The Cambrian Caving Council AGM last weekend voted to adopt the new modernised name "Caving Wales" for our organisation. This is "Ogofa Cymru" in Welsh. We've owned the caving.wales internet domain name for a while which redirects page requests to Cambrian's website hosted by the BCA. It will...

Breaking news. Funding is going to be cut and delivery of the Welsh access reform programme has got difficult. This is the scheme from which caving was excluded which in turn provoked the BCA's CROW judicial review case. Access issues in Wales are going to get really embarrassing and possibly...

There's been a report from a member of the public reporting a recent landslip at "Llygad Llwchwr". We've been over to look and it's actually the LL2 entrance that has fallen in again plus some more diseased ash trees come down on the nearby path. It will take some digging out, but we beefed...

NRW has just published a teaser for its eventual business plan in the form of some bi-lingual PowerPoint slides (attached below). This is the public body that has just shut down the CAL mine access scheme and quietly walked off the job of chairing/funding the two main cave management committees...

With Black Friday looming, thoughts return once again to Christmas presents... I'm disappointed to see the new Descent management and the usual caving retail outlets not proffering gift hampers of aromatherapy bubble bath guaranteed to remove wetsuit smells, an apres digging soothing muscle...

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) the environment quango in Wales has just given notice to Cave Rescue only it seems at 6pm tonight of a new flood risk due to Welsh Water plant breakdown. I have marked the river in question with a red arrow on NRW's map attached. Their email reads as follows...

For anyone thinking of visiting Ogof Gofan in the coming months, the following are upcoming non-firing periods when the car parks and the coastline will be open to the public which provides access to the cave. The range will not be firing at other times too, which allows you to get in then, but...

SMWCRT are holding a rescue practice on Sat 1st October in the entrance series as far as the 2nd choke pitch. So this date might not be the best of times to pay a visit to the cave for a sporting trip as it could be quite busy. Parking has been arranged for the team members at a nearby village...

CCC has decided to change the padlock. There are 30+ official keys in circulation mainly held by clubs and going back maybe 20 years. The new lock will be the same key as fits Ogof Cnwc (the Daren Cilau No.2 entrance) itself in use for 10+ year and should be installed sometime on Monday 18th...

I wonder, is it a distinct Welsh thing to have cave logbooks, as used in Agen Allwedd etc? There appear to be at least two good reasons for them: 1) Obtain insight into cave footfall trends and compare levels of use between caves 2) Know where to start looking for overdue groups in large cave...

Cavers of a certain age will be sad to hear of the passing of Stuart Kirby, a long-standing member of SWCC who was active during the exploration phases of OFD and Dan-yr-Ogof.  His funeral is on Monday 22nd March which is the day after it would have been, I believe, his 73rd birthday. I am...

I think cavers must have all figured, in view of this third round of Covid lockdowns resulting from the serious situation nationally now, that caving is now largely impractical for most people. The message across England and Wales is that ?Caving is on hold again?. Cambrian Caving Council, in...

Today, the First Minister for Wales, has published a kind of government roadmap, with a traffic light system, but involving five colours,  to explain the government approach to normalising society.  The extra colours are black (the present lockdown), then red-amber-green intermediate stages of...

Time on your hands?  Bored?  Fancy a little light reading?  Then head for NRW's Area Statements published online today after a couple of years in the making: https://naturalresources.wales/about-us/area-statements?lang=en This is NRW's response to the Welsh Government's policy document issued...

The Welsh Government (WG) Access Reform Advisory Group (ARAG) have categorically decided that caving will not considered by the group.  This means that caving will not benefit from any broadening of the scope of the CROW Act 2000 in Wales as a result of the 2017 WG public consultation.  It is...

Does anyone out there have experience and a working design to transmit data from a cave entrance through the odd bunch of fir trees or through a leafy canopy of hardwoods and maybe around a very slight ground obstruction due to the curvature of the hillside over a distance of hundreds of...

I've had a phone call from Welsh Water today warning that they need to drain off some of the Carno reservoir today (12th Dec) and/or later this week, and that nobody should go into adit or near the adit portal for safety reasons. Cavers currently don't have official access to Carno Adit any...

Morning all, From today the above caves, entrances and access to them will be closed until the summer of 2019. This is to ensure the safety of members of the public as critical work in the immediate vicinity of the caves progresses. Signs are today being put in place at all entrances to the...

A few days ago Costain blocked off access through the subway under the A465 near the former Drum & Monkey pub with a metal fence.  This was the route used by most cavers to reach Ogof Capel, and for walkers to reach Devils Bridge and the Cwm Clydach National Nature Reserve when coming from...

See the estate agent's literature at: http://www.mccartneys.co.uk/pdf.php?vars=propertypdf-sales-mccrps-HAY180098 The area for sale is the part south of the road bridge and car park at Bridge Cave. A right of access to Little Neath is also included in the sale but not the land. The road and the...