Cave in the community
As part of my caving social outreach programme, I took nisaba, denalyia and magfish to the South Wales Caving Club, at Penwyllt, in the Brecon Beacons this weekend, to introduce them to the non-goth version of the world below ground. Initial prospects weren't too bright, what with Aideen's claustrophobia, and Peta's fear of looking daggy. Aideen and Christa arrived at the club first after an early start, so made excellent progress in finding themselves beds and people to gossip about me with before we arrived. They were also kind enough to help us put our tent up on arrival, Peta's first camping trip in fifteen years. We stayed up chatting and drinking for while, before Christa and then Aideen took the sensible approach of relatively earlier nights, with Peta and I heading up the late shift, finally falling into our tent at around 3.30am.
Once Peta and I had dragged ourselves from our slumber, had breakfast, found caving kit for the three ladies, and rounded up responsible cavers (Ash and Jenny) to assist, and got dressed down into caving gear, it was time to set off. We were headed for the delights of the bottom entrance of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (OFD). For some reason, I decided that driving down to the cave would be a bit lazy, so we walked. I quickly regretted this, but carried on regardless. By the time we got to the entrance, we were mostly hot and tired, but thankfully the entrance is sheltered by trees, so we were able to fully change into full kit in the shade before heading underground. We took the standard route to the end of the cave, Boulder Chamber, along the Main Streamway, via Pots 1-4. The caving itself was certainly a challenge for Peta, Aideen and Christa, but I was so proud of all of them, none of them gave up trying, and they didn't get too wet. Aideen's fears of small, tight passages were probably helped by the fact that the streamway is high and wide (the high-level emergency escape route is about 30ft above the main streamway) in most places. Ash's attempts to convince people to try exiting via Pluto's Bath (a nice 7ft deep swim) were foiled by most people's sense, and Aideen (who actually wanted to do it)'s failure to speak up. Once we'd exited the cave, the walk back up the hill (probably about a mile horizontally, and a few hundred metres vertically) pretty muched finished us off.
Post caving, and showering and general pottering about, we headed for the Gwyn Arms for food. Portions were huge, everyone seemed to be well fed and watered, and my friends and Peta's friends were able to better get to know each other. Another night of beers and wine in front of the fire before a slightly earlier night was an excellent way to round off Saturday.
I felt distinctly blurry Sunday morning, unable to make a simple decision, so the fact we were able to get organised with caving kit and responsible cavers (Ash and Nicole) was more down to luck than judgment.
Christa had already found herself a digging trip to go on (I was suitably impressed by this hard-core commitment to cave exploration and discovery on her second day at the club - perhaps she'll enjoy the club digging week at the end of August). In her absence, we took Peta and Aideen to the top entrance of OFD for a trip to the Judge and Trident (large and pretty stalagmite and stalactite formations respectively). This involved much scrabbling around in the Brickworks, then into Elephant Turd passage1, Elephant Head chamber2, Gnome Passage3, down to the Corkscrew, into Salubrious Passage4 and then on to the Trident and Judge. While there, we also took in the start of Swamp Creek passage. Peta did so well as a non-climber traversing the many nasty and awkward climbs that were involved; breaking Aideen so that she climbed like a caver, rather than a climber was particularly satisfying.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, I was happy to introduce Peta, Christa and Aideen to caving, and to SWCC in particular - I was impressed that they all tried so hard, and didn't freak out at the tricky bits, and I was pleased that my caving friends welcomed them all with open arms. All in all, a top weekend, and I hope to take them all caving again.
1 Name may have been made up by Ash
2 Name may have been made up by Aideen and Nicole who misheard Ash
3 Genuine name
4 Peta doesn't seem to be convinced that this is a real name; it is. Honest.
Once Peta and I had dragged ourselves from our slumber, had breakfast, found caving kit for the three ladies, and rounded up responsible cavers (Ash and Jenny) to assist, and got dressed down into caving gear, it was time to set off. We were headed for the delights of the bottom entrance of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (OFD). For some reason, I decided that driving down to the cave would be a bit lazy, so we walked. I quickly regretted this, but carried on regardless. By the time we got to the entrance, we were mostly hot and tired, but thankfully the entrance is sheltered by trees, so we were able to fully change into full kit in the shade before heading underground. We took the standard route to the end of the cave, Boulder Chamber, along the Main Streamway, via Pots 1-4. The caving itself was certainly a challenge for Peta, Aideen and Christa, but I was so proud of all of them, none of them gave up trying, and they didn't get too wet. Aideen's fears of small, tight passages were probably helped by the fact that the streamway is high and wide (the high-level emergency escape route is about 30ft above the main streamway) in most places. Ash's attempts to convince people to try exiting via Pluto's Bath (a nice 7ft deep swim) were foiled by most people's sense, and Aideen (who actually wanted to do it)'s failure to speak up. Once we'd exited the cave, the walk back up the hill (probably about a mile horizontally, and a few hundred metres vertically) pretty muched finished us off.
Post caving, and showering and general pottering about, we headed for the Gwyn Arms for food. Portions were huge, everyone seemed to be well fed and watered, and my friends and Peta's friends were able to better get to know each other. Another night of beers and wine in front of the fire before a slightly earlier night was an excellent way to round off Saturday.
I felt distinctly blurry Sunday morning, unable to make a simple decision, so the fact we were able to get organised with caving kit and responsible cavers (Ash and Nicole) was more down to luck than judgment.
Christa had already found herself a digging trip to go on (I was suitably impressed by this hard-core commitment to cave exploration and discovery on her second day at the club - perhaps she'll enjoy the club digging week at the end of August). In her absence, we took Peta and Aideen to the top entrance of OFD for a trip to the Judge and Trident (large and pretty stalagmite and stalactite formations respectively). This involved much scrabbling around in the Brickworks, then into Elephant Turd passage1, Elephant Head chamber2, Gnome Passage3, down to the Corkscrew, into Salubrious Passage4 and then on to the Trident and Judge. While there, we also took in the start of Swamp Creek passage. Peta did so well as a non-climber traversing the many nasty and awkward climbs that were involved; breaking Aideen so that she climbed like a caver, rather than a climber was particularly satisfying.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, I was happy to introduce Peta, Christa and Aideen to caving, and to SWCC in particular - I was impressed that they all tried so hard, and didn't freak out at the tricky bits, and I was pleased that my caving friends welcomed them all with open arms. All in all, a top weekend, and I hope to take them all caving again.
1 Name may have been made up by Ash
2 Name may have been made up by Aideen and Nicole who misheard Ash
3 Genuine name
4 Peta doesn't seem to be convinced that this is a real name; it is. Honest.