Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 1

Saturday March 24th 2012

Members present: Alyssa Scott,  Sophie Hentschel,  Toby Buxton

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 pieces of gear! It made me wonder if humans are supposed to go to places their body alone wouldn't be able to take them... Clive's fitness and energy were very inspiring, though. He is a very pleasant cave companion. Getting to Boulder Chamber was quick and efficient as water levels were quite low. Also having been to OFD1 a few times this week I now know most of the passages by heart. When Clive finally disappeared into the murkiness of the sump, we headed off for a stroll to Crystal Pool. It was great to see again how much Alyssa is interested in learning more about caving, especially reading survey maps. Since her fall off a climb on Tuesday she seemed very cautious, so that Toby did his best to make her feel comfortable going up and down the waterfall. We did take a little longer than expected to Crystal Pool. Alyssa coped very well with the first part of the climb to Crystal Pool Chamber, but didn't feel ready for attempting the dodgy-looking vertical climb up. So Toby and I went up and had a quick look around the chamber and then quickly joined Alyssa at the bottom of the climb as we were running out of time. We made it back to the sump in time though to help Clive collect his gear. I was impressed by the freshie's endurance carrying one of the tackle bags. Soon enough we were back out in the sunshine, and I was thinking that I really didn't want to go back to civilisation the next day!