Cwmorthin: deeper than ever

Cwmorthin has close to 30 levels. Most are inaccessible. The top 10 or so levels can’t be accessed because of collapses, and the lowest ten or so are flooded. The Goldilocks bit is in between. But the mine is connected internally with Gloddfa Ganol, an active quarry, and they had been ramping up the draining. You can’t drain their quarry without also draining Cwmorthin. So there now was a level accessible that normally wasn't. I was keen to see it. And Miles was willing to show me.

I thought it wasn't going to be very cold, and not crawly at all, so I was just wearing outdoor trousers with some old waterproof trousers over the top. That also meant going to the loo would be a lot easier than in a caving suit and a furry suit. 

Miles drove us up to the Manager’s Office and there we kitted up. For him this pretty much just meant putting on wellies. I was putting on my full SRT gear as I don't really like carrying it around in a bag.

We went in. I hadn't been for a long time! Since January, to be precise. And I noticed that my harness was threatening to slide down. I figured that that is the disadvantage of not wearing a furry suit. Your circumference is suddenly a lot less. So at the bottom of the stairs I just put on my shoulder strap and that helped. 

We went down the incline and headed inbye, on one of the main through routes. At some point Miles remarked this would have to be re-routed at some point in the future, as a chamber below was slowly collapsing, and will threaten the integrity of that route. That is going to be a big thing!

Before we headed into the new level, Miles suggested we have a little tea break. We were not far from the Deep Sleep. That sounded snug to me! So we went there and had a cup of tea, and the cake I had brought. There was also a tourist trip around that came in to have a look. The place looked a bit different, as it normally has a flooded chamber next to it. That chamber obviously wasn't flooded now. 

At some point we started to descend where we previously wouldn't have been able to. New terrain! For me, at least. It didn't start spectacular. There was still a thin layer of clay on everything, but otherwise it didn't look spectacular. But we walked around and we soon came to a chamber with a staircase in. That was spectacular! Miles said we had previously seen that from above, when the top of the staircase had stuck out of the water, with Lydia, but I didn't mention the staircase in my blog post. But never mind, it was glorious now. There was also a continuation of that staircase even further down, but that was in really bad condition.

One of thee we first views in the new level

The amazing staircase

Remnants of the staircase further down. Notice the new water level

We moved on. It was nice to walk somewhere that was normally so inaccessible. I was hoping to see some original graffiti; there would have been no opportunity for passing tourists to accidentally rub it off, or purposefully add more scribblings to it. But I saw none, possibly because of the thin layer of clay on everything.

After a while we came to a level struggling to stay in existence. The walls and ceilings seemed to be caving in profusely. This was not a place to linger! We carefully squeezed underneath a beam that just about managed to stay in position, and then came into a chamber with a lot of rubble. A bit beyond that there would be a zipline. This had been intended to be negotiated from the other side, so we would have to go uphill. That is hard work! Miles went first. I tried to follow. I was facing backwards so I wasn't quite sure when I got there. At some point I was struggling a bit, but I heard Miles ask if he could help me. I said yes and he pulled me in. I was almost there, but I think these last inches might have been difficult without help.

The level is starting to show signs of weakness 

Miles on the zipline

We got off the zipline and continued. First up an unstable scree slope, and then to a rope up a slab. Now we were back at a level that had been accessible before. We started making our way back to civilisation. That did evolve a rather trying traverse that I didn't recognise. But a bit further on, we clambered out of a chamber in a way that I did remember. And when we popped out of that chamber into the level, Miles asked me if I knew where I was. And I knew roughly. I wouldn't have been able to tell you if we should go left or right though.

Miles starting his way up the slab

The trying traverse

We went left, and I recognised some more features. And not an awfully long time later we were back in the more conventional parts of the mind. And from there we just trundled back to the entrance. 

It has been a great day out! It was lovely to see new terrain. And it was nice to catch up with Miles. And we got some adventures as well; it had been a while since I had done a trip that involved ziplines and trying traverses and things like that. Success all around!

Back to the Manager’s’s office 

I said to Miles that I hoped we would manage to meet again before the year goes out. You can't take that for granted with Miles. The previous time I had seen him had been in January. And I also told him that if they keep pumping, and drain yet another level, I hope he would let me know, and we would be able to explore that as well. We'll see!