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Ystradfellte, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
OSGB: SN9284513470
Lat: 51.808953N Long: 3.554002W
Nearest Post Code: CF44 9JE
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The club normally spend a full week in Wales over the first week of the student Easter holidays (although some people only stay for the first couple of days). This is an excellent opportunity to experience caving in another area of the UK.  We stay at the CCC (Croydon Caving Club) cottage in the village of Ystradfellte located between Abadare and Brecon near  classic caves such as Little Neath River Cave and Porth-y-Ogof. The area is rather remote, with no mobile signal, and you need to ensure that you have a basic food supply and petrol in your tank! There are also other activities such as waterfalls, mines, canyoning, walking on the Brecon fans and climbing at Dinas Rock!

Wales offers a very much different caving environment to our usual trip area of the Yorkshire Dales. Much of the dales are vertical systems requiring lots of hanging on ropes to get to the bottom.  Wales tends to be mainly horizontal, where a magical doorway into the hillside leads into a fairyland of roaring streamways and spectacular stomping passages.  South Wales is home to Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, Ogof Draenen, Agen Allwedd and Daren Cilau, four of the largest cave systems in the UK amounting to over 100 miles of cave passage in total to explore!  The latter of these is infamous for it’s arduous 500m entrance crawl, but hardy visitors are rewarded with The Time Machine, the largest underground passage in the UK!

The cottage has around 22 bunk beds, providing mattresses, although you will need to bring your own sleeping bag.  Packing is usually quite tight so anyone trying to sneak a pillow in will be humiliated!  The cottage, although small, has an amazing charm, with the wood burning fire, paving slab floors, and unbelievably tiny spiral staircase!  The cost is only around £4 per night plus normal trip fees for transport and food (we usually organise communal cooking).

Read about previous Wales trips from out reports pages and see previous photos!