Ogof Daren Cilau to the Time Machine

Thursday September 26th 2013

Members present: Catherine Moody,  Mark Sims,  Toby Buxton

Five years of caving, and despite it being on my to-do list for a long while, I'd still never been in Daren! It was time to finally rectify this.

To be honest, enthusiasm wasn't particularly high after a 12 hour trip the day before. There were ambitious plans of getting up early to ensure getting to Hidden Earth at a reasonable time, but we all completely ignored our alarms in favour of an extra hours snooze. Over breakfast, Andy decided he was too broken and didn't really fancy a trip to somewhere he'd been several times so opted to drop out. I was tempted to follow suit but convinced myself it would be daft to pass up the opportunity since we're rarely in the area. Somewhat reluctantly I put on my wet gear and got ready to go.

I'd heard many a horror story about the entrance series. After passing through the vice ( "was that it?" ) and wallowing around in several wet crawls for about an hour, we were through. It was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting - tedious, but not difficult. I can see how having a tackle sack would make a massive difference though! We made steady progress through Jigsaw Passage to Big Chamber, followed by a couple of navigational uncertainties but soon found the way to the ladder. Our belaying technique of "I'll just hold the rope, I'm sure I can catch you if you fall" was slightly dubious but thankfully didn't need to be put to the test. Onwards to the roped climbs and then into the Time Machine, the target of our trip. I think going to places like the Berger has spoilt me somewhat when it comes to big passages but it was impressive nevertheless. After a quick break for pizza, as we neared the end we spotted lights from another group coming the other way so made an about turn and quickly headed out so as to avoid a traffic jam. Although we'd been caving for nearly 5 hours when we got back to the start of the entrance series, we made it through significantly quicker than on the way in, helped I think by lots of singing to break the monotony. We were soon back at Whitewalls to continue the theme of lots of food before heading off for a cracking weekend at Hidden Earth. Splendid!