Ystrad Einion Copper Mine Adventure 12th Aug 2012

The day was to start late, but only 10 minutes late as that is how much extra time Deano needed to make it to my house to pick me up – he soon made up for it as he hit the metal and his Audi leathered the roads to the second rendezvous of the day – The Sportmans on Denbigh Moors.

Now early, we parked and waited for the illustrious Vikki and her mint green courtesy car to arrive. I had dibbed the front seat so Deano and Sam were relegated to the back seats – a seat which was to prove very sickly for Deano who was not used to slower driving and rear seats that are not fitted with accelerators or brakes.

We arrived early for the third rendezvous and found Richard already tucking into a full breakfast in the cafe. It smelled really good and it was an age before ours arrived. Alas for Deano, he was now feeling much too fraught to manage even a sip of tea – oh dear.

Having gorged, we convoyed to mid-Wales and to the forestry track leading to the mine entrance. This was a rough single track road and a woman driving a van came the opposite way and headed straight at us – no thought of letting us past, no thought of getting out of the way – just straight at us. Vikki flipped and a tirade of abuse ensued following which and during which our convoy reversed with the insane woman pushing us almost bumper to bumper the whole way.

We finally arrived and headed for the adit and in we went. The water was lower than usual with the tide mark giving away the fact the water was 6 inches lower than normal – this would have been great if the party had not later gone down a blind, flooded adit and got soaked (well, I didn’t go down it because I knew what was going to happen – too bad for the rest – they should have asked lol).

Inside we found a splendid example of an underground wheel – one of only two in the country I believe with the other being in Scotland. We festered here for a while, looked at a flooded shaft, examined some copper sulphate and then headed off the wrong way into the mine. Abruptly we found a wall with a bit of gold foil wedged in – we decided this was real gold and the buggered off back the right way.

We found an extraordinary calcium (powder) covered pool of water which would accept a rock when thrown in by opening up the surface of calcium and then closing behind it – see the video for a real and splendid example of this.

Further into the mine we found mineral after mineral after mineral – flows of pure sulphur, copper carbonate, copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate (Iron(II)Sulphate) and the insides of crunchie bars (the stuff they mine to fill the crunchie bars with) – all spectacular and all totally spiffing.

We also found a habitat of frogs wherein Cavefrog (Vikki) became over excited and started kissing them. I can report none of them turned into Prince Charming and we continued on our way.

We encountered a 10 foot knotted rope climb in a small water fall/streamway which we all scrambled up – even Vikki after yet another tirade of some unintelligible abuse. Above this climb we found a kibble, a passageway of deepening water (the one I knew about and didn’t go down), the Cadbury’s crunchie mine adit and a small mined area of rich mineralisation (and a pesky false floor).

After a thorough exploration we headed back out to daylight and examined the out buildings and a gated shaft which appeared to be the way the froggies got in. We wondered if their lack of movement when we found them was due to their unfamiliarity with humans or the great damage they must suffer falling 100+feet into the shaft.

We headed back to the cars having a good “natter” except for Sam who only uttered two words all day (which, in the event, were unintelligible). We got changed into dry clothes, ate some butties, drank some “pop”, discussed the manufacture of Marijuana tea and then sodded off home – Richard heading south to London and the rest of us North to North Wales.

Deano managed to spill his coffee in the back of the mint green courtesy car partly due to his inability to control himself and partly because of Vikki’s driving – I considered this to be funny. Arriving back at Deanos car, he proceeded to make me pay for my frivolity by setting off at Mach 2 and driving around the bends with a G force of 5 or 6. I arrived home dazed and confused.

T’was a good day



Ian

Awesome Ian !

Awesome..

on my list this place, but the notice was to short and the drive to long for my little car

GOOD REPORT IAN . YOU'LL GIVE DOUG A RUN FOR HIS MONEY

Excellent report, and a lovely little mine: one of my first, packed with interest and has a friendly feel to it (quite unlike the forbidding Bwlch Glas, just down the road)

The views down into the flooded levels with the rising main disappearing into the blue depths always make me want to turn up with a kin big pump - but I suppose that might be bad manners

Great report Ian,and excellent videos as usual.A good weekend.

A really funny read!

I spent the day working on my car, this trip sounded like much more fun