Daren Cilau, South Wales
Grade 5 Cave
Llangattock Mountain is an area of limestone which rises behind the
village of Llangattock in South Wales. The limestone here is riddled with
caves and watercourses with Daren Cilau and Agen Allwed being the major
systems. Daren Cilau has approximately 26 km of explored cave passage and
new passage is still being found by a determined group of regular diggers.
Discovered in the 1960s, Daren Cilau begins with it's tough and infamous
600m entrance crawl. From the end of the entrance crawl a number of
different trips are possible including 'to the Antlers', 'to the terminal
sump' and 'to the Restaurant at the end of the Universe'.
John and I traveled down to South Wales on the weekend of the CDG Welsh
section AGM. After an entertaining evening in the Fountain pub and a night
at White Walls - the Chelsea Speleologial Society hut - we were up at
eight to head into Daren Cilau. We walked up onto Llangattock Mountain and
to the small, old quarry that is the entrance to the cave. We'd been told
that the first twenty metres of the entrance passage was the worst being
low and particularly wet. Oversuits zipped up we crawled into the cave.
Immediately it becomes apparent that this is going to be awkward!
Apparently the best training for the entrance passage of Daren Cilau is to
lie next to a wall in the rain doing one-arm press-ups and I wouldn't
argue with that. After about a hundred metres there's a feature known as
'the vice' which is a particularly awkward piece of passage being tight
and low. Towards the end of the passage there's the 'stal squeeze' which
involves crawling through a body-sized hole in a flowstone curtain.
Eventually we reached the end of the entrance crawl which breaks out into
a large rift passage. The sense of relief amongst the party was tangible
and only tempered by the fact that we had to go out the same way.
From here the cave changes character with some larger passage mixed
with flat-out and hands-and-knees crawling. Before too long we arrived at
The Big Chamber Not Very Close to the Entrance. Here there's a log book
which we filled in with details of our intended trip. There's also a doll
strung up with conservation tape which is something that I've not seen in
a cave before but makes a handy landmark to identify the position of the
log book. We decided that it would be nice to see the Time Machine so
headed off towards St Valentine's Chamber and the ladder. The ladder takes
you up from large rift passage into another series of passages twenty
metres above. There's a rope and a pulley at the top so that people can be
belayed up and down and you're pretty glad that there is because it's a
big drop. From the top of the ladders some mixed crawling, stomping and
handline climbs lead to the Time Machine - one of the biggest sections of
known cave passage in the UK. I'd seen some photos of the place and was
really looking forward to seeing it for myself. It really is a tremendous
place. The floor is made up of large boulders and the route through is
marked with reflective tape. It's one of those sections of cave that's
just so big that you feel as though you're on the flanks of Scafell Pike
at night rather than underground. The section of cave after the Time
Machine is covered with crystals and there are also some stunning
helictites in Bonsai Passage (see photo above). After much stomping, the
final part being in a small streamway we arrived at the Hard Rock Cafe.
This is the camp where digging teams generally stay whilst digging in the
cave and is very well resourced with food, fuel and alcohol. We carried on
through to the streamway at the end which was a torrent of water heading
for the terminal sump. On the way back we stopped off at the Hard Rock
Cafe for a hot drink and some food before making our way out the same way.
The journey out was steady up until the entrance crawl which is hard
work no matter which way you look at it. We didn't rush on the way out and
that makes things easier. Finally, we escaped into the cold night air and
rain about eight hours after entering the cave. Daren Cilau is a great
trip and one that every caver should do at least once. The entrance crawl
is hard work but not too bad if you take your time and it's well worth it
to see the amazing known cave and potential for exploration beyond.
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