Post date: Nov 18, 2009 5:21:35 PM

Cavers: Laura and Al

Since we had to go to Wales for Laura to do her cavern diving course with Martyn Farr (3 xi 09 and 4 xi 09) we decided to make the most of the journey and spend several days after the course cave diving in suitable sites. Bad weather and equipment failure conspired against that - too much rain had flooded the caves we were considering (Bridge Cave, White Lady Cave, and Porth Yr Ogof), and Laura's drysuit zipper had leaked on the second day of her course in the Dinas Rock silica mines. After she had aquabodged her zip, leaving just enough free zipper to squeeze in and out of, it needed to cure for 24 hours. Martyn came to the rescue, suggesting a trip into Ogof Agen Allwedd, and offering us a key...

We had stayed in Whitewalls during the cavern course, the Chelsea Spelaeological Society's hut on the Llangattock escarpment, impressively situated above the villages of Llangattock and Crickhowell (the Farrworld headquarters are in Crickhowell). While it had looked about a mile walk from Crickhowell on the map it was rather further and several hundred metres higher than expected. The hut was situated on the old tramway of the limestone quarries, so while it was impossible to walk to the pub it was a pleasantly flat stroll along the tramway to the Aggie entrance.

The first part of Ogof Agen Allwedd, the entrance series in Ogof Gam, is a pleasant rifty passage, with some interesting thrutching and bridging required in places. In two places the roof annoyingly lowers to just more than a flat out crawl and both these bits have ice cold puddles. Martyn's advice was to crawl in a sort of press-up position on tiptoes to avoid a soaking, but still my front and arms got a bit wet. Laura, in a wetsuit, was glad of the cooling water. After that we met a small stream and followed it downwards, turning left at each junction to reach the first boulder choke. Keeping high at every opportunity we passed this without error, and emerged at the top of the pile at the start of the very big Main Passage. Resting at the 'keep Aggie clean' sign i tried the full power of Sten but the passage continued into the dim distance. There followed a pleasant stroll along a solid mud floored passage of HUGE dimensions. It was very nice to go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, upright like any sane homo sapiens, for over a kilometre inside the mountain. There was little stal, but the mud offered pretty colours and laminations and formations, and in several areas little 'forests' of gypsum crystals were growing. At the junction with the Southern Stream Passage we saw our first couple of roosting bats, hanging on boulders on the floor. We proceeded carefully after that so we didn't tread on any, but saw no more on the way in. Eventually the roof lowered and we were forced into a stoop and then a crawl before emerging in the Music Hall, conveniently marked by a music stand with some sheet music. This was the limit of our planned trip, although other passages were inviting. After soaking up the isolation and eating a Mars Bar we started back. We counted 17 roosting bats along the Main Passage on the way out, now that our eyes were attuned to their peculiar black diamond shape. Reaching the start of the first choke, Laura set off in the lead but stayed too high and ended up in a dead-end. Back at the start i proudly showed her the right way, but pride comes before a fall and soon i was lost too. Eventually we reached the streamway, but the hydrology of the cave seemed to have changed while we were in the Main Passage and the stream was now flowing the other way... I stomped off downstream again before admitting i was lost! We backed up, and since i'd managed to make a complete circle within the choke we repassed several sections of the choke in the same direction as five minutes before... Laura pointed out the right route that i'd missed and we escaped the clutches of the choke. Annoyingly it was even harder to pass the puddles using the press-up technique on the way out.

With the threat of rain looming but not really coming to much we returned along the tramway to the Whitewalls cottage, before calling in with Martyn for a cuppa and to collect filled cylinders for the next day's diving in the silica mines.

Laura has written a fuller report of her cavern diving course on technicaldiving.ie - http://forum.technicaldiving.ie/index.php?topic=1731.msg10578#msg10578.

Al

No photos from Aggie, but here's one from the Dinas Rock silica mines...