• Keith in a shale collapse Chamber in Productus Passage

  • Richard viewing a straw column in Productus passage

  • Richard in Productus Passage above the Green Canal - Dan Yr Ogof

Dan Yr Ogof, that sinking feeling….

Building up the shots for the photo library of the Dan Yr Ogof cave means that we do get to go to some obscure places, and this trip was to be no exception. The aim was to go to Productus passage, a Phreatic tube high above the Green Canal that contains lots of glutinous mud.

Richard in Productus Passage above the Green Canal - Dan Yr Ogof
Richard in Productus Passage above the Green Canal - Dan Yr Ogof

En route to the Green Canal we stopped off to look at the pretties in Flabbergasm Oxbow and also provided action sequences for Keith’s video as we went through the Long Crawl. On reaching the Green Canal I carefully wrapped my SRT tackle bag in a life jacket to ensure that I did not befall the fate of Keith, but I hadn’t got 10m along the canal before I realised that bag had come away from the life jacket and was now at the bottom of the canal! After a couple of minutes treading water in search of the bag we carried on and shared kit to get up to the passage 20m above the Green Canal.

Richard viewing a straw column in Productus passage
Richard viewing a straw column in Productus passage

The passage takes its name from a prominent fossil marker bed. The roof of this passage is so thin in places that it collapses and the shale band above drops down to form small chambers. It is in these small chambers that some beautiful arrays of straws and formations are found.

Keith in a shale collapse Chamber in Productus Passage
Keith in a shale collapse Chamber in Productus Passage

16 thoughts on “Dan Yr Ogof, that sinking feeling….”

  1. As ever, your photos are fantastic :love: ; the best on the site. 😀
    Is it your camera, your eye for colour and composition or the setting (although its hard to believe that a hole underground would come out better than a mountain landscape!) 😉
    Although I have noticed a lack of cakes on some of your posts 😆 😆

    1. Thanks for that. The great thing about cave is that they are dark, you simply light the pretty bits and let the not so nice disappear into the darkness.

      I shall have to try harder with the cakes, they real tricky to transport in a tackle sack 😆

        1. I do my best, give him the flash gun and send him out of the way down the passage to do the back lighting, but sometimes there is just him and me – you have to work with what you’ve got don’t you?

  2. We completely forgot about the amusing, rather unfortunate business in the curry house later in the day. Brendan, Rich, Chris and I went straight for a curry in the Valleys after caving. We enjoyed it immensely, it is a shame we would never find the restaurant without Brendan to show the way. However, following the meal, they brought out the white clothes and although we had been careful to look presentable going into the curry house we had underestimated how much mud was actually on our faces and hands…. so we spent the next few minutes hurriedly positioning the clothes so that the mud was not overly visible! … and then headed for the door rapidly

    1. HA HA, this reminds me of a time way back when a bunch of us called into a curry house near Shrewsbury after climbing at Pontesbury. I’d gone to the crag on my motorbike and only had rock shoes and biking boots with me. The later of which I’d walked to the crag in and gotten them covered in mud, so I went in to the curry house in my socked feet to save their carpets. As we left the manager asked me to never come back! 😯

      Maybe I should have worn the rock shoes – the discomfort would have been worth it as the curry was delicious and I’d have liked to go back someday… :yum:

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