Saturday, 6 August 2011

Five cavers - Four caves - One day

The day started with a very brief rendez-vous in Asda cafe before heading to Ystradfellte and the caves. Some substantial repairs to the road allowed us to park the cars down at the bridge. We sent Wal off to the farm to pay the trespass fees, changed and made our way to our first cave..

Cave 1 Bridge Cave
Our first cave of the day was Bridge Cave, with a quick trip down to the sump and then back out again.

Martin in the Entrance Series - Bridge Cave

Some more photos of Bridge Cave Here

Cave 2 White Lady Cave
We headed down the Nedd Fechan past Cwm Pwll Y Rhyd and down to White Lady cave, it's large arched entrance enticing us in. The water was deeper than I remembered and caused much upset to Wal who as we all know doesn't like the wet stuff. A quick sploosh down to the sump and then a slow return taking photos followed.

Martin and Mel in the main passage - White Lady Cave

Martin and Wal near the entrance - White Lady Cave

Cave 3 Town Drain Cave
A hop skip and jump from the entrance to White Lady was Town Drain, and one by one we entered this linear and impressively scalloped cave. A dash to the end was followed by half an hour of photos taken in the most impressive section of passage near the entrance.

Martin and Andy near the entrance - Town Drain Cave

Martin near the entrance - Town Drain Cave

Cave 4 Little Neath River Cave.
Having ticked off the lesser caves of the valley we headed up to the true target of the day - Little Neath. Low water and warm weather ensured that journey into the cave was not too cold or off-putting. We headed downstream to look at the other side of the Bridge Cave sump before sticking our heads into the canal. Wal was urged to commit himself to the water, but after much coaxing he would not budge. It took Martin heading off down the canal in front to get Wal to follow. After our swim a short detour to Bouncing Boulder Hall was made before the return via the Canal bypass was made. We were all out for four o'clock and in the New Inn at Ystradfellte supping pints in the beer garden by five.

Some Little Neath River cave photos from previous trips here

Present: Brendan Marris, Steve Wallis, Mel Wakeman, Andy Grimes and Martin Saunders.

No comments:

Post a Comment