My local caving club, North Wales Caving Club (NWCC) has been active for decades, and a few years ago I joined them. Recently I have joined them on trips down Ogof Dydd Bryaf – Cave of the Shortest Day (ODB) and Cabin Shaft. Both of these are located around the Minera Quarry area west of Wrexham. For access to these please contact NWCC.
Ogof Dydd Bryaf – Cave of the Shortest Day (ODB)
This was a joint trip with NWCC and Crewe Caving Club. The entrance series was a series of mined tunnels which ended in a single ladder pitch. A short wriggle around a corner and the then natural cave opened up into a impressive chamber with some excellent formations.
The cave then gets smaller going into some low crawls and then drops through a slightly disconcerting pile of rocks called the lobster pot followed by a vertical slot like passageway with some short traverses and ladders. Down a short crawl and this then popped up through a dig into “star chamber” which was covered in sparkling crystals on the roof and walls.
From the caves descends through a long dug out crawl which is very tight in a couple of places before popping out into a large railway tunnel sized (larger in some places) passageway with sumps at each end. We briefly explored the “west country area” where we saw remains of bat skeletons nearby. A short loop around another passage brought us back towards the long crawl, where we made our way out.
On the way out we visited Red Stal chamber and also a small grotto beneath the first main chamber.
All the above images were taken with an OM System TG-7 compact tough camera, which is an excellent companion for sport trips and expedition photography. Photos lit with normal LED head torches. I hope to return to ODB soon with my OM System OM-5 on a dedicated photo trip!
Sam's Photo Gallery 