Trips & Reports

A walk-in cave under a castle with a chamber full of 6-12% Belgian beer. 'Nuff said

A fun Sunday Stomp along the main stream way to see the sumps, with a deviation to take a peak at Ink sump, and a diversion past Galena Chamber on the way back.

On Saturday we changed our plans from going to Oxlow to going to Knotlow instead, trying to get into Hillocks Mine via Meccano Passage as suggested by Tom and Dave (SUSS). Driving to Knotlow took an hour instead of the promised 20 minutes, partly because the Sat Nav was not very precise with the directions it gave. A further complication was the equally imprecise description of how to find the entrance to Climbing Shaft provided by our friends from SUSS,... read more

You missed out the part where we (unnecessarily) walked about a mile to find the entrance ...

shhhh what happens at Knotlow stays at Knotlow ^^

I thought it would be great to celebrate Easter 2012 in style – cavers’ style – and organised a weekend in Castleton with Andrew and a few good friends from ULSA: Ruth, John and Kristian. It was the first time for me to be responsible for the organisation of a whole caving weekend from accommodation to transport and permits, and one of the lessons I learnt was that delegating is the best part of it. So I entrusted Andrew with... read more

very wet but very enjoyable

Awesome seeing a real-life diver kitting up! The cylinders go under the arms, how about that? I guess that's the best place for them when you're swimming about. Watching Clive assembling all his strange bits of harness and elastic was, I reckon, a similar feeling to a fresher watching a caver donning SRT gear. Awesome! Also turns out dive cylinders are a bit heavy - 12ish kilos apparently. One on the back makes traversing Pluto's bath that little bit more interesting!... read more

It was another fine day in the Welsh country side: perfect for some wet caving! For once we didn't have to walk up and down the rather steep hill to the cave entrance as Clive kindly drove us there - which was very helpful on the way back when carrying the diving gear. I have never seen a "real" cave diver and watching him getting ready made me realise how risky cave diving is. Otherwise you wouldn't need all the... read more

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This was a really really brilliant trip. Just as varied as Top Sink-Bye George and possibly even more fun. Less grim as well! I'd recommend it to anyone with relatively decent caving fitness and a fairly good knowledge of OFD. At least take a survey so you can get out if it all goes wrong! We started off going up the streamway in 1 at a fairly good pace and into the connection. Here Mark took the lead as he was... read more

I won’t write about most of the trip here, since Toby’s described it so well. It was a brilliant way to fit all of OFD together and to provide a real appreciation of the scale of the place. I’ll pick up the story from Cwm Dwr on the way back… When we reached the Confluence I think we were all feeling pretty good. We had a chocolate bar or two each to top up the energy levels, plenty of water, and cracked... read more

Rescue stuff! After reading that I figured I'd put in something about my experience of the rescue for those who have never experienced one. Here's a bit of stuff about what it's like to be a runner. Most will know all this already, but when I was a fresher I didn't really know what would happen so here it is, just in case :p If you are caving in a three, and one has an accident that immobilises them, the two... read more

Amen Toby :)

Absolutely hilarious trip, loved it, thanks Chad + Toby :) Apart from going around Roundabout Chamber once more than needed, everything went to plan :) Chad's commentary definitely made the trip !

Having hatched evil plans for a trashy caving horror film with Phil, Tom, Julia and Alyssa, we decided to put the plans into practice on Wednesday and chose to film in OFD1. Julia and Alyssa didn't feel like doing it in the end, but Phil, Tom and Echo were motivated. So we shot our scenes within a few minutes; my tripping over my own feet whilst trying to hold the camera and about three more torches made the scenes look... read more

Climbing in a wetsuit is significantly more difficult than in normal caving gear! Ace trip. It was dry enough that we managed to get down into Mazeways - lots more lovely phreatic passageway :)

Awesome trip. You only really need a survey for most of it, though a description is probably a necessity for the boulder chokes and finding the way through in a couple of places. The inner circle is not a much bigger trip. But the grand circle rather is, and involves going through 'deep water' - a section of streamway with neck deep water. Neck deep tends to be nostril deep for me so count me out. Highlights include: tempting Jonny through... read more

A good adventure but shocking in places. Not for the caver of larger dimensions, or anyone with a fear of bats.

LOL a wet trip like this one is supposed to get full marks for scum= wet ^^ That doesn't mean that I didn't like it. On the contrary, I like any excuse for getting totally wet, and really had such a good time in the main stream. It was such a magic place, in particular Marble Shower Series which took my breath away. Wearing just the right amount of layers helped me to keep warm so that even prolonged stays... read more

A lovely trip with an unusually low level of testosterone. We did the round trip, but broke off before Lowe's passage to visit the Waterfall Series for a bit. We headed to Crystal pool chamber via the dry way and back via the wet way! Wish I had played around a bit more in that chamber as I am lead to believe there is some lovely stuff leading off from there... We weren't underground for long at all, so had... read more

I agree, it was a very pleasant and efficient trip: minimum of faff (whilst getting ready and going to the cave, not instead of it ;)) It was my first time to lead really, and I was a little bit nervous about it. There was no back-up Martin to explain things to me! But we made it to Crystal Pool within an hour and enjoyed a snack in this beautiful place. I totally failed taking pictures that truly represent the... read more

I'd been pretty nervous about the OFD 3 traverses after what I'd heard about them from various people, but they're really not that bad at all - and that's coming from someone who's scared of traversing! Got to the streamway but it was too wet to carry on up to Smiths Armoury so we made an about turn. I'll be back... On the return we stopped for a snack; I discovered mid-mouthful that my cereal bar was mouldy. Unpleasant. I have been... read more

(not sure if I forgot somebody)