W
wormster
Guest
I left the wormhole on Friday night and blatted down to South Wales. I arrived at my RV with "Mr Yellow" before last orders, pausing for a quick shandy or two before setting off for our base of operations the SWCC club house at Penwllyt. The club was heaving with 2 uni groups and various other members/guests about the place.
On Saturday morning suitably refreshed and fed we watched the students faffing about before facing their days challenges. Ours was less strenuous: Dinas Silica Mine and Porth yr Ogof.
We duly arrived at our first destination of Dinas Silica Mine and kitted up in a very busy car park, loads of other groups were off gorge walking and other sorts of outdoorsy things. We walked up the side of the valley passing some ore trucks on the way along with an assortment of rock drills, they seemed to have been placed there as some form of flood defense and left to rot in the water. Having climbed up the cascade and reached the incline head (now washed away) we entered the portal and passed a couple of bods kitting up for something..... I noticed a rather impressive support pillar and stopped to try out my camera and light painting technique. We continued further into the mine and reached the flooded levels where we spied 2 diving tanks, some minutes later our mystery bods appeared for a spot of diving. We continued along above the flooded levels until we reached the end working. "Mr Blue" told us that the firebricks produced round here were exported to Russia where they're still referred to as a "Dinas". We retraced our steps back along the level until we came to a haulage way leading away up the vein, we climbed this haulage way until we reached the winding gear. We followed the haulage way upslope and arrived at the surface after a few minutes climbing, gaining daylight we returned to the car park and de-kitted before setting off for our second objective of the day: Porth yr Ogof famed for its fatality reputation. We re-kitted up and headed down into the entrance series, after a little bimble around passing various giggling youth groups. I paused in the entrance to take photos. This cave despite its fearsome reputation needs further slithering with folk who know the system.
We de-kitted and returned to the salubrious accommodation to cook dinner before heading out to watch the rugby over a couple of shandy's. When we returned from the rugby, caving games were going on in the "Long common room" with various members of the uni clubs attempting the "Bench Traverse". I had a look at this event and decided that it was possible to do and proved myself by doing the traverse on the second attempt. "Mr Blue" had elected not to join us for the rugby and retired to an early bed, "Mr Yellow" and I sat talking and drinking good scotch for a while before retiring for the night.
Sunday morning and after a long breakfast we hatched our plans for the day: The hunt for Pant Mawr Cave and Bridge Cave.
We slithered to our first objective Pant Mawr this was a second attempt by "Mr Blue" and "Mr Yellow" to find the shaft of the cave, the whole area is littered with sink holes and we did find one that looked as if it "went" but it wasn't the one that fitted our description. After a fruitless search we decided to abandon it and head off to Bridge Cave. Suitably attired "Mr Yellow" and I headed into this active system, "Mr Blue" elected to stay topside as we informed him that "its a bit snotty and grotty in there, with lots of crawly bits in a nasty boulder choke!" We duly squirmed and wriggled our way into the main chamber with the intention of ascertaining if a phreatic tube "went" through to Little Neath River cave as a way of avoiding the 40 foot sump connection. We soon realized that this "possible connection" wasn't a "goer" and after a few more photos caved out.
We returned to the club house cooked dinner and I slithered back to my wormhole, arriving in the wee small hours to a long awaited "Couple of yards of lying down.".
On Saturday morning suitably refreshed and fed we watched the students faffing about before facing their days challenges. Ours was less strenuous: Dinas Silica Mine and Porth yr Ogof.
We duly arrived at our first destination of Dinas Silica Mine and kitted up in a very busy car park, loads of other groups were off gorge walking and other sorts of outdoorsy things. We walked up the side of the valley passing some ore trucks on the way along with an assortment of rock drills, they seemed to have been placed there as some form of flood defense and left to rot in the water. Having climbed up the cascade and reached the incline head (now washed away) we entered the portal and passed a couple of bods kitting up for something..... I noticed a rather impressive support pillar and stopped to try out my camera and light painting technique. We continued further into the mine and reached the flooded levels where we spied 2 diving tanks, some minutes later our mystery bods appeared for a spot of diving. We continued along above the flooded levels until we reached the end working. "Mr Blue" told us that the firebricks produced round here were exported to Russia where they're still referred to as a "Dinas". We retraced our steps back along the level until we came to a haulage way leading away up the vein, we climbed this haulage way until we reached the winding gear. We followed the haulage way upslope and arrived at the surface after a few minutes climbing, gaining daylight we returned to the car park and de-kitted before setting off for our second objective of the day: Porth yr Ogof famed for its fatality reputation. We re-kitted up and headed down into the entrance series, after a little bimble around passing various giggling youth groups. I paused in the entrance to take photos. This cave despite its fearsome reputation needs further slithering with folk who know the system.
We de-kitted and returned to the salubrious accommodation to cook dinner before heading out to watch the rugby over a couple of shandy's. When we returned from the rugby, caving games were going on in the "Long common room" with various members of the uni clubs attempting the "Bench Traverse". I had a look at this event and decided that it was possible to do and proved myself by doing the traverse on the second attempt. "Mr Blue" had elected not to join us for the rugby and retired to an early bed, "Mr Yellow" and I sat talking and drinking good scotch for a while before retiring for the night.
Sunday morning and after a long breakfast we hatched our plans for the day: The hunt for Pant Mawr Cave and Bridge Cave.
We slithered to our first objective Pant Mawr this was a second attempt by "Mr Blue" and "Mr Yellow" to find the shaft of the cave, the whole area is littered with sink holes and we did find one that looked as if it "went" but it wasn't the one that fitted our description. After a fruitless search we decided to abandon it and head off to Bridge Cave. Suitably attired "Mr Yellow" and I headed into this active system, "Mr Blue" elected to stay topside as we informed him that "its a bit snotty and grotty in there, with lots of crawly bits in a nasty boulder choke!" We duly squirmed and wriggled our way into the main chamber with the intention of ascertaining if a phreatic tube "went" through to Little Neath River cave as a way of avoiding the 40 foot sump connection. We soon realized that this "possible connection" wasn't a "goer" and after a few more photos caved out.
We returned to the club house cooked dinner and I slithered back to my wormhole, arriving in the wee small hours to a long awaited "Couple of yards of lying down.".