Topic

Day 2 was going to be a Cwm Dwr to OFD 2 through trip, but due to concerns over the rain we had had over the weekend, we opted for just doing Cwm Dwr.
On the way in Gordon and Alex did'nt fancy one of the crawls, so the rest of us carried on and once through the crawls we were very impressed with the size of the system. After making our way down into one of the feeder streams we eventually came to the Confluence, which is where you join the main OFD streamway, which with the amount of water going through the system was very impressive to say the least.
After spending about 15 minutes trying to battle our way up stream against the flow, we decided to turn around and go down stream to carry on with our round trip. After having a good look round some of the less frequented areas of the system we started to make our way back out and once back through the crawl, it was just the steady climb back up to the exit.
Trip time 4hrs30
Susan Blackburn, Brian Cullen, Damian Weare, Keith Mason

keithm wrote:

After having a good look round some of the less frequented areas of the system we started to make our way back out and once back through the crawl, it was just the steady climb back up to the exit.

You're too nice to me, Keith. What he means is "once again Damian failed to find the key connection point and we wandered about for a while before giving up and going back a different way".

Route: The Smithy, The Confluence, upstream for about a hundred metres, downstream to Piccadilly, diversion along the route to OFD 1.5, diversion up to Hoel Eira, Nether Rawl, a long ferret around in approximately the right place, failing to find the connection through to Big Shacks, return to The Upper Smithy via Sand Banks (I think).

After deciding the SAS crawl was n't for me ....... Self and Alex opted for a trip with CCC/YSS members to
The Columns.
An opportunity only available on 4 days a year.
Excellent trip. Thanks to Neil & Co for letting us tag along. Thanks to guides for allowing access.

Also took in the mini columns. = Also excellent.

Amazing that you can keep going down and down without any ropes!

These caves are massive, brilliant fun, lots to see everywhere you go. Can't recommend them highly enough.

Bit like Easegill, if you get to know your way round, then I 'm guessing it would take more than just a few trips!