So i logged into Facebook this morning and was greeted by my memories and it just so happens that a year ago i was adventuring into the Welsh slate mountains with three friends for what would take our peak district mine exploring endeavors to a whole new level of mental!
Friday booked off of work, we finished our last shifts by 5pm on the Thursday and loaded the trusty Skoda Fabia estate and the Ford Fiesta work horse to the brim with climbing gear, fresh clothes, food and all the necessary camping needs! We set about our journey to Corris Uchaf where we would be wild camping our first night somewhere we felt was safe and wouldn't upset any locals.
The journey started off badly with road closures for night time roadworks shutting off our route avoiding the tolls from the A38 at Derby.
Eventually we starting seeing the ARAF/SLOW road markings and then we were in Wales. The journey at this point about half way as we were starting in Mid-Wales at the bottom of the Snowdonia National Park and there is no such thing as motorways in Wales...
The roads may take time to travel down but oh my are they such a joy! We couldn't see any of our surroundings on the way as it was dark and the rain really was proper rain, Wales loves a good bit of the wet stuff!
We finally arrived at our destination to park the cars a whole 4 hours later on what should of been just under a 3 hour journey, we grabbed the tents and found a nice grassy patch next to the road sheltered behind a hedgerow and trees. We quickly cooked up some pot noodles and a brew before hitting the sleeping bags for a well earned sleep.
The following morning we were wet, cold and tired. Wales was relentless with its weather and we all thought that camping was maybe the worst idea we'd had so far in 2017. We packed up the tent with half effort and set about looking around for our first hole. We were so unprepared for this trip that we had just a handful of locations found on the internet and no idea of what to expect. This meant carrying everything we may need just in case it was needed, and as we found most of the time we didn't and it caused more of a hindrance than good.
We finally found a huge opening in the hillside and attempted to enter but instantly bailed due to an immense shear drop off of a slippy slate face. Ropes wouldn't help us much with no grip to control...
We searched the hillside for any other entry points but only found a gated adit and the official tour entry gate from the Corris miners exhibition centre at the bottom of the hillside.
Getting late into Friday afternoon, we bailed and decided to head to our next destination, a gold mine... we would arrive by evening according to trusty google maps heading slightly north toward Dolgellau and we started our trip off of the main road into the forests at the bottom of the mountainside. The roads were again immaculate even though single track the tarmac was brand new and smooth winding in and out of gorges following the river through huge forestry, it really was like something in the American Klondike!
We arrived at our dropped pin, just at the sun set and decided it best to park up and get something to eat. We were in the middle of nowhere and after the previous night in the tent we opted to sleep in the cars.
The next morning we awoke to a 4x4 slowly driving past us checking out what we were up to no doubt! We were amazed to find the view we had not been able to see the night before was epic. We were on a dirt track at the top of a valley overlooking the river and disused gold mine surface workings. We realised we were the wrong side of a very big river and crossing on foot wouldn't be possible so we drove miles around to get close enough to check the mine out.
We were rapidly learning that preparation was essential and knowledge is key! The effort and climbing we put ourselves through to get down to the river level was ridiculous! We found the adit gated, then crossed paths with a local chap and his kids walking their dog, he pointed us towards another adit under a footbridge so we engaged his directions and were soon in a thigh deep with water flooded adit. A few hundred meters in and our second mine was called off... A foul smell of eggs arose from the disturbed water as we met a solid block wall to cut our journey short! Eggs means eggscape... ESCAPE! H2S gas!
We photographed the surface workings and bailed for a second time to the cars.
The Friday and most of Saturday had now passed and we had still not managed to get inside of a mine! Spirits were low, all of us were about 6 pairs of socks down, damp and cold with no hits on an accessible mine so we travelled to the 3rd destination determined to get inside a mine before the night was over!
We arrived after much single track tarmac and gravel... It was dark but we were determined. We knew there we two adits, one low one high straight above it. We quickly found the lower and it was very wet. We opted to find the higher first and then get wet at the end. SUCCESS!
We were in, not sure whether the mine was lead or some sort of fluorite but it was no slate or gold mine! We quickly entered and water straight over our wellies trudged in to a crossroads, each spurt leading to... NOTHING! Damn it!
"On to the lower adit then! We're wet anyway!"
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Once inside this adit we hit the jackpot we quickly came across a flooded shaft the water so blue and clear! Around the corner we came to false floor and a series of timber and iron ladders leading deep down... VERY EXCITED!!! We rigged i[ a rope and clipped it onto our harnesses as we carefully descended the ladders to a tunnel at the bottom. One lead to a tailing and ended the other continued down... We came to a shaft with no means of rigging up a rope safely, "is this as far as we can go without any injuries?" "YES, lets get back to the car and travel to tomorrow's location, its the big finale!"
We arrived at our parking spot and evening sleep spot, after the comfortable sleep in the car the previous night we all decided to do it again but the weather was now particularly bad and windy, we joined the two cars together with a ground sheet between the car doors and sheltered most of it from disturbing our conversations over beers and more pot noodles!
Waking the next morning we had a 5km walk ahead of an abseil entry to a huge slate mine in North Wales. The famous Moel Fferna.
Sideways rain hammered against our faces as we navigated through the hillside to the huge spoil pile in the distance.
Once there we spent around an hour trying to find the only way in and out, a shaft marked by a tree, what turned out to be the top most tree on the hillside behind the surface works... Rope and ladders rigged up and we were in!!!
EPIC!!
Cavern and after cavern of huge slate faces joined by tunnels and no crawling involved whatsoever! Something that you must accept when exploring the peak district is the tight spaces, but not here!
6 hours passed by and we had finally searched and explored every level and crevices, crossing the infamous bridge of doom for a photograph was probably the stupidest thing we did all day but it was fun and we had traveled this far just because of that bridge on a popular urbex website.
Just need to get out that shaft now boys and then walk back to the car... Oh what a task!
First man was up and out no aids or messing, second man nearly burned out but made it out safe, leaving myself and one more. Doomed. My friend went first then came back down as he was slipping and at risk of death from falling... I rigged up two harness and chest ascenders and then starting climbing the wire ladders. My arms thrashing after 6 hours underground and a 5km walk before that. Energy at an all time low, i felt my grip slipping too and grabbed a cowstail from my harness to clip to a rung of the ladder whilst i hung 30m in the air tired and exhausted. One rung a time every 5 mins was the procedure for the next 20mins as i finally reached the top and got out.
At last we were all out and safely in the cars ready for a drive back to Derbyshire! Lessons learnt and experience gained, until next time Wales!!