South Wales Caves

Cwm Dwr Two Cave Description

Cwm Dwr 2 is located in the centre off the same disused quarry as Cwm Dwr Cave (map) beside the Headquaters of the South Wales Caving Club. The entrance is gated for safety reasons, the key being kept at the adjacent SWCC Headquarters.

The entrance is in the floor of the Cwm Dwr quarry just past the Cwm Dwr entrance to OFD. The entrance is protected with a locked lid that opens onto the top of a 5m high shaft into a small chamber. A fixed steel ladder drops you into the rubble floored chamber where a descending rift passage leads off. The rift passage is well scalloped and there are areas of nice calcite flows on some of the walls. Beyond a dam the passage reduces in height to a crawl and stoop to reach the short sump. This sump has had some modification to the roof to give 1 or 2cm of airspace. Running through the sump are two rubber hoses that allow the water to be pumped through to the passage beyond. Once pumping has started a flow through the hose, a syphon is set up and it can be left to drain. A small amount of water flows into the sump from the entrance chamber so the sump will refil while you are in the cave. When returning a good set of lungs will be able to set the syphon going again to drain the sump for the return. The sump will drain in 30 minutes to an hour depending on the rate of flow of water into it. Beyond the sump the passage continues for a short distance as a sand and gravel floored crawl thst leads to a T junction with a small stream issuing from the right. Upstream to the right leads to Ping Pong Passage named after the ping pong balls that were dropped down the borehole that was used to locate the cave. The way on is to follow the water in the passage to the left which gains height as you approch the head of the pitch. Two anchors of unknown age in the right hand wall allow the pitch to be descended. A 10m ladder drops you just short of the floor of Default Chamber to land on a pile of rocks that allows easy access to the lower rungs of the ladder. At the bottom of the pitch the boulder floor of the chamber rises to the right to reach a short dig and sump. The way on is to follow the flow of the water at the lower end of the chamber. A narrow streamway is followed, to start with at stream level, but after about 50m you will need to traverse until after about another 100m you can drop back into the stream. The passage continues to meander for another 100m with the passage height reducing until eventually you are wading in water as the roof drops to meet the sump. On returning the rubber hose that drops half way down the pitch can be primed to start the syphon to give you a relatively dry exit to the cave.