My first cave

[pisshead]

hi there

(apologies if anyone has already read this - i tagged it onto the end of someone else's topic...it hasn't had any replies so i've put it in my own topic )

i've been wondering for ages what the first cave I went in was called...it was at least 10 years ago and with a scout group.

it was in Wales - near the Brecon Beacons (well...something like an hours drive away...)

i remember a slope (big body-sized, tube like thing i think) as the entrance then walking passage...a couple of scramly bits, and another entrance/exit off to the right (i think)

at one point the ceiling came down very low and we had to put our heads on one side in the water

i think there was a car park quite near by (just gravelly and small)

novice trip...rocky entrance...any ideas??


and it's not Porth yr Ogof...i thought it was, but when i went there last year i realised it was nothing like it!!!



thanks

 

[Huw Groucutt]

hmm, could be Ogof Y Ci or Eglwyn Faen maybe

 

[pisshead]

thanks...

it might have been Eglwys Faen, but there aren't many good photos on the web so i'm not sure...

...i'll have to force people to take me down it next time i'm in Wales

 

[rich]

thanks...

it might have been Eglwys Faen, but there aren't many good photos on the web so i'm not sure...

...i'll have to force people to take me down it next time i'm in Wales

It doesn't sound like it -- Eglwys Faen is pretty dry and the car park is a fair way away. Ogof y Ci could be a possibility.

About an hour away from where?

 

[pisshead]

from the campsite i was staying at in the brecon beacons

maybe i should visit both caves and see

any other suggestions?

 

[rich]

from the campsite i was staying at in the brecon beacons

maybe i should visit both caves and see

any other suggestions?

Not really! Apart from the ones mentioned, the most common "beginners' caves" in the Brecon Beacons are probably Llygad Llwchwr, Bridge Cave, and Ogof Clogwyn. You might want to look them up on the web. Ogof Clogwyn is a bit like your description, though with only one entrance.

You might of course have done a small cave that few people have heard of, or a slightly more difficult cave.

 

[Fred]

Rich,

I agree that Ogof Clogwyn sounds a little like Pisshead's description - it does actually have 2 entrances - the second is a tight body sized tube which goes off to the right and is not that far into the cave.

Clogwyn is on the far side of the Clydach river about half way up the Clydach Gorge (A465).

The entrance to is a 1.5m climb up, it has an active stream for the whole of its length (flows out of the entrance)and has some very memorable "shelving" allowing you to traverse above the stream. There is at least one small climb up, on the way in, and a short round trip is possible going off left at a corner on the way in and dropping down out of the roof back towards the entrance. It is also possible to get to a small window where you can see daylight via a side passage off the "round trip".

The cave ends in a sump (the roof gradually lowers to meet the water).

 

[mudmonkey]

Out of interest (I'd like to emphasise I'm definitely NOT a diver....) does that sump in Clogwyn go to more dry passage? When I was there a few years back there was a line in it but I've never heard of anything up there.

 

[pisshead]

that sounds a lot like it...

...maybe mudmonkey could take me next time we're in wales...we could look at the dive line

 

[rich]

Rich,

I agree that Ogof Clogwyn sounds a little like Pisshead's description - it does actually have 2 entrances - the second is a tight body sized tube which goes off to the right and is not that far into the cave.

Ah OK, it's been a long time since I've done it. There you go then, Pisshead -- Ogof Clogwyn is my guess where you went.

 

[pisshead]

thanks

 

[Huw Groucutt]

Out of interest (I'd like to emphasise I'm definitely NOT a diver....) does that sump in Clogwyn go to more dry passage? When I was there a few years back there was a line in it but I've never heard of anything up there.

Nah it doesnt go anywhere. Quickly blocked by silt. Originally dived by 'fish' cant remember his proper name, and think someone from CSS a few years ago. There are a couple of digs in the 'high level series' back towards the entrance which may be worth a poke.