Ogof Draenen Nov 29th 09

Ogof Draenen.

Does anyone fancy a trip to Ogof Draenen, I was asked this in the Brit last Thursday, what’s it like I asked, because I didn’t realy fancy a wet caving trip as I had been working out in the rain for the last three weeks and was sick of getting wet.
Oh it’s virtually a walk in, walk out, dry, trip was the answer, just a bit sporting in places.
I decided to go for it, thinking a dry trip for a change would do me good.
Ian offered to drive, so it was decided he would pick Marc and myself up, at the Antelope Pub at 6.30 AM Sunday morning.
Since the trip was being organised by Mick, and past experience has taught me not to fully trust him, I took the precaution of buying a goon suit from the army surplus in Denbigh.
Feeling I had all bases covered, we set off for Abergaveny, and three hours or so later, after breakfast at Mcdonalds, we were parking up on the concrete parking place in a place called Pwll Du, opposite the Fox and lamb pub, in torrential rain.
We got changed quickly so that we could get into the cave and out of the rain, I was pleased with myself for bringing the goon suit because I could now get to the cave without getting too wet.
Across the road we followed a little stream downhill, climbed over a couple of styles
And down a steep bank, and we were there, the entrance is a little steel door in a hollow to the right of the path.
The door is a clever device which is locked from the outside with a combination lock, but when slammed shut can be opened from the inside to let you out, we tested it several times to be sure, and at last we could get inside, out of the rain.
Or could we, once inside, the entrance passage is very tight and leads to a vertical climb through boulders and scaffolding, then very soon we arrived at an extremely tight vertical squeeze, and guess what, we found out where all the rain goes after it hits the ground, it goes under, the ground, and specifically, it takes the same route that we were obliged to take.
Soon though, with the entrance ordeal over, we progressed through boulder strewn passages where, for the most part, we could walk upright with care, as the boulders are very slippery.
I am struggling to remember the exact sequence of the passages and features that we visited, but as I said, much of it was boulder strewn, then some nice streamway, and a climb down a knotted rope of about three or four metres.
There were many smaller free climbs up and down, one of the highlights for me was the canyon, which we negotiated along high level ledges close to the roof, some parts were rigged with permanent traverse lines, others were not, the width and depth of the canyon varied considerably, fortunately the part where I dropped my flask when my bag tipped up was only a couple of free climbable metres.
At the end of the canyon, a small triangular passage took us into much bigger territory, we left markers at the junctions as it all looks very samey in what seem like endless passages, we stopped for lunch at a junction with a cairn.
After lunch, we explored more passages for an hour so, before turning around to head out, Mick seemed to think we had not seen the best of it, and as I understand the cave extends to something like sixty six kilometres, that’s probably not surprising.
We made our way back, the way we had come though I believe there is a round trip,
And before long we were climbing back up the knotted rope, and making our way back to the bottom of the scaffolded shaft.
Climbing back up the shaft the water coming down it, seemed to have increased about tenfold, I was last up, and I could not hear what the others were saying above the thunder of the torrent.
When I reached the tight vertical squeeze, I could neither, hear or see anything, the only thing to do was take a breath and feel for a way upwards, scrabbling for footholds where I could.
Goon suits are great for keeping out water, from every direction, except unfortunately from above, the seal around the neck having but one fault, in order to get it tight enough to seal effectively you have to be dead.
So as I progressed up the short, tight climb, my little self contained environment, of which I had been so smug earlier, was taking water, and my legs were getting very heavy.
I have never been so glad to get out into the rain, on the way back up to the car I thought it would have been nice to have got some, before and after photos of the quaint little stream we saw on the way in and the raging torrent it had become.
However we had not thought, to take any pictures on the way in, and neither my camera, or Ian’s was now working, due to the ingress of water.
For all that, I enjoyed the trip, and would like to go again, to see more of it, perhaps in the summer.
Finally I have one bit of advice for you if you are ever tempted to accompany Mick Murphy, on, lets say a shopping trip.
Check where the store is, it could be in a cellar, somewhere in Venice.

doug wrote:

...... Goon suits are great for keeping out water, from every direction, except unfortunately from above, the seal around the neck having but one fault, in order to get it tight enough to seal effectively you have to be dead.
.......

Unbelievably funny !