by Jane Bradbury
Saturday March 12:
With permits in hand for both Agen Allwydd (Aggie) and Ogof Craig a Ffynnon (CAF) and fantastic walking and cycling country on the doorstep, we were spoilt for choice. And the weather wasn’t looking too bad either. After some discussion and attempts at arm twisting, the team eventually split three ways.
Just four members (Neil, Stuart, Reynard and Bill) went caving, heading off to Aggie where they ventured as far as the sump in Turkey Streamway. Their return trip was enlivened by Neil and Reynard leaving Bill and Stuart to navigate out! Trip time about 8 hours
Wendy and Steve headed east to the Llanthony valley where they did a 20 mile, mountain bike circuit, taking in two pubs on the way to do valuable research for future venues for our annual dinner.
Me (slave-driver), Gordon, Rob and Liz were joined by past member Ken Prandy and drove over to just east of Crickhowell for a fantastic walk up to Table Mountain (an Iron-age hill fort) then onto Pen Cerrig-calch. The blistering walking speed soon proved too much for Liz and we waved goodbye to her at the hill fort. From Pen Cerrig-calch, we followed the ridge to Pan Allt-mawr, Pentwynglas and Mynydd Llysiau where there was a rebellion; no-one was willing to accompany me onto Waun Fach! So, it was down the wonderful old green track below Mynydd Llysiau and thence down the valley back to the car (19 km), where Liz had just returned from a slightly shorter circuit.
Sunday March 13:
Again, the team split asunder. Bill took the easy option and headed straight home, still muttering about the length and difficulty of the Aggie trip. Wendy and Steve went for a run near Tal-y-Bont. Jane, Gordon, Rob, Liz and Neil all looked at the weather and decided it was far too nice to go underground so went on various walks. That left Reynard and Stuart to use the CAF permit. They had a fine trip down to the helictites and back, taking about three hours for the whole trip.
Meanwhile, above ground, I cracked my whip again and dragged Rob and Gordon up over Mynydd Pen-cyrn behind the hut and down to the remains of a reservoir below Pant Mawr. Here, we were briefly joined by Neil as we headed east then north east to Daren Disgwylfa, where we dropped down to the road, which we followed to Llanelly. Sadly the public house marked on our 1976 map has long since gone so we waved goodbye to Neil, who needed to pick up the cavers at CAF, and headed north, through Coed Graig Leici and down to the canal, which we followed to near Llangattock. From here, we followed the river valley past Cwm Bach to a most amazing path, an old incline that took us steeply up beside a wood and eventually to the tramway just west of Whitewalls (13 km). In Gordon’s words: “Luckily, the footholds in the path were quite good!”.