWCC plan, but there were not enough SRTers of us left on the Sunday for a Rhino Rift bag retrieval trip, and I was offered the chance to join another club's led trip to Fairy Cave Quarry. Because of scheduling restrictions, the trip could not start until midday, which left little time for caving, with us all needing to get away before evening. The main destination was Shatter Cave, one of the finest in the quarry. A photographic trip would take forever here, as there is simply so much to attract the camera, so we intentionally left them behind. After a fight with the padlocks, we gained access to the cave and its collection of cave spiders and peppered moths. The early passage is full of recent breakdown, caused by the quarry works. Remnants of stal were scattered everywhere, with deep scratches on the flowstone caused by the falling rocks. The blasting damage abruptly ended, and the formations returned in their glory, chamber after chamber of stunning decorations, more like a conceptual painting than a real cave. The most memorable sets are Tor Hall, with its helictites, curtains, and a large stalagmite boss reminiscent of Glastonbury Tor, and the Leaning Tower of Piza, a leaning stalagmite surrounded by helictites.
An awkward squeeze then brought us to a final chamber, with ludicrously large grystals growing from a dried crystal pool, and immaculate calcite pillars. At this point, a short loop returned us to the Leaning Tower. A chance sighting of a rather special formation mandated the use of a camera, so I left the party and sped (carefully - the cave is precious) back to the gate. Several minutes fighting with the padlock, and I returned to the car, collected my phone, and sped back to the cave. Returning through the system, I reached the formation and took out the phone, snapped my pictures, and hurried back to the others, who had just reached the old gate part way into the cave.
We were hoping to visit W/L cave as well, but the padlocks were determined not to open. Despite several attemps by a few of the team members, proper use of the keys (which is rather more difficult than might be expected) resulted in the padlocks remaining firmly shut. They won this fight.
We resorted to exploring some of the remaining fragments of Balch cave, whose interconnecting decorated chambers were lost to the quarry. Avoiding the fragments that are used by greater horseshoe bats, there were still enough hints to show what the formations would have been like in the chambers, but without much left to actually admire. Several parts had obvious tar infiltration from the quarry, and odd dry rot branches sprawling through the cave. The greater horseshoes, which hang together in clusters with their wings only partly covering them, apparently use certain parts of the cave, now it has been opened to the surface, but seem not to mind the tar pollution.
Then a visit to Hilliers (again, there are parts of the system used by the bats, and these parts are simply avoided, treated as "closed"). This was a complete contrast to Shatter. Dropping down below the quarry floor, we enterred a flood-prone passage with a very clear mud tidemark above our heads. This led for a considerable distance to its junction with Fairy Cave. Beyond here, the passage became well decorated, sadly marred by the occasional piles of spent carbide, dumped liberally over the formations. Occasional crawls and chokes increased in frequency, until a squeeze spelled the start of the lengthy choke. This terminated in the Red Room, where red and orange stained stal gave the impression of standing inside a surgical procedure.
On our return, we paid a visit to the non-bat-colonised parts of Fairy Cave, passing through a duck (half way up your face when crawling through), with me trying to keep my poor phone dry in my hand. A few oddly placed signs (eg. "Straw stalactite") gave hints that this was once a show cave of sorts, though the crawls made it far less of a show cave than one might imagine. Tree roots spelled the start of the bat area, so our trip ended there, with a sight of the lesser horseshoe bats hanging on to the tree roots like clothes on a washing line.
3 caves, 4 trips. Stunning place, and definitely deserving of return visits. Thanks to our trip leader for showing us around, and my hosts for allowing me to join their trip.
This was a very welcome chance to visit one of my favourite caves with some SWCC friends, and at the same time look for some newly recognised formations. The weekend had been booked long in advance by the ever-organised club meets secretary. Sadly the weather could not be booked in advance, and some snow had decided to coat the hills. Certainly beautiful, but the single track lane to the Llangatwg caves has no chance of being cleared by the council. Having grown up in these hills, snow is just a fact of life and quite fun to drive in, but several members of the teams were forced to pull out of the trip after reports of crashes blocking major roads on the Friday evening.
Still, 7 of us had braved the roads, 6 arriving on Friday, and me joining on Saturday. One had tried and failed to ascend the treacherously steep roads up from Crickhowell, but all of us eventually used the Hafod road, that runs level all the way around the mountain from Brynmawr along a former tramroad. At one point, it runs above 70 metres of slope and cliff dropping down to the Blackrock road below, with only a few little wooden posts offering very little psychological support. The view, however, is stupendous. By Saturday morning, the compacted snow had earned an icy crust, and the final section towards the Whitewalls caving hut added a little extra excitement with no grip whatsoever for a short section, where drops on both sides offered an alternative to the road as the car pretended not to understand the commands being sent by the steering wheel.
The plan was to spend two days at Whitewalls, visiting Agen Allwedd - Aggy - on Saturday, and other local caves on Sunday. The seven split into teams of four and three, visiting the Aggy Inner and Outer Circles, and The Courtesan plus Grand Circle respectively. Panoramas and Circles pictures by Tarquin, unless otherwise stated, lighting of big passages by everyone on the trip.
Team: Tarquin Wilton-Jones, Claire Vivian, John Roe, Si Lowis
This is one of the Aggy classics, taking in most of the largest passages in the system, excellent streamways, a great many grand old stal formations, a very committing tight squeeze, and one of the cave's lengthy workout passages. The 2 km walk to the cave is one of the most scenic in the national park, with a dramatic escarpment on one side, and a view over the Black Mountains ridges on the other. In conditions like this some decades before, a former clubmate of mine had accidentally tested the steepness of the slope below the tramroad, and somehow survived without any significant injury despite a very rapid trip to the trees 50 metres below.
The familiar Entrance Series is one of the best places in the UK to see lesser horseshoe bats, which adorned the walls at almost every turn. This was particularly special for Si, who had never seen so many in one place before. The junctions quickly passed, go right out, or get left in. First Choke then reached Baron's Chamber, and the splendour of the enormous Main Passage.
This is where the hunt for white powder began, but sadly the only powder was the prevalent piles of spent carbide, a relic of the lack of conservation of past eras. Thankfully, carbide and its soot marks and waste piles are now banned from these caves, but the past damage still remains, and it made it much harder to search for a white powder, among the white powder.
Main Stream Passage's mix of splashing and boulder hopping provided some entertainment, and after a couple of false starts with photography of what is almost certainly just carbide (doh!), we reached the Second Boulder Choke. If you manage to spot them, there are even a few proto-shark fossil spines here, similar to those in Draenen. A short choke then a distinctive climb down into a side passage, followed by another climb down and return to the Main Stream passage, reached the grovel in the stream below the longer part of the choke. A climb up boulders then reached Keyhole Passage, my personal favourite (so why is there no photo?!), a perfect phreatic tube with a deep vadose trench meandering in the floor. We took the upper route, crossing the deep rift repeatedly on the ledges, and then dropping down the climbs to the stream at the far end.
The streamway then lost its boulders, and the increasingly slippery floor brought us to Northwest Junction. From here, we headed upstream along the longest uninterrupted streamway in Britain, Turkey Streamway, named after a rather odd shaped stalactite. The occasional formations began at The Beehive, which serve mainly as a reminder that Aggy does in fact have formations. Somewhere. The streamway is excellent, and overshadows the stal, though the stal is in fact quite attractive in its own right. Just before Turkey Pool, a small pile of crystals looked suspiciously like the white powder I had been looking for, but sadly is probably something else entirely, due to the proximity to the stream.
The deep pool appears at first to be a sump, but a rift tucked to the left is the way on. A fun obstacle, narrow and with few holds above the chest deep water, but it is possible to get through with dry feet if you traverse well. Most of us managed, with only the odd wet foot. The brief enormity of Turkey Chamber gave a hint of the grandure yet to come. A short section of streamway, and we took a small side passage into the very impressive Sand Caverns, where we stopped for the first passage photo. This passage is so much bigger than it feels like it should be, a remnant of a much older drainage system. The end of Sand Caverns was as far as Claire had been in Aggy, and it is always nice to have someone enjoying a first visit to the rest of the area, since it is very dramatic indeed.
From Sand Caverns, we took the crawling-sized Selenite Needle Passage instead, with the walls soon becoming decorated with small amounts of selenite, and occasional poor helictites. The main feature, however, is the Nodular Bed that makes up the roof. Initially seeming just like limestone rocks embedded in shale, a recent visit brought the revalation that the rocks are almost certainly fossilised brain corals. Some of them are preserved well enough to see the characteristic surface texture of the corals, with the bright purple shale filling the gaps between them. In many cases, the coral has been cut open by the cave, leaving a visible cross section with large crystal rays extending outwards - the growth pattern of the coral.
At the end of the passage, the walls are decorated with extremely elaborate, pure white growths. Here, the stream is gained, and a second inlet then signifies the start of the Inner Circle. The survey of this area rather appropriately looks distinctively like a simple drawing of a turkey; the body is the Inner Circle, Midsummer Passage and Swiss Passage are the tail feathers, Selenite Needle Passage and an inlet are the legs, Disappointment Chamber and a side passage are the bottom and top of the head. We continued along Eastern Avenue, following the Inner Circle anti-clockwise, since this gets the most dramatic reveals of the passages. At Midsummer Passage, we turned left, to reach the junction with Swiss Passage.
Swiss Passage is always worth a visit, to admire the beautiful mud formations. First are the dried crystal pools hiding in the undercuts, surrounded by the untouched mud. After that is the iconic Swiss Village, a series of miniature hoodoos formed by water dripping onto the mud, with each pinnacle protected from the water by a tiny pebble.
After Swiss Passage, we headed in the other direction along Scree Passage. The first and most obvious obstacle is the First Scree Slope, a steep slope of scree (in case the name didn't give it away), and the team very kindly took their places at various stages up the very awkward slope, for a picture. At the top is a distinctive chamber, with a ceiling adorned with immature helictites, and a natural dry-stone-wall of boulders that have peeled away from the roof.
After a great deal of searching throughout the trip, my persistance finally paid off. Scree Passage presented some white powder, that was not just another scattering of spent carbide. This was clearly going to be cryostal, exactly where I had hoped to find it. My shout of "Eureka!" was no doubt rather comical considering how meagre the dusting was, and how willing everyone else was to just walk past it. "All that excitement for that?!" "I have to admit, I wouldn't even have noticed that, I would have just stood on it." And this is why it has only recently been recognised.
The Second Scree Slope once again presented another photographic opportunity, and the rest of the team kindly obliged, dodging the rocks dislodged by those further up the slope. The Dome of Saint Paul's at the top is very hard to capture without a very wide angle lens. The chamber is almost perfectly circular, with layers of shale and thin limestone making up the walls, and an extremely flat ceiling. It is also quite far above, so lighting it proved a little too challenging for the camera. Oh yes, the camera. It's not a camera, it's a phone. All of the pictures are taken with a phone. Because everyone wants to take a delicate touchscreen worth several hundred pounds underground, to take pictures of white powder, right?
The descent into Saint Paul's Passage is one of the most dramatic in the cave, and the passage is simply enormous, rivalling the giant passages of Daren Cilau and Draenen. In the floor, I managed to find another set of probable cryostal looking like gold nuggets, while the rest of the team tried to decide if a side passage was the way on (the turkey's head). The rest of the Inner Circle passed fairly quickly, with a short low crawl regaining the brief large chamber and passage, before rejoining Eastern Avenue to close the Inner Circle loop.
Once again we followed Eastern Avenue, this time turning right at Midsummer Passage. This really looks big on the survey, and it certainly starts so, but it quickly chokes. A crawling-sized route beside the choke regains the larger passage. From here on, the survey is a little optimistic, showing a large passage. It certainly is wide in places, but it is very low, requiring two flat-out crawls and a lot of stooping. Just as the passage regained its former grand size, we instead located a silly hole dropping down behind a large boulder. This is the top of the infamous squeeze. 7 years ago, this was the squeeze where I finally lost my caving nerve, with flashbacks of a recent epic in Draenen. However, in 2017 I had passed it and proved that although it may feel intimidating, it is a lot easier than it appears at first. On that occasion, the great Clive Westlake had patiently tested the squeeze and led the rest of us through once he found the tactic that worked.
The hole descends diagonally to a very narrow rift, where rather than descending the obvious but impossibly tight slot below, you have to squeeze horizontally over a rock, keeping your body high in the widest section. At the next slot down, turn so that your feet point downwards, then descend to emerge from a seemingly impossible position in the roof of a passage. From above it looks insane. From below it looks like a piece of paper would struggle to fit through it. In the past, I would send a smaller caver through first then drop head first since it is easier - but horrifyingly committing - that way. This time, I was the first through, and it all simply worked, feet first.
Si spent some time trying to work out how to get his chest through the tightest section, and no amount of guidance can make your chest smaller - let's face it, there was no guidance anyway, since I was preoccupied with videoing it. After nearly having to abandon the attempt, Si finally found the solution, forced himself through with a bruise for his trouble, and emerged from the slot with a well earned sigh of relief. Claire soon followed, backed up with Si's guidance. John seemed to take it in his stride, and soon joined us, saying that he was more familiar with tackling the squeeze upwards, since at least you can more easily back out if you fail to get through, but that also means far more cavers fail to get through, since gravity is working against them. Having backed out once while descending into the squeeze, I can say that it certainly is possible to re-ascend if you decide not to go through after all. On the way down, one tactic is to put all of your valuables, especially your car keys, into a bag and drop them down the hole first - then you are forced to complete it in order to retrieve them. No backing out.
The hard work had begun. Coal Cellar Passage is about 0.5 km long, and very sporting. For a long way, there are few places where you can stand, with awkward crawls and thrutches over rocks. At one point, the passage appears to close down completely, and an earlier crawl in an undercut is needed to regain the way on. Further on, sideways walking becomes possible as the passage becomes a very narrow rift. It is rare to be able to turn around, so one leg ends up doing most of the work. In many places, it was impossible to turn your head to check on the cavers behind you, so we had to rely on the "you still with me?" checks. Sideways squeezing is sometimes the only way to make progress. Occasional jammed rocks and one memorable calcite obstruction force climbs up the slippery rift without holds of any kind, with Claire's petite stature needing a carefully placed sacrificial caver as a foothold. An inlet finally increased the passage dimensions so that regular walking became possible, at least for some of it.
Now well muddied, we reached Turkey Junction, and the Outer Circle was complete. The return journey was quite methodical, back through the familiar passages. The climb up into Keyhole Passage and the climb up between the sections of Second Boulder Choke being perhaps the only places which presented a significant challenge. We stopped to photograph Main Passage, then Si tested his memory by leading out through the entrance series. Go right out, or get left in. Over to the right. Further right. The entrance to First Boulder Choke is definitely confusing.
The Entrance Series was over pretty quickly, and we soon passed the large collection of peppered moths, herald moths and cave spiders to emerge onto the snow-covered tramway. "White powder? Whatever you do, don't look down." A speedy trip, 6 hrs 45 minutes. A frosty walk back, where Claire decided not to race through Eglwys Faen - next time, maybe - and the white-roofed Whitewalls appeared as a welcome sight. Hot showers, a gratefully received cup of tea, chocolate biscuits, and even the offer of pizza! Sadly, our hopes of a curry in Crickhowell had been dashed by the ice on the steep Crickhowell road.
While waiting for the other team to complete their unexpectedly long Courtesan trip, we checked the mountain weather forecast, and it had become much worse. Icy temperatures, blizard conditions, gale force winds, sleet causing rapid snowmelt and flash flooding, then more snow. None of us wanted to risk caving or driving the next day, so we decided to back out early and head home. The road back was safer with the ice melting, but would be absolutely treacherous the next morning. By Sunday, most of the Valleys were thickly covered in snow, and more was arriving. A good decision.
As always, I would like to thank my team mates for the excellent company and patient photographic modelling during the trip, and especially to Claire for making all the arrangements. Even if you couldn't arrange the weather.
Team: Paul Crowsley, Lesley Markie, Neil Weymouth
This was originally proposed as a Courtesan trip, but by the time the logbook got filled in, it had become a Grand Circle trip too, presumably to avoid having to do Southern Stream Passage twice.
Up to Main Passage, the trip is the same as the Circles trip. From there, it stays with the Main Passage for longer, mostly walking along a large, mud-floored phreatic tube. At the giant portals of Southern Stream Passage, the large passage with selenite-covered walls is short-lived, and a hole down in the floor is the start of the real Southern Stream. At first, it is possible to walk for about 500 metres, but after first and second inlets, it lowers to stooping height, with several crawls forced by boulders. This gruelling section lasts for 600 metres, ending at a climb down at Waterfall Chamber. The walking sized passage returns, until a larger tube in the roof signifies Gothic Passage.
Climbing into Gothic, a crawl leads to the choice between the Priory Road and Maytime routes. Priory Road starts small but soon enters a much wider passage. The Iles Inlet side passage then reaches The Courtesan, one of South Wales' finest helictite formations, described as "much larger than you expect it to be".
Returning to Southern Stream Passage, the tall rift passage continues a great deal further, eventually forcing a traverse on slippery ledges, to reach the wide river of Lower Main Stream Passage. The pools here force a 50% soaking, as you try to make your way upstream. The biggest challenge, however, is the floor, which can be incredibly slippery, depending on the season, sometimes as bad as ice. The passage is enormous, but you spend so much effort concentrating on staying on your feet that it is hard to appreciate the space above you. Two tricky cascades which often result in a complete soaking then precede the abrupt Fifth Choke.
A climb up a knotted rope leads high into the roof, into Biza Passage, and a complete change in character. A phreatic tube with heavy scalloping, and an occasional vadose trench, normally walking or crawling sized, with a couple of climbs. Finally, a lengthy descent through the substantial Fourth Choke regains the dark and muddy Main Stream Passage. This soon leads to Third Choke, where the way on is not at all obvious, starting by dropping down on the right into the stream, and randomly heading through the choke without any solid walls, roof or floor. It emerges in another muddy part of the stream, the end of the longest uninterrupted streamway (combined with Turkey Streamway).
The Narrows usually require a chest-deep dunking at each end. It is possible to traverse most of the narrow section either fully out of the water, or at various levels partly in the water. It is deep enough to be completely submerged if you lose your grip. Pools called Deep Water can be passed with care with only a waist-deep wade. The slippery floor soon returns, for a very long way until Cascade Inlet, where the floor suddenly becomes quite grippy at last. A short distance on, and it reaches Northwest Junction, where the way out matches the Circles route.
10 hrs 45 mins, arriving back substantially before the callout time. All's good.
We had gone into Draenen on the Saturday of Storm Dennis knowing the cave and its normal flooding patterns very well. The cave normally floods just one stream at a time, so one part may be surprisingly challenging, but the rest is usually alright.
Before we started, the rain had already been very heavy, and gale force winds were trying to rip the doors off the cars.
The Entrance Series was running high, but still nothing out of the ordinary, so our trip continued without any worry.
We reached Dollimore Series without issue, and the MSAD stream was at a fairly normal level. We assumed that Out of the Blue was probably flooding, since it is one of the streams that has been seen to rise rapidly and remain very deep during rain.
During our exit, however, things had most definitely changed, and the cave was in the most severe flood I have witnessed.
At Indiana Highway, a large stream was seen in the bottom of the initial trench, flowing from under Megadrive, and making a lot of noise as it fell down Lost Crusade.
At Lamb and Fox Chamber, the waterfall was very high, with the drinking canister hidden behind a deluge of water. I rushed ahead to check on the situation in White Arch, so we could assess our options.
Water was ponding in White Arch and flowing into Flood Overflow Passage, though it would then rejoin White Arch later at the sump inlet. We decided to continue anyway. Several pools in White Arch were chest deep, requiring a careful check of where the boulders were beneath the surface, to try to avoid swimming. The pool just before Carpet Crawl was the deepest, requiring swimming to cross it. This is something I have seen only once before, on a day that no other passages were in flood. None of us were wearing wetsuits, so I stood on the boulders at the edge of the deepest part to help guide a couple of the team back onto a solid floor as soon as possible. You can normally walk this entire passage with your feet dry.
The rest of the team went through Carpet Crawl, so I went via Tea Junction alone to get a better idea of the streamways. The two streams met with an intimidatingly powerful roar at Tea Junction, and downstream, the water was a raging torrent. Crossing it to get to Gilwern Passage did not look wise, though it would probably have been possible. It definitely would not have been possible to follow downstream safely.
I was able to walk up Beyond a Choke to Wonderbra Bypass, but seeing this river in high spate at the same time as White Arch was a new experience for me, and certainly did not bode well for the Entrance Series.
As expected, water was roaring out of the Entrance Series at Cairn Junction. The roped climb was a powerful waterfall. I have seen it once higher, appearing more like a plughole with a rope hidden somewhere in the water, but on that day, none of the rest of the cave (not even the entrance crawl) was in flood. This time, the rope was still usable, and three of us climbed up. Two others were given a belay made from chained cowstails, and I part-hauled them up out of the water as fast as possible, just to make it easier. We would all have been able to make the climb without hauling if needed.
The chert cascade at the junction of Spare Rib and Pitch Bypass was flowing extremely high, with the water overflowing down the passage towards the roped climb. At the top, about half of the water was coming from an inlet tucked under the wall, and half was coming from the corkscrew at the start of Spare Rib - the last time I saw a waterfall at the roped climb, almost all of the water came from under the wall.
The corkscrew was very wet and quite unpleasant. The scaffolded shaft was a substantial shower. The part we had worried about the most was the wet slot at the top, but despite carrying a lot of water, it remained passable. It was definitely nicer to face away from the water, but at least it wasn't a swirling plughole.
The crawl above it was a bit disconcerting, as two of the team have had to exit it by treating it like a duck in the past (on a day when the rest of the Entrance Series was not in enough of a flood for the roped climb to be a waterfall). However, it turned out to just be a wet crawl. Exiting it was certainly enough to get you soaked - were were all soaked already - but not enough to call it a duck.
We had poked the drain holes at the entrance on the way in, so the entrance was not a deep pool.
The rain was starting to die off as we got changed at 18:00, though it was still pretty intense, so it's possible that this hillside did not get the amount of rain that Llangatwg experienced a few hours later that night.
A week later, we visited Dollimore Series again, in much better conditions. The early part of the cave showed no evidence of the flood getting any higher than we had seen it. Out Of The Blue and Into The Black both had flood scum marks, but only 2 feet above their normal levels in the worst places. The end of Into The Black has mud on the conservation tapes as high as 7 or 8 feet above the stream, so this area definitely can flood, but for some reason it had apparently not flooded during Storm Dennis while the rest of the cave (and the country) was in severe flood.
All in all, it was not a bad experience. It was definitely exciting and more than a little intimidating, burning a lot of adrenaline, but it shows how much of the cave can be passed even in a severe flood like this one.