Craig a'Ffynnon access

Stuart France

Active member
The answer as to the cost of an OFD-style gate is ballpark £1000. Then there is the removal of the Parker & Co gate which dates from the 1970s if not earlier, the associated welded railway lines that support it, and the blockwork around it before fitting the new gate into new blockwork.

May I remind you all that the padlock hasp during the John Parker era went through a 20mm machine screw (i.e. a hex headed bolt) which was about 70mm long with a 10 or 12mm hole drilled through the bottom end of it. We may still have it somewhere if people would prefer it to the metal banana. This was then padlocked with a Yale type padlock which was well "around the corner" and you had to insert the key with one handed into the keyway while not being able to see anything, then turn it one handed to pop the padlock off. The space for your hand was very much tighter than it is now because we removed some of the concrete floor around the hole with a petrol disc cutter when MLCMAC took over access control here from Parker etc to make it a bit more reasonable. Reverting it to Parker's bolt means if you lost your key or the lock was damaged while you were in the cave then you can't get out. The banana has a Derbyshire Bolt at its inner end which can be removed with spanners provided beside the logbook if you get stuck which is an important safety feature introduced by MLCMAC.

The current problem is we're on our third padlock and our third "banana bar" since mid-summer here and I suspect that an OFD type gate with the lock on the outside would simply make matters easier for the people wanting to break in.

There was a cave rescue practice a couple of weeks ago involving the 2nd pitch. Nobody mentioned anything then about rope damage, so I guess it is quite recent. We will fix this and in the meanwhile please take your own lifeline for the 2nd pitch climb. May. I also remind you that the government, i.e. CCW and NRW, have been responsible for managing access here for many years.

I'm surprised that nobody has yet complained that the present gate is virtually bat-proof. Discuss. Should we allow them in or keep them out? There is no bat access at OFD as the gates are solid, and that is an NRW NNR. Ditto the Draenen gate which is an OFD clone where NRW has plans to turn the whole area into a mega-NNR.
 
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Stuart France

Active member
Bats often have their own routes in
Here they don't. I've run bat data loggers in all the major caves of the Usk Catchment SAC in recent winters. OCAF comes bottom of the list with only 1% of total area bat cave footfall.

Top of the footfall list are Agen Allwedd via the original entrance of course, plus Ogof Cnwc and Drws Cefn which have manufactured entrances. The obvious reason is that these entrances support bats flying in or out easily, and they have existed for enough years now to be widely understood by the bat population.

I think most cavers will be aware that there are almost no bats in OFD nor in the western part of Ogof Draenen for reason of solid gates and/or vertical bars that are too closely spaced to permit flight. My own view, for what it's worth, is that bats should not be denied access to what is perfect habitat for them. By all means have a solid gate design but also provide large enough letterbox slots alongside them for bats to use.
 

Stuart France

Active member
There's been a significant rockfall last week at the OCAF entrance from the roof/cliff above. There are also minor 20kg type rocks newly dotted along the approach path up from the limekilns. This might be related to the long dry summer followed by persistent rain this autumn slackening things up a bit. The keystone in the alcove roof is still in situ. I suggest an advisory closure to let it all settle down for a bit.

There is more water than ever before dripping in through the roof of the alcove into which you climb and then see the gate from the outside. Either it is getting in by percolation through new roof cracks or it is making its way along the roof surface by surface tension until the point where it drops off where we don't want it.

So, it flooded last week up to top of the concrete base of the metal gate. This means the padlock and locking bar were by then underwater, i.e. you had submerge your whole arm into the water to reach it. Anyway, some kind people have dug a long trench through the rubble pile by the entrance so the water escapes in the direction of the footpath. Anyone a little squeamish need not fear a wet elbow now.
 
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