Westminster Speleological Group

The Westminster Speleological Group (WSG) is a London based caving club with a headquarters in South Wales. The group organizes regular caving trips to South Wales and other caving areas in the UK and a monthly social meet in central London. Overseas expeditions have been carried out including original exploration in Cuba, Romania, The Atlas mountains of Morocco and Abkhazia.
Caerllwyn house
Caerllwyn house is the club's cottage on the Southern edge of the Brecon Beacons national park. It is a traditional Welsh cottage that the WSG rented from 1968 and purchased in 1993 with help from the Foundation for the Sports and the Arts. The cottage is just off the Heads of Valley road or the A465 so is within easy reach of the major cave systems of Dan yr Ogof and Ogof Ffynnon Ddu in the Swansea valley to the west and Ogof Agen Allwedd and Ogof y Daren Cilau on the Llangattock escarpment near Abergavenny in the east. From the cottage it is also quite easy to get to Pen Y Fan, and the Taff Trail. It has 18 bunks and a large garden for additional camping space and is available for hire by outside groups.
Romanian expeditions
1984
Andy Ive inspired the first WSG expedition to Eastern Europe in the "its Thursday it must be Romania" Caving expedition, and maybe it was one of the earliest British cave focused trips in the Ceaucescau era. The trip established contact with like minded cave enthusiasts in the town of Oradea and visited the Apusenii Mountains.
1985
6 members of the Group returned to Romania the following year between 22 August and 14 September and visited Pestera din dealul Humpleu in the Apesenii mountains bewteen Huedin and Padis.
1990
Andy Ive returned for a diving expedition to Isverna cave with the aim of passing the Black Syphon as well as attempting to push the sumps in Zugurasit and Alulunui cave.
Cuban expeditions
In 1988 WSG made contact with the Martel Group of Havana and became one of the first western caving groups to visit Cuba. Work was initially centered at the Western end of the island in the province of Pinar del Rio. Contact has been maintained with the Cuban groups and several return visits have been made. In 1990 we were able to negotiate permission for a small group of Cuban cavers to visit the UK.
1988
The original "Cuba contact" expedition. Andy Sewell was responsible for the idea which developed into the first WSG expedition to Cuba in September/October 1988.
1991
The aim was to explore the caves in Escambray, near to the city of Cienfuegos, before returning west to Cinco Pesos In the Sierra del Rosario. A second group returned yet again to Majaguas, before moving over to Pan de Azucar, from where the Hoyo de Cimarrones was explored.
1997
The group explored the Cueva Grande and Cueva Chiquita and the results were published in the BCRA's publication Caves and Caving in winter 1997 and the front cover photograph was Cueva del Agua by Paul Mann. It was found that in the dry season it was possible to enter Chiquita which has a a temporary sump within 100m of the entrance, which had blocked previous exploration in 1991. The breakthrough was made by James Hooper and Martin Mc Gowan.
1999
The aim was to undertake dye testing of the Dark Horse Streamway in Cueva Chiquita, and investigating the sumps in Hale Bopp and Campamento.. It also discovered that a Spanish group from Bilbo had been out in 1998 had re-mapped Cueva Chiquita or Txikita as they renamed the cave in the Basque language. They also found Sima del la Novilla You can get a copy of their expedition reports from them WSG climbed the mogote and explored the area above Hoyo de Cafe, whilst carrying out a surface survey Gee's Pot, Cueva Contacto, Cueva Titanic and Cueva Alferdo were discovered. While at the base of the mogote several caves were discovered or pushed including Cueva de los Amigos, Cueva del Majabobo and Cueva de la Ressurecion.
2001
In January and April 2001 WSG returned to Cuba having obtained grants from the Ghar Parau foundation This year the aim was to return to Pinar del Rio and complete the survey of the Mogote. During the expedition Cueva Alferdo was connected to Cueva Chiquita, while Chiquita was pushed towards Cueva Titanic. A distance of approximately 100m separates the ends of Chiquita and Titanic.

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