THE BULLETIN

Journal of the Westminster Spelæological Group

Volume 9, Number 9 January 2007

Contents Page

Diggers’ Delights - the 18th and 19th Holes Toby Clark 1

A Tale of WSG Activities in a Bygone Age Len Dawes 5

How to Build your Own Light for £25 Graham Adcock 11

The 1999 Cuban Expedition Expedition Members 19

France 1998 - Four Course Caving Martin McGowan 39

Chartreuse - WSG’s 50th Anniversary Trip Matthew Setchfield 41

Slovenia 1998 - Caving the Imperial Way Martin McGowan 53

Slovenia 2001 - the IC3 Expedition Martin McGowan 59

Ethiopia 98 - ‘a little more than a caving expedition’ Bob Kynaston 65

Buses, Dragons and Churches - Ethiopia 1998 James Hooper 71

Dreaming of Caves in East Africa Peter Judd 75

A Short History of Caerllwyn Duncan Minty 77

i Editorial

It’s nearly ten years since the last Bulletin was vigour would have been a much greater challenge produced. That’s too long a gap and not one that the without the accessibility and connectivity provided by club wants to repeat again. It’s been not so much a the club website. question of gathering in the articles - the range and dates of what follows testifies to both members’ There’s no inevitability about the internet - you make willingness to get out there and cave and then write of it what you want. What it can help you do however about it - but to earlier editors having too many things is revisit why you publish journals like this in the first to juggle and the club being focussed on more place, and it then allows you to reform how you go important things - resolving our ownership of about publishing it, without necessarily departing from Caerllwyn and bringing in a new generation of cavers. your core purpose, which I take to be the serving of the club’s members and the wider caving community Since writing the editorial for the last Bulletin in 1997, in their pursuit of good caves and new finds, both in the publication of sporting and technical journals has the UK and abroad. The Bulletin has changed before, been revolutionised by the internet. It’s clear from the sometimes radically; it may well do so again. websites of the UK’s leading caving clubs that only a few have absorbed those changes in how they publish Duncan Minty their equivalent of this Bulletin. Yet WSG’s renewed

This Bulletin has been edited by Duncan Minty, Chris Wood and Martin McGowan.

© Westminster Spelælogical Group

Opinions expressed in this Bulletin are the contributors’ own and not those of the editor or the Westminster Spelælogical Group.

Acknowledgements Mark Baker for help with certain computer files; Len Dawes for the cover survey; UBSS for the survey around the Afon Nedd Fechan; Cave Books (St Louis) for the Dent de Crolles survey; ICCC for the Migovec and Gardeners’ World surveys; Mapquest for the Slovenian and Ethiopian maps; Ordnance Survey for the 1830 survey of Caerllwyn.

ii Diggers Delights - the 18th and 19th Holes

Toby Clark ______

Hole 18 or Productus Pot was so named as the It seemed now as though the valley floor had been arbitrary 18th feature of speleological significance in a reached because we found ourselves in welly-deep survey carried out by University of Bristol water above a clay layer. Jerry Complin was able to Speleological Society in 19711. It appears on the insert his arm and a shovel full length horizontally in Cambrian Cave Registry (1992) at NGR 8991 1383 as that direction but attempts to push this became a sink at an altitude of 400m and both of these pieces progressively more difficult amongst loose spoil and of data are significantly wrong! The NGR is 9025 was eventually abandoned. 1402, but more importantly the 18th is at an altitude of 350m. These errors have been carried forward into Attention was again turned to the adit which showed Duncan Minty's database 2. evidence of recent flooding. Pieces of wood from the nearby dig had been washed into it and a sack The 18th Hole is a relatively recent geological feature, containing heavy materials had been washed to the far caused by the capture of a local stream. The water end of it, indicating a powerful flow. runs downhill off gritstone to the west, and has downcut through the millstone grit until it found a Inspection of the adit revealed that a minor roof fall place to sink at the base of a small cliff which is about had stabilised it; the breakdown was cleared out, 8m high. From this point the water was dye traced in revealing a streamway maybe a metre wide and about 1984 to the R1 rising (2.2km away in the Little Neath 10cm high. By drilling shotholes with a drill rented Valley) in less than 25 hours by Bill Gascoine of the from Dudley’s shop and blasting with detonating cord, Cwmbran CC and Jon Young of Croydon CC. 3 good progress was made to 10m assisted by the discovery of a higher horizon 70cm above which gave Between 1972 and 1975, the 18th Hole was dug by us a much more stable roof (even allowing for the Simon Meade-King et al 4, who used vast amounts of piece which fell on Toby Hamnett's back!). explosives in attempts to penetrate into the cliff, but were always thwarted by the stream itself filling up the The 18th adit could well have taken the original flow dig with horrible gloopy mud/water. which now sinks in the valley floor, hence it looks to be an older feature. It trends north-west across the On visiting the site one day, they were surprised to strike and not down dip, which is about 5° to the find that the 18th had turned into a pond following south. Apart from the fact that it took water, the adit heavy rain and was entering a hitherto unknown flood also draughted air which was observed to be in overflow about 3m higher up. This they named ‘the response to barometric pressure change. However, its adit’ and pursued it for a commendable 7m before behaviour was extraordinary, in that when the pressure roof instability eventually deterred them. A major rose, it carried an outdraught and when pressure went collapse in the floor of the valley in 1975 spurred a down, it carried an indraught. This was the exact further frenzy of activity there but, with no further opposite of what would be expected for a closed cave progress being made, Simon's team finally moved on. which was breathing. The most likely inference was a link between Productus and Pwll Pindar, located at It was not until April 1997 that the WSG Veteran NGR 9027 1435 at an altitude of 370m, 20m higher Diggers (Toby Clark, Jeremy Complin and Bill up and 330m almost due north of the 18th. Pwll Brooks) set out to dig the 18th Hole. At that time Pindar had been noticed to powerfully breathe in as there was nothing to suggest that anyone had ever the pressure rose and out as it fell. The extent of the touched the site, apart from the adit and associated breathing indicated a very large volume beneath the spoil heap in the north bank. The stream bed was dry, present known cave. so that 2.4m of vertical progress through infill and boulders was made in a single day, working against the Meanwhile, in an attempt to control the water flowing cliff face. On the next visit, the stream had reappeared into the 18th Hole valley, the stream was diverted at the bottom of the dig and was flowing back away away to the north on what we perceived to be its from the cliff face towards the collapsed feature which former direction. It flowed into an existing pond and Simon had observed. A scaffold cage was installed to then the water overflowed downslope, mostly into a stabilise the boulders and an attempt made to follow small swallow hole, which did just that! A measured 3 the stream directly away from the cliff face, towards litres per second disappeared here amongst loose Simon’s collapsed feature. stones but a quantity continued on by and sank a few metres beyond. WSG has named these features the

19 The location of 18th Hole

UBSS’s original map from their 1971 publication, showing sites of speleological interest on the west and east banks of the Afon Nedd Fechan, from the moors to the north down to the risings around Pwll Ddu and R2.

20 19th and 20th Holes, although they are not shown on postulated succession is this: the 19th and 20th are the UBSS map. The 19th feature of speleological older than 18th Adit, which is older than the 18th interest according to the UBSS survey is Cwm Bub. itself. This is a sink on the gritstone - limestone boundary NGR 9093 1316, altitude 134m. The 20th site of All this drainage would have been off the millstone speleological interest is Pwll Derwen. grit to the west. A similar feature to the north created Pwll Pindar. And all of this is a part of the greater In the year following the water’s diversion, the 19th drainage of the Pant Mawr area. That there is a Pant became a large feature, perhaps a metre deep and 5m Mawr Master System, there can be no doubt. That the in diameter. The water sank at the south end of it in a 18th Hole complex is one way into it, there can also be mixture of sandstone and gritstone boulders. In the no doubt ! preliminary digging of the southern end of the site, no limestone was found, but Martin McGowan did find a References washed limestone wall at the northern end and 1 Standing, P. A., Newson, M. D., Wilkins, A. G.: inserted his whole arm into a void. More in hope than The Little Neath River Cave, Proceedings of UBSS anger, two slabs of gelignite were lowered in and 1971, Vol. 12 No. 3 P332 detonated, causing an impressive eruption of mud and 2 Minty, D.: Hydrological Investigations in the stones but not revealing anything at all. Central Brecons Beacons, WSG Bulletin Vol. 9 No. 8 P. 8 & P. 15 Puffs of smoke were captured on camera, which 3 Oldham, T.: The Caves of the Little Neath Valley, seemed to be arising from small surface features, Anne Oldham, 1993 suggesting voids below the surface. A quantity of 4 Meade King, S.: WSG Bulletin Vol. 7 No. 8 P. timber (by courtesy of Dudley) and some Post Office 107 sacks were moved on site in preparation for further work. At the same time, four stalwarts from Acknowledgments Northampton were persuaded to look at the 20th and Dragon Caving ( Dudley Thorpe) for all their support they dug about a metre down in what became a hole and the donation of digging materials. WBCRO and with eroded limestone sides and an undercut at the Brian Bowell for the loan of the drill. north and south ends. This was close boarded over until we could give it further attention.

It is evident from the topography that the original flow of the stream was around a low hill in the centre and down a shallow valley into where the 18th is now (but didn't exist then) and continuing over where Sarn Helen Sink (South) is and beyond. Thus the

Rough Panorama of 18th Hole showing the Locations of the Main Features

Adit entrance Spoil heap from adit First dig site (now filled in) Central outcrop Main dig site

21 Location of Various Features around Ogof Llyn Fach

20th Hole 19th Hole Ogof Llyn Fach 18th Hole

22 A Tale of WSG Activities in a Bygone Age

Len Dawes ______

The period was the first half of the nineteen fifties. It brave firemen’s lives at risk when they had to rescue was a very different world from that in which we live cavers who got into difficulties! today. Let me try to give you a flavour of the times. My own grandmother thought that “pot-holing was The average price of a pint of beer was one shilling taking a shovel and digging yourself into the nearest and thruppence. That’s 6 pence in today’s money! lawn”. “A very funny sort of hobby that!” she said.

It was rare for married women to go to work; if they What is now “The Docklands” with supermarkets, did, it was nearly always part time. Some caving clubs, high rise luxury apartments, office blocks and a light particularly in Yorkshire, would not allow women as railway; was in those days, one of the busiest ports in members. the world. Ships would come up the Thames into the many wharfs and docks to unload or be loaded with Only one in twenty houses had a fridge and meat was cargoes. The port of London had the fastest turn-a- still on ration. A wide screen TV was nine inches wide, round of shipping in the world. The dockers and with only one channel available and that was only stevedores who did this work were employed on a broadcast part time. The Pope declared that watching casual job-by-job basis. The foreman or ‘ganger’ chose TV was a threat to family life. the men he wanted. If your face fitted, you went to work; if not, you didn’t. It was 100% piece work; you Very few people owned cars, although petrol was only got paid for what you achieved with only a nominal two shilling and sixpence a gallon: that’s twelve and a backup when there was no work available. It was half pence in today’s money. The more affluent cavers extremely dangerous, with a very high accident rate. ran motorbikes. Some privately owned transport, like Yes, you have guessed. That was where I earned my Dennis Kemp’s Landrover trips, were run on a semi- living. The significance of this will become apparent as commercial basis and went most weekends to venues you read on. all around the country for caving, rock climbing, mountaineering and sailing. At this time I was a young caver in my twenties, footloose free and unattached. I had been introduced There were no specialist caving shops because there to potholing as a National Serviceman several years was no commercially made specialist caving earlier and was quite experienced by this time. equipment. Most cavers had a mental block about spending money on anything to take caving. Wet suits, Swildons Hole dry suits, woolly bears and enduro/curdura type over- suits had not been invented. The common choice of Swildons Hole was in fact a different cave to what it is clothing was any old rags no longer fit to wear. For the now, in several aspects. It had only been explored as more serious wet trips, lots of layers of woollen far as sump 2. The Swildons 1 streamway was a more sweaters worn under a canvas boiler suit was the most difficult undertaking then, for two reasons. The common preference. The lighting used was, on pumping station that takes water from the Swildons Mendip, mostly old “Stinky” carbide lamps, stream had not been built, so water levels in the cave sometimes backed up with a home made electric were on average higher then than they are today. mounted on a type of compressed cardboard helmet There was also a formidable obstacle that no longer that distorted when it got wet. In Yorkshire, lights exists- the 40ft pot. This wet pitch was the only way in made from cycle lamps or torches were common; and out of the cave. At times of even moderate water carbide lamps were not very reliable on wet ladder levels, many cavers got into difficulties when they were pitches. unable to climb out against the force of the water and had to be rescued. The 40ft pot was eliminated by the The public at large had very little understanding of great flood of the 10th and 11th July 1968, which caving, or potholing as it was more commonly called washed out the rift under the pitch allowing access at a in the north. On occasions when fire service pumps lower level. were brought into use to assist in a flood rescue situation, the general public was outraged; I was The Black Hole was considered to be a hard trip, as it repeatedly told that the Government should take involved diving sump 1. No big deal by today’s action and “fill in” all these caves and pot holes to standards, but a serious undertaking at that time. The stop these irresponsible lunatics from putting our Wessex had been successful in exploring the St. Paul’s

23 Jim Denyer, Len Dawes and John Lasham at Bar Pot in the summer of 1954 series and had finally succeeded in bailing the Mud infrequently; an average of around one a month, if Sump and entering Paradise Regained. that. I soon became frustrated by the slow progress; clearly there were “caverns measureless to man” just Dennis Kemp who was a member of both the Wessex waiting to be entered. and the WSG, was a major player in this exploration. Both he and I were members of the WSG committee. Dennis’s priority remained his semi-commercial Land I listened totally fascinated as he related tales of the Rover trips, which were often to the Norfolk Broads working trips that he and Tom Andrews were making for sailing, to Snowdonia for climbing and walking, or to the end of Paradise Regained, where he had other such non-caving venues. My feelings at that time discovered a horrendously difficult and torturous, were: “We are a caving club, for heavens sake! What sharply descending little passage. He’d named it “Blue are we doing spending our time running these kinds of Pencil Passage”. At the bottom it became a slit only activities when there are major discoveries to be made inches wide and this could be seen to turn at right and new original explorations to go at?” angles after a short distance. What was really interesting was the noise that issued from this passage It came to a head when at one committee meeting, I - the roar of an unmistakably large stream that was not made my feelings plain and told the committee that I too far away! The stuff every caver’s dreams were had no wish to poach Dennis’s dig, that I would gladly made of! Mine certainly were. I offered to assist work as his labourer and personal assistant; that I felt Dennis on his working trips and after several visits, I the club was losing its direction and that if Dennis did was keener than ever to get on with it. not get on with it and push this dig to a conclusion, then I would! As the Land Rover trips that Dennis ran took precedence, those working trips were only taking place

24 WSG’s original survey of Swildons 4, drawn up shortly after the breakthrough in Blue Pencil Passage

25 The electric detonators we used were also very sensitive to rough handling and temperature; we were told that the heat from your hand could be enough to set them off. It was necessary to push a detonator into a stick of gelignite; rap this up together with however many sticks you wished to use and then work the whole shooting match along the tight flat-out crawl in order to place the charge. We did not have the benefit of modern cortex detonation cord, which enables you to place the explosive in an awkward place without the need to have the detonator plugged into the charge. This is a very much safer procedure I think.

Sometimes, instead of being over sensitive, the gelignite could present the opposite problem. There were times when only part of a charge would detonate; this had the effect of blasting the sticks that did not detonate into the atmosphere in very fine particles! This was the main cause of the headaches that almost always resulted from those working trips.

Another problem was that the wires for detonating the charge had to be run back up the whole length of Blue Pencil Passage. These were left in place permanently and great care had to be taken in order not to cause damage while moving through this bit of cave, otherwise a misfire would result. We did in fact have problems with detonating charges on several occasions, due mostly to our lack of purpose made Frank Darbon on WSG’s Yugoslavian Expedition in detonating equipment. We used batteries to do the job 1957 and this on occasions proved to be insufficient to fire a particular detonator. When this happened, it led to a After much discussion and at times acrimonious serious situation. By this time we had spent many argument, Dennis and I reached agreement. I would hours working in this arduous bit of cave, wearing take over the digging trips so that Dennis could only woolly grots and were wet cold and weary. We concentrate on running the Land Rover trips. This was were expecting to fire the charge and then leave the conditional on me agreeing not to enter any new cave. Instead of this we were faced with once again discoveries before Dennis. I had to concede this, for descending B.P.P. to sort the problem out! Most of Dennis held the “bang” licence and supplied the bang. the time this was due not to faulty electrical With this agreement, we were now “all systems go” - connections, but to insufficient current to fire the Jim Denyer, Frank Darbon, George Tonkin and the charge. We had to check this however. We were aware many other people who worked with me, whose that if current had been passed through a detonator, names I have forgotten, could now get on with the but not enough to fire it, it could make the detonator job. hyper-sensitive and it could go off at the slightest movement or even without any warning at all! A very Without blasting, it was impossible to make any “hairy” situation! Sometimes we were unable to solve progress at all. As it was, by the standards of the day, the problem on the day and left it until the following this was a slow process. We had no portable power week. In those days very few people ever went to the drills that would touch limestone. Drilling by hand was end of Paradise Regained, let alone descended B.P.P. so time consuming as to be simply not practicable. so we hoped nobody would visit the site before our The only option was plaster charges, tamped with bags return. of mud that had to be collected from other parts of the cave and laboriously carted to Blue Pencil Passage. This is why something that with today’s technology Our methods were crude and we took risks that could be achieved in two or three weekends, took us nobody in their right mind would take today. We used two years of hard work! However there came a day gelignite that was very prone to “sweating”, in which when we were able to look around that right-angle case it became unstable and even a small bump could bend and to our delight, the passage opened up to make it explode! Romping through a cave with half-a- negotiable size, be it only just. It was still very tight dozen sticks in a cocoa tin swinging around in a small indeed, but for a midget or anorexic ferret, it was a pack was a bit scary! go’er!

26 The following weekend, Dennis and his Land Rover set off down Blue Pencil Passage. I could not wait to get to grips party arrived on Mendip, on the Friday evening. with the squeeze; rather like anticipating waiting for the dentist Because it was the busiest time of the year in the to operate; simply to get the agony over with. I crawled down the London docks and Saturday morning working was last bit of passage before the first right angle bend, round the normal, I couldn’t get time off and was not able to set corner and stuck solid! From here I could see around the next off for Mendip until after mid-day on Saturday. This bend; the passage was obviously tighter still. To be stuck in a meant that I wasn’t able to enter the cave until Sunday squeeze at any time is nasty; but in this particular bit of cave it morning. would be disastrous. So with a great effort I backed out while I was still able to. Dennis was not prepared to wait for me; he said he would have to enter the cave on Saturday because of I returned to the 8 foot pot and removed a couple of sweaters and getting the Land Rover party back to London at their my rubber suit. This made a tremendous difference. I didn’t have normal time on Sunday. He did however agree to only any difficulty at all with the bit where I had previously stuck explore the main stream passage and leave any side solid. I managed the right angle bend and the bit beyond without passages un-entered for me and my party the any great delay. Frank came through next, bringing the line following day. necessary to climb down into the main stream passage. We secured this to the crowbar and wedged it as best we could and The exploration of the main streamway by Dennis’s then climbed down into the new stream passage where we waited party on that Saturday was written up at the time and for Jim Denyer. has been republished since - there is an account in the ‘History of Swildons Hole’ currently being put Jim is somewhat taller than Frank or myself and had together by the Wessex. However, details of the trip considerable difficulty in getting his thighs around the right on the Sunday to explore any side passages have never angled bend. As Frank and I waited impatient to continue the been published. This was because during the following exploration; I realized how foolish I had been to leave half of my week when I started to write it up, I was working clothes back at the 8 foot pot. I had got very wet in the pool overtime and never completed the account. Events beyond the squeeze and was beginning to shiver. From the tiny moved on and it was pushed aside. There seemed to pipe-like passage above our heads issued forth many sighs, be more important things to concentrate on, like grunts, groans and whizzes, as Jim came to grips with the continuing the explorations. I still have the rough squeeze or rather the squeeze came to grips with Jim. At last we notes that I made at the time, although they were were all through and proceeding up stream... never completed. I think they still make interesting reading. This is what I wrote during the week That was as far as I got with the write up back in June following that Sunday trip in June 1957. 1957, before events overtook me and there were more up-to-date explorations to write about. An Account of the Exploration of the Side Passages of Swildons 4 I remember it today as if it were only yesterday. We made our way down stream, awe struck by the sheer At 08-00 hours on the morning of Sunday the 16th June 1957 beauty of the virgin rock all around us, totally unspoilt a party consisting of Frank Darbon, Jim Denyer, and myself set or contaminated by human contact. The rock off down Swildons Hole .We were all in a highly excited state of sculpture was magnificent, just breathtaking. I had mind. Full of expectation about the explorations we were never seen anything quite like it before. confident we were going to carry out. We entered a large passage off to the right, only to We were hardly awake that morning before Dennis Kemp, Dee find it closed down after a few feet, but there was a Walker, Tom Andrews, Phyllis Davey and David Rob? came possible dig. Continuing down the streamway we to us, almost falling over themselves to tell us about the previous arrived at sump 4. There were candles floating on the days explorations (whether this was to encourage us or put us water, obviously washed down from higher up the off, I am not quite sure) cave! Who brought them in, we wondered; could it have been Herbert Balch or a contemporary of his? We listened to several hair-raising accounts of the notorious squeeze with the right angle bend in the middle. Of how Dennis As I was wearing only my underwear, boots and who is not exactly a large caver had to remove his overalls to get helmet, we did not linger too long but started back up out; and how Tom Andrews, not exactly a giant either, found it stream. We passed the place where we had entered the impossibly tight! They told us how they were all sick with new streamway and continued on to where a large side gelignite fumes! We learned of the 300yds of magnificent stream passage went off to the left. Full of hope and passage which was a continuation of the main Swildons anticipation, we set off into this new and un-trodden streamway and then what we really wanted to hear, of the many passage hoping that it would lead us into a whole new large side passages that lead off the main streamway. Dennis, series! Sadly this was not to be. After only about fifty true to his word, had left them entirely for us to explore. feet it came to an end. However there was a passage going off at roof level. To get into this required a After what seemed an eternity but was in fact only an hour and climb up the left hand wall of around fifteen feet. This a half we arrived at base camp. Without any further delay, we was not particularly difficult and we all got up there.

27 Unfortunately this was as far as we could get. The passage sloped upwards at a steep angle and was covered in soft mud. It was impossibly slippery. Any attempt to climb into it would have resulted in a fall onto the rocks below! In a situation where any rescue of a seriously injured caver from Swildons 4 at this time would have been virtually impossible, we wisely decided to leave this lead for another day. We did succeed in getting into this passage at a later date, but it was disappointing as it proved to be only an oxbow leading back into the main stream passage.

After this disappointment, we quickly made our way upstream to sump 3. This we found to be clear, but looked to be deep. By this time I was very cold indeed and I think Frank and Jim were too. We all agreed that it was time to head out. I have little recollection of the journey out, other than the feeling of enormous relief when we were all safely through the squeezes and back in the 8ft pot. I don’t remember putting on the cold and wet sweaters and overalls which I had taken off in order to get through the squeezes on the way in, but I bet it must have been “character building” at the time.

We made our way out through the airless crawls of Paradise Regained and the horrors of the liquid mud in the Mud Sump and emerged with great relief back into the clean and refreshing streamway of Swildons 1. The 40ft pot had been a fearsome wet pitch on many previous working trips, but on this occasion was not a problem. Len Dawes at the entrance to Swildons Hole, November 2005 It was with a great sense of excitement of where future explorations would lead us that we finally emerged into daylight and the sweet air, scented by the vegetation all around the entrance of Swildons Hole. This was something we always found to be a delight after many hour working down the cave.

It only remains perhaps to mention that that weekend set the pattern of my life for years to come. Before we all returned to London, Dennis Kemp introduced me to one of the two women who had made it through into Swildons 4 the previous day - Phyllis Davey. He said that she had proved to be a good reliable caver and that she wanted to be involved with the ongoing explorations. She did indeed become a member of our team from thereonin. I later married her. She was one of the finest female cavers of her generation. Sadly in 1989, after a long and debilitating illness, she died a premature death from smoking related emphysema. Throughout our married life, she constantly reminded me that she had entered Swildons 4 before I did. That man Dennis Kemp has a lot to answer for!

Dennis and I remained good friends up until his untimely death in April 1990, at the age of 67. He died in a rock-climbing accident in Australia.

28 How to Build your Own Lamp for £25

Graham Adcock ______

Lighting technology has changed in the past few years. some with optional collimating lenses that project the Light Emitting Diode (LED) development is now at a light forward making a compact and adaptable stage where there is a real choice between component. conventional incandescent lamps and solid state emitters. More importantly, the technology is available to the punter who wants to have a go.

The standard tool when I started caving back in the mid ‘70s was the Oldham cap lamp (or one of its variants). Mine consisted of a lead-acid battery of about 20Ah capacity that would run the main lamp for a good 16 hours on a full charge – enough for a weekend of caving. The belt mounted battery weighed in at an impressive 7lb and being designed for mining, it was tough. The alternatives were ex- ministry NiFe (Nickel Iron) or wet NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) cells fitted into a hollowed out Oldham casing. They invariably used incandescent lamps of varying power in an Oldham type headset. The Luxeon LED+Optic alongside a regulator A number of embarrassing light failures as my Nickel Cadmium replacement Oldham lamp came to the end LEDs also vary in energy and brightness ratings. of its 15-year life made obtaining a new lamp a Generally, the brighter LEDs will consume the energy priority. Rather than simply replace my lamp with an in your battery faster. LEDs are dimmable; Oldham look-alike or, mainly due to price, consider Speleotechnics’ ‘Nova’ uses a 5W LED supplied from one of the Kirby/Speleotechnics offerings, I a regulator with switchable pre-set power levels (and embarked on a project to build something that suited battery consumption rates). This flexible if my requirements. These may be summarised thus: complicated solution utilises a rugged and waterproof • Last up to 8 hours on a single battery. switch and a system of button pushes to select the • Allow batteries to be changed such that ‘spares’ level required. At 5W, it is a battery guzzler and may be carried for longer trips. Speleotechnics presently appear to be moving away • Light enough to be fully helmet mounted. from the 5W Nova in favour of a 3W version with a • Produce a good light. cheaper Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery. • Rugged enough to meet the rigours of caving. I’ve experimented with 1, 3 and 5W LEDs and come • Cost less than an equivalent commercially to the conclusion that the most recent 1W available model. ‘superbright’ Luxeon offers a good compromise between complexity, battery duration and light output. LEDs For reference, the parameters of the three types are presented here. Light Emitting Diodes are an attractive alternative to incandescent lamps. They are available in various colours, although white is clearly the viable choice for LED Power Voltage Current a caving lamp. White LEDs can vary in colour from 1W 3.1v 350mA ‘warm white’ through to the brighter variants with 3W 3.3v 1A little red in their spectrums that give an ‘interesting’ 5W 7v 700mA colour to the surroundings as well as the pallor of your caving colleagues’ faces. LED parametric table

I’ve worked with Osram and Luxeon types, although LEDs work best as lamps with a constant current there are many others, but until recently, the Luxeon passed through them. This will require some kind of types have come in more user-friendly embodiments, electronic regulator. (Do NOT connect your LED

29 directly to a battery!). For low power circuits, a resistor Decisions Decisions provides a simple solution but as power consumption increases and battery duration is considered, efficiency Trials have shown that a 1W LED is more than becomes an issue not least because of the heat adequate for general caving. The Luxeon superbright generated. 1W LED with included optic makes a good choice and a battery with 8 hours duration is now possible The regulator compares the voltage across a low value with the introduction of 2.5Ah NiMH cells, three of resistor in series with the LED current against a which weigh in at a helmet mountable 100g. reference voltage to maintain the current. Changing the reference or the feedback fraction varies the The Regulator current through the LED and therefore the brightness. Regulators take various forms but operate in one of The terminal voltage of three series ‘AA’ cells is two basic ways. nominally 3.6v. In reality, the charged battery will be as high as 4.2v open circuit and 3.9v on load. When Linear regulators sense the required parameter (current discharged to 1.1v/cell, the battery will give 3.3v. or voltage) and adjust a series resistive element (usually a transistor) to maintain the desired conditions. As the As the battery voltage is close to that required by the series element passes current all the time, power is LED, I’ve used a linear regulator. There are many dissipated, resulting in heat and a loss in overall integrated circuits that would do the job but I found efficiency. nothing that met my needs exactly so I designed a simple series regulator (see below) with a low The second type is the switching regulator. In order to reference voltage to maintain efficiency and a low VCE reduce the losses, the pass element is rapidly switched (SAT) transistor to enable that last drop to be wrung either fully on or fully off, in which states minimum from the battery. power is dissipated. The resultant pulses of energy are

smoothed by reactive components and used in I used surface mounted components to make it as conjunction with the feedback circuit. The efficiency small as possible (17 x 18mm) consistent with suitable of this type of circuit can exceed 90% but they are heat sinking, but conventional components could just generally more complex and costly. They also as easily have been used. The ‘sense’ resistor develops introduce another factor – electromagnetic emissions about 30mv when the regulator is running at 300mA. – not a problem unless you’re involved in a rescue and This is compared to the divided output from the near a Heyphone! voltage reference (30mv) in the comparator – a single supply low power rail-to-rail input and output The choice of regulator is also governed by other operational amplifier. elements such as the difference between battery and LED voltage. Where there is a greater difference, the The series pass element works hardest (dissipates most switching regulator may be preferred. Switching power) when the battery is fully charged. At this point, regulators may also increase as well as decrease the there is about 3.9v supply and 3.1v across the diode. battery voltage. Regulator Circuit Diagram

30 I’ve used 300mA regulation current although the Unmodified Oldham Headset diode should handle 350mA. Therefore, the pass transistor dissipation is (3.9v – 3.1v – 30mv) x 0.3A = 231mW. As the battery discharges, the power dissipation drops until a point is reached where the battery voltage plus the voltage across the regulator are not enough to drive 300mA through the LED. From this point onward, the LED starts to reduce in brilliance but the rate of battery consumption also reduces. This gives a softer warning that the battery is becoming exhausted. The LED continues to give useful light output to below 40mA.

Should you wish to explore a switching regulator, there’s a neat SEPIC converter solution using the LT1512 – see the references section. This circuit has the advantage of operating from a wide range of battery voltages and has three distinct ‘brightness’ LED and regulator mounted in headset levels at a claimed 78% efficiency. Will Miners used this circuit in his LED headset.

The Headset

Perhaps the simplest way to construct a headset is to use an Oldham casing. They are robust, can be made waterproof, have the correct mounting bracket and angle, are available cheaply and although a little large for what’s strictly necessary, will perform the task adequately.

Prepare the headset by removing the reflector, bulbs, bulb holders, switch and cable. Clean the years of grime from the inside and fill the hole left by the switch mechanism with hot melt glue or silicon bath caulking. Mount the headset in a vice (be careful not Oldham Headset ready for modification to crack it!). Take a sharp wood chisel (not your best one!), and slice off the mound that supported the pilot lamp holder to leave a large flat area on which to mount the LED and regulator.

Mount the aluminium backed LED and optic assembly on the ‘floor’ of the headset where the main bulb terminal used to be. Some minor trimming of the aluminium may be required but it should be possible to line the hole/slot on the LED heatsink with the upper switch screw hole in the base. Fix the LED with one of the screws you removed. The LED may be glued down as well to ensure it is firmly mounted.

The regulator PCB should be fitted alongside the optic. Add suitably sealed and strain relieved cabling out through the original cable entry - 2 core mains flex works well. The brass block below the LED (held in by the original charging pip) can be used to secure the cable. A large Ty-Rap around the cable just inside the housing increases the strain relief. Add self- amalgamating tape to the cable joint to seal it. Tack the cables down with hot melt glue or caulking to prevent them vibrating and breaking, then re-use the original glass, seal and bezel.

31 The Battery Pack charging, it will not be overcharged. This requires an electronic circuit and is really beyond the scope of this You’ll need three AA or AF cells (see component article. A simpler system will suffice. sources). Tagged versions are best, allowing easy interconnection of the cells. Connect the cut off lead Batteries are generally rated in Ampere-hours; a figure from a PC power supply – red lead to positive, and the designed to give an indication of the battery’s black next to it to negative. The other two (yellow and discharge capacity (how long a fully charged battery black) leads should be removed from the connector. might a particular current before it is exhausted). The Dress the wires into the grooves between the batteries Ampere-hour figure is often referred to as ‘C’ – the and use a small amount of hot melt or cyanoacrylate capacity of the battery. Using the aforementioned adhesive to form a flat pack of three cells. Use hot custom charger, some types of battery may be ‘rapid melt to make sure the wires stay in place and position charged’ at their ‘C’ rate, e.g. a 2.5Ah battery charging the connector centrally at the end of the pack. at 2.5A will take about an hour to fully charge from a discharged state. Charging at a lower rate is quite possible (it just takes longer). A commonly used method is to ‘constant current’ charge at C/10 - 0.25A for a 2.5Ah battery with a charge time of 10 hours. In practice the battery should be fully discharged and then charged for up to 14 hours due to losses in the energy conversion process. Although not ideal, a pro- rata time reduction may be applied to a partly discharged battery as long as you know how much discharge it has had.

Batteries naturally experience a temperature rise during charging but it becomes more pronounced when the battery is fully charged and no more electrical energy can be converted into chemical energy. At this point, the excess is given off as heat and it is therefore important to keep an eye on the battery temperature – a rise to anything above warm and the battery should be disconnected.

RS components stock a suitable constant current charger. Their part number 250-1252 costs £22.79 + vat and delivery and should be set to deliver 250mA. Alternatively, your mobile phone charge adaptor with a suitable series resistor or preferably a simple current regulator will do the job.

2.5Ah battery pack with connector Putting it to use

Slide the pack into a suitable length of heat-shrink The finished lamp is mounted in the conventional tubing, ensuring there is about 15mm over at each fashion on a ‘caving lamp helmet mount’. The cable end. Apply a bead of hot melt around the base of the runs around the side of the helmet to the battery, connector taking care not to get any on the mating conveniently mounted on the rear but it could just as part. Apply heat to shrink the tubing, which should easily be on the side. I attached my battery with a seal (with the hot melt) around the base of the rubber band – Heath-Robinson but very effective. A connector. Trim any excess heat-shrink tubing. webbing strap or Ty-Rap® also work well. Plan the cable length, connector fitting and battery position to At the other end, inject hot melt glue into the small suit your application. If you’re planning some tight aperture formed by the shrunk tube. Fill to the brim caving, some gaffer tape over the connector joint or a and allow to cool. Trim this end off about 5mm from locking connector might be advisable, as the ‘PC the base of the batteries. This should also form a seal, connectors’ do not lock. resulting in a tightly compacted block of 3 cells with a connector at one end.

Battery Charging

Ideally, batteries are charged using a custom built ‘intelligent’ charger that will detect ‘full charge’ and ensure that whatever the state of the battery you are

32 the side of the helmet. These are quite adequate but So, How Bright is it? somewhat vulnerable if exposed.

The LXHL-NWE8 enhanced LED with optic is rated The light output from an Oldham ‘pilot’ light was at 45 Lumens (typical) and 500cd on axis with a 10° notoriously feeble and yet drew 300mA from the beam. (The earlier white LEDs were rated at 22Lm). battery – the same as the main light described above. The only figures I’ve been able to find for caving The concept here borrows from the film container lamps are published by Speleotechnics. They rate the idea. A good backup lamp can be built using three FX3 at 39Lumens with 9.5h duration, the FX5 (with a single white 5mm LEDs. These, combined with a trio 2.4W lamp) at 38 Lumens with 17.5h duration and the of NiMH AAA cells plus a simple regulator, switch FX2 at 20 Lumens and just over 10 hours duration. and helmet clip can be coaxed into the 35mm film Hawker, makers of the Oldham Caplamp quote 48 container. Lumens from their T5 and T6 lamps, 16 hours duration. As the power is low, a simple resistor current regulator is used. The LEDs are run at about 25mA and Backup Lighting

The lamp I’ve described has only a single light source. Should the lamp, regulator, battery or connector fail, you would be in the dark. Consequently one ought to carry a second independent source of lighting.

In the days of the incandescent Oldham lamps, the ‘pilot’ light could be used provided it was only the bulb that had blown. If it was the battery, you were again, in the dark. A spare bulb was often carried in a 35mm film container, taped to the headset cable. In recent years, second sources have often taken the form of a ‘Maglite’ or similarly sized torch that could be secreted about one’s person or ‘rubber banded’ onto

Backup lamp

33 consume under 100mW each. With a little ingenuity, Batteries. (two switches) a lamp that has the option of 1, 2 or 3 You’ll need three NiMH 2.5Ah cells. RS Components LEDs can be built. The batteries I used were 600mAh 512-7879 tagged AA cell at £3.49 each, Farnell cells giving a duration of 600/75 = 8 hours. Reducing Components 604550 - slightly larger AF size, 17mm to 2 LEDs gives 12 hours and a single LED a dia. £5.64 each. See also the Vapextech site – most whopping 24 hours – long enough to get you out of likely cheaper but their stock changes frequently. most systems or give you some light whilst you sit it out waiting for the rescue (…you did put the trip on The LED. the board, didn’t you?). Luxeon LXHL-NWE8 enhanced white 1 Watt LED with heatsink and collimating optic. RS Components 467-7519, £5.56 or Farnell 110-6646 £5.70.

The Regulator Trickier to price but I could supply a built-up 300mA regulator for 3xNiMH or a single Li-Ion cell on an 18mm PCB for £7.

Cables, connectors, Headset All very low cost and ‘scavengable’ making the total cost for the lamp under £25. To this you need to add your chosen charger.

Notes and other ideas

I’ve also experimented with leaded 5mm white LEDs as used in the backup lamp. This was the first embodiment and consisted of 12 LEDs arranged around the circumference of the headset with an incandescent lamp and modified diving torch reflector mounted centrally. The early 5mm LEDs were not bright enough for general caving but more recently, Backup lamp circuit LEDs up to (and probably beyond) 14,000 mcd have made this lamp quite useable. The LEDs are run at 25 Resistor values in the circuit are all (3.9v – 3.3v) / – 30mA and consequently consume about 1W total. 25mA = 24Ω, power rating is 0.0252 x 24Ω = 15mW. I’ve not measured the light output. A small printed circuit or ‘stripboard’ and 0603 size surface mount resistors are ideal. The LED’s are Conclusion available from various sources but e-Bay is worth a look. Go for 14,000mcd (or greater) types in 5mm In use, the lamp has proven bright enough and with 20° beam angles. The LED’s need to be angled reliable. The helmet mounted battery is light and frees down at about 30° so that they shine light toward the the user from the restrictions and mass of a belt floor when mounted on the helmet. If you notice, mounted cell. Duration exceeding the 8-hour target Oldham headsets already have this lowering of the has been achieved and the unit has proved to be beam angle built in to their design. rugged enough for caving, including the moisture encountered on a Swildons Hole round trip. A single switch bringing all three LEDs on at the same time simplifies the operation. I’ve built a few of these, two using AAA cells and one using an ex-mobile phone Li-Ion battery of 900mAh capacity and smaller than the AAA cells.

Charging presents a similar problem to the main lamp but if the RS Components charger is used the current can be reduced to 60mA. Discharge the lamp first then charge for 14 hours with typical 600mAh AAA cells. Costs

An accurate costing is not easy as it depends upon which bits you already have. Ignoring the cost of a knackered Oldham or similar headset…

34 View of lamp internals

References and Further Reading

Cave Radio and Electronics Group – http://www.caves.org.uk/led/ - see the ‘further reading’ sections.

LED Dimmers - http://radiolocation.tripod.com/LEDdimmer/LEDlampDimmer.html

Linear Technology’s LT1215 – Used in Will Miners’ lamp. http://www.speleogroup.org/lt1512a.html

Luxeon Datasheet for the LXHL-NWE8 LED – http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/DS23.pdf or http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/ds25.pdf

Luxeon Star general info. http://www.lumileds.com/products/family.cfm?familyId=2

WSG newsletter April 2003 p7 – “A bit more on LED lamps for caving” – GA.

Speleotechnics website. http://www.speleo.co.uk/

35 Above. My original version of the lamp, battery, reserve lamp and custom charger Top right. 5 of the 6 experimental lamps – Fumpa has the other. Lower Right. Close-up of the headsets.

Comparable Lamp Costs

Kirby Kidney Pack £88.00 Speleotechnics FX2 £83.84 Speleotechnics FX3 £104.44 Speleotechnics FX5 £149.44 Speleotechnics Nova 3 £85.90 (plus battery and charger) Speleotechnics Nova 3 £248.50 (with Lithium battery and charger) Oldham T5/T6 £83.70

36 The 1999 Cuban Expedition

Expedition Members ______

Background

Building on the success of the 1997 expedition to Pan De Azucar, the club once again returned to Cuba for two weeks at Easter.

In 1998 Bob Wilkins had been out to the area and discovered Cueva Jaiba with Lynn Harrington and Evelio Balado. This seem to indicate that the area still had good potential for further discoveries.

Our initial objectives were to try some dye testing of the Dark Horse Streamway in Cueva Chiquita and to investigate the sumps in Hale Bopp and Campamento to see if there was a way past them. We also decided to extend the surface survey of the area going north to the edge of the mogote where Bob had reported some caves. The China Canyon also was thought to hold some key to the area.

When we arrived in Cuba, we found that a Spanish expedition had visited the area. They had revisited and resurveyed Cueva Grande, and partially resurveyed Cueva Chiquita. This proved very interesting as the Cuban contact Pedro Luis Hernandez already knew that WSG had been in these caves. Nevertheless the occasional hands and knees bit, until they reached a Spanish did survey several small caves to the north of duck. Once through the duck, they broke into a Cueva Grande including one with Native Indian chamber with a large steep muddy slope. Near the pictograms which Bob had been told about by Coco top of this greasy slab it became very exposed, so on his last visit. Andy and Jan, having no proper equipment, decided to survey out and return the next day to tackle the Despite this, the group decided to continue with the slope. objectives of pushing the surface survey further north. It was also decided to push westwards along the edge "I knew there was going to be a fair amount of water of the mogote looking for any obvious streambeds or and it was warm. But the flat out ducks which filled cave entrances. your boots with gravel and were succeeded by thick gloopy mud, grit and gravel, leaving you encased in a Cueva Chiquita muddy conglomerate, were very interesting experiences" - Jan A team was sent to investigate the water levels for the possibility of carrying out dye testing. Unfortunately The following morning, Martin McGowan joined the the weather conditions had been so dry during the team to help with the assault. Martin climbed the slope previous months that barely a trickle was flowing in to the crux and was followed up by Jan. After several the streamway. It was decided that it would be attempts a large stal boss was lassoed. This enabled impractical to carry out any dye testing. A group Martin to slither and slide his way to the top. Looking investigated the Hale Bopp sump and found that around at the rift, Martin saw a profusion of calcited although it extended another ten metres in low crawl crabs, helictites, and crystal growth, but the way on with shallow water it gradually became deeper until was blocked by stal. After whacking in a piton Jan one could stand waist deep in the water. It looked as came up as well to have a look. In the end, they though this was indeed a sump and not a mere duck as abseiled back down and left Chiquita. we had hoped.

Meanwhile Toby Clark, Jan Evett and Andy Sewell had investigated the Unprincipled Crawl and found it to be dry. They continued in a flat out crawl with the

19 20 The China Canyon unknown. Crossing this boundary they gained the top, soon hit another canyon, but this time the rock was Martin, Chris “Beaker” Wood, Gary “Fumpa” not limestone. They had found the lost canyon. The Cockburn, Geraint, Enrique, and Coco headed off to birds fluttered in the trees while wild pigs snuffled the China Canyon on the first day. They clambered up through the undergrowth looking for roots. Memories the steep vegetated cliff by the local hunting path and of the meal from the other day came back. descended into the lost world of the gorge. Following the stream down there were clear signs of Enclosed by the cliffs and the encroaching plants, they faulting and thrusting. At one point half the stream pushed their way to the cascade. This canyon was limestone and the other half was a black marly reminded Martin of cheap sci-fi films which talked of rock. Then they crossed the boundary and lost worlds and dinosaurs. At least the group was immediately stumbled into a shakehole. shielded from the sun, a blissful escape from its searing heat. Cueva Titanic

The assault on the cascade began, with Martin The first cave they found was Cueva Contacto climbing up about 15m. He attempted to traverse out (Boundary Cave). This was a fossil cave with the only onto the slab, but worries over the lack of protection, interesting feature being the large arachnids with heat and the greasy nature of the rock led to a claws. In the shakehole several holes connected with withdrawal. Enrique then took the lead and in a pair of each other. Then they saw a large cave 10m across, in old wellingtons stormed up the climb. They all stood the next shakehole, going down at about 70 degrees. in awe as they wondered: is he ever going to place After 40m they encountered a pitch. some protection in or deck out ? Hitting the overhang with vigour and style, he conquered it and was at the Throwing stones down the pitch caused a loud top. booming echo of empty space, followed by the rumbling of bats wings. The darkness beckoned. So it They were soon prussikking up a fixed line. At the top was called Cueva Titanic, partly because it was large there were remnants of caves which the cascade had and going down fast; also because they were being cut through. A large bedding plane at about 70 degrees subjected by the Cubans to that bloody song from the was chocked full of mud and stones. Any cave in this film. area would soon be filled in with debris and detritus carried by the river during the wet season. In fact later Going on down the gorge, they soon hit the China that day they discovered that Cueva China was Cascade - Fumpa and Martin had just gone in one blocked. massive loop. Ah well, at least they knew where they were. Heading back down, their hearts sang and heads Walking out of the cascade canyon, they met a large buzzed with excitement. confluence of three streams. It was decided to follow the more active and scoured streambed. Beaker and Roberto and Evelio did confirm the idea that there Martin were surveying while the others searched the was a contact area. Unfortunately, the expedition had area for possible caves. The wind blew gently through already planned a day off for the next day (Saturday), the trees in the dappled sunlight and provided gentle so we all trundled off in the knackered school bus. relief from the heat. Unfortunately for the survey Eventually we did return at four in the morning, team, the midges were feasting on their blood. swinging from the rafters and settled into a drunken stupor. On Sunday, no one could face the idea of Geraint came back with the news that he had found a hauling gear up the hill for two hours in the heat. shaft. A closer inspection of it revealed a 15m drop Dehydration from the night before had set in. just off the main stream. This had potential and was in the right place. They had found the Gee’s Pot. On Monday, Alfredo told Martin about another cave Unfortunately it was late in the afternoon, so the on top, so Martin headed off to see this, armed with a group went back to celebrate the first day. The next GPS. Meanwhile, Fumpa, Andy, Evelio and Toby day, most of the team plus Evelio returned. Using only headed off to do Cueva Titanic. Martin’s trip involved natural belay points and ladders, plus the odd bit of following the path up to Titanic and then reaching the SRT, they bottomed Gee’s pot. It was 60m deep - a top of the mogote before heading down yet another good start. sedimentary streambed.

For a few days the top of the mogote was neglected, Down and down he went into one hoyo, which would mainly because of the time it took to slog up to the have an impressive cascade in the wet season, and top in the heat. Eventually Fumpa and Martin decided then into another hoyo. To pass this they climbed up to pay a return visit to find another gorge that Fumpa and then down the sheer sides of the hoyo. How the had seen on the first day. Tramping around from the trees clung onto the side of the rock wall was amazing, last survey point, they reached a bluff separating the but more importantly, they provide a series of essential dry riverbed running into the known canyon from the handholds.

21 After climbing down and out of two hoyos, the three After the series of pitches, the cave hit a horizontal of them reached the cave. After a short drop, it was a bedding plane. Here the water was undercutting a clean washed hands and knee crawl in a straight line formation and we had to crawl into a chamber. A and after a few kinks the river went down a pitch. The calcited mud bank took up most of the room. Fumpa worst point was finding out that in a straight line, the squeezed by. Then he beckoned the others to follow. distance from the entrance to Alfredo’s house was a mere 400m, but it had taken nearly three hours to Once through the squeeze, the cave regained its reach the cave. In honour of Alfredo’s hospitality, it majestic proportions. The bottoming team clambered was decided to name the cave after him and his wife, down flowstone and gour pools at an angle of about who always gave us coffee when we passed their sixty degrees. Using a flake in the roof to secure a house. handline Fumpa and Martin descended the steep section of shaft which like a helter-skelter swirled Eventually Martin got back to Titanic and found that round on itself. It was a great rope slide to a sump the cave had gone deep and needed more gear. There pool, although Fumpa thought it could be a low duck. were three ways on - two of them were shafts, but the most promising was a rift. The next day saw a mass At this point it was decided to survey out. Going out assault as the expedition was running out of time. back up the whirled shaft was an unbelievably enthralling climb, water cascading down your arms Consequently, two survey teams and a photographic whilst slapping your hands into jugs, standing in waist team slogged their way up the hill. Martin, Fumpa, and deep gour pools, plus a flowstone squeeze thrown in Andy were the bottoming team. Beaker lugging the for good measure. Jan and Matthew joined the black pelicase up the hill. bottoming team and were told to send the photographic team down to do some snaps. But the Although the expedition was not very well equipped squeeze had other plans and despite his best attempts, for a vertical cave, several ingenious solutions were Beaker could not get his large pelicase to fit through thought up to overcome the series of small pitches the squeeze. Well, that is what he told the club and we which were in the cave. We piled down the pitch, all believed him, so the squeeze was named Fat using hand over hand on the rope. It was thrilling, as Pelican. The next day Martin drew up the survey and exploration fever reached boiling point. Luckily found that the cave was 140m deep, making it the natural belay points and handholds were six to a deepest in Western Cuba. dozen.

22 Cueva Alfredo y Teresa

On the day of the mass assault on Titanic, James Hooper, Steve Weston and Coco went to investigate Cueva Alfredo y Teresa. Armed with just a ladder and some slings, they set off. On reaching the cave, it soon became clear that Martin had lied just a little bit about the size of the pitch. Even so they descended to a ledge where James placed another bolt to get further down.

The ladder was passed down and they went on. They then entered another hands and knees crawl which hit another pitch. They got down by repeating the process once again, but then decided they had pushed their luck enough and it was getting late. So with the possibility of afternoon rain, they quit.

On the last day, no one could be encouraged to climb up the mogote as it involved a three hour walk, so Cueva Alfredo y Teresa was never surveyed. Instead, people spent the day pushing the leads in the recent finds along the base of the mogote. We believe that Cueva Alfredo y Teresa takes a lot of water and may link to Cueva Chiquita.

Matthew on the last pitch in Cueva Titanic

23 24 25 Caves to the West of the Camp

On the first day, Matthew Setchfield, John “Jumbo” Heale, and James set off to investigate the caves between the climb over to the China Canyon and the camp. These young dudes in their sunglasses and bandannas sauntered round the headland, while the others struggled up the climb. They were poking into every nook and cranny, hoping to find that elusive new system.

Starting at the obvious gaping hole in the cliff, which had been previously marked on the surface survey, the tres amigos commenced their search and record mission. Jumbo adopted the role of director of operations, pointing out the leads from the fields for his troops.

Shortly after the entrance to the cave, James and Matthew found a chamber with two ways on. Although the passages headed off into the hill, the two intrepid explorers soon found themselves at the edge of the mogote, although higher up the cliff. El Capitan Jumbo pointed out more nearby holes for the two to inspect. Ducking and diving James and Matthew weaved their way to one side of a stal blockage. They forced their way through and squeezed into a crawl which in several metres ended.

Back at the entrance chamber, daylight filtered in from skylight/aven some 9m above. Out on the surface, James fought his way through the jungle to get on top of the plateau and soon found the pitch. Unfortunately, he was then unable to find his way back down. We could hear him quite plainly and tried to direct his voice to safety.

Ostensibly off to survey Cueva Tres Amigo’s, Bob, Beaker, Matthew and Jumbo walked past the known entrance of Cueva Campamento to an entrance a little further round the mogote. Here, Bob knew of a small pool in which he was going to dive into to cool off. Of course, Bob then called out that it was “going” and that a draft could be felt. They waded in and entered a muddy chamber. Over the other side of a mud bank, the water continued and a sump was reached. An ascending passage on the right lead up and over and back to the same muddy chamber, at which point Bob revealed that he already knew that this was a round trip

26 Toby. Andy, Martin and Jan after their surveying trip and that he wanted to see if the sump was open! They At the end of the first week, they started to extend were all now soaked for no apparent reason. their search of the mogote westward from the base of the China climb. The first trip by Toby and others On the way out, another rising and drafting passage showed that there were several obvious caves along was spotted and Beaker went for a ‘quick look’. He the edge of the limestone. Some of these had been was gone ages. Bob followed and also vanished. charted by the Cubans and were marked with the Jumbo waited for them whilst Matthew went out and prefix C for Cueva. The trip rediscovered C19 and climbed the cliff to where a complex of entrances C10 but where were all the other caves? could be seen, on the off-chance that a vocal connection could be established. It wasn’t to be, so The next day Andy, Martin, Jan and Toby went back Matthew took a quite hairy climbing route back down, to visit and survey a cave that had been found. The rejoining Jumbo. The two of them then went up the entrance was along a dry river bed and in the wet drafting tube. Crawling brought them to a small season the cave clearly acted as a resurgence. The chamber beyond which they could hear voices. entrance itself was lower than the streambed and after about 100 m the cave ended in a sump. But it had Another narrow rift lead them to Beaker and Bob and been noticed that a rift went over the top so Martin shortly after they all popped out into daylight.in the started to climb this muddy greasy slab. It clearly went entrance of the original Cueva Campamento. Thus a on, then Martin noticed that he had cut his leg open new through trip was established and a significant on the way in. Although nothing serious, he decided extension was made to the known cave. to leave and sent Jan up to do the dirty work.

During the evenings and early in the mornings, many While struggling on the way out to keep the cut clean of the small caves beside the camp were investigated. Martin saw yet another rift. Plenty of potential in this Everybody poked their heads into a variety of holes, cave. After evacuating Martin, Toby returned to find even maypoling one entrance to gain a shelf which that Jan and Andy were now up the 70 degree rift, at turned into a small tube and ended quickly. The only about 15 metres. They kept going, Jan leading up the find of any length was about 20m. It was on the greasy rift and then placing a bolt to hold a ladder so corner of the mogote near the camp and soon came the others could follow. At 45 metres, Jan decided that out about 10 m up the cliff. Cueva de las Abejas (Cave he had had enough of playing silly climbing games and of the Bees) was investigated by Jan, Toby and Martin decided to head out. Meanwhile Martin had returned in the evening. Planning a dusk raid when all the to the entrance planning to surface survey back with residents would be in their hives for the night and Toby when he noticed some pencil markings on the inactive they found that the site was just an overhang wall. The markings clearly said C16 - ah well, so much with assorted boulders making up a pseudo cave. for discovery.

27 Caves of the North of Camp draughting rift led on to even more extensions and a dark, blue sump guarded diligently by a sizeable crab. Early on in the expedition, our aim to expand our area Several hundred metres were found and surveyed but, and our range of knowledge led us to investigate the alas, no further way on was discovered, passages being limestone to the north of Cueva Grande and its outlet blocked by calcite. The cave has a total length of about Cueva del Agua. We were interested in both the extent 450 metres. of the karst and, of course, unexplored caves. We knew that a Spanish expedition had found several Near the end of the expedition, Steve and James small caves, so there was clearly potential in this returned to the previously noted water hole region. resurgence. This time it was draughting and the water level was about twenty centimetres lower. They looked Steve and Evelio spent a long day surface surveying in at it, knowing they had no caving kit with them, but the heat and locating entrances. During the following also knowing what they had to do. It had to be done. week, James and Steve were then often seen heading So, James stripped off his clothes, climbed down the north, working on the above ground survey and hole and waded in, wearing only boxer shorts and resurveying the Spanish caves. Here the mogote rises clenching a torch in his mouth. The water was not too up from the valley at a much shallower angle than cold but a chilly draught blew along the small air gap. around camp. An enticing echo encouraged him on. After twenty or They were amused to find that the Spanish had so metres he gained a small chamber with a sump. A rotated, seemingly randomly, the orientation of several slippery climb could lead to a bypass, however. passages, often by as much as ninety degrees. Unable to climb up the walls in bare feet and landing Unfortunately, no new caves were found, nor any unceremoniously in the water on one attempt, he extensions to existing ones, but an intriguing hole that returned towards Steve and shouted to him to follow. dropped down to a static pool was noted. It was James, who had had to overcome a psychological interesting because Steve thought he’d felt a strong barrier before exploring in boxer shorts alone, was draught coming out of it when he first saw it; also, alarmed to find Steve come in with nothing on at all. considerable amounts of water must flow out of it at The thoughts of using combined tactics to get up the times. climb were, frankly, horrifying, especially when Steve offered the use of an extra foothold. The cave was Cueva Desperados thus left for another expedition.

One hot day, Steve and James had just completed the Cueva De La Resurrección survey as far as the boundary between limestone and metamorphic rock, when Steve got the call. Not from The Easter Sunday began with a treat as following a Deity but from the bowels. He knew there was breakfast, Steve produced a load of Cadbury’s Cream something he had to do so he squatted down amongst Eggs; well, it was Pascua de Resurrección after all! some undergrowth and felt the urge. James Again, we were off to view another “Cueva del Agua” immediately, and almost as frantically, searched for that Coco had been told about. cave entrances. An obscure hole between boulders had a strong draught blowing out of it. Squeezing through, A party consisting of Matthew, Bob, Fumpa, Jan, perhaps foolishly, as no one knew where he was, but Martin, Coco, and Enrique set off. They wandered like Steve, James was unable to resist the call. He down the road, carbide slung over their shoulders and quickly found himself walking in large cave passage. boiler suits tied up around their waist. Crossing the Cueva Desperados had been found. field, going around a mogote outcrop and turning into a hidden valley, they saw the entrance. Through the The cave has passages of big, comfortable dimensions, wonders of GPS, the cave was found to be 1.7km with several junctions and a pretty chamber from Alfredo’s farm. The entrance was clearly going to illuminated by a hole to daylight. It also contained be hard to reach, as it was some 10m up a cliff face. several frogs (like all the caves to the north of camp), as well as a snake. There was evidence that this was Coco, Fumpa and Enrique entertained us with displays once part of a major cave - oxbows, tall ceiling, of their climbing abilities, while Bob, Martin and Jan scallops, etc. were seen, together with evidence that investigated various other entrances in the mogote. the Spanish had been there before. A confusing, Coco was eventually rewarded with a new cave, as he labyrinthine boulder choke at the end of the cave was climbed to another entrance containing a small then thoroughly explored and an unexplored way on passage leading to the main entrance that we were was found. looking up at. Fumpa, Enrique and Matthew followed Coco’s route and soon found themselves in a large The next day, Fumpa, Steve and James headed off to drafting passage heading off into the hillside. investigate the sound of a screaming pig’s final minute of life. Laughing and joking, they were excited to be exploring at last. In Cueva Desperados, a high,

28 Through a decorated chamber, the cave descended and then on through a muddy passage in to the large amidst silt banks and terminated at a pool, from which chamber that Fumpa had found, where they stopped a howling gale blew. Enrique forced his way through a the survey. They poked around at various heights and squeeze and dropped into the pool and announced locations, all on slippery mud banks and then tried to that a 5cm airspace duck confronted him. Fumpa follow Jan, who had found a possible way on, to what joined Enrique and pondered the situation in his own he suspected to be an even larger chamber. inimitable style. Enrique was not going to get any wetter! Therefore, tearing himself away from Matthew made the decision to return to camp - a slip “Mmmmmmm” and “Arrrrgggghhhhhh”, Matthew would be awkward and he felt a rope or ladder would made a quick sketch survey back to the entrance. be far more sensible equipment with which to explore From the vantage point over the mogote, Matthew this site. The other two agreed, so they returned to the chatted to Bob, Martin and Jan. Jan decided to come duck, washed off and made their way back to the up for a look. Coco went out. entrance climb. The climb looked a hell of a lot more daunting from above and a careful descent had to be Jan joined Matthew and began a proper survey into made. the cave. They passed Enrique, sleeping in the main passage, and continued to the duck. When Fumpa told Returning the next day, they quickly found a low crawl

them tales of massive echoing chambers, they simply emerging into another sizeable chamber. There was a had to go for a look. Matthew went through first and difficult climb to a higher level passage of about 3m found he was sharing the water with a small cave- on the right which needed laddering. A long narrow crayfish. On the other side, there was a large crab gour pool which completely flooded the passage floor clinging to the wall. They surveyed through the duck needed to be traversed before quickly reaching a drop

29 of about 10ft (which required 2/3 slings to reascend) rogue gherkin consumed at breakfast, Jumbo and below a chamber. Matthew were of the opinion that the bottle of rum consumed by the protagonist the previous night may This stooping passage dipped down to a pool and have had something to do with it! continued as a crawl, then a rift until a small chamber was reached on the right. The chamber sloped up to They then continued through the whirlwind of bats where a mudslope came in from a window about 5m (which to all intents and purposes sounded like the up. Climbing the slope straight up through the roar of a huge river) to the unexplored passage. window brought you into the bottom of a big Having produced the survey gear, Bob indicated that chamber. On the opposite side of the chamber the he was happy to start, only to be rudely interrupted passage seemed to continue, but dropped quickly to a shortly after by another burst of gherkin stew. tight sump. "Shit" called Jumbo, "I've just been hit by a bat". The The chamber was interesting, like a large rift, 20-30m survey led up a rising passage to a low crawl, which high, 50m long and 5-10m wide. On the right, a steep Jumbo filled. On the other side, Matthew had to move calcite slope appeared to come from a higher level aside as a bat belted past and headed straight for passage. On the left, a larger but more shallow calcite Jumbo - Matthew knew what the only outcome of this slope ascended in a series of steps to a passage at the kamikaze flight was to be. Beyond the squeeze, a large far end of the chamber. Clambering up the slope white stal column was proudly standing in the centre about 15-20m brought you to a high chamber. In front of the passage, to be named ‘the little blond in the was a large mud formation in the roof which appeared park of attractions’ by Matthew. Beyond the stal were to have collapsed, and a big rubble pile sloped down a couple of decorated chambers filled with a few bats about 10m to the left partially filling a chamber. A darting about. Sadly there was no noticeable draft, teasing passage seemed to enter from the roof above despite the fact that the bats kept disappearing the collapsed mud formation; unfortunately it was through various small holes in the floor. about 15m up. Also on the left, a passage lead to two wide and well decorated bedding-plane chambers On the way out, they attempted to complete the round sloping down for 10-20m. There were no other trip. After Jumbo and Matthew had nipped up to see obvious ways on. the huge upstream sump, the three of then dipped gently into the azure blue water and basically paddled Cueva de la Resurrección is unusual mainly because of for home. The duck/sump was open, though it took a the massive amount of mud build up straight after the while to find the correct route through, the way on duck. Before the duck, it is completely dry and clean. being a devious series of air-pockets between blades of It also appears to be generally rising upwards, into the rock. Soon back to the entrance and the welcome tins mogote. On occasion, probably in the rainy season, it of beer. Back at camp, they found Raul and Nicholas must back up massively with water washed down had prepared a huge bowl of delicious chips to go with through the mogote. the Hutia.

The duck is the tightest section of the cave and from Toby was also interested in Cueva Grande and could there inwards the water probably deposits its load not believe that no one had investigated the sump before draining. The large number of mud stal though pool. So off he set to plumb the depth of the sump. indicate that it can't back up too frequently. For once the pool was crystal clear and floating around the edge Toby found the pool was 10m deep Cueva Grande and the pheratic going off the pool was of a similar dimension. A good lead for a diving trip to return to. Once again WSG gave some attention to Cueva Grande, in the hope of gaining the much dreamed On one trip, Toby investigated the entrance of Cueva about Master System. Armed with car inner tubes and Grande and stumbled on what was an unbelievable tins of Cristal beer, Mathew, Bob and Jumbo trotted find. Just in sight of the main entrance was a small over to the cave and promptly buried the tins of beer chamber which normally lead down to a small pool. in the river. They then inflated their buoyancy aids and For years it had been ignored as it did not lead on to slipped into the first lake. Given that this was a trip to new passage. Nevertheless, Toby decided to investigate a lead at the end of the cave, they quickly investigate it and was amazed to see some etchings on made their way through the lakes and then took the the wall. Could these be aboriginal art? He toddled high level route through the cave to the pitch rigged back to the camp and announced his find. Most of the by Bob. group were bit sceptical, despite knowing that the Spanish had found some pictograph in caves further Below the pitch, a brief rest was had until Matthew north. Roberto Gonzalez from the Institution and Jumbo thought they could hear the sound of a Geologia Y Paleontologia confirmed Toby’s find as an flowing streamlet. Alas no - "sorry, lads" came the example of Indian aboriginal art. This site would piteous call as they turned toward Bob to find him require further investigation by an archaeologist. chucking up. While Bob blamed this incident on a

30 31 32 Medical Problems

Most expedition members didn’t suffer from any condition apart from withdrawal when they ran out of beer, or sickness brought on by excess beer consumption. A few people did suffer from dehydration, due to hiking up to the top of mogotes in the heat and not taking enough water with them. The main worries of the trip were the minor cuts and grazes that took several days to heal up and needed daily attention to prevent infection.

Final Thoughts

Considering most caves on the top of the mogote were discovered in the second week and there were also demands placed on resources by exploration in the other caves along the base of the mogote, finding a 140m deep cave is a good success. We believe it to be the deepest cave in the western part of Cuba. The expedition produced many leads for future expeditions to follow up and was thoroughly enjoyed by all the members who took part.

References Barter, T., Hooper, J., McGowan, M.; The 1997 Expedition to Cuba, WSG Bulletin Vol. 9 No. 8, P. 49 - 64. 1997 Hooper, J.; Cuba 97, Caves and Caving Issue 78, Winter 97 , BCRA P. 16 -20 Minty, D.; Some Notes About Dehydration, WSG Bulletin Vol. 9 No. 7 P. 32-34 1994 Wilkins, B.; Cuba Contact Update, WSG Bulletin, Vol. 9 No. 7 P. 1-31 1994 Wilkins, B.(Editor); WSG Cuba Contact, WSG Bulletin Vol. 9 No. 5 1989

Acknowledgements WSG would like to thank Dragon Caving Equipment and St. Dominic's Sixth Form College.

33 34 35 36 37 PostScript

The above segment from the survey drawn up after WSG’s 2002 expedition shows how Cueva Alfredo was subsequently linked in to Cueva China and the extension of the Unprincipled Crawl through to Castle Chamber.

That same year, under drier conditions than those in 1999, the pool at the end of Cueva Titanic was found to have disappeared. At the bottom of it was a bedding plane too tight to pass, into which went the small amount of water flowing that day.

38 France 1998 - Four Course Caving

Martin McGowan ______

In 1998, WSG got an invitation to go over to France Suddenly it was all too much for Phil as Olive that Easter and visit a new cave that the Paris Speleo wobbled and slid all over the road. So the old lag Jerry Club were involved in pushing with the Lyon Caving was put into the driving seat to smooth and calm the Club. Previously Andy Sewell had been down the cave nerves of everyone. At this moment the snow was with Wilfred Farabolni and ended up being trapped falling very heavily and we were wondering if we were for a few hours until the ducks became passable. So all ever going to make it back down the mountain. I fired up with stories of caverns measureless to cavers suppose there were worse things in life than being the “Famous Five” (Andy Sewell, Jerry Complin, snow bound in France. On reaching the village we Martin McGowan, Phil Mack and Olive the Car) set called in at the pub and our first gastronomic out on a new adventure. experience began. We were served a four course meal consisting of soup, chicken, creme brulee (but more It all started in Sainsbury’s in New Cross (but then like creme anglais - i.e. custard) and cheese. Two don’t all good caving trips start there), where Martin (I carafes of wine and beer were consumed as well, so we haven’t got a real job) was getting the food and ambled back to the hut to sleep it off. emergency supplies. He was soon joined by the others and they slowly made their way out of London in bank That afternoon we were woken by a mad French cave holiday traffic. At this point, we discovered that only diver called Jean Michael Vallon coming into the hut. Phil and Martin possessed CDs for the car stereo, We found out that the rest of the Lyon club were not Jerry Complin was too cultured for such new fangled coming because the weather was too bad to dig in the technology and Andy hadn’t found a CD player yet in Grotte de Mongols (Cave of the Down’s Syndrome). a car boot sale. The strange thing was that the CDs The reason for the name we later learnt was because consisted of a bizarre collection of Irish folk music you had to be bloody soft in the head to go down it, and stuff from the ‘70s. Jerry at this point thought he according to the locals. At this point we tended to was trapped in the car from hell. agree with them as there was a lake of slushy water sitting over the entrance. So that evening we hit the As we were standing on the deck of the ferry, bar for yet another 60 franc or £6 four course meal. watching the white cliffs fade away, a bunch of French Then it was back to the hut for whisky (a great school kids were showing what they thought of universal translator) and chat about caving in general, England. On the other hand, I couldn’t blame them in pigeon Franglais. when I saw the standard of cuisine being served on the ferry. At least in France you could get a decent The next day, we were taken caving by Jean Michael. meal and alcohol (for the non drivers) at a motorway The first cave, la Grotte du Pettie Lapin Blanche (Cave stop. A quick run around the duty free and a minor of the Little White Rabbit) was a rather small cave panic when we realised that Phil had forgotten the with several blasted sections connecting natural voids. headlight gear (to stop others being blinded by our In total, it was a series of three fourteen metre pitches lights). All too soon we were zooming down the peage leading to a dig. It reminded me of the Mendips. Of to the sounds of Bowie and seventies' rock. The rest course we used SRT to go down a series of small of the night was a hedonistic blur of rain, coffee, toll pitches which in Britain would have been laddered. At booths and music. Just before 5:00am, we pulled over this point I wondered why I had come all this way to and got a kip. sit in a small unnatural hole of a cave. A tramp in the snow through a sylvan landscape to the car and we Phil was back in the driving seat and as we headed went back to the hut. A quick huddle round the Aga, further south, the weather got worse. In Calais we had some coffee and food, then we head off for the light rain, in Reims driving rain, and just as we second cave La Moegneo. reached the Jura, snow! There seemed little possibility of going caving and we were all regretting our decision It was a total contrast to the previous cave, a large to pack the minimum of gear. Andy was going on entrance dropped down a ten metre shaft to a about the several tons of equipment he could have chamber with flowstone bosses. In the chamber were brought with him. As we got nearer the hut the some cave salamanders seeking refuge from the cold. weather situation became more serious. We slowly They caused Phil to jump backwards as he landed on crept up a snow covered lane with steep drops off to the ground. the side. Were we ever going to reach the hut or were we going to tumble to our deaths over the side of the From this point we abseiled down a flowstone ravine? formation and had to deal with a tight rebelay with a

39 dodgy bolt. Andy impressed us all by doing a super quick changeover. I nearly died of hypothermia while he untangled himself. The final pitch has a profusion of bolts whacked into the calcite; none of them looked very appealing or safe so we called it a day and headed out. So with a failing light I was left to derig the cave. I had to run around just to keep warm while the others exited. At the top I was meet by Jerry who’d been out and got changed, so he quickly hustled me down to the car and a nice warm hut. Yet again we were forced to eat another four course meal. It is a hard life - “c’est la vie.”

The following morning saw Jean Michael heading off to do a cave dive down some dodgy cave; especially considering how much water was lying around. We deliberated and contemplated which cave we should do. The decision was that it was too warm (+1C) with too much snow lying around and too little rope and enthusiasm to go caving, so we headed off for a walk in wellingtons in the snow. After the walk, we packed up and hit the road, aiming to stop at a Formula 1 (the hotel chain).

Near Reims we found one and it was an experience in modernity and utilitarianism. The shower and loo automatically cleaned themselves after you have used them. The shower had a hot air blower to dry yourself and your towel. Maybe we should buy one for the cottage. The room was so small that as soon as you open the door you fell into the bed; always a handy thing when you’ve been drinking. In the town we found a creperie and gorged ourselves on a delectable mix of sweet and savoury pancakes. Then it was to the ubiquitous “Irish Bar” for beer, though they did have Murphys.

The next day we stopped at Reims, visiting a WW1 fort for Andy and Jerry (older members probably there in 1914). The Cathedral of Reims has a magnificent stained glass rose window and a smiling angel. Then we rushed across the square to buy lashings and lashings of champagne, as unfortunately the shop did not sell ginger beer. Just outside Reims, we had cured duck, our final gastronomic experience before heading back to England for curry and chips

Acknowledgements WSG would like to thank both the Paris Speleo Club and the Lyon Caving Club for their hospitality and for inviting us to the Grotte de Mongols.

40 Chartreuse - WSG’s 50th Anniversary Trip - August 2000

Matthew Setchfield ______

Background there (well, walking 4m from one platform to the next!) for the 16:10 to arrive in Lyon at 19:13, for the Following on from WSG's successful 40th anniversary 19:31 to Grenoble; which arrived at 21:00). trip to the bottom of the Gouffre Berger in 1990, it was felt at the 1999 and 2000 AGMs that a similar It should be noted that all trains left dead on time and event should be held to commemorate the club’s half- this was a really good way to travel, as you basically century. French caving is always a good bet, being relax, make countless visits to the bar and drink your close, relatively cheap, easy to get to and containing a way to the Alps! All in all, just about as long as it wide variety of trips. I'd always fancied the Trou-du- sometimes takes to get from the Dales back to Essex! Glaz to Guiers Mort through trip and this was an ideal occasion to ‘do’ this, being nowhere as deep or as Insurance was arranged through the BCRA as normal. committing as the Berger, had a more family orientated campsite available and was open to a vast Tackle was quite easy to sort out, once I'd assessed the array of trips. rope lengths from an amalgamation of tackle lists in various journals and bulletins (see references). A Getting our Act Together hearty supply of maillons was ordered, together with some new tackle bags and carbide. Dudley (Dragon) After the AGM in 2000, many weeks went by when did us a super deal on this lot (thanks Dudley). there seemed to be no way of establishing the overall numbers who were committed enough to put their It may be strange to buy carbide in the UK and take it names forward to enable me to make a firm booking to a region inhabited by carbide-using Frenchman, but at a campsite. However, once a very rough indication try as I might, there was no easy way nor obvious was known, campsite booking began in earnest, well, place to get hold of carbide locally. Anyway, we got in France in fact. such a good price from Dudley that it was just as easy to take it with us; and we could arrive in France and Having read many reports of other UK clubs’ trips go caving immediately rather than going on a carbide (one advantage of having the whole of the club's hunt. Library in one's loft!), it was apparent that there was only one place to stay and this had generally very We took tents with us, those that were driving took favourable reports, namely ‘Camping du Martinière’ the stoves and other cooking utensils so that between (see reference for full details). This, as it transpired, is us, we'd have enough facilities. Besides, the campsite, a superb campsite based a little south of St.Pierre de as it turned out, provided an excellent continental Chartreuse and only some 15 minutes drive from the breakfast (fantastic coffee!). A limited supply of food Guiers Mort parking area at Perquelin; it is also only could be bought in their shop (fresh bread, milk, about half an hour to the Col du Coc (parking for the cheese, eggs etc.) and more fresh produce was readily Trou du Glaz). available in St.Pierre, together of course with many cafes and bars. Once I'd located the campsite in the Michelin guide and through the very useful French website The campsite facilities are worth a mention. It was www.campingfrance.com, Jacqui Westcott kindly equipped with a heated swimming pool (Oohhhh, big translated a letter for us and we wrote off requesting word of warning: French law dictates that men are prices and availability details. From here, a deposit was only allowed in the pool if wearing trunks - shorts are sent off and with further contact being made over the simply NOT allowed!), bar (sells eurofizz of course phone from my French colleague at work (thanks but also Pelforth brune and Chimay), shop (sells food Eric!), a booking was confirmed. as mentioned, plus postcards, maps, wine, beer, etc.), hot showers, games room, boules court, plus a good As for Steve Weston, Jeanette, Elliot and myself, we restaurant located adjacent to the campsite (with a acted on the recommendation from my local travel gorgeous hippy-chick waitress who stole a couple of agent and took by far the easiest way to get to the hearts, mine included!). Chartreuse - by train. Eurostar now offer a great scheme called ‘Beyond Eurostar’ whereby you can The Journey Out book all the way through on connecting trains. Our itinerary was simply great: depart London Waterloo at We left Waterloo at 12:30 and arrived in Grenoble 12:27, arrive at Lille at 15:29 (French time), change dead on 21:00. Here the plan started to fall apart, but

41 Bill Brooks we had a sneaking suspicion this would happen! Our amazing lightning display, sinking a few beers, and lift had not arrived (still stuck somewhere in Slovenia, discovering that the Craven P.C. were on the next actually no, not stuck, just still enjoying caving there table! but that's another story). Question, do we get food now, being surrounded by a veritable plethora of What happened next could have been a disaster, but restaurants, or take a chance on getting to the turned out better than we dared hope. Once the bar campsite and finding the restaurant still open. closed around 23:30, we were about to pitch our tents when the rain started, and it chucked it down! We Campsite, we reckoned. At least we'd be there and were all sheltering under the side of the barn with our could get the tents up, so we simply jumped in a cab rucksacks when good old Bill saved the day again by (why on earth the cabbies put us in the first car (a offering us the games room. This was great - like Laguna) and drove us up to the campsite with the Brackenbottom's bunk room, only 4 to 5 times as boot held down with some rope, rather than in the large, airy, dry and comfortable. large "Espace" two cars behind was a bit of a mystery!). Anyway, we drove up the mountains in the Rigging the Guiers Mort I (as far as Balcony Pitch) dark, often illuminated by the lightning storms further Sunday 13th August 2000: up the valleys, to arrive at the campsite for the meagre fair of only £30 in total. This IS the way to go caving - continental breakfast in the campsite bar, erect tents in the sun after the pitch We were greeted by Bill, the owner who somehow had dried out, have a swim, grab a little gear, lazy drive must have known we were cavers, for he approached to Perquelin, and set off for the entrance in the early us and asked "Ah, are you English speleologists?" We afternoon. We met the CPC on the walk, which took answered in the affirmative, to which he added "Your about an hour. Despite what some clubs claim, it was friends are at the bar"! We were very surprised and simply too hot to walk quickly and it was relentlessly pleased to find Martin Creavin, Jumbo and Andy uphill for most of the way. What was phenomenal was Sewell settling into an evening of Pelforth. We were that the cold air from the cave got dragged down the even more pleased to hear Bill ask "Would you like valley with the stream, so you could feel it many tens some frites?". Now, was this the way to arrive in a of meters away, and boy, was it a welcome breeze. campsite or what! We sat outside in the heat for a couple hours, dining on our chips, watching the

42 Inside the cave, it was only a short stroll up into the the nice, tatty, fixed SRT rope hanging in the water Grande Salle, down into the short crawl "vire hors crue" and suggested to him that it would be prudent to where the breeze was indeed strong enough to blow ascend such a conveniently placed rope and drop our out your carbide. This had been mentioned in many nice bit of new rope down the same drop, after first other trip reports, but what none of them mentioned securing it to the multitude of bolts at the top! This he was the noise! It was not only a veritable gale, but also did and we found to our delight that never was a more incredible noisy. Just beyond was Climbers Gallery, accurate piece of rope cut in England on the where the "only way is up", up the fixed rope which amalgamation of several tackle lists, for it dangled you had no choice but to trust. I went to find the tantalisingly close to the streamway; only occasionally siphon below the pitch and this was open, as kissing the crest of waves as they danced past. demonstrated again by a howling and "loud" gale blasting across the water, but we chose to follow the Anyhow, up this we went, along the streamway, traditional route, as there was no need to get wet hopped across a short, bold step (ropes in place), unnecessarily. continued to an easily missed junction and turned sharp right, basically stepping up into an inlet. A short Once up the fixed rope, you rig your own rope into walk brought us to Siphon Galleries Bypass, where the the bolt belays at the top. The pitch was only short, way up was at the third rock bridge - there are a one rebelay and a simple traverse at the top led into a couple of large carbide arrows on the walls here. short walking rifty passage before diminishing to the crawls en-route to Balcony Pitch. The crawls took a little Actually these arrows are confusing as if you follow while to get through, but route finding was easy, as all them religiously - the path of righteousness will lead the side crawls were visually blocked off by dry-stone you to a baptism in the sump itself! Look up to heaven walls. Just remember to turn immediately left after the and climb the holy boulders of exposed’ness and boulders in La Tremie, or you end up in a blind follow the calling of the cold draught of “St.Trou”, up chamber. another fixed rope (as stiff as wire this one!) and into a short walking passage to the top of Siphon Galleries Balcony Pitch followed immediately after the crawls and Pitch itself. was a simple task of rigging (there was another tatty old SRT rope in situ). Rig round a bollard, y-hang, This was more of a slope than a pitch, but was still over the edge (rope protector required), rebelay (on a sufficiently adorned with decent bolts. I went down nice little "that'll do nicely" ledge) and abseil first, to have my carbide promptly die on me. Jerry ALMOST to the bottom, step off onto the boulder shot on past whilst I furgled away. We followed the icy bridge and up the slope where there was a handy bolt cold zephyr (this is probably the coldest part of the to tie of to. cave) and very soon arrived at the start of the horizontal traverse out to the head of La Plage Pitch. Down the other side to the easy but wide-ish short traverse and trot to Elizabeth Cascade. Actually if you're It was at this point that we took a very serious look at really keen and on your first trip, you would have been the time and decided that three should go out from allowed to make it to Elizabeth, rather than being here, leaving three to push on. Frankly, three seemed called back by your mates, who were not so keen to to be the optimum number of people. It was one of keep going and got scared of the dark (See Jerry, you those trips were right when you said "I bet that get'll written where at the outset many sherpas are required to ferry up"!!). Anyway, a trip to here and out took us about gear, but this then makes the party size somewhat three hours, but there was a lot of hanging around and cumbersome. checking routes. What fun Jerry had on this pitch. The traverse led to a Now here's a tip - when we were back in Grande Salle, sort of rock bridge/window straddling two pitches, rather than lug all our caving kit back down to the car, both fitted with bolts. We were drawn to the shaft we simply changed here and left our wellies and SRT containing a tatty old rope in situ and so Jerry went kit on a big ledge. We only took our oversuits and down on our rope, expecting this to land on the undersuits out to dry. This turned out to be such a beach, next to the La Plage sump itself. However, I good idea, as we left all the heavy stuff behind for could simply not make out what Jerry was going on tomorrow's walk. about, when he referred to traverses, rebelays and crawls. The other pitch seems to drop straight into a Rigging the Guiers Mort II (as far as Chevalier Pitch II - streamway. As Jerry was now off the rope and forcing Trou du Glaz) his way along some muddy, grotty grovel, I went Monday 14th August 2000 straight down the rope and found myself on the beach next to La Plage sump! When Jerry and Steve joined Big trip this - around 7 to 8 hours. Continuing from me, Jerry showed me an unpleasant little tube a little where we left off at Elizabeth Cascade, I nearly let way upstream of the sump; this was where he came Jerry crawl though the duck in revenge for the out from his explorations, not knowing that this was previous trip’s premature termination, but pointed out where he wanted to be!

43 Anyway, we furgled out lamps, topped up the water II - the final pitch in the Trou du Glaz on the through supply, set off upstream and shortly stepped up on the trip! We were over the moon. It was now 18:10. A right into Bivouac Gallery. This was pretty tough going, quick drink from the wall of the pitch (NOT being a gently upstream traverse whose very nature recommended, as I'm sure it was this water that gave forces you to support a lot of your body weight on me a bout of the shits later!), then about turn. your hands, whilst tackle bags play their nasty game of swinging under your chest and getting caught under We made good progress and moved much faster now your knees. This went on for a fair bit, but was actually that we were unencumbered with gear. We got lost quite an interesting passage, as it was liberally adorned briefly on Bivouac Gallery, which looks vastly different with stal. when you're going down it! I found a nice little chamber with a waterfall that none of us remembered, I was looking for the big shaft to be traversed around, but soon found the right route again. At the top of La Les Nimois, and was somewhat surprised to find a bolt Plage pitch, I waited for Jerry, who proudly let off a step up with a fixed rope. We continued, not entirely couple of farts. Now the wind here blows out and I happy that we were on the correct route, until shortly soon discovered that sitting on the downstream end of after, a BIG hold appeared and we knew we were at Jerry was definitely unwise. last at Les Nimois. This was quite a bold step, but one little stal provided the perfect handhold, right in the It really was so cold and windy here that we were glad crux of the move. Over this and past the passage on to get on and up Siphon Galleries Pitch and drop down the left marked "EST", which I assumed means the other side, back to the third rock bridge, which "L'Escalier de service", and soon we were peering down a again looked wildly different from above. So much so 40-50' drop. I realised that this was the end of that Jerry traversed most of the passage not realising Stalactite Traverse. he could walk along the floor! Jerry and I abseiled down Elizabeth Cascade in tandem, Up the easy climb on the left and onto the fixed ropes as there were now two ropes rigged. Jerry prussiked through the stal on the ledge above the streamway Balcony Pitch first and lost one of his gloves. He was quietly babbling below. Again, distracted by the fortunate to have it land on the ledge where we step description, we were looking for a "place to step on to the rope, so that I could salvage it for him. I across to where an easy free climb leads down". Again, joined him as Steve began his ascent and removed my we were confused by an SRT rope dropping into the SRT kit for the crawls. Asking why he was not doing depths and whilst I ruminated on this, we set Steve off likewise, Jerry told me his tale of woe, in that he was a further along the ledges. I rigged our last rope prisoner in his SRT kit, being locked in by a maillon (oohhhhh, I was getting excited now!), descended the that could be only tamed with a spanner. "My SRT kit short pitch into the streamway and called for Jerry and is an integral part of me" he ruminated. That was it, Steve to join me - there was simply no need to find an "Integral Jerry" became his new nickname! easy free climb down. From here, we removed most of our SRT kit and set off up a rather fine streamway, From here we made rapid progress back to Climbers liberally strewn with potholes and pebbles to catch the Gallery and an amazing sight welcomed us, a lone unwary. Sooner than expected, we arrived at “La candle burning on the wall by our clothes. Left by the Piscine”, which was an odd sensation, as I'd read about others, it cast a haunting and beautiful light. It was the incident here in Chevalier’s book, where he fell in! also bloody handy to get changed next to! From here, It felt strangely familiar. out to the entrance, arriving at precisely 21:00. It was very odd, as immediately out of the draught it was still Easily over this and more streamway beckoned us on. uncomfortably warm and humid. It seemed to go on for ages and again, I wondered if we'd missed a route or junction. We stopped at an Quickly changed and off back down to the cars in the awkward little climb up, which Jerry recalled featured dark, where we found poor old Martin waiting for us in the description as a "teasing climb with a handline in his car, all alone. He really is a hero sometimes. We above which the character of the streamway changes". found one place left in St.Pierre still open for food and So, up he went, said "the character of this streamway we were the only people in here. Poor Martin again is changing" and then bellowed out "GLAZ"!!! He'd was unlucky, in that he felt he should not have another found the connection crawl. beer, as he'd had a few earlier and still had to drive us back to the campsite. By the time we'd returned to the Steve and I rushed to join him and sure enough, in campsite, sorted the gear out, showered and had the large carbide letters on the wall, was the Holy Grail of obligatory "beer before bedtime", it was 3am. It was a the connection. I shot off down and dropped into a good day. We'd achieved a lot and had covered most miserable little streamway, which I pursued upstream. of the walking passage contained in the through trip. It It rapidly grew into a large rift and suddenly opened was now quite easy to visualise what was left in store out at the base of a large aven, very reminiscent of the for us at the Trou du Glaz end. bottom of Bar Pot. Here, strung from a dirty stal formation, was the famous cardboard helmet, slings, rope and tape, and I knew we were at Chevalier Pitch

44 Jerry and Martin near the Guiers Mort entrance

Swimming pool day (Trou du Glaz tackle ferrying) Well, 09:30 was when the support team of Jerry, Tuesday 15th August 2000 Cookie and Phil set off to rig the Trou du Glaz as far as Lantern Pitch IV, to save some time and gear for the We awoke to find that "Cookie" (Wessex) and Jo through trippers. At 11:30, Martin drove Andy, Jo, Whistler (O.U.C.C.) had arrived from Slovenia with Steve, Jumbo and myself to the Col du Coc. We took a tales of our missing Chairman, Martin McGowan. Not slow paced walk up to the Trou du Glaz, and changed; that we really cared about our missing Chairman, and well, except for Steve, who owing to a skipping promptly went to the pool! accident en-route, had rendered himself out of the game through injury! Andy, Jo, Jumbo, Martin and Some were industrious however, as Martin Creavin, myself set off underground at 13:50 and soon met up Steve Weston, Andy Sewell and Phil Mack drove over with Phil, Jerry and Cookie at the head of Lantern Pitch to the Col du Coc and carried several tackle bags of I. Jumbo abseiled the pitch, then prussiked back up for rope up to the Trou du Glaz and dumped them well practise, then went out with Phil and Jerry. Cookie inside the entrance. Meanwhile, the rest of us had a decided to do the through trip with us. beer and frites break before returning to the pool. Another beer break was taken where we took turns So, off we went, quickly descending Lantern pitches I- tying caving knots in Jumbo's shoe-laces. III, through the low, muddy crawls and off to P36. This was an extraordinary piece of passage, as it was ….this was a caving holiday after all! basically an aerial traverse on a rock ridge with a 30' shaft on one side and a 130' pitch on the other. Great Trou du Glaz to Guiers Mort through trip. Wednesday stuff. Up the calcite slope immediately beyond (there 16th August 2000 is a muddy rope in situ, easily used as a hand-line and made all the easier if ascenders are used). Cookie and This was it. The big one. And wow, people actually Jo had ascended this first and marched on. I waited took this seriously, getting out of bed (to find Simon for Andy and Martin before setting off again. Froude and family had arrived during the night), breakfasting and packed, ready to leave the campsite at We soon traversed passed Lake Shaft and found the 09:30!! stone slab inscribed by Dubost in 1941, at the start of the Meanders, but no sign of Jo and Cookie. I eventually spotted them on the far side of the P60,

45 peering down (and up!) Labour Shaft. Back to and memorable abseil, as firstly, I knew I was now down into the Meanders and progress was immediately basically at the point reached on our mammoth rigging halted at the 2m drop, as Andy had got himself trip of the other day, and secondly, Jo was singing an wedged in the rift above. Once we'd freed him, Jo led eclectic collection of folk songs and Elizabethan songs the way to Pendulum Pitch. I helped her rig from the and her beautiful tones wafted down the shaft past airy ledge perched opposite the belay. me. At the bottom, I went over and touched the cardboard helmet. The connection had been made. Jo set off down first, with a running commentary of "Is this a new rope….its ever so fast" and "It's a The others came down, also accompanied by Jo’s loooong way down, I still can't see the bottom"…. songs and Andy was intrigued by the helmet. (Hey "This rope is ever so fast!" Andy, it’s just a cardboard helmet!). Altogether, once ……………………………………………………… more with a great sense of achievement, we charged …………..………………………………………… our carbides and set off once more toward the Guiers ……………………………………………………… Mort. It was 20:00. The caving was now, to my mind, …………………………………….."I''m down". relaxed, enjoyable and fun, which I put down to the fact that I was now in familiar territory. I followed Jo down and the rope was fast, but seemed to run fine through my ‘Stop’. I had a lovely descent, Soon back at the connection squeeze and up I went, taking my time, enjoying the splendour of this vast popping out back in the Guiers Mort. We all got cylinder. My ‘Stop’ had never been so hot! At the through still wearing SRT kit and then stomped along bottom, Jo set off immediately with the tackle for the the Grand Collecteur. This was fantastic caving. My next pitch, whilst I removed my SRT kit and waited carbide was giving the best light ever and I could see for the others. Their descent from below was also an everything for a change. We romped along the amazing sight to see. streamway, scrambling down the climbs and hopping over the pots. Fantastic caving. Andy was getting I set off in hot pursuit of Jo, once Andy, Martin and noticeably slower and was always at the back. Cookie Cookie were down. However, not before hearing and Jo ascended La Plage pitch first and shot up. I Andy's tale of woe…his spare carbide had exploded followed and had a stunning view of Martin below and inside his tackle bag at the head of the pitch! That was Andy illuminating the streamway behind. We groped not all - while telling this tale, he somehow burnt a our way across Stalactite Traverse and dropped down hole in his carbide pipe on his helmet and was now on into Bivouac Gallery, where I pointed out the easiest fire. Once we’d extinguished him, the Meanders way to cross Nimois Pitch - Jo was a little apprehensive beckoned, but once again, an incident befell our crossing this bold step. gallant party. Announced by Martin’s cry of “I seem to have a bit of a situation here lads”, the ‘tinkle, tinkle, Back down the awkward ledges, I seemed to find my crash, plop’ said it all. The bottom of his Fisma ‘awkward ledges legs’ and soon found myself way generator had leapt into the depths of the meander. ahead of the others. Andy still concerned me, as he was still stumbling along at the back. We had a brief Some 45 minutes later, Jo and I arrived at Petzl Pitch. stop for a carbide change, then continued back to the Jo rigged this, a lovely cylindrical and bone dry shaft. streamway at La Plage. Foolishly, I prussiked up this At the bottom, I took over rigging and started on Piege first, as I then had to endure the cold again, sitting in Pitch, immediately following. As the others arrived and the incredibly draughty passage at the top of the pitch. chatted, I was swinging in space looking for a rebelay Cookie and Jo came to join me and the three of us bolt, but settled on a sling over a flake. And yes, to suffered together. There was a brief respite when we confirm all the reports I'd read of this particular moved off and up Siphon Galleries Pitch, but again at the rebelay, it is indeed in the stream and water does top we had to wait in the wind. Cookie and Jo huddled dribble down your sleeve! together in a pot in the floor which permitted some relief, as the bulk of the cold breeze blew across the This was actually quite a large, airy shaft, and I was top of their helmets. careful to aim for the ridge 20’ off the floor and thus step over into the continuation of the shaft, rather Down the fixed rope and then everyone seemed to than end up in Dubost Halt, the blind pot at the take a different route down to Siphon Gallery itself. Not bottom. Chevalier Pitch I again followed straight away hanging around, conscious of the time, we ploughed and was easily rigged from a large chain and several on, over the old step and arrived at Elizabeth Cascade. bolts. Another impressive abseil, landing on very large Rapidly down this, we came to Balcony Pitch and I went ledge containing fixed ropes, slings, unfixed ropes and up first and removed most of my SRT kit as the others bits of tat. came up. Cookie shared a pot of nuts and raisins with Jo and me (what a bloody good idea as a food source, It took a little while to work out where the best point I mused to myself), then Cookie entered the crawls. I was to rig Chevalier Pitch II from, as some of the ropes found my carbide started to go out everytime I lead away to Galerie des Champignons. A couple of knocked it, which was so annoying. Back at Climbers rebelays later and I was on my way. This was a truly Pitch (no candle this time) and down into Climbers

46 47 Gallery, where it was a relief to finally remove SRT kit the slippery slope. Beer begat beer begat beer and then for good. we discovered they’d had a delivery of Pelforth. The entertainment was provided by that great band After ensuring that Martin and Andy were behind us, “Mother Nature”, whose thunderstorm track was Cookie, Jo and I left for the entrance, which we accompanied by a stunning lightshow! Frankly, we reached at exactly midnight. The through trip had were in a bit of a mess when we fell into the restaurant taken 11 hours. around 19:45. Still, the lovely waitress was there, which brought forth a feeling of well being inside of Martin Quickly changing, the three of us set off down to the and myself. The meal was rounded off with a great cars, just in case the others were getting concerned as pudding - Green Chartreuse ice-cream. Lovely. The to our whereabouts. We agreed to meet Andy and ice-cream was very nice too! Martin at the bottom of the path. Sure enough, we were met by a slightly apprehensive crowd of Jeanette, After this, I seem to recall we went all wibbly-wobbly Jumbo, Phil, Ian and Jerry. I got a lift back to the back to our tents, fell into our sleeping bags and campsite still wearing my undersuit, with Ian, Jumbo, passed out. Ian and Phil. A fine meal of tinned sausages and baked beans was heartily scoffed, together with a very well Trou du Glaz derigging earned beer. Bed was finally reached once more at Friday 18th August 2000 02:50. One of my most satisfying trips for a very long time. Starting the day at 06:30 with a raging hangover was definitely not the way to prepare for a caving trip. Cuves de Sassenage Sadly, Simon slipped out of the trip owing to an excess Thurdsay 17th August 2000 of alcohol the previous night. This left the through- tripper-deriggers of Jerry, Phil and Cookie. Martin, A day off from "real" caving, but a cave nonetheless. Jumbo and myself followed them up to the Trou du Martin drove Jumbo, Steve and myself down to Glaz and we all set off together. Martin, Jumbo and Grenoble and across the motorway to the tiny hamlet myself felt soooo rough! Somehow we got down the of Sassenage. Now a warning to anyone contemplating first four Lantern Pitches, well behind the other three. this trip - it takes bloody ages to find the cave. There Jumbo gave up at the P36 traverse and Martin and me are simply no signs to show you where it is! Basically, a lumbered on to the start of the Meanders. tiny alleyway off the main mini-roundabout in the centre of the ville leads to a car park from where a I went in behind Phil, Jerry and Cookie, whilst Martin footpath leads up to the ticket office. We had to wait remained in the main passage, fearful of getting stuck about 50 minutes for the next tour, but were happy to at the 2m drop. At the 2m drop, I tried to see what the wait when we’d discovered the shop sold beer! climb out was like before committing myself and was happy to find that this was actually no big deal. One of the guides we got chatting to, upon hearing we Assembled at Pendulum Pitch and amused ourselves with were cavers and having to explain several times that the remnants of Andy’s destroyed carbide container! I “No, we were not caving in the Vercors”, showed us watched as Cookie and Phil disappeared into the some of the postcards they had for sale actually had depths. Jerry then set off with the comment “Don’t photo’s taken by the Jo Berger. It was something of a start derigging until I’m down”!! I then put our plan pilgrimage to ‘do’ this cave, as we’d ‘done’ the Berger into action. I removed the rope from the belays and back in 1990 and now, ten years on, we were basically let it drop. The noise of 220' of falling rope was weird. entering the same system to ‘do’ the resurgence; in a It went whoooooosh, then,……silence. “Is that it”? way, completing another through trip. called Jerry from below.

We were fortunate in having the guide all to ourselves They then set off, and I returned to Martin and we in and one that spoke a little English; also, photography turn made our way back to J Jumbo Esq. Above the was permitted for a change. We were also given a fourth Lantern Shaft, Martin and I were very pleasantly written summary, in English, to take with us. The tour surprised to find inscribed on the wall the names of wasn’t bad and okay for Fr29. It took about 40 Chevalier, Petzl, Dubost and Guillemin, with a minutes, though we did have to endure the customary reference to the connection of the Trou du Glaz to sound and light sequence in the final chamber. the Guiers Mort: “8-9 Aout 1941”. We had a slowish trip back up the rest of the Lantern Shafts, as I was We returned to the campsite only after extracting taking photos and Jumbo seemed to have forgotten ourselves from an industrial estate in the middle of how to prussik. I mean, there was really no need to Grenoble after Steve's navigational skills deserted him! take the rebelays out to pass them, was there?

Back at the campsite, well, there was nothing else to Anyway, once de-rigged, we hauled out the ropes, do but hit the bar. Simon and ‘Tell joined us with the tackle bags and personal gear of the others and then, kids and then the bar staff bought us all a beer. We to our amazement, bumped into Steve and Andy could hardly refuse, could we! But now we were on inside the entrance passage. This was very fortuitous

48 as they could help us lug all this gear down to the cars. ignored, I suppose because it didn't say “to the caves”! Jumbo carried so much that I renamed him “Sherpa So on and up went the brave compadres and upon Fat Thing”! He even wore a tackle bag on his head; arrival at a "via ferrata", somehow decided that the what a star. We were now in desperate need of a beer, path veering off across the hillside was our path. I was the hangovers having long since departed. I drove not convinced. We were far too high by now; there Martin’s car, whilst he drove Cookies truck, back to were gliders circling beneath us! Saint Hughes where we sat ourselves at a table to enjoy a couple of ice cold Weissbeers. Magic. So, off we went, Steve and myself in the lead. We neared a bend and I felt sure that just around the When we drove into the campsite, who did we spy in corner, we would see where the path went. But after the pool but none other than Martin McGowan, our the corner, there was no more path! We were on a elusive Chairman. He tried to redeem himself later by precipice on the south eastern face, now far below the going to St.Pierre to buy some beer and was rather summit of the Dent du Crolles. Beneath our feet was a pleased with himself for buying five crates of beer at a sheer drop of 6000' to the Isere river. Needless to say, knockdown price…..until we pointed out to him that we quickly backed away from the edge. he just bought five crates of shandy!! But the story doesn’t end here, for he then returned to St.Pierre to Now, to make the best of this "snafu", it made sense change them for “real” beer and when he returned, he to enjoy the walk for its own sake and head for the seemed to have picked up Toby and Irene, who he’d summit plateau. Rejoining the main path, we were found wandering around St.Pierre! Later that night, soon pulling ourselves up wire ropes between Bill and Christine Brooks arrived too. Now we were towering cliffs and huge boulders. Arriving at the complete and understandably, another heavy drinking plateau, we followed the final slope up to the summit session ensued. cairn at 2,026m and found ourselves buffeted by an incredible wind. The view was absolutely spectacular. The through trip de-riggers arrived back around 9'ish Grenoble and the Isere river were immediately below from memory. us. The Vercor was opposite and we could see ski resorts in the far distance at the same altitude as Just another pool day ourselves. In the very far distance, seen easier if Saturday 19th August 2000 wearing sunglasses, was Mont Blanc. We felt slightly incongruous, sitting there with tackle bags full of Jeanette and Elliot had to leave for home and Martin caving gear, no food and very little water! McGowan provided the taxi services to Grenoble. Bill caught a lift to find a Rover garage, as his car had The next objective had to be to find the P40. This developed a fault such that he basically had a gearbox proved to be just as difficult as finding the Grotte completely devoid of oil! Jumbo, Simon and myself Chevalier, for, well, we didn’t find it! There were nipped into Saint Laurent du Pont, ostensibly to buy a hundreds of pits, pots, shakeholes, rifts crevices and book on canyoning. None was found, so we bought grykes, so Lord knows where it was. We started off in lunch instead and then returned to La Martinière to the right area, but ended up too far down the hillside. dine, have a beer, have a swim, wash the gear, have It was interesting nevertheless and we were rather more beer and have some more beer. happy to follow one immense rift down, to find a car sized snowball/ice-cube nestling in the shade. In the Dinner was taken in the bar in Saint Hughes, where gloom, we’d taken this to be a pitch, owing to the dark there was no problem seating all fourteen of us. We patches of ice! rounded off the evening with a Green Chartreuse liquor; well those of us who liked this magic elixir. Onward and downward, and in the lapiaz we were fortunate to see a marmot. Through the trees and Dent du Crolles walk soon we were in the bottleneck of tourists picking Sunday 20th August 2000 their way down the via ferrata. Steve overtook a few, despite being encumbered by a walking stick he was Ostensibly, this was intended to be a walk and short now forced to use, owing to his “skipping accident” a caving trip in the Grotte Annette Bouchacourt and the few days ago! Chevalier Grotte, but best laid plans and all that….. Arriving at the Trou du Glaz, we’d finally found a Martin Creavin drove Bill, Andy, Steve and myself to cave. Steve and Bill went for a womble with their Petzl Col du Coc and once again, we trudged up the steep zooms. I went to catch them up, secretly to ensure path in the hot sun. Continuing up the path after the they didn’t go wandering off for hours, as it was now junction with the path to the Trou du Glaz, the route definitely time to hot foot it to the pub! I found them became still steeper and the views became all the more at Pas Dessus, just beyond Puits Martel. I took advantage magnificent. Not entirely sure of the spot where we of this mini trip to find the way up in the large but had to cross the scree slope to find the path that leads loose floored Salle de Chartreux, above the Lantern to the caves, we paused at an old wooden sign post Pitches, before we made our way out, then down to the which said "vers la Terrux"; which we foolishy car.

49 Again, we called in for a beer at the bar at Saint Hughes and sat outside under the shade of the tree. This really was a lovely spot, situated in the middle of the valley, surrounded by immense limestone mountains.

As was now standard practise, as soon as we were back at the campsite, we headed for the bar; well, we had to work out where to go for our last evening’s meal, didn't we! Martin and I were drawn to the restaurant adjacent to the campsite, well, we had to see ‘her’ once more before we left, didn't we! But oh no, disaster, they were shut on a Sunday. So, Le Diat it was. Steve had found a good restaurant the night before, so we went on his recommendation, which, contrary to his navigational skills, was actually very good. Here we discovered Chartreuse tonic, which was a lovely drink, in fact, I am enjoying one now as I type this and reminisce at the same time!

The journey home Monday 21st August 2000

Much the same as the journey out, really. Martin drove Steve, Jumbo, Andy and myself to the train station in Grenoble, where Steve and I were booked on the 10:34 TGV to Paris (Gare de Lyon). This came in on time of course and we sped off through the countryside, while the others went to visit the Gouffre Berger entrance. We arrived in Paris at 13:45 and rather than use the Metro, decided to see a little more of Paris and took a cab to the Eurostar station, Gare du Nord. Steve paid the Ff41, DOWN TO HERE then much to his horror, discovered he’d lost his wallet when he went to produce his train ticket! He thought he’d left it in the cab. So, after a few minutes frantic telephoning various credit card companies we joined the check-in queue and were soon boarding the 15:19 train bound for Waterloo.

We crawled into Waterloo, went to our respective tube stations for the onward journey home and I arrived in my station at 18:57; again it had only taken some eight hours travelling. Train is certainly the quickest and most relaxed way to get to Grenoble!

50 References and useful contacts:

Camping de Martinière c/o Bill Gaude Route du Col de Porte -D512 38380 - ST.PIERRE DE CHARTREUSE France

Tel. (33) / (0)4 76 88 60 36 Fax (33) / (0)4 76 88 69 10 Mobile 06 83 04 11 14

Tourism office (St.Pierre de Chartreuse): Place de Mairie 38380 St-Pierre-de-Chartreuse France

Tel. (33) / (0)4 76 88 62 08 Fax (33) / (0)4 76 88 75 10 / (33) / (0)4 76 88 68 78 E-mail [email protected] www http://perso.wanadoo.fr/OT.st-pierre-de-chartreuse

Local caver: Bruno Talour www http://www.alpesgeoconseil.com/Chartreuse/Speleo/ESpeleo.html

Tackle list: 75 Maillons and about 30 hangers (The hangers were hardly used as most pitches have bolts in place.)

Grotte du Guiers Mort (to the "U" tube connection to the Trou du Glaz):

Name of pitch Depth SRT rope requirement & notes

Puits de l'Escalade (Climbers Pitch) 8m up! 12m Normally rope in situ. 1 rebelay Le Balcon (Balcony Pitch) 12m 17m 1 or 2 rebelays, and don't abseil to thebottom-get off on the obvious ledge! Elizabeth Cascade 6m up! 9m If there ain't a rope in situ already someonewill have to get wet going up through the duck to reach the top of the pitch-head round the back route! Siphon Galleries Pitch 8m 10m No rebelays but cold as a howling draft whistles through here. Puits la Plage 12m 17m Preceded by a traverse then go either straight down or down through the window on the left. Nimois Pitch n/a 10m Handline required to traverse across the top of this. 10m should be more than adequate though it may already have a rope in situ. Great stal finger hold half-way across! Puits du Grand Collecteur 10m 14m Rigged from the roof. Free hang

Total 56m 79m

51 Trou du Glaz (to the "U"-tube connection in the Guiers Mort):

Name of pitch Depth SRT rope requirement & notes

Puits de Lanterne I 10m 17m Free hang. Puits de Lanterne II 11m 12m One rebelay, I think! Puits de Lanterne III 15m 30m Again just one rebelay, I think! Puits de Lanterne IV 10m 18m Muddy traverse out on left wall to main hang point. P36 n/a 20m Handline. A rope was in situ when we were here. Acrobatic in parts! Puits du Lac n/a 20m Handline. Again a handline was in situ. Puits du Pendule 60m 70m Short traverse up into an alcove to a Y-hang with a distinct lack of bolts! A good natural jug handle may be used though. A fantastic free hang in an immense cylinder. Impressive! Puits Petzl 18m 25m All I remember is that whilst Jo rigged, Cookie and me discussed Pink Floyd! I think there was one rebelay though. Puits due Piege 15m 24m Bolts at the start then a rebelay from a flake where a sling was used and don't forget to swing onto the ledge before hitting the very bottom or you'll wonder why there are no more pitches! Puits Chevalier I 35m 41m In situ chains were utilised as part of the rigging. Free hang from memory. Puits Chevalier II 20m 32m A lot of rope is used as there is a series of steps to rebelay over before the true hang is met. There's a lot of tat here but a huge ledge to run around on.

Totals: 195m 300m

Maps: Massif de La Chartrese Sud - No.3334 OT (Institut Geographique National) 1:25,000 Massif de La Chartrese Nord - No.3333 OT (Institut Geographique National) 1:25,000

Publications: Subterranean Climbers - Pierre Chevalier (1951) *Charteuse Souterrain - Baudouin Lismonde & Philippe Brouin (1985) ISBN 2-902670-19-2 Grottes en canyons - Pierre Minvielle (1977) *Spéléo Guide Chartreuse-Les plu verticales - Jean Louise Fantoli (1996) ISBN 2-91657-01-2 *La Dent du Crolles et son réseau souterrain Badouin Lismonde et collectif (1997),ISBN 2-902670-38-9 (The Bible for this area really!)

* I obtained my copies through Tony Oldham

Bradford Pothole Club Bulletin:Vol.8 no.4 Spring 1991 Craven Pothole Club: "Record" No.44 October 1996 and No.60 October 2000 (Record of their tripundertaken the week before ours) London University Caving Clubs Journal: No.1 December 1966, No.9 Spring 1969, No. 12 Winter 1971 Mendip Caving Group: Occasional Publication No.3 "en Chartreuse" 1995 South Wales Caving Club: Newsletter No.119 July 1997, No.122 2002 Technical Speleological Group: Journal No.15 1996

52 Slovenia 1998 - Caving the Imperial Way

Martin McGowan ______

I was chatting to James “Tetley” Hooper after his speech at the BCRA, when he asked what was I doing Finally we are in Slovenia. We now had to drive over next summer. I must admit I hadn’t really given it Triglav, just the highest mountain in Slovenia, with an much thought - probably go back to Ireland, do some overladen bus. As we went down the tight hairpins, caving, laze around, maybe go somewhere on the bike. the smell of burning brakes became overpowering and He then told me about the Imperial College Caving nauseating. We had to stop. Club ( IC3 ) expedition to Slovenia. I had seen their stand and it looked interesting. So off to the lecture, Eventually, we reached Bovegec and saw the first which really sold it to me. serious effects of the earthquake in March. Streets of houses were held up by props, roofs had collapsed The next stage was to get a place on the expedition. I inwards and there were massive cracks up the sides of had a cunning plan; firstly Tetley recommended me, the buildings. What could have happened to the cave? and then I offered a Dan Yr Ogof trip as a bribe. It Tolmin, the local town, showed very little damage and worked - one Danny trip later, I was going on the we headed up to Tolminski Ravne, a very small village expedition. in the mountains. Here we found the farmer’s house had been condemned, so we could stay in it. Inside, Imperial takes an even more relaxed view to the local geologist had installed a seismometer (so expedition planning than Westminster - one evening I what twenty cavers tramping around the house was turned up to find that in my absence, I had been going to do to the readings only time would tell). nominated the ‘medical person’, thanks to Tetley. No Personally, I pitched my tent outside, as the area was matter. still being affected by aftershocks.

Over the coming months, the expedition gradually Over the next few days, we had planned to carry up all took shape, until the final few weeks when all of a we needed to set up the bivvy. The next day, I was sudden, there was a flurry of organisation: get the woken by a low rumble and the tent was shaken food, book the van, the ferry, first aid, have you violently; was this an earthquake I thought, as I tried written to ....?, No?, Do it! A frantic rush in the final to rouse myself from a semi-conscious state. A series hours saw a minibus (minus a few seats) packed with of stroboscopic flashes and the tent was turned into a all our gear. disco; ah, it’s a storm, that’s a relief. I made it to the house just as the deluge started; my tent was quickly No sooner had we loaded up and started to head out surrounded by two rivers and the road became a of London, the van break down. In bloody Sidcup! swollen torrent. The RAC came out and asked if we are going far, which was a bit of a stupid question with the van Eventually, at about 11am, we realised that the storm packed to the gills with gear and several hundred kilo was not going to abate, so we resigned ourselves to barrels on the roof. He decided to inspect the engine, this fact and set off up the hill with our supplies. I so he jacked it up with 6 sleeping people and all the punted along the meadow with my walking stick, got gear still in it. As the jack gave off an ominous creak half way up and decided to shelter in the shepherds’ and groan, he solved the problem, although I did have huts. Jim, Mark, and Jackie Evans headed on up to the a vision of a 2 tonne jack suddenly failing while he was top to set up the barrels, otherwise we were going to under the van. have to collect snow for water. Tetley joined me in the hut and he smoked a damp fag while we shivered. The On down to Dover, a quick romp around the duty rain pelted against the tin roof. I decided to head free and then across Europe, following a thin black down and return with another load to the hut. This line in a road atlas. The next problem was the green was the wettest and most miserable start to an card, which can only be bought in Slovenia. We had expedition ever. no green card, so it there no entry to Slovenia. So back to Italy for the night and to drink some duty free. The The next day, the sun was splitting the trees as we set next day we arrive at the border and found the duty out on the long sweaty slog up to the bivvy, via the free shop had just run out of green cards, a deliberate aptly named Mule Track. On reaching the top of the conspiracy to keep us out of the country. So we turned plateau, a wave of disbelief hit me. I thought plateaux around again and headed to another crossing, parked were flat, but before me, a valley dropped away from a the van, walked across the border and bought the card: ring of heavily twisted and faulted limestone peaks. cash only, Tolars or DM.

53 The area visited by the Slovenian expeditions

I tramped down and then back up again to reach the got its name, as I started to suffer from disco leg. bivvy, located in a very large shakehole that had a Then I launched myself over the abyss to a nearby rock bridge and a snowplugged shaft (M10). All the wall. caves on the Migovec Plateau were numbered in the order they were found and each given the prefix M. Scuzzer and I were going slowly - well, two tackle bags Over the next few days, we set up camp. each didn’t help, especially as they weren’t to be damaged or got wet. So, at the bottom of Sajeta The main system on the Migovec Plateau has three (nearly - 500m), we decided to dump the bags and entrances: M18 (Torn T-shirt), M16 and M2 (Kavkna head out. Jama). The Imperial use M16, for while M18 was their discovery, it’s a very tight sporting cave. My first trip Coming up XXX, I started to think I was going into M16 was with Sarah “Scuzzer” Wingrove, a small, slightly mad, as I swore that I could hear music hard caver who attacked the cave with vigour. Our wafting down the pitch. Maybe it’d been too long a objective was to help set up the camp by bringing trip. So I continued to prussik to the sound of the down the sleeping bags. Flight of the Valkyries: a surreal experience.

The entrance series was easy, although there was a In Bikini Carwash, I bumped into Jan “Jesus” Evett large amount of loose rocks to dislodge with tackle and Tetley having a brew and playing the camp stereo. bags, so I waited for Scuzzer to clear the pitches. The We all decided that as a first trip, going to camp and entrance series after Vhodni Deli contained a series of back was a bit ambitious, so they joined us and headed annoyingly short crawls, squeezes, climbs and a back to the surface. traverse. At the bottom of Brezho Strahov, we climbed up into a large passage, ironically named Over the next few days, the underground camp was Hotline, for a howling gale was blowing through it and set up and I earned a reputation as a chef (not me. difficult). Tetley and myself set out on a bounce trip to Pawoden (Slovenian for flood) at -575m to look at On to the Gladiators’ Traverse, a technical abseil and various side passages. At the bottom of XXX, we prussik across a void. Scuzzer forgot to tell me about discovered a window into a parallel shaft, but left it as clipping my cowtails into the secondary line, so I flew the wall was made of calcite and mud. In Sajeta, we across the pit as I stepped off the rock bridge. I passed discovered a rift going off, blocked by boulders, which over a series of large black holes. On the last traverse, on a later trip, Tim “Shed” Wright and I attempted to ‘The Spirit of Elvis’, I noticed some rope damage and move, but to no avail. Meanwhile at Pawoden, Tetley did some quick rerigging. I realised why the traverse and I found another rift, this time going off to the

54 55 north, a first in the cave; after 200m, it ended in a pool Jan was bolting the pitch, I dug up into a chamber full and a climb up. of boulder breakdown. This was left, as no one fancied playing hide and seek in a pile of loose, car size The Slovenians came up and went for the 1000m rocks. Clewin and Katheryn surveyed a glutinous mud- point, in a mega, glory-seeking 24 hour trip. filled rift called Chocolate Moose. Unfortunately, they broke their only pencil, so they left us with a grade 1 survey at the bivvy and the grim On the way out, we saw a pitch below where we’d job of surveying it all! It looked as though the best come in. I declined to go down, as there was a six inch leads were going deep. But first, a quick trip back to crack in the main ‘wall’ and it was getting late. Going England for a friend’s wedding - a brief interlude of out, we bumped into Scuzzer, Stephan Pier, and Cecile luxury and even more excessive drinking. Chabot and exchanged news. By the time we reached Sajeta, we were slowing down. Once back on the Migovec Plateau, I went on my first underground camping trip, with Jesus, Clewin Griffith I was about half way up the 85 metre pitch when I and Kathryn Atherton. We had the dubious privilege heard a whooshing sound and a cry of BELOW! of being the first group to test the new, wire ‘death Something bounced off the rock below me, as I clung slide’ tryloean traverse over Gladiators. I flew across to the rope and made love to the rock. I cursed the void, the wire giving off ominous creaks and Clewin. A minute later, he shouted down something groans and landed on the other side safely. Getting off about a jammer and I took part in a strange version of the line involved a careful jiggling and balancing act, to chinese whispers. avoid slipping off the landing platform. To remove the pulley from your central mallion, cowtails were “You want what? Where did you leave it?” essential to prevent you plummeting down the abyss beside the landing point. I wondered how you could leave your jammer behind; oh, it must be his spare, I thought. Eventually I At XXX, I was just about to abseil when I noticed a reached the top and found out that Clewin had serious fray in the rope. I quickly slapped on my dropped his hand jammer down the pitch. “D’oh!!.” It cowtails and hand jammer (you can’t be too safe) and is still a mystery to me why Clewin detached his got off the pitch. Luckily, someone had left 70m of jammer from his foot loops. rope at the brew stop, so Katheryn nipped back and got it. A quick rerig and we headed on down. At camp, M ‘Do you have a spare jammer?’ we had some rehydrated gloop, snuggled into layers of C‘No’ warm, dry Polartec and fell asleep listening to M ‘Do you have some spare cord?’ Blackadder: pure luxury. C‘No’ M‘Oh!’ At 7am, Huggy and Tetley arrived, only to be told that the beds belonged to us for another hour, so they I quickly found a loop of cord. kindly made us tea and breakfast. We heard that the Slovenians, Paul “Huggy” and Tetley had hit another M ‘Do you know how to use a French Prussik knot?’ sump at about minus 980m. Eventually we got up and the others crawled into bed. C‘No’ M‘Ah!’ Clewin and Kathryn went down to investigate an inlet Tetley had found before the sump. Jan and I headed As I was giving a quick lesson in how to do a French down The Wonderstuff, discovered by the Slovenians Prussik, Kathryn arrived, quickly followed by Jan. A but not fully surveyed. We did an exciting traverse, rescue plan formed in my head. I gave Jesus the ‘good using brute force and ignorance, over Porcelain Pitch, news’ that he was to head out of the cave as quickly as with its unique, ammoniac smell. Straddling the possible, while the three of us slowly plodded up remains of a rock arch, I abseiled down a series of Exhibition Road to the traverse. Jesus and Kathryn interestingly rigged, large, dry pitches. Snap gates soon disappeared from sight, while Clewin and I karabiners; home-made hangars; no back up; dodgy tandem prussiked up the rope. Clewin prussiked for naturals - the standard for Slovenian rigging, as their several minutes, while I did a few strokes and caught philosophy was get down and maybe out as quickly as him up. possible. We found several interesting leads off and noted them down for the future. At the changeovers, I got nervous because if the prussik cord was dropped, I would have to do a mid- Back to camp and we kipped before going out the rope rescue and haul Clewin out, plus give him a good next day. On the way out, we investigated the kicking later. Luckily, it didn’t come to that and about Northern Line and rappelled into Elephants’ an hour later, we reached the top. No more rope for Graveyard. The graveyard is a boulder choked me for some time. Phew! chamber with several leads. We looked at a rift which ended in a pitch, surrounded by hanging death. While

56 could not get it or if I dropped it down the void, then two of us would be stuck in the cave. This intense nervous struggle finally paid off and I slowly slithered and stumbled up towards Hotline with my failing carbide.

As I continued on out I kept imagining I heard someone. Tiredness, coldness and lack of food were taking their toll. With my carbide now next to useless, I turned on my electric for the changeovers and slowly counted off each pitch, crawl, and climb. Every noise was amplified by my imagination. ‘Ey Ho?’ No, it was just pebbles falling or water dripping.

As I crawled through to Vhodni, I heard the scree being dislodged and hitting the chamber floor. I abseiled down and saw Iain McKenna whizzing down into the chamber on the other rope. He was illuminated in a halo of carbide, holding aloof a handled jammer like Arthur with Excalibur: our salvation. We exchanged the latest information. I slowly went out, struggling on the awkward window at the top of the last pitch. Eventually, I crashed in my tent at 3.00am

There were various trips over the next weeks, but eventually the unavoidable task of derigging came. On our last trip, the hardcore cavers went in. It was a pleasure to come up the Exhibition Road in a large group, as you could look back to see a string of carbide pearls strung out along the majestic traverse, contrasting with the absolute blackness of the pitches below.

Other memories of the trip are waking up Adi Hooper aid climbing in the Hall of Justice in Gardeners’ World to a panorama of mountain tops, with the After a brew and some chocolate, the three of us sun creeping over them; the evenings in clambered up Exhibition Road, while Jesus flew out of the bivvy making dinner, drinking whatever was the cave to save us. Our tackle bags helped to warm us available, then stumbling out to watch the stars and in this cold, alpine prison. Mentally, in no time, we had having them pointed out; the days down in Tolmin reached Gladiators, but I know on reflection this was and relaxing by the unbelievably blue green river. not true, as we all struggled up the climbs. I climbed over to the zip line (aka death slide) and pulled myself across it. Everything was being done slowly, as fatigue was taking its toll on the grey cells (or maybe it was just more difficult to go up the line).

The plan had been for me to send my hand jammer back with the pulley, so Clewin could get across. I clipped on my jammer and yelled for Clewin to pull it across. The pulley moved about a foot and then stopped. Damn! The string to bring the pulley back had snapped. So I climbed back down and struggled to retrieve the jammer. I was intensely aware that if I

57 James Hooper drying out at the bivvy campsite after a Gardeners’ World trip

58 Slovenia 2001 - the IC3 Expedition

Martin McGowan ______

All year I had been sneaking off on Tuesday nights large rip in the front of the tent and heard Adrian from WSG pub meets and driving to the Southside Hooper asking if there was any room in the tent. bar to chat to Imperial Caving Club about their summer expedition. Usually I dragged James Hooper, “Is this an emergency?” I asked Pete Jurd or Tim Wright off, hopping into the Landi (KRN) to hack my way through Whitehall and A stunned Adi kneeled on the ground, head poking Knightsbridge, driving in the traditional London through the porch. fashion of only giving way to black hacks and things which were bigger. Porsches and Mercedes owners “Sorry we have no room” was our response, especially watch out. Once again, KRN was to be despatched to as our tent seemed destine to fall apart some time in Slovenia, as the Imperial College Union had refused us the night. a minibus. Of course, the Landi did attract the usual comments about why the number plate had the name So Adi disappeared into the night, while we patched of a famous Slovenian mountain. the rip in the porch with gaffer tape and battened down the hatches. The next morning I pitched my tent So finally, I stepped off the plane at Trieste, another on the only flat piece of ground left; unfortunately it Ryan air flight that does not quite go where it claimed was also the highest spot around; well, lightening can’t and headed by train to Slovenia, well to Grazia strike twice. Meanwhile, poor Adi surveyed the actually, on the Italian side of the border. An remnants of his tent. Adi ended up moving his gear overnight stay in the luxury of a hotel, before walking into my tent and that was the start of the climbing across the border and catching the bus to Tolmin. As double act of the expedition. soon as I stepped off the bus, I was back in the old routine of pizza and beer, surrounded by scruffy At the start of the expedition, we had Gardeners’ cavers wearing their only ‘clean’ T shirts. So the next World at –400m and slowly it was going down. On day I jumped into KRN and headed for the Migovic one rigging trip in the Urinal Series with Ed Austin, I plateau. arrived to find Hugh Penny and Adi still rigging Piston Pitch, as they could not reach the far side. Piston was As we headed up the mountain, we could see the the bogey pitch from last year; it took an awful lot of storms clouds rolling in; most of the group raced on water in flood and had been rerigged several times. ahead, unencumbered by a mountain of caving kit and The final rig involved a dodgy traverse, then a bold a tent. I slogged up the last zigzag to fading daylight, lean of faith over the pitch (even for people over purple hammerhead clouds burning orange on the 1.8m) to make a Y hang. You then needed another underside and occasionally, lightning would dance off person to help adjust the massive Y hang. Heading the distance peak of Krn and echo around the down the pitch, you had to start a pendulum for the Tolminski valley. At the top, I was greeted by shouts Spiderman Deviation placed last year by Jan Evetts. It from the rest of the team as they sat drinking vodka took half an hour of swinging around to rig the pitch while watching Thor’s hammers flash across the sky. I and occasionally the rope would twang like the string pushed across the last obstacle of the so called of a bass guitar as it hit the side of the pitch. This was ‘plateau’, which with its 300m diameter shakeholes was typical of the challenging SRT rigging required to go anything but flat. anywhere deep in Gardeners’ World.

That night, I kipped with Ben Ogborne and Clewin One of the leads from last year was Jelly Chamber, Griffith, due to arriving too late to set up my tent. which always colder than the rest of the cave, due to Their tent was an ancient mountaineering one, which the draught. Leading off the chamber, we found two was now being held together by duck tape, in true climbs to the Hunger Series (named after the rumbling Blue Peter fashion. As the weather closed in over of Adi’s stomach) and Judge Dread Series. To get up dinner, we could see we were in for a rough night. these climbs, we needed the petrol drill, but there were Throughout the night, the tent rattled, shook and one or two obstacles to overcome first. The most flapped around as if the only thing holding it to the important was a bottle neck of boulders at the top of ground was the ballast of three cavers and their gear as Laurel Pitch– even the slim members of the team the front of the tent popped in and out of shape. found it tight. So a hit squad was sent into remove the Suddenly in the middle of this battering, a desperate bottleneck. voice was heard crying in the wilderness outside. I gingerly stuck my head out into the gale, noticing a

59 60 At the top of the pitch were Hugh Penny, Ed Austin, We jingled and jangled our way down the myself and ‘El Chorro’ (the drill), while Adi the mountainside and into the cave. smallest and fastest was sent down the pitch to bring up the rope. For several minutes, we struggled with a We soon arrived at the Halls of Justice and started to crowbar, slings and hammers to no avail. Then we aid climb one of the leads. I led the traverse in the thought of winching the boulders out so we drilled roof on the first part, wide bridging the gap to a two anchor points in the boulder and set up a Z rig. wedged boulder where I placed the second bolt. From Instantly it popped out. This released the genie from there, I traversed over the gap, wedging myself into the bottle and some of the coffee table sized boulder place. Placed the third bolt and continue out to a ledge tumbled and rumbled down the 60m pitch. The where another bolt was placed so you could scramble memory that sticks out the most in my mind is being up onto the Scales of Justice, about 15m above the attached by my cow tails to the bolts, hanging over the floor. At this point I was getting a bit light-headed, enlarged pitch head waving a hammer to hit the last either from the exposure to the height or the petrol boulder that had become stuck, while Hugh took photographs. This was pure insane destruction. When I re- Martin with El Chorro the drill at the head of Laurel Pitch in Gardeners’ World rigged the rope, all I could find was a pile of fist size rocks, all that remained of several tons of boulders. So now the way was free to bring the drill down.

The Judge Dread Series got the most attention. The main problem we had encountered before bringing the drill down was the rock being so hard. The spit would loose most of its teeth when you were only half way through placing the bolt, hence the need for a drill. The first climb had a bolt placed about half way up to protect the lead climber and then there was a bit of wide bridging until an old roof tube was gained. This was shuffled along until you could squirm onto the ledge at the top of the pitch. From here we followed the ledge over a scramble of boulders and into the Hall of Justice.

This was a chamber with two large projections in the roof, which looked like the scales of justice. A scramble over a convenient triangular shaped boulder gave us access to a rift heading towards the roof. This was the way on we needed, but there was one more obstacle - we had no through bolts at the top camp. So we headed down to the farm to collect some through bolts and get some rest and relaxation in Tolmin.

Adrian and I had never used through bolts before, so we were a wee bit apprehensive about using the 8mm bits of metal, especially the shorter ones, so we opted for the longest ones we could find. We finally set off, overloaded with gear: a petrol drill, static rope, dynamic rope, bolting fumes, so I let Adi take over the lead. He chimneyed hammer, runners, extenders, camera, plates, search up onto the ledge and then placed two bolts into the light, survey kit and of course a flask of hot chocolate.

61 roof. The next step had a bold reach across to some The other non-caving memories of the trip were rock - at this point, the drill failed. So it was time for a waking up at 6.30 in the morning - somewhere in the few quick pictures and some hot chocolate, before distance, I could hear a murmur of chud-chud whirl of leaving it all for next year, as Adi was heading home helicopter blades. As I crawled through the door of the next day. the tent to relieve myself, I could swear the noise was getting louder. The bass thud and whirl of the blades Over the next few weeks, Gardeners’ World made was resonating inside my hungover head. Just as I steady progress, even though we now had a smaller looked up, a Huey swept over my tent. I instinctively team. It was noticeable that a bounce trip to – 400m+ ducked; this was all down to having a bright yellow was taking a toil on the team. The old lags Ian Mc tent in the National Park, where normally camping is Kenna, Jim and Mark Evans turned up and bolted a prohibited. On a clear day, the tent could be seen from large pitch called Zimmer that James and Andy Jurd all the surrounding peaks. had just found. With the derig looming, James took Tomas, one of Slovenian cavers, down on a final trip, Overall, the expedition had its highs and lows, which for a final push. When they came back, they revealed a is to be expected over a period of 6 weeks, but stunning find of 400m of horizontal passage at the nonetheless, Slovenia is still a great place to go. bottom of Zimmer. Once again the expedition was Besides the caving, there are loads of adventure sports buzzing with excitement and my derig trip was now a to do, from canoeing to paragliding, all of which can pushing trip. Dave Wilson and I headed down for be tried out at a reasonable cost from one of the many Friendship Gallery. extreme sports providers.

The first lead we looked at was Leopard, which I pendulumed into. It was a short mud covered, 3 metre Further News wide passage ending in a large pitch, but nowhere could we see a solid point to belay off. Poking around 2003 a few holes in the floor off Friendship gallery, we noted the passageway would be an ideal place for a When we returned on the next expedition in 2003 IC3 campsite - water nearby and a flat floor. Dave dropped continued bolting down the muddy slope with some his generator’s base down one shaft, so we were help from two Slovenians, Robert and Bogomir, forced to go down the pot and survey it: a nice clean armed with a sky hook . Meanwhile, Slap Pot turned washed rift with two waterfalls coming into it. So this out not to be the way on. They had found the Big was the Falls Road or Slap Pot; in my view, the way on Rock Candy Mountain – ironically named after the by passing the muddy pitch heads at the end of the song on the camp tape because there was nothing Friendship Gallery, but only time will tell. sweet about it.

From the bottom of this, we discovered a long Back at Friendship Gallery, we met Pete and his horizonal section of cave. I had one trip down this brother Andy who been pushing a muddy freezing quite old pheratic passage with Brain. After strolling shaft. The trip out was memorable, for as we reached along the passage and putting in a few lengths of short Piston it was noticeably wet and Laurel was a rope over 3m free climbs, we reached a pitch. continuous shower. Throughout the entrance chamber, you could hear the rumble of thunder. Just I arranged an interesting traverse out to the pitch as I got out of the cave, there was a blinding flash and head, as we were using natural belays to speed up the loud bang, far too close for comfort. Dave and Pete descent. After landing on the floor, I could not help had already gone and so with Andy, I ran for the bivi. noticing the passage was no longer horizontal but was Lightening danced all around the peaks of the cirque. distinctly U shaped – like an old siphon. I walked The way back was a stroboscopic run in blue white about 10m from the base of the pitch and could see light. At the bivi, Pete was doing a mean impression of that this impressive passage had shrunk down to an Clint Eastwood with a gristled beard and poncho, 8cm gap with a howling draught coming through it. while Dave whistled up some food as the rain pounded on the tarpaulins and overflowed into the Brain arrived and both our hearts sunk, for at a depth barrels. of 800m and a few weeks to go, we had killed the lead. The rest of the team had retreated to their tents. That But then Brain noticed the floor was only sand, so he night I realised why North Face tents are worth their started to dig it out with his Stop. It was a mad idea, weight in gold, as my one had stood up to a battering but then digging usually is at –800m. Could we dig out from gusting winds coming over the ridge. The next enough sand to crawl through? Being the slimmer one, morning, the area around where we were camping had I got into the small gap we had created and started to several new burnt areas from lightening strikes near to kick out the sand to the side. After a short period the tent. Luckily, dwarf pine is better at attracting (well, you hardly notice time passing when you have lightening than tents. exploration fever), I was through and it continued. It got bigger, there was a junction, it got unbelievable. Then I remembered that we had to survey it.

62 careful. It was like having a bucket of cold water thrown over This placed me in a dilemma. Brain says it’s OK, so do your fireworks. We were back to reality with a bang. I go up, or do I go back to camp and wait several So we started from the junction, now called Red Cow hours for the next team, in the vain hope that they Roundabout after a famous pub/traffic island in have brought more rope into the cave? I decided to go Dublin and worked our way back. We would survey up - being stuck in a muddy draughty camp had no the stuff on from the junction the next day after a appeal. I had had enough, I wanted some daylight. night in camp. The next ‘morning’, we started the descent down the Big Rock Candy Mountain, with I can’t really say what I thought as I ascended the Brian leading the way. At the first short pitch, he could rope. I remember singing loudly to block out various not open his Stop - something had jammed in the thoughts about plummeting to my death. For once, it catch. Despite various attempts to bash out the sand, would be a blessing to have no imagination. Well, after we were thwarted. Evenually we got the message that gingerly going up the rope to the cut, I could clearly we were not going down but heading out. see the rock projection that had snagged the rope and caused Brian to saw through most of the sheath. Once So about turn and off to Zimmer. Brian again went I had passed the damaged section, I was full of the first, while I waited in the shelter of Friendship Gallery joys of spring, as the dread lifted from my mind. A as he slogged up the wet bit of Zimmer. All too soon I quick slash of the knife, several knots in the end and was on the rope. Just as I got to the rebelay, I heard the rope was no longer an issue, although now there Brain shouting about something. was no way down to the lead. On the way out, we bumped into Clewin and Jan and told them the bad “The rope what?” I said. news. Although they did not have rope on them, they knew that there was some on another lead a few “The rope is damaged, the sheaf is cut but it is OK” pitches back. So we wished them all the best and came the reply. headed for the surface.

Oh! I thought, as I had visions of hanging on by a single strand. Then a few minutes later, Brian said he was at the top and the rope was free, but just be

Martin demonstrating how not to take a Landrover across the Soca River

63 2004

This year, we pushed the horizontal section of the cave after Red Cow Roundabout, using a pleasant camp called the Fridge, as the fridge thermometer said it was 1c . The main issue became the fact that we were discovering hundreds of metres of dry, sandy passage and with no water around, we couldn’t move the camp closer to the pushing face.

We focussed on the area to the left of Red Cow Roundabout, as this pushed the horizontal section of the cave north towards a nearby peak, Tolimski Kuk. There was talk about getting under Kuk and on to the Kammo plateau on its far side . Looking back on it, it felt like we could reach infinity and beyond, as there were kilometres of barren limestone between ourselves and Triglav to the north, about 2 days walk away. Although I went down to the right of Red Cow Roundabout, this lead got ignored. It was not helped by Tim and I disappearing from the expedition, Tim to catch a plane, whilst I walked to Triglav. Only at the end when Tetley and Clewin were derigging did it get a second look. Again, they reported a storming lead.

2005

This year, we focused mainly on surface leads and shallow pushes, as the team was lacking in experienced members to go deep and run a camp. Over the years I have been on expeditions with Imperial and the Sloveneans of JSPTD, we have built up an excellent relationship with the local community, both cavers and non cavers, and this is one of the reasons we keep on returning. Of course, we still dream of uniting the Mig System with Gardeners’ World and making it the longest in Slovenia and knocking Postojna off the top spot. The only certain thing I know about the Migovic Plateau is that with three large caves under it, it does seem like a block of Swiss cheese. As for the future, who knows; maybe we will be back in 2007.

64 Ethiopia 98 - “a little more than a caving expedition...”

Bob Kynaston ______

In December 1997, I was approached by James The main priority was to move up country, so we had Hooper and Jim Evans, caving friends from London. to buy some tickets for the local bus service. Our They asked me if I fancied a new caving area. “Of guide helped out with the language barriers and course,” I replied, “What do you have in mind?” explained to us that the bus journey would be an experience to be remembered. “Ethiopia” Sunday 22nd March Once I had got up off the floor and dusted my clothes We arose from our hotel beds at 04:30 in order to down, I laughed for a bit. “But Ethiopia is a barren, make the 06:00 bus. We were told that the bus station flat country with no food or water and a lot of would be very busy, so it would be useful to tip the potential for building sand-castles. Why there?” taxi driver enough to take us direct to our bus. When we arrived at the station, an area of about 100m There were two good reasons for this particular square, with at least 40 buses lined up and several country: 1) Jim’s brother Mark and his wife Jackie thousand people trying to buy tickets for the limited Evans were going to be out there for 2 years with number of seats to each destination. There was no VSO and they would be able to do some research for way that we would have found the bus without some us, and; 2) there had been an expedition out there in help. 1978 with some interesting results. That was enough for me. We found our bus, an Italian 48-seater and it was in quite good condition. We had to pay extra to put our We decided that a group of three was an ideal number rucksacks on the roof and then we grabbed some to safe travel (oh, yes) and reduced the risk of getting seats. The cost of the 2-day journey and the extra lost in crowds or failing to get all your kit into one car. baggage was about 10bir each, that is about £1. It was strange that the back seats were empty, but we found Friday 20th March out the reason a little later on, when the tarmac I arrived in Heathrow at around 17:00, flight at 21:30, finished and the graded surface began. We were so there was plenty of time to get some ales down continuously bounced off our seats; by at least metre before the flight. At 19:15 Jim Evans and James and a half on some occasions. Hooper turned up (15min before check-in) with the tickets and the passports. It was then that we realised We made our way slowly north, up through the that this trip was really happening and this was the country towards Desay, which was to be our overnight first time we had met up as a team. stop. En route, we passed a group of squadies looking very confused and trying to work out how they would Saturday 21st March explain to their colonel why they had parked their During the 8-hour flight south to Ashmra and then on armoured car upside down and half submerged in a to Addis Ababa, we were accompanied by a group of pool of water! 27 American dental students, who were travelling out to an area west of Addis to assist in the building of a The bus would stop every 3 hours or so for a leg new wing on a hospital. ‘Brickies and labourers’ - I stretch and a chance to buy some sugarcane or soft think not. One in particular, who was sitting next to drinks from one of the many villages en route. People me during the flight, spent half her time flossing and were very surprised to see us. The impression that we crapping herself every time the plane even shuddered. got was that tourists did not use the bus service and that they normally flew up the country in an hour We had to learn fast in Addis; firstly do not pay for a instead of a two and a half day marathon. taxi in the airport (5 times the price of a private one). Secondly, do not allow anyone even to look at your We made good friends with many people on the bus bags (they will want a tip). We met up with a who wanted to practise their English. This helped us geological student outside the airport who we had when we drove straight through Desay, our scheduled stumbled upon by accident by sending an e-mail to the stop, and were told that there was still daylight left, so university asking if anyone from Addis had any we decided to try for the next village before nightfall. interest in caving. He replied that he was not interested, but he knew of some caves and he would We pulled up in Hike, a small village at about 2300m meet us at the airport. He did and he then acted as an altitude and which survives on a lake stocked with fish, excellent guide around Addis. which is about a 2km hike away. Our new-found

65 The area visited by the expedition

friends helped us find a hotel and a place to eat. A Wednesday 25th March meal for four people was based around Injura, a cross Up at 04:00 again to catch the local bus service. This between a pancake and a soggy dishcloth and tasted was to be a 4-5 hour run up to Mekeley, the capital of slightly of vinegar. This was the base to all Ethiopian the Tigray province, which was mainly limestone. food which would then have a assortment of curry, Mark had made a great contact for us in Mekeley. He potato, meat and fish put on top of it. The meal came got in touch with a small-time mining outfit called to 15bir, (about £1.50), while our hotel rooms were Ashinti Goldfields, which proved to be of great value. also 15bir each. We met with Ken Douglas (Irish), Keron (Ethiopian) and Roberto (Italian) of Ashinti in an office littered Monday 23rd March with geological maps, aerial photographs, satellite Setting off at 5:30 in the morning for the next part of images and plenty of rock samples for paper weights. our journey up to Mychew, where we hoped to join up They were all very helpful, showing us areas where with Mark and Jackie. The journey was amazing, up major faults cut across big gorges and how accessible and down the most fantastic roads and passes. One the areas were. hill in particular was a pass that climbed up around 1000m in as little distance with hair-raising bends and The next thing we needed was permission to look at no crash barriers: the Italians sure knew how to build the geological features in the area. Ashinti to the good roads. rescue - they set up a meeting for us for the following morning with The Minerals and Energy Department Arrived in Mychew, which was at about 2500m for Tigray. altitude, at around midday and soon found the Technical School where Mark and Jacky were Thursday 26th March teaching. After some tea and biscuits, they gave us a Met with Kerios (another one) at the Minerals tour of the town. Big mistake - we were now a group Department after being dropped off by one of the of 5 ferengeys, attracting children like sweets. By the Ashinti Land Cruisers. Not knowing what type of time we reached the monument on the top of a nearby response we would get from him, we gave a small hill, we reckoned we had around 150 kids at our feet - presentation of everything that we had found out the curiosity factor just drove them mad. A quick about the area, which was quite a lot, but we explained retreat through a cactus patch and an internal stone that we were not being paid or anything and the only fight between the older kids soon dispersed the crowd, gain was to be a sense of personal achievement. to our relief. The maps came out - first an impressive 100,000:1 geological map and then three 50,000:1 area maps which we would later be given permission to buy, but

66 for the meantime we could borrow and copy, which a big rubble slope went off into the distance, while on were great for field use. He also gave us a letter of the other side, there was a small building at the base of permission for access to the whole area and pointed a 20m high cliff with a 1m high bedding plane in it, out a gorge that should be of some interest to us, and an obvious gully which must produce water at intersected by 2 faults. We thought that we had some time or other. But alas, this was a holy place and achieved quite a lot and then he gave us a guide for the we were forbidden to go up to the cliff. day who knew that particular area and spoke good English. The rest of the gorge had little else to offer us so we headed back. The guide from the Energy Department We walked the 2km back to town on a high. Back at suggested that we might be interested in a 120m high Ashinti, we told Kerios of the new situation and that waterfall to the south of Mekeley, which an American we would have to hire a 4WD to get to the area. He had climbed a couple of years ago. We made our way pulled a couple of strings and got an old Land Rover over to Dubi, a small village situated about 7km to the for 330bir for the day as opposed to an air- south of Mekeley, where we sat down for a while in a conditioned Land Cruiser for 600bir. That night we small arboretum that had had a fair amount of money went out quite chuffed with our achievements. spent on it to try and grow different types of trees and shrubs: it seemed to have been quite successful. Friday 27th March Our Land Rover which was meant to meet us at 08:00 Undeterred, we returned to our vehicle and grabbed appeared at 09:00. But first we had to find a garage our SRT kits and rope. The paraphernalia and with electricity on in order to buy some petrol and accoutrements of SRT amused the locals a lot. We then we collected our guide for the day (whose name I rigged the pitch and rappelled down to a large didn’t write down). platform with a round burial mound in the middle of it. Directly behind it were several entrances to cave- Heading north east from Mekeley for about 20km to a passages, the small chambers in the caves being about village called MaiMeckeden (Mai meaning water), we 3m high and 5m long. There had at one time been a were quickly introduced to the elder of the community stone wall built around the front of the cave and the and shook his hand well. Next we were led to the roof was stained with what looked like tar and soot base of the village, past a couple of sunbathing dogs deposits from fires. The back of the cave was very and over a wall. Down the bank a few yards, there was interesting; there had been small alcoves carved out of a lot of limestone exposed on the side and it was the back wall, which according to the local priest were heavily covered in stal. A little later, we stooped into a used as a storage place for archives from Axum during cave that was being used as a storeroom. It was the Muslim invasions in the 14th century. The only heavily decorated and measured about 2m high. The possible routes off were all choked up with stal and front was about 4-5m long and it went back about 4m flowstone, which was a pity, but the find was still of into the bank, where several small tubes oozed tufa great significance. and stal. The waterfall was just below the village and it was We then continued climbing down the cliff to the base quite impressive. It headed a gully which was about of a small gorge, about 3m wide and 7-8m high. A 100m wide near the back end and then widened out to small resurgence at the base produced a trickle of a large valley after about 250m. We talked to the water. About 100m down the gorge, we came across a village elders and the priest, asking them if they knew plunge pool which was about 3m in diameter. The of any bati (caves) and after some amount of local who was with us said the pool never dried up and discussion between them, we were led down a bank to it was 5m deep: also, there was a small arch that you a point where we could see an entrance about 10m could duck under to a small cave on the other side. down the cliff face. This was a holy site and had not The water was green with algae, and the amount of life been accessible to anyone for a number of years, due in it would have kept David Bellamy busy for years, so to the difficulty of the climb down to the entrance. we decided to take the locals’ word for the cave. Saturday 28th March Our guide took us out of the gorge at this point, as we We decided that the area around Mekely was of some were told that it would be easier to walk along the top interest to us, but our best chance of finding any cave to the next point of interest. Walking for about 2 km, would be to move about 50km north west to Hargrave following a larger gorge about 25-30m deep and wide, Salam, where we had been in contact with a Belgian we were led down the side to a large alcove. This was geologist called Jan. He was studying soil erosion and draped in a massive stal curtain and covered in its effects. We decided to spend this day in Mekely flowstone, but any possible ways on were blocked off recovering, eating doughnuts, drinking beer and by the same stal deposits. chewing on sirloin steaks.

Nevertheless we continued down the gorge for another 2km or so, until we came across one of the faults cutting N-S across the E-W gorge. On one side,

67 A cave at MaiMeckeden

Sunday 29th March used during the war. The quality was quite impressive, Up at 04:30 in order to catch the local bus. We were but what do you expect from American Satellite maps. looked at a bit oddly when we asked for the bus to Hargrave Salam, because basically, this is not a tourist We tried to explain to our guides that we were after spot and no-one in their right mind would even want natural caves and not artificial holes. They decided to to go there, apart from a trio of mad speleologists of take us to another area. To my satisfaction, we headed course. After a painful 4hr bus journey to cover the back to the village and then started heading south east 50km, we arrived at our location. in the direction of the big limestone valley. From the top of the valley, we could see several intersections of This small village was situated on the side of a hill, at gorges and gullies stretching out into the distance, but 2630m altitude and with a population of about 1500. the sheer size of this area was going to prove to be a We were soon surrounded by hundreds of people. The big challenge, as the base of the valley was over 800m sight of white people was extremely rare and the below us. interest we generated was amazing. After some small communication problems, we found the Hotel Tegray Standing on the top of a sandstone cliff about 25m (aka Hotel flea pit). We soon found a couple of kids high, we could see that it wound around the north who wanted to practise their English - they showed us west side of the valley for several hundred metres. By where Jan lived, but unfortunately he was out. So, with now, we had gathered another crowd of children plenty of the day remaining, we went for the jugular from the village, which was situated above the cliff. and asked if the lads knew of any caves - they said yes, There many children eager to show us entrances along so we set out. the cliff, although being in sandstone, we could hardly refuse the offer. To my disappointment, we went north. My research had told me we had to go south, but what the hell. We The first of the entrances were just small solution walked for about 4km and eventually came across pockets and then, as they lead us round one of the some sandstone caves that had been used in 1990 by ledges about 10m down from the top of the cliff, we the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front as a came across a bedding plane about 10m wide and headquarters. From there, they master- minded the 0.5m high, which had been blocked by boulders being war against the government forces and won! The caves stacked across the entrance. Quick as a flash, we had been excavated out of the sandstone and several removed a helmet and light from our bag and started brick barracks had been built in them. There were to pull away some of the boulders to gain access to the many maps and plans laid out which the TPLF had cave.

68 The children warned us not to enter this cave as a a waterfall. The cave was littered in guana and the dragon lived inside, so of course we continued as any potential of histoplasmosis was considerable. We tried mad caver would. Just inside the entrance, we found not to disturb much of the guana, but it was very dragon food! This was in the shape of an ox’s head, difficult. the remains of a ribcage and one and a half legs. Outside the passage, the children were now begging us The cave was about 20m long and went up about 6- to come out of the cave, as it was too dangerous. At 8m, until it finally finished in a calcite choke. The same this point, a small snake passed in front of me by block of limestone also had many small alcoves and about a couple of metres. Okay, the kids have a point, tunnels. Unfortunately they were all blocked after maybe another day. only a few metres. The residents of the caves did not seem to mind us looking at them; they were quite large We retired from the cave, placing boulders back over bats about 15cm from foot to nose. the hole that we had made. The children then took us up to the top of the cliff and down a dodgy bank We were next taken to another resurgence a little covered in very short grass. After a very nerve racking lower down the valley. This was coming out from the few minutes, an entrance became obvious. It was right base of a cliff which was found to have a large cleft on the rim of the cliff. The hole was about 2m wide behind, but we did not have enough gear to climb and 1m high and draughting like mad - this had to be down it and the day was getting on, so we decided to interesting. Instead, it turned out to be just a short turn around and head back home. connection to another entrance. Tuesday 31st March Later that day, we returned to Hargrev Salam and Up at 05:00 again. The plan today was to do a round managed to meet up with Jan. The information that he trip incorporating a small village called Mia Bati (water had to offer was great. He produced a section through cave), about a 10km walk away from base. Jan had the valley which showed that the limestone beds were suggested a good route down to this area. Our guide horizontal and were 700m deep. Jan also pointed out had other ideas for route finding, which meant areas that would be of interest to us and helped us to spending several hours climbing down loose dirt and find a suitable guide. rock faces. As the morning progressed, I started to feel a little under the weather, but thought nothing of it. Monday 30th March After a good breakfast of scrambled eggs, we set out Arrived at the village, but there was no sign of water, in a southerly direction from Hargrev Salam. After apart from a dried up river bed and a few murky about 7-8km, we asked our interpreter to quiz one of pools. We followed the river bed down for about the local priests to see if they knew of any caves. another 1km and came across a waterfall about 30m There seemed to be a fair amount of discussion going high and 50-60m wide, cutting through the limestone on and finally we were led off further south and up the and riddled with holes. James and Jim went off to take side of the valley. a closer look while I sat back in a shaded spot, now feeling pretty ill. Even with an air temperature in the Once again, we were taken to more sandstone caves, 90s, I had goose bumps on my arms and felt quite but these caves did have Dragons in them! The chilled. entrances were about 4-5m wide and 2m high; they all went back for about 5-6 m and then tapered down to a I dozed for a few hours, but I was not improving, so 0.5m high passage. A rumbling noise was heard in the James decided that it would not be wise to continue to back of one of the caves and the abundance of the next area, which was some way off. We started to porcupine quills in the entrances was enough to tell us walk back up the valley towards base, about 12km and to abandon this area quickly. 500m above us. The heat of the day was just too much for me. I had to keep stopping to rest and now my We next headed back down the valley to go to one of bowels decided to react in a very violent way about the sites that Jan had mentioned. En route, we came every fifteen minutes. across a small school and a clean water storage project. A little further down the valley, there was a building We were able to find some shelter from the midday that housed a new engine and a corn mill. This had heat in a farm house. There, I dozed for about another been put here about three months earlier and still 3 hours before we set off again. The final leg was too needed to be set up: yes, it was very tempting. Here, much for me. By this stage, all my energy was gone we picked up a second guide, who came armed with a and the steepest part of the track was yet to come. kalashnikov for little reassurance and protection from any bandits - he was great. Jim, James, our guide and a couple of locals helped to support me up the hill and even along the flat section. The resurgence was an oasis of life. It was amazing When we reached the road, a passing Land Cruiser that so much life just appeared as soon as water gave me a lift for the last 6-7 km back to the village. sprung from the ground. We found several caves My condition worsened through the night and no around this point. One in particular was at the base of matter how much re-hydrate I drunk or Imodium I

69 took, there was no improvement. The only option was to travel back to Mekele and get medical help.

Wednesday 1st April (not much of a fools day) After a rough, sleepless night, we caught a bus back to Mekele, where we met up with an Australian doctor who managed to sort out an appointment with a specialist. After a good prodding, bits of me were taken away to be sampled. The diagnosis was ‘histolytica entamoeba’, better known as ‘amoebic dysentery’. The treatment was a course of tablets to kill the parasite, followed by antibiotics to heal any damage.

The next couple of days went very slowly and painfully, but James and Jim were great, sorting out an internal flight back to Addis for me and just generally looking after me. I flew back to Addis on the Friday afternoon and found a small hotel there, where I could crash out the following day until my flight left.

To sum it up, Ethiopia was an amazing country with some great people, but you would have to visit it to get an impression what it’s really like. From the caving point of view, the area we visited has huge potential and I believe that it needs looking at a little closer.

70 Buses, dragons and churches - Ethiopia 1998

James Hopper ______

“Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, served on injera, a flat spongy bread with the local and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who drink, tella, a ‘beer’ made from maize. The local expect that age will perform the promises of youth, market sold everything from sandals made out of tyres and that the deficiencies of the present day will be to stoves created from EC oil containers. supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia.” Samuel Johnson, All the local customs, dress and dance were very Rasselas, 1759. distinct and took a while to assimilate. We also tried to find out more about the fable of an ancient tunnel We stood in the final chamber, filled with awe and from Axum to Eritrea that was related to us by a trepidation. A dream had come true, against the odds. number of people. The story goes that two men But what would come next? A ray of light shone down entered this tunnel and while passing through it, one from above, illuminating the huge cavern. The man picked up a handful of sand. On exiting, he almighty unknown lay ahead, overcoming the heat and found the sand had turned to gold. They couldn’t discomfort. return to the tunnel (I can’t recall why). One man cursed himself for not bringing out any sand, while the A sharp jolt brought me to my senses. I was now on a other was angry and disappointed that he hadn’t take bus filled with Ethiopians chatting, gesticulating, more. smiling at the other two British people, Jim Evans and Bob Kynaston, heading north on the dirt road from The tunnel had never been found (it would be several Addis. I was not underground. I was not Indiana hundred kilometers long and could make someone Jones. Nor, au grand serieux, a Knight Templar. I very rich) and though we couldn’t find out anything hadn’t just found the lost Ark of the Covenant. more, such talk of caves and large discoveries quickly led to a feeling that we should continue our quest. We That was, I suppose, how it started though. The ark thus headed north again, to limestone, to Mekele, to (or tabot) is believed to be in Ethiopia, or Abyssinia as the inevitable bureaucracy of a reconnaissance, the country was once known. We had done our permits, meetings with officials and geologists, the research. We had also read James Bruce’s account of search for maps and information amid a friendly, an 18th century expedition to this land to locate the bustling, dusty town. source of the Nile, “two fountains that had no issue in the plain at the top of the mountain but flow from the In the end we found very little. By a normal definition foot of it.” of find, that is. But numbers, metres, depth, plan lengths and survey stations, I was surprised to This initial interest in the country had led Jim’s brother discover, can mean little. I was standing at the top of a Mark to teach there for V.S.O. I was caught up in the 100-metre waterfall. Local priests, dressed in white, excitement, enthralled with the enthusiasm. had told us via a translator that a cave lay halfway Limestone, we discovered, lay in the mountains in the down the cliff. They hadn’t been inside or even to the north and had never been thoroughly reconnoitred by entrance. No one had, as far as they knew, for several cavers. There were 800m thick bands of limestone and hundred years, since documents and sacred relics from 4000m high mountains which towered up above the as far away as Axum (100 km away) had been stashed annual clouds. Could we, at the very least, discover a there during the Christian-Muslim wars (1528-60). new cave system? Their information had been passed down by oral tradition, from generation to generation. The unknown lay ahead overcoming the heat and discomfort of a ten hour journey at an average speed As I helped rig a Y-hang, before an audience of vast of twelve kilometres per hour. Outside, the luscious, numbers of children and villagers, I was as excited as green countryside provided continual visual delights. I I’d be finding huge underground rivers and sailing was content, munching sugar cane, listening to the unexplored lakes, bolting 130m pitches and emerging recorded, rhythmic beats and undulating notes of a into huge decorated chambers. I attached my well- local musician, on the road again with my helmet and travelled descender and abseiled down to a ledge. torch. Behind me, Jim pointed to a rock shelter going back about five metres. Evidence of an ancient wall that We stayed with Mark and his wife Jackie for a couple bricked off the entrance could be seen. At the back of of days. Went for walks with over a hundred local the alcove, we observed several shelves that had been children for company. Local food was hot, and spicy, carefully chiselled into the wall and obviously used to

71 store something valuable. This, we realised, in all we were led to find someone who could explain. likelihood confirmed the stories of the orthodox clergy. A fascinating piece of history had been found So, in the conventional sense, we chanced upon very in which caves played an important part. It was quite little but experiences, stories, interesting places and possible that we were the first Europeans to stand in people, well off the beaten track, This produced a this awesome location, with water crashing down growing realisation, to me at least, that we were behind us and spectacular views of a long, deep gorge. discovering a veritable cornucopia of finds.

We saw caves, artificially enlarged, that were used by We awoke, once again, at about five in the morning. I the Liberation Army during the civil war. Our torches groped in the darkness to light a candle in my dollar-a- illuminated maps on the wall showing strategic night hotel room, made from mud with a corrugated positions. We sweated down a large valley to the iron roof. I could still smell the nauseous scent of the occasional cries of unseen monkeys, to discover small, petrol-based spray that I used to kill the bed bugs the decorated grottoes where prehistoric man may once night before. After a quick pit stop (literally!) I called have dwelt. to Jim and Bob and packed my rucksack with caving kit, bottles of puri-tabbed water, a first-aid kit and We were warned by frightened youngsters that other essentials. We then met with a local guide that dragons lurked in another series of caves. Long we had encountered the previous day, ate some food quivers lay outside the entrances and peering inside, I and left Hagre Salem (the land of peace) before dawn. could discern a forebidding pile of skulls and bones. I The whole village was beginning to stir, goatherds crawled in, intrigued, apprehensive. Perusing into the were calling their animals, hot coals being used to re- blackness, I caught a glimpse of something shuffling in light hearths. the passage beyond. I lay still, listening over the double beat of my heart. Then I saw it. A ‘dragon’, a We walked at a fast pace for three hours, watching the large porcupine-type creature. Slowly, I beat a cautious sky turn from black to blue via the whole range of retreat. greys, pinks and purples. The land here was not as lush On another occasion it was Bob who inched out of a as that seen to the south but harsh and rugged, with small cave, feet first, to be confronted by a farmer thin vegetation and little surface water. It was with a Kalashnikov. We tried to explain in sign predominantly limestone and we had worked out on a language and unsurprisingly, failed. We produced our map the areas we were interested in. The heat rose permission paper that we hoped said something like with the sun and it quickly became hot, ‘too hot!, “please give these speleologists any assistance they damned hot’. require”, but he was unable to read. So into the village

An Ethiopian church in a cave alcove

72 Soon after our white faces surprised a local child, Bob on to a small town. We later found out that the driver declared that he was tired and needed to rest. We got run over minutes after saying goodbye. I was more located a shady spot on the banks of a dry riverbed fortunate - having taken a very cheap course of and I immediately made use of the time to investigate, antibiotics, my cough had cleared up. After a night’s climbing around a ten metre drop to search for caves. sleep, we caught a bus that only just seemed to travel Nothing. Returning to Bob after a hair-raising climb faster than the camel trains carrying salt from the up a well calcited cliff, I realised that he really was not deserts in the south of the country. well. We slowly made our way back towards Hagre Salem, but the heat and effort was clearly too much. Wild craggy mountains and vast rocky escarpments We eventually (much time, short distance) came to a eventually provided the backdrop to the strikingly hamlet consisting of a few mud huts. There, a women singular town of Lalibela, one of the world’s best-kept with features that reflected the landscape led us into secrets. We were there to see the monolithic rock- her home, a small hut with thatched roof in the hewn churches and nothing could have prepared me traditional style. Clay pots stored the labours of the for them. Carved below ground level in the 12th previous harvest. century (some say by over 40,000 people, though locals claim it was done in a day by angels, with St. We lay down on animal hides to wait until it became George somehow being involved) the churches were cooler. Bob alternated between sweating and shivering big. Ringed by trenches and courtyards, they were and it dawned on me just how isolated we were. He connected to each other by a tangled subterranean had been touched by fever and was becoming maze of tunnels and passages. To anyone who had dehydrated despite drinking considerable quantities of spent hours digging a boulder choke or clearing a water. Finally we knew we had to leave, and so began a blocked passage, the place was truly awesome. It was slow walk with stops every fifty or so yards. Jim and I impossible to avoid thoughts of supernatural supported him on each side. Daylight and toilet paper intervention and Knights Templar and seekers of the were fast running out. I ran to the dirt road that only a Holy Grail. handful of vehicles used each day and was lucky to wave down a car. Wandering between the churches in the thin light of morning mass, white-robed hermits emerged bible-in- Bobby got a lift back to the village while Jim and I hand from their underground cells, the chill highland walked for an hour and a half to our hotel. A terrible air warmed by their gentle swaying chants. We entered night followed for Bob and only he can describe what a candle-lit church and were led to an opening behind it was truly like. The next day we travelled by bus for the altar. A natural cave passage led on into the four hours to Mekele, to the nearest doctors and mountain. And we finally gained a huge chamber with hospital. a ray of light shining down from above. The unknown lay ahead. And a jolt brought me to my senses. I was Bob flew back to Britain several days later with one of underground, on the Piccadilly line, heading home. the V.S.O. people to look after him. Jim and I, with a third week left, returned to visit Mark and Jackie for a few days. We had a 4000m high mountain to climb, Booka. A four-hour walk in the afternoon led up to a village at about 3500m, complete with a Coptic church. I coughed, wheezed and spluttered all day (having somehow caught bronchitis) as women passed us with huge loads on their backs. I was enjoying every minute though; the country indeed had an infectious spirit.

We had planned to camp and then reach the summit the following morning, but once again we were forced to succumb to the customary hospitality of the Ethiopians. We ended up squeezing into a mud hut with an elderly couple for an uncomfortable night. The next morning we woke up early and set off. As we gained in altitude, I found it harder to breathe and became disorientated, dizzy and lethargic. I knew I would not make it to the top, so lay down and fell asleep in the sun waiting for the others to return and wondering if this was some form of altitude sickness.

The following day we hitched a lift on a lorry, stopping after an hour to become inebriated with the driver on tej, (mead made from honey), then driving

73 Digging on an impressive scale - the rock hewn monolithic churches at Lalibela

Expedition Members: Jim Evans (ICCC / NPC) Bob Kynaston (NWCC / WSG) James Hooper (OUCC / WSG / ICCC)

References: Hancock, Graham: Sign and the Seal, Published by Mandarin (1995) Briggs, Philip: Guide to Ethiopia, Bradt Publications (1997) Pankhurst, R : Caves in Ethiopian History, Ethiopian Observer XIV (1) 1973 pp15-31 Caplin D. (Ed): The Caves of Ethiopia, 1972 British Speleological Expedition to Ethiopia, Transactions CRG Vol. 15 No. 3 pp 107-168 September (1973) Evans, Jim* : Ethiopia ‘98 In search of the Holy Grail, Imperial College CC Journal No. 21 Summer 1998 Moorehead, Alan: The Blue Nile, Published by The Reprint Society Ltd, 1963

* This gives a fuller account of the Expedition (that did not receive any sponsorship).

74 Dreaming of Caves in East Africa

Pete Jurd ______

So, you’re planning a caving expedition to East Africa? Community Cave, near Kisoro, south-western East Africa, the area surrounding the Great Lake Uganda. Victoria and the Great Rift Valley? The area which I was taken on a tour of this cave by four Ugandans was created by huge volcanic upheavals several million who had three pairs of shoes and one smoky kerosene years ago? Don’t you know that caves are formed in lamp between them. I was told exactly where the limestone which is not compatible with volcanoes? pygmies slept, where they went when it rained etc. etc. Are you mad?! One end of the cave finished with a low crawl that was drafting strongly. With clothes you wouldn’t mind True, you are not going to find the deepest or longest getting dirty and an hour or two with a spade, I am cave system in the world. In actual fact you are going sure you would get through. to be fairly hard pressed to get both feet and your head out of direct sunlight, but that does not mean Tatomb Cave, Mount Elgon, Eastern Uganda. that there is nothing of speliological interest in East If you do the trek, you camp in the entrance of this Africa. While you are never going to become famous spectacular cavern, which is an experience in itself. I from caving in East Africa, there is certainly no reason explored the bat infested passage for some way until why you should not spend a couple of enjoyable my friends got too scared. I was told that the cave had weeks exploring a few of the sites that do exist. been surveyed but no-one was able to show me the plan. East Africa is usually taken as the old British colonies (or protectorates) of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. At Amboni Caves, near Tanga, Eastern Tanzania. the time of writing, the situation in all of these You can get a guided tour around some of these caves, countries is fairly stable. The only areas to steer clear where leaders of the Mau Mau revolution in Kenya of are Northern Uganda and some border areas, for sheltered during the 1950s. There are several other example with Burundi, the Democratic Republic of caves in the area that you might be able to look in, but Congo and Sudan. However, things change fast with watch out for snakes! news reports on an almost weekly basis of a military coup in one African country or another. On the Lava Tubes, northern Rwanda positive side, Burundi has just had elections, so things Although Rwanda is not in my definition of East there may improve. The rule is to check before you Africa, these are some of the longest tubes in the travel. world. Unfortunately bodies were dumped in them during the 1994 Genocide and many of the tubes are Although all the igneous rock of the Great Rift Valley now seen as mass graves. One of my friends was does not sound promising, I have found that there are chased away from one by a man with a gun. The other many sites of interest to cavers throughout the region. tubes are in national parks where access is difficult due Most of these will have a local guide desperate to to bureaucracy, mines and rebels. show you around and regale you with implausible tales of cave-gods or pygmies for a small fee. Realistically, This is just a small selection of the caves actually here. there isn’t much chance of finding anything new. But I have found that most places I visit have some form you never know… of cave to see close by.

To give you an idea of what kind of things you could Challenges to an expedition in East Africa... visit, here are a few I have been to. Language Explosion Crater, near the crater lakes, south of Fort Local knowledge is the key to finding caves. After this, Portal, Western Uganda. goodwill has to be fostered within the local This very impressive shaft descends vertically into the community. Both of these rely on language skills. earth. At the bottom the water must be able to drain While educated East Africans speak English, most away as it has not turned into a lake. I was told that a people will only speak the local language, so few years ago some Americans had tried to reach the communication in rural areas, where the caves might bottom with ropes (I found the bolts they had used) be, could well be a problem. This would be especially but had failed. This was because it was “bottomless”, true if the site weren’t already a tourist attraction. in fact so deep that “even birds can not escape if they fly down”. It sounds like a challenge!

75 Equator

The East African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania

Transport The biggest risk to your life in Africa is the roads. Some of them have to be seen to be believed. The driving skills are often in even worse condition than the roads. Distances are also huge, with a traverse of Tanzania taking several days. If you wanted to hire your own car, prices are not cheap and you would need to be a proficient mechanic in case of a breakdown in the middle of no-where.

Bureaucracy Many sites are found within national parks. Gaining access to these could be difficult. The approval of local dignitaries would need to be sorted and they might well want something in return for the favour. And then of course, it is probably not possible to do what you want at all. Few people have internet access and letters take weeks. The best bet is probably to try and sort it out on the ground, but to accept that there may be disappointments.

So in conclusion, do not be put off. East Africa has a lot to offer to any caver or observer of the human condition. While there may not be quite as much enjoyment in the actual caving in this part of the world as in other places, the sense of achievement of actually having got to and enterance, and the things that you have seen on the way, more than make up for it!

76 A Short History of Caerllwyn

Duncan Minty ______

While our understanding of Caerllwyn’s history can The death of Rhys, the later betrayal of Jestyn by never be precise, its past can be traced back with some Einon and Jestyn’s subsequent defeat by Fitzhamon degree of certainty for a couple of centuries. What are told elsewhere. What this battle meant to the emerges is not so much a history of a single building, surrounding area was described several centuries later but more a historical view of the surrounding area, by Theophilus Jones, Archdeacon of Brecon, who in with the two brought together by the people who lived his 1809 ‘The History of Brecknockshire’ wrote : there. Hirwaun Wrgan, or at least a great part of it, where the battle For Caerllwyn, two features of the surrounding was fought between Justin ap Gwrgan and Rhys ap Tudor, in landscape have been influential. The first is Fan Foel, which the latter was defeated, is situated within this parish : it is rising steadily behind the cottage and beside which the an extensive boggy common, extending from two to three miles village of Penderyn has rested for many hundreds of east and west ; not only this plain, but almost the whole of years. The second is the common, Hirwaun Wrgan, Penderin, still bear memorials to this conflict. Bodwigad, as it is that lies spread out to the south of the cottage, across now called, and which the almost unlettered sculptor, in the the valley towards Craig y Llyn. Both have a rich church, has still corrupted further into Bodwiggied, or the history and it is against their background that the mansion of the wigs, was anciently Bôd waun y gâd, the abode or emergence of settlements like Caerllwyn can be set, mansion on the field of battle ; a valley also which runs across beginning with a momentous battle. the parish is called Cadlan, meaning much the same, and is studded with Carneddau, two of them are certainly military Some Early History memorials, one of which is about twelve or fourteen yards round, having a foss or dryditch about it, the other is above twenty yards At about the time the Normans invaded England, in circumference and nine feet high, there are also at least forty or Gwrgan held the lordship of Morganwg (present day fifty smaller heaps of stones in the fields adjoining the hill. Glamorgan) and tradition has it that Gwrgan bestowed a large piece of ground at Hirwaun as common land to Maps drawn up in the 1870s shows the site of a battle the people, it being named Hirwaun Wrgan in his some four hundred yards to the south of Caerllwyn, at memory. a place now covered by the factories of the Hirwaun Industrial Estate. Ton Rhys itself is shown even Upon Gwrgan’s death, the lordship of Morganwg nearer, lying just beyond the small bridge, at the point passed to his son Jestyn, who soon found himself in where having turned right, you would now go under conflict with Rhys ap Tewdwr, the lord of the Glyn Neath by-pass. A little further afield, Cwm Deheubarth, a powerful kingdom in south west Wales. Cadlan, the valley of the battlefield, is littered with The cause of this conflict is said to have been Jestyn’s warlike names and it may have been there that, in the refusal to acknowledge the overlordship claimed by pursuit of Rhys’s men after the main battle, much Rhys, but another account says it arose from the desire slaughter took place. of Rhys to possess Nest, Jestyn’s wife, a woman of rare beauty. In the two hundred years after this great battle, the area around Caerllwyn was to see several swings of Jestyn, in urgent need of assistance, sent Einon ap power between the Norman lordships and native Collwyn, a Welshman who had connections with the Welsh rulers. The Normans’ rule was far from secure, Normans in England, to seek military aid. Einon so much so that the reemergence of native power saw brought the much needed help in the person of Senghenydd hold sway southwards to within a few Robert Fitzhamon, who, with his 12 knights, 24 miles of Cardiff. esquires and 3,000 men-at-arms, landed at Porthkerry in 1090 or 1091. The combined Morganwg and The Norman lordships of the March, such as those of Norman army met Rhys ap Twedwr’s army on Glamorgan and Brecon, became frontier kingdoms in Hirwaun Wrgan, the first encounter of the battle miniature, defending their territory against local native taking place at a part of the common that became rulers, the greater Welsh kingdoms such as known as Ton Rhys, that is, Rhys’s turf. Jestyn and Deheubarth, and against each other, the latter Fitzhamon then retreated a short distance from Ton requiring formal peace treaties in order to cease. Rhys and after a sharp and bloody battle, inflicted a crushing defeat on Rhys. So began the Norman conquest of Glamorgan.

77 Caerllwyn soon after WSG moved in. Notice the bushes covering where the car park is now and growing up the gable end

Set amid these warring factions, the area would have hundred years saw a great energy emerge in the seen and suffered from more than the usual sways of economic life of Wales, with much of it concentrated military fortune for that time. Those living around Fan on the wool trade and on exploiting the mineral Foel would have been subjects by tutelage or possibly resources. by kin, to a native ruler, who in turn would have been subject to whichever Lord had control of the area at In the second half of the 16th century, iron ore began the time. to be mined around Rhigos. The iron furnaces that sprung up as a result depended on more than just local Small hamlets with a few outlying farms were ore. From nearby hills such as Fan Foel would have characteristic of settlement in Anglo-Norman Wales. come a plentiful supply of timber for making the The hilltop church above Penderyn, of which traces charcoal to fuel the furnaces, while local water supplies go back to the earliest Norman times, would have to work the bellows which produced the blast were given just such a focus to farms such as Bogwigiad and just as important. The success of the iron foundry at Trebanog. Much of the peasant housing however, was Rhigos was helped by the long war with Spain keeping fragile and impermanent and would have been demands for military ordnance high and by restrictions frequently rebuilt and realigned. imposed upon the manufacture of iron close to London. In time, the Norman lordships consolidated their hold on the area and with the stability that this peace The charcoal fired furnaces being worked within a few brought, the forests of upland Glamorgan would have miles of Caerllwyn slowly began to eat away at the been seen by an expanding population as an attractive surrounding woodlands. This pushing back of the tree source of food, fuel and building timber. It is likely to cover opened up new land for grazing or cultivation, have been from this period, between 1300 and 1400, allowing for a growing number of small agricultural that the southern side of Fan Foel saw more holdings. This appetite of the furnaces for wood permanent settlements established. became too great and as easily accessible supplies began to dwindle, so did the mining the area could It was to be another battle, this time fought far off in support. It became a shadow of its former self and central England, that opened up another era of change farming became the bedrock of the local economy, for the upland regions of Glamorgan. In 1485, the centred around the church and village market at battle of Bosworth saw the War of Roses end with Penderyn. Henry Tudor victorious. With Henry and his supporters’ long association with Wales, the following

78 Caerllwyn just after the tin roof had been blown off in 1972. Notice the thatch found under the tin sheet, the chimney at the top of the near gable end wall, the original tiny kitchen window, the absence of a back door and the two pitches to the rear roof, evidence of the kitchen as a later add-on. The original loo bucket room is on the left

A Place on the Map automatically increased income. Acts of Parliament were therefore passed over the years to get rid of the Penderyn’s fortunes have been much influenced by its obligation to pay tithes, culminating in the Tithe Act two mansions, Bodwigiad and Trebanog, meaning the of 1836 which commuted them once and for all into mansion in the field of battle and the dwelling on the monetary payments. summits respectively. Both had connections by marriage with leading families in Brecknockshire and The very nature of enclosure and the commutation of the church of Penderyn was traditionally under the tithes helped create delineated and identifiable plots of control of the lords of Brecon. land that were being brought into cultivation or used for habitation. This long process of enclosure would The rector of the church at Penderyn would have been have helped formalise the site upon which Caerllwyn supported by vicarial tithes, paid in kind by the now stands and perhaps even the name itself, as we’ll parishioners around Fan Foel and Cwm Cadlan with now see. crops, wool, milk and the like. These payments in kind were progressively substituted with monetary The word Caerllwyn has one thing in common with payments, this tendency being stimulated by land many Welsh placenames - it has been mangled by the enclosures, particularly in the 18th century. At times English. Spelt in this way - Caerllwyn - it could mean such as the end of the 18th century, when William the same as its namesake in Gwent, that is, the ‘high Morgan was both rector of Penderyn church and place of the encampment’. With such a great battle owner of the mansion at Trebanog, the control both having been fought nearby, this produces a marvellous spiritual and secular over those working the land red herring. Spelt in its old way - Cae’r-llwyn - it has around Fan Foel is clear. the meaning in keeping with its surroundings - the ‘field of bushes’. Enclosures were often carried out to improve the land and its yield, and had they proceeded without the Estate maps of the late 18th century for neighbouring commutation of tithes into money, the religious and farms such as Pentwyn and Tylau Morgrig show many lay owners of the tithes would have received an names of a similar origin - Cae’r Coed, Cae’r Wayn

79 The 1830 First Edition Ordnance Survey map of the area around Caerllwyn, taken from drawings made about 1814. ‘Carlwyn’ is shown just below the dead centre point. and Cae Pwdwr for instance. That each field carried a recorded simply as a building. As it is not shown as a name reflects the closeness, through dependence, of homestead, like other farms around it, we can assume the farming families to their small holding. it was unoccupied at that time.

Another process of delineation and mapping in the It is likely that in the period between the 1814 OS beginning of the 19th century provides us with the survey and the 1840 tithe map and apportionment, first evidence of the cottage’s existance. This was the Cae’r-llwyn was abandoned as a homestead. Two first edition of the Ordnance Survey, drawn at a scale events may have precipitated this : firstly, the 1830’s of one inch to the mile and published in 1830. The saw what was to be that century’s worst depression map for the Penderyn area (shown above) was in fact and many farm labourers would have lost their jobs based upon a survey carried out in 1814. That survey and therefore their homes ; secondly, resistance to the identified a site with a name they noted down as expense of the Poor Law may have seen some local Carlwyn, similar in shape to that of the present day farmers closing down their marginal tenanted and containing two buildings positioned in much the properties in an attempt to temper the rise in rates same way as today. The line of the present day road is experienced in that period. clearly identifiable, although instead of turning right on reaching the river, towards the present bridge, the People at Caerllwyn track crosses straight over by way of a ford. The first record of who lived at Cae’r-llwyn is found in The tithe map for the Lower Parish of Penderyn was the census. These began in 1841, but in that year, there produced in 1840. The site of the OS’s ‘Carlwyn’ is is no recognisable entry for Cae’r-llwyn, indicating that shown as plot 223 and has the same two buildings as it was uninhabited its predecessor. The accompanying apportionment lists the ownership, size and use of each tithe plot. It It is in 1851, on the night of the 30 March, that the shows plot 223 as part of the holding of Trebanog next censor recorded the following people residing at Ucha, this farm being shown on the tithe map, rather ‘Carllwin’ : John Morgan, a 79 year old widower and confusingly, in the same place as Tai Cyplau. Trebanog farmer of 4 acres; his son Rees aged 34 and daughters Ucha is owned by Morgan Morgan Esq. (more of Mary and Margaret, aged 39 and 27; plus a visitor, whom later) and occupied by Jenkin Williams. Plot John Jones. 223 is not actually named as Cae’r-llwyn, being

80 The Morgan family can be traced back to the 1841 Mary Richards was to die in 1906, being buried census, where they were recorded as living in alongside Phillip in the graveyard of Penderyn Church. ‘Trebanog Ishaf’, the farm a short distance from the Of Gwenllian’s five daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah present bridge. were to die young. Ann never married and worked as a dressmaker until retiring to live in Cae’r-llwyn It is in the record of the 1861 census that Cae’r-llwyn’s bungalow, built in 1936. Mathilda married and had one past connects more definitely to its present. It shows daughter, the Mary we know, who inherited Cae’r- ‘Caerllwyn’ as home to a large family, that of Phillip llwyn upon her Aunt Ann’s death in 1977, aged 98. and Mary Richards. Phillip is aged 39, an iron miner Gwenllian’s fifth daughter, Mary, had three children, and native of Penderyn. Mary is aged 44, shown as an Gwen, Merlin and Betty. Merlin (the present Mary ‘iron miner’s wife’ and a native of Ystradfellte. With Richard’s cousin) married Stella and they lived in them were living eight of their nine children: David, Cae’r-llwyn bungalow into the late 1980s. The present Mirian, Richard, John, William, Philip, Gwenllien and Mary Richard is the great-granddaughter of Mary and Ann. The eldest, Thomas, was absent that night. Their Phillip. family bible is with the present day Mary Richards. The 20th Century The elder children had been born in Rhigos, while the younger three had been born in Penderyn. Phillip aged Towards the end of the 19th century, Tai Cyplau had 6 and Gwenllien aged 4 are recorded as being been sold by the Morgan family, who continued on ‘scholars’, so they must have been receiving some there as tenants instead. After Mary Richards died in form of education. The sons from nine year old 1906, Cae’r-llwyn was rented out. It is known that Jean William upwards are shown as the sons of an iron Phillips lived there for many years between the two miner – it is likely that they were working in some way world wars. In the 1940s and 1950s, a railwayman, Mr by that age, probably alongside their father. Stephens, lived there until passing away. It was probably his railwayman’s coat that was found Mary Richards had been born in 1816, to the Morgan between layers of the roof when winds ripped it open family that was subsequently to move to Tai Cyplau, in 1972. the farm across from Cae’r-llwyn. After she married Phillip, the family lived in Rhigos, leaving there for There are a few pictures of Cae’r-llwyn before WSG Cae’r-llwyn around 1853. It is possible, but took up residence in 1968. One is of Ann Morgan unsubstantiated, that Mary was related to the 79 year standing at the front gate. This gate is only a few feet old John Morgan living at Cae’r-llwyn in 1851 and that across and there is a hedge going back from it towards Mary and Phillip moved to Cae’r-llwyn after he died. the left hand side of the cottage door. The other is of the rear of the cottage, taken up high from across the Ten years later, at the time of the next census in 1871, stream. The two separate roofs of the cottage and Phillip and Mary are still at ‘Carllwyn’, with David, kitchen can be clearly seen. John, Phillip, Gwenllian and Ann. It is known that Thomas had become a cashier by then, at a colliery The history of Cae’r-llwyn is an unremarkable one, for over in the Rhondda and that Marian had married. it is like that of many other old cottages along the top Richard had died five years earlier. of the Valleys. While it has had its periods of decline, several people over the years have found good reason The 1881 census shows Mary Richards, now aged 64, to repair it and live there - Phillip and Mary Richards living at ‘Caerllwyn’ with her children Phillip, aged 28 for their large family and a group of cavers as a club and Ann, aged 22, both unmarried. hut. How much of the present fabric dates back to these earliest times, nearly two hundred years ago, is Some time before 1881, Mary and Phillip’s daughter impossible to say. It is reputed to be the third oldest Gwenllian married Morgan Morgan and returned to building in the area, after the Red Lion and the barn her mother’s former home some one hundred yards lying against the road at Pontcefnffordd farm. We opposite, Tai Cyplau. There, she raised a family of five should do what we can to ensure that in 2200, daughters, Ann, Mathilda, Mary, Elizabeth and Sarah someone can look back on another two hundred years and three of these daughters figure prominently in of the cottage, whoever that may be. how WSG came to occupy and hold on to Cae’r-llwyn.

On the night of the census in 1891, we find Mary Richards, now aged 75, still living at Cae’r-llwyn , on this night with Gwenllian’s daughter Ann. The family story is that each of the five Morgan daughters took it in turn to spend the night with their grandmother in Cae’r-llwyn. It is this Ann, some 78 years later in 1968 and now aged 89, that was to rent Cae’r-llwyn to the Westminster Speleological Group.

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