Tuesday, 29 September 2026

Mallorca show caves

Caves are not all mud and tight squeezes…

Claire and I visited Mallorca in early September and spent a week conquering high peaks, deep gorges and show caves! Here are a few choice photos of 3 show caves we visited, all wonderfully decorated.

Coves de Campanet

Our first cave was Coves de Campanet, a well decorated “small” show cave. Whilst the big formations were impressive I could not help but notice a lot of the straws were damaged in the more delicate sections.

Coves del Drach

A few days later we visited the very popular Coves del Drach on the East side of the island. A much larger cavernous system with impressive formations. But we were herded like cattle through the system to a lake where musicians played a few familiar classical tunes as the boat rowed up and down the lake. Cheesy, yes, but I have to say the acoustics were spot on!

Coves del Drach

Coves d'Artà

Our final show cave, again on the East of the island was Coves d'Artà.On a blisteringly hot Sunday we visited this rather unusual show cave. Historic smoke damage from lighting has lent the cave a strange sinister look with almost all formation blackened by soot.

Bonus cave!

On our last day in Mallorca we bought into a commercial trip to visit the Cova de Cala Falcó only accessible from the sea via a sump/duck. The excursion involved a short walk, kitting up into a wetsuit, a controlled abseil into the sea and a short paddle to the entrance. You then enter…

Claire is stronger than she looks,
well stronger than me anyway!

Tuesday, 18 August 2026

Not OFD

Team: Duncan Hornby and Claire Vivian

Trip date: 15th - 16th August 2026

It's been a while since any club member blogged about a trip or something club\cave related. So here is a short blog of adventures from another valley! With yet another heat wave cooking us it seemed appropriate to head underground to cool off. This time based at CSS Whitewalls, Claire and I decided to try out two trips I had yet to do: Ogof Draenen via Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du and the North West inlet in Craig a Ffynnon.

Ogof Draenen via Ogof Tarddiad Pwll Du

Since Caving Wales obtained access to this alternative entrance to Ogof Draenen I’ve been itching to give it a go. Important advice on how to access the cave is provided in this very useful visitors guide, although the “obvious” tracks were a lot harder to find when the bracken was 2m tall, but we did eventually find it!

Our primary objective was simply to find the entrance and get in it, with that achieved we explored a tiny section of Draenen (turns out we had gone completely wrong with route finding) and our secondary objective was to try and find the traditional gated entrance and exit via that making it a nifty through trip. We spent about 5 hours underground but if you know the route and were simply heading for the exit I can’t imagine it would be much more than 3 hours.

So here are a few photos taken along the journey.

The finger post pointing the way on and the obvious track to a style…

Within the entrance series in Ogof Tarddiad.

One of two ladders that needed negotiating.

Flies cemetery with the freaky human shaped stal in the distance, or was it a Weeping Angel?

Claire deliberately found the hardest way on into Pen-y-Galchen passage, and no I did not follow!

After exploring Flies cemetery and a section of the Pen-y-galchen passage we entered the more familiar parts of Draenen.

Impressive cracked mud floor, Draenen.

We were aiming for Gilwern Passage but took the wrong turning and started heading downstream into what we now believe was the main stream. Some nice formations on the way.

Two happy moles, me especially as I had forgotten what a tight squeeze there is coming out.

North West inlet in Craig a Ffynnon

With heat waves and a nation wide drought it finally seemed like a good idea to pop into the North West inlet in Craig a Ffynnon. CSS provides excellent advice and surveys on this page.

The entrance is usually a very uninviting cold dip which I’ve always given it a miss thinking I must do that one day… With low water levels the inlet is significantly less miserable and the way on leads to some surprisingly large passages and nice formations. The trip took about 2 hours in and out, with plenty of photo stops.