• Richard by the confusing signpost

  • Rachel in the OFD Streamway

  • Richard in the OFD streamway

OFD 1 to 2

Whilst someone was haunched over their PC trying to enter the inner workings of the blog, we were resting in preparation for the weekend’s adventure. Hmm … I wonder which resulted in the most fun?!

The weekend was a Chelsea Spelaeological Society meet-up at Whitewalls. We travelled down on Saturday morning and met 12 other cavers at the South Wales Caving Club. Our destination for the day was a through trip from OFD 1 to OFD 2. We have done this trip before, but it’s a spectacular streamway and well worth a repeat visit. In addition, it was extra nice knowing that SWCC now own seven acres of land including the entrance to Ogof Ffynnon Ddu I! Well done SWCC!

The weather had been rather wet and we were expecting fairly high flows in the streamway, so a decision was made to wear wetsuits under oversuits. This turned out to be a really bad idea! The water levels were slightly higher than when we were there last time, but not excessively so, and the only thing that was achieved by wearing a wetsuit was being extremely hot and not being able to move very easily at all. At one point I was scooping water into my wetsuit just to cool down!

The trip went as planned (except for the thunderstorms in our wetsuits) and we had a great time negotiating the various climbs, crawls and deep pots in the floor. Our photographer wasn’t with us, so here’s some pictures from our last trip in the OFD streamway in October 2007 (thanks Brendan)!

Rachel in the OFD Streamway
Richard in the OFD streamway

On Sunday we were pretty tired from the wetsuit-induced exertion and it was also club hut maintenance day, so Richard and I spent the day cleaning walls, moving rocks and making tea. We did manage a walk later in the day and found this signpost!

Richard by the confusing signpost

8 thoughts on “OFD 1 to 2”

        1. Mine has! I no longer use the borrowed green suit with the large tear in the back, or the elbow pad on one knee! Sadly, that particular outfit also appears on p.173 of “The Complete Caving Manual” by Andy Sparrow. 😳

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