Banishing the end of summer blues

The summer expeditions might be over, but the club is still as busy as ever. We have evening trips starting back up, new Provisional Members who started caving at the June beginners' weekend coming back to SWCC to expand their caving skills, cave photography trips, visits to theme parks and plenty of socialising, including a curry at a local Indian restaurant. Time to join us and get involved!

An evening round-trip in OFD2 via Timo's Table

Steve and Paul at Top Entrance

This was closely followed by a first trip in to Cwm Dwr for new SWCC Provisional Members Lucy and Matthew. They found the trip challenging, but enjoyable. It was their first experience of a long crawl and a boulder choke. It is great to see our newer cavers returning for more trips. 

Steve, Lucy and Matthew ready to go

Lucy about to tackle the Cwm Dwr entrance

About to take on the notorious Cwm Dwr crawl

Matthew on his way out. Looks like he enjoyed the trip!

Muddied but happy

Barbara also had her first trip to the mini-columns this month and took her camera with her. She was highly impressed by the formations and took this great shot:

The Mini Columns  (Photo: Barbara Lane)

There have also been some fun socialising events as well, including a trip to Oakwood Theme Park on a gloriously sunny day. 

And a curry attended by around 10 local members. Perfect for new cavers to meet some more established members of the club and chat about potential trips.

Local Caving

Dave, Paul and Adrian (CSS and SWCC) at Llanelly Quarry Pot

Over the past year or so evening caving trips and meals out among local cavers have become more regular. The last few weeks have been no exception. During that time we have visited Llanelly Quarry Pot, Little Neath, OFD2, OFD1, been out for 2 currys and gone bowling. It's good to see local cavers meeting up, with trips often being mixed-club ones, so if you want to join in, just get in touch. 





Dave admires some formations in Llanelly Quarry Pot

Lisa, Paul, Nigel, Jen and Dan at Little Neath (SWCC/CSS/Gagendor)



Dan cooling off in Little Neath

John and Paul exploring a cave on Gower

Alan on President's Leap during a route-finding trip



Paul, Barbara, Steve and Chris go bowling



It's yet another strike! (Steve is now banned from bowling with us...)



Chris in Selenite Tunnel



Claire, Chris, Alan and Paul going in to OFD2. Route finding to Cross Rift

Chris crossing President's Leap

Ian, Tom and Glenys getting ready for Top Entrance

Tom in Top Entrance



Local curry evening



Jenny and Jamie in OFD1

Alan, Chris and Trev about to go in to OFD1 on a hot evening

Paul, Adrian, Steve and Dave raring to go

Claire and Ceri near Minchin Hole

Ceri and Claire in Minchin Hole, Gower



Cave Leading

On Saturday 7th November, we went down to the long common room of the South Wales Caving Club to meet the provisionals for the weekend. We went round in turn saying who we are, how long we've been caving and where we are from. All of the members who had much experience in caving, led a trip into different parts of Ogof Fynnon Ddu. With the help of two other experienced cavers, I led a trip down to two formations called the Trident and the Judge. On our way back we took a little detour to got to the mini columns and they are  spectacular. Normally we go down a crawl called the sandy crawl and go up a stream called Salubrious but someone didn't like the crawl so we went up and down Salubrious. About fifty metres away from the Judge there is a spectacular stream called Swamp Creek, all along it there is some awesome calcite curtains. Once we reached the Judge we decided to have a look at Swamp Creek. I think everyone finished the trip without any injuries. Everyone thought it was an extremely good experience and I hope that the others will carry on caving and agree with me with what I said just now. 

By James H age 11

One Poached Egg too many 28.10.15

SWCC: Tabitha, Paul Tarrant and Claire Vivian

This was a trip to introduce Tabitha to an area of OFD2 she hadn't yet had the chance to visit. Missing out on my usual fight with the lock on Top Entrance, I managed to open the gate and remove the key from the lock first time. I should have known something else was bound to go slightly awry to compensate for that.



Paul and Tabitha in the passage behind Timo's Table

We were underground by 7.15pm and, with only a little guidance, Tabitha managed to lead to the Wedding Cake. We then headed down to Salubrious and took the passage opposite the climb to the Corkscrew to reach lower Arete Chamber. After a brief look around here, noting the way off to the Labyrinth and the climb up to Middle Arete, we moved on to take the meandering passage/ crawls to Timo's Table. So far so good.

We arrived at Timo's Table and then decided to have a bit of an explore in the immediate area, dropping down to the lower level and heading up the slope on the left to what eventually turned out to be a dead end with a traverse over a slight drop to the right. We had a quick look at the entrance to the Prokofiev Series and then went to look at Poached Egg climb. All as planned so far.

Reaching Poached Egg, we looked at the route across, talked about the route on to the Crevasse and OFD3, had the inevitable chat about what it feels like to fall off the climb and then started to head back to Timo's again, chatting as we went. We walked, talked, looked at some formations, turned a couple of corners and found ourselves ... back at Poached Egg. Great. So we walked, talked, looked at some more formations and arrived back at Poached Egg again. Even better. Possibly one of the shortest round trips in OFD and a first for me.

Distinctly uncomfortable with finding myself gravitating back to Poached Egg, one of my least favourite places in OFD. We decided to give up on going back to Timo's and instead followed the passage that heads back to upper Salubrious. No further unplanned detours were made and we exited in to a clear, dry, night. Whereas the week before Penwyllt had looked like a scene from Watership Down, tonight it was the turn for an invasion of giant black slugs. All in all, a good trip. New routes for both Paul and Tabitha and a brand new round trip for Claire. Back at SWCC by 10pm. 

Tabitha sitting on Timo's Table - we did get there!