What would’ve normally have been a day at work for me was instead a day of caving, a few weeks earlier a trip had been arranged to go caving on a weekday which was a welcome change from being at work. Caving today was myself, Mike Smith and Helen Marshall, Pant Mawr pot was the cave of choice, the cave is accessed via either SRT or by a caving ladder and lifeline, we chose SRT for today’s trip.
Mike picked me up shortly before 10am and we made our way to meet Helen at the car park next to bridge cave, after meeting up with Her and getting kitted up we made our way up on to the moorland on which Pant Mawr pot is located. Shortly after getting to the cave we were joined by a couple of young lads who had walked over from SWCC and were also going into the cave, we had a short chat with them while putting on our SRT kit then it was time for me to rig the entrance pitch, it is only a short pitch so not too long later we were all at the bottom taking our kit off and making our way down through the cave.
Entrance pitch
The bottom of the pitch
After a few minutes of walking down the streamway we encountered the first boulder choke, in which I took a few wrongs turns but a short while later and after a nudge by the young lads we encountered at the entrance we found the way down and on. We were only back in the streamway for a short distance when we got to the second choke, going up through the choke opens straight into straw galley which is a stunning alcove adorned with fine calcite straws, after a few photos we made or way on. Once back in the streamway we made our way down to sabre junction, the Sabre being one of the fine formations in this cave. Once at the sabre we stopped for a few photos then made our way on through the cave.
Straw chamber
The Sabre formation
After passing the 3rd choke we entered the ‘the great hall’, which as the name lets on was quite roomy. We could hear the fire hydrant before we got to it, the fire hydrant is the name that was given to a small inlet which quite thunderously pours water a lot of water into the cave, this also meant we weren’t too far away from the end sump. After a short wander down some nice narrow phreatic passage we got to the sump, which even though was good to see it did mean it was time for us to turn around and make our way out.
the great hall
the fire hydrant
On our way out we had a little detour into “the Graveyard’ which leads to the vestry and the organ loft, we got to into the vestry but didn’t end up climbing up into the organ loft, this was left for another day. Once back in the main passsge and a short distance upstream past Sabre junction we came to a short climb/svcramble off to our right hand side, we’d seen it on the way in and purposely left it till last as it was Mike’s first time in the cave, this took us up into a fine bit of passsge called ‘the chapel’ this is decorated with helectites, straws, crystal pools, calcite flow, it’s got a lot going on in there, here true to firm we took a few photos and proceeded to make our way back out.
The chapel
A short distance later that we were back at the bottom of the entrance pitch, where we decided we go and have a look at the waterfall which only took five minutes or so, it wasn’t much of a waterfall today but still had water coming down it. Once back at the pitch we got kitted up and was ready to prusuk out, I went up first, followed by Helen, Mike came up last, he very kindly de-rigged the pitch for us. Once out we quickly sorted ourselves out, packed the ropes away, took a couple of selfies and made our way back down to the car park. A really enjoyable day and trip was had by us all. Where to next is the question now…
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