Present: Pete S, Julia, Anthony
Caving looked a bit unlikely for a while, but after drinking lots of tea and nattering for a bit, Anthony decided his dodgy ankle was up to caving, so we piled into Pete’s mini and set off. Reached the farm and nearly jacked again ‘cos it was pissing it down. Felt like we were back in Yorkshire as we stomped across miles of bleak, sodden bog.
The entrance shaft to Pant Mawr is big and impressive, abbed down it, dumped our string gear and set off downstream. The water levels were fine, despite the heavy rain. Basically the trip consists of stomping downstream, going through three easy boulder chokes on the way.
Anyway, most pleasant trip, worth doing for its own sake despite the shit walk in, but we had other reasons for being there… Pete’s got a dig going in an attempt to find more cave beyond the sump (which has been dived a fair way until it’s blocked by rocks). Up a shit climb caked in slimy mud, up through a squalid hole, along a rift passage for a way until we reached the sand that Pete had been digging out. He went in first and filled a couple of containers which we then dragged out and emptied. He did this again then came out looking rather warm, and it was my go.
Squirmed along a body sized passage for a short way, found the shovel and decided that it was a shit place to be ‘cos I couldn’t lift my head to see the end of the passage. Much better once I took my lid off. After a bit, shovelling sand into a barrel became ok, hard work, but I really wanted to know where the passage went. Anthony went in to do a couple of loads and said the CO2 was starting to build up a bit. After he’d finished digging me and Anthony set off whilst Pete went in for another dig. The climb was shit on the way down, it was just a stomp out, then me and Pete sat around drinking hot chocolate and getting rained on whilst Anthony derigged. We were back at the farm for 9pm, dripping and caked in cleg, but this didn’t stop the farmer and his wife insisting that we come in for a cup of tea and a chat. Quality end to a quality day.
Julia Bradshaw