“Take me down
6 underground
The ground beneath your feet”

— Kelly Ali, Sneakerpimps 6 Underground

Caving really was the last thing I’d expected to enjoy. If fact most people’s reaction, even from my more outdoorsy and adventurous friends when I said I wanted to join a caving club was ‘no way I’d ever do that’. Nearly always also followed with a description of the worst possible way they could imagine dying underground, some with a story from the news about a horrible death for good measure. And I get it, the fear of being trapped underground is one that’s very common and I guess totally natural. But I like being able to see stuff nobody else has and I it doesn’t bother me a lot. Apparently that makes me unusual not that I wasn’t already.

It’s taken me years to finally join a caving club, because of bad health and a number of bereavements including most recently may dad. Despite all this I’ve finally joined North Wales caving club. Obviously I’v been through a lot but I figure that being in a super sketchy situation will take my mind off what’s happened the last few months, well it works in my logic anyway. Time to become a mole man.

Alone In The Middle Of Nowhere

I’ve spent some time getting my stuff together and kick myself for not getting a caving suit, I’m meeting the club at a place called poachers cave in Cilcain and I know from a little investigation, that this place is definitely going to be muddy. According to the Cambrian Caving Council website this was discovered in 1978 by the North Pennine Caving club. Before I get crucified however by the NWCC I’m now part of it was being dug originally by the NWCC and the reason why it was called poachers cave from then on as a nickname was that during a point where they were unable to dig for various reasons the NPC came along and dug it and made the breakthrough. And I can understand why’d they be pissed about that.

I’ve never been here before and I’ve driven about an hour to vanish down some country roads seemingly away from everything, eventually however I pull up in a dark carpark in the middle of nowhere. I sit for a bit then start to get my gear ready, because years of doing this kinda thing makes me to never be the one people are waiting for. While I’m doing this a car parks up next to me, so either this is the caving club secretary Tony or I’ve made it look like I’m dogging or I’m going to be murdered. Thankfully it is Tony and we have a chat and he lends me a waterproof hazmat looking suit thats bright yellow, so now I look like a miner / banana hybrid.

Before long two others arrive and when we are all ready we walk a short distance to a muddy and very steep path into the darkness. It is a proper struggle getting down a steep slope in a set of wellies though it levels out to a trail with a cliff to our right. We stop at the foot of this cliff at a very small opening in the rock.

The other new recruit Jordan helps one of the leaders to unfurl and drag a caving ladder into the cave. Tony has headed back to the cars to see if the rest of the club have arrived . I follow Jordan on hands and knees through the tiny tunnel before I see the guys have come to a slightly larger chamber. Here there’s a rusted metal cover that’s been lifted off square metal hatch covering a hole down into darkness and the unknown. The chap leading sends Jordan down first down the ladder but also on a rope, and I watch him struggle to get through the tiny opening in the floor like the ground itself is eating his legs.

I’m second to go down, struggling to get my wellington boots onto the rungs of the caving ladder which is only about 30 cm wide. It kind of has to be through to fit down these awkward spaces, but it doesn’t make descending easy, just possible and awkward. Kicking the ladder out with my foot that’s on the rung to get my other foot in is suggested as the ladder is very close to the rock, which I try but the gap below is so narrow I can barely see anything. It’s about 3m down which isn’t far and I’m also on a rope belay but it’s a pretty knobbly opening so if I do fall I’m gonna get a bit of a bruising. Suddenly after struggling like a panicked fish on a hook my feet do touch the floor and I take a look around and I’m already excited for this we are in a mine shaft that connects to the cave. This I’m assuming is the old Dyers adit mentioned by the CCC this passage is a ‘blind’ adit which according to the mining terms I’ve had to look up means it’s a passage dug underground that either goes up or down and never reaches the surface. If you get claustrophobia after just reading that then you probably don’t want to continue reading this blog! Apparently the adit itself was part of an attempt at lead mining.

We make our way to one end of the mine shaft and as it connects with the cave, the blocky ceiling gives way to smoother cave ceiling. Here there’s what I’ve seen described as ‘moon milk’. A nickname that apparently has its roots in medieval times. This was the belief that rays from celestial bodies somehow condensed on earth, this being seen as solid moonlight apparently. Though that sounds very fairy tale like, though the likely hood is it’s actually some kind of calcite deposit, I’m not a scientist though and a quick look at caving sources tells me that there’s not one answer for what it is unless you analyse it, and I’m not here for that. I’m here for the thrill of being underground looking at cool stuff most people will never see.

Isosceles Passage

This is one I’ve heard of during my looking this up and its is pretty impressive, a river/water worn triangle shaped passage through the stone. Apparently this was glacially formed and is one of only two in the uk, I say apparently because I haven’t looked further into it. If anyone does though feel free to tell me where you found the reference in the comments! There’s what looks like stone with a water course worn through here however this turns out to be semi hard and very slippy banks of clay. Walking through the narrow water course proves a bit of a challenge, it seems to be just about welly width and I’m expecting to end up on my face at any moment.

The Water Section

There’s plenty of hands and knees crawls and type two fun down here, especially on the difficult to grip clay. Before long we are entering part of the cave where the underground section of the river Alyn above which the cave roughly follows the path of. With nowhere to escape the rushing of the water fills the cave with white noise but of course there’s a crawl through involved.

It’s very cool seeing the water flowing through this passage though it does remind me that being this sort of cave, if there’s a storm it can flood. Luckily that’s not on the weather forecast but it does make you wonder what you do when there’s a freak downpour in these situations. As a first time out I have to admit the club hasn’t taken us down a boring one that’s for sure. My camera has already taken a hell of a mud bath so far and I have to take a moment to wash some of the mud off. There’s something dreamlike and otherworldly about being down here, in the darkness and almost directly under a river.

The Cavern

We come across a large cavern known as ‘the big boss’ where a few routes appear to converge and here can be found a formation where flowstone from the ceiling has covered a stack of boulders. It’s quite an impressive formation and makes for a decent photo.

We all explore to what is pretty much an abrupt stop this we are told is the end of the cave here, though they are still digging looking for new routes and they have done dye testing in the area. We are pretty much directly under the car park at this point just on the wrong side of the floor.

For a last challenge before we leave she are shown an awkward entryway down into the lower levels of the cave, where a lot more water appears to pass through a much smaller space. Jordan goes down first and Tony tells me I don’t have to do this if I don’t want to. Honestly seeing Jordan having to squish himself backwards through a tiny hole in the rocks does make me think twice. Until at least Tony tells me what’s down there and being as usual after an awesome photo opportunity I’m suddenly all in. Wiggling myself backwards down this thing is more awkward than my brain in social situations. Finally after making like a moonwalking caterpillar I get enough space to turn myself round into my actual direction of travel. I’m seeing for the first time this lower passage and it’s kinda gnarly the sound of roaring water here makes it very hard to hear each other. I haven’t done much caving up until this point in my adventures but I can see this is totally worth pushing myself physically a little bit more for. We have been at this over 3 hours but I’m keeping going because it is pretty cool in here.

Pushing ourselves down this passage full of fast flowing water is a bit of a struggle, eventually we get the the end where there’s a big drop into seeming nothing. This it turns out is a sump, and I’m glad I don’t fall down in. Heading back is more challenging firstly I can’t get a grip on the clay we slid over earlier and the chap leading us has to give me a boost, and then crawling back up the watery passage against the water is a lot more effort! Exiting where I came in backwards is so awkward I get wedged in a. portion I can’t push up from so the guys have to lift me up by the arms! We make our way out of the cave and back to the cars, I’m so covered in clay I get it all over my car. It’s probably enough to mould some kitchenware out of in fact. But this has been awesome and I’m looking forward to my next outing with NWCC.

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