Andy Sparrow
Active member
The Agen Allwedd trip is on. We are meeting at Whitewalls (caving club near the cave) at 11am. Can everybody who wants to come please contact me ASAP. Thanks.
Aggie 24th July
- Thread starter Andy Sparrow
- Start date
cap n chris
Well-known member
For the record, Lynne Bailey rang my answerphone today (25th) humbly apologising for her oversight in failing to send the key; glad to hear Adrian Fawcett sorted things out in time for all to go ahead as planned. Hope it was a good one...
Andy Sparrow
Active member
It was. But I shall say no more as I believe Dani is going to do us a trip report...
Andy Sparrow
Active member
I distinctly remember Mel saying "you'll write this trip up, wont you Dani?"
cap n chris
Well-known member
Aha! - but did you distinctly recall hearing Dani respond "Yep, OK"?
M
Melanie lloyd
Guest
Well she gave a distinctly affirmitive giggle anyhow.
HEALTH WARNING - this trip report has been written by a woman. DO NOT READ ON IF YOU ARE OF A SENSITIVE NATURE OR ARE EASILY OFFENDED BY NON TECHNICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF CAVES.
It was a dark and stormy night ...... well dark and stormy was about right. I'd woken up to torrential rain and was feeling in no mood for crawling around damp, dark holes for 6 hours, my bed seemed much more appealing. However, I had arranged to meet the others (Mel, Andy, Barry and Judy) at a layby in the wilds of mid Wales. So off I set in mackintosh and galoshes and duly waited in the layby. Finally three cars turned up that didn't ask me if I was looking for business and I guessed I must be in the right place after all.
We all set off in convoy to Whitewalls (thank god I was following someone as I never would have found it otherwise and we all know that sheep are rubbish with directions). Finally there, we met Adrian (I think that was his name - sorry if it's not) who let us in and showed us round their posh pad. It even had a loo - what more could a girl ask for!
The grumbling and moaning (and the way Andy was being extra nice to Mel) gave me an inkling that I wasn't the only one who wasn't in the mood for caving that day. Finally we were all changed and we set off into the monsoon ready for the hike to the cave entrance; a mixed bag of cavers, oversuited and pac-a-macked up. On the way over I carefully checked for ice axes (those of you who have seen Descent will know why) and we had a good gossip. Somewhere along the way we found our smiles and got to the cave entrance a bunch of happy chappies.
Once assembled inside, Adrian (as I like to call him) set off on his own trip while Mel led us off down the scalloped passage. The passage was scarred here and there with graffiti from cavers of yesteryear. Andy seemed to know some of the older ones :wink:
The entrance series was a nice mixture of scalloped phreatic passage (now we're getting technical!) with crawls, climbs, squeezes and traverses. Andy was keeping to the back to heckle and show us all how it's done, although he couldn't resist the odd overtaking manoeuvre when we were being slow. Judy took over the lead at the beginning of the boulder ruckle and guided us through into the main passage. A short stop here for refreshments and then we set off down the main passageway. The domed roof and flat, muddy floor made it feel more like a velodrome than a cave, so Andy and Mel raced off ahead - how often do you get to run in a cave?
Along this passage were some nice selenite formations (see I do know something) growing directly up out of the mud. They were so regimented they looked like miniature terracotta warriors - all very pretty and we then pushed on to the end of the main passageway (it's got some name that I can't remember). This had taken us about 2.5 hours, so we decided it was time to head for home.
On the way back we had a short detour via the streamway. This turned out to be fairly low and bouldery in the section we were in, so decided not to pursue it too far. Andy did try to persuade us that it got better further along, but we decided to save that adventure for another day.
Back up in the main passage we met back up with Adrian and all made our way out together. Some handy arrows drawn on the walls pointed us in the right direction(although we did have a slight detour). Despite the slight mishap, we made good progress and emerged intobright sunshine (no that was a dream) pouring rain. The wet walk back gave us the opportunity to rinse out our oversuits and appreciate the nice warm hut we went back to.
All in all it was a lovely trip (about 4 hours in the end) despite earlier reservations (not the restaurant sort) and I'm looking forward to going back (hint!)
[align=center]This trip report is entirely fictional and any resemblance to real people or places is purely coincidental.[/align]
It was a dark and stormy night ...... well dark and stormy was about right. I'd woken up to torrential rain and was feeling in no mood for crawling around damp, dark holes for 6 hours, my bed seemed much more appealing. However, I had arranged to meet the others (Mel, Andy, Barry and Judy) at a layby in the wilds of mid Wales. So off I set in mackintosh and galoshes and duly waited in the layby. Finally three cars turned up that didn't ask me if I was looking for business and I guessed I must be in the right place after all.
We all set off in convoy to Whitewalls (thank god I was following someone as I never would have found it otherwise and we all know that sheep are rubbish with directions). Finally there, we met Adrian (I think that was his name - sorry if it's not) who let us in and showed us round their posh pad. It even had a loo - what more could a girl ask for!
The grumbling and moaning (and the way Andy was being extra nice to Mel) gave me an inkling that I wasn't the only one who wasn't in the mood for caving that day. Finally we were all changed and we set off into the monsoon ready for the hike to the cave entrance; a mixed bag of cavers, oversuited and pac-a-macked up. On the way over I carefully checked for ice axes (those of you who have seen Descent will know why) and we had a good gossip. Somewhere along the way we found our smiles and got to the cave entrance a bunch of happy chappies.
Once assembled inside, Adrian (as I like to call him) set off on his own trip while Mel led us off down the scalloped passage. The passage was scarred here and there with graffiti from cavers of yesteryear. Andy seemed to know some of the older ones :wink:
The entrance series was a nice mixture of scalloped phreatic passage (now we're getting technical!) with crawls, climbs, squeezes and traverses. Andy was keeping to the back to heckle and show us all how it's done, although he couldn't resist the odd overtaking manoeuvre when we were being slow. Judy took over the lead at the beginning of the boulder ruckle and guided us through into the main passage. A short stop here for refreshments and then we set off down the main passageway. The domed roof and flat, muddy floor made it feel more like a velodrome than a cave, so Andy and Mel raced off ahead - how often do you get to run in a cave?
Along this passage were some nice selenite formations (see I do know something) growing directly up out of the mud. They were so regimented they looked like miniature terracotta warriors - all very pretty and we then pushed on to the end of the main passageway (it's got some name that I can't remember). This had taken us about 2.5 hours, so we decided it was time to head for home.
On the way back we had a short detour via the streamway. This turned out to be fairly low and bouldery in the section we were in, so decided not to pursue it too far. Andy did try to persuade us that it got better further along, but we decided to save that adventure for another day.
Back up in the main passage we met back up with Adrian and all made our way out together. Some handy arrows drawn on the walls pointed us in the right direction(although we did have a slight detour). Despite the slight mishap, we made good progress and emerged into
All in all it was a lovely trip (about 4 hours in the end) despite earlier reservations (not the restaurant sort) and I'm looking forward to going back (hint!)
[align=center]This trip report is entirely fictional and any resemblance to real people or places is purely coincidental.[/align]
cap n chris
Well-known member
Sounds so tempting. The cave, I mean. :roll:
Good report Dani.
Good report Dani.
M
Melanie lloyd
Guest
Great report Dani with just enough technicallity to keep the boys happy. In fact, it's so enjoyable that your in serious danger of being pegged into writing up the next one :wink:
cap n chris
Well-known member
Can Andy S re-edit the heading to this thread (if it's possible) so that it reads Aggie Trip Report (+ lead up emails), or somesuch, rather than the out-of-date title is presently has? (I know it's a minor point but we've got lots of other trip reports on this Cheddar sub-forum and the Aggy one might get overlooked otherwise). Just a thought. Hey ho.
A
andymorgan
Guest
Dani said:
Maybe a big trip down there sometime soon, the round trip perhaps. I'm gutted I missed it but I had to meet family. Also we could do an Ogof Draenen trip as well. The only thing is I'm not sure when I'll have time to go though before i go to Germany :byebye: . I'm busy finishing up at the moment
