Return to Little Neath River Cave

With a warm sunny weekend in prospect we decided to take the opportunity for Loz to pay a return visit to Little Neath River Cave, to see if she would appreciate it a bit more after a year of caving. Following a Luigi breakfast we headed to the Nedd Fechan to find the river very low indeed. A quick trip to the farm house and then we changed and headed into the cave, this time Loz taking it in her stride. We took the standard route into the cave and headed down to sump 2 before an about turn and time to explore some of the bits that normally get missed. We first headed up into the Genesis Gallery and entered the 3D maze. We found plenty of cairns to mark the key junctions and soon found ourselves staring down an impossible looking slot. Mark tried first and found it too tight, coming out to let Loz have a crack. Following some encouragement she was through and indicated that there was substantial passage below. Mark tried again and this time facing the other way and after some painful contortion made it through. I tried to follow, but had problem flexing my back enough to make it through. Mark and Lox explored this area to Gooseberry Pot in the Old World Series before returning and the three of us then completed the rest of the Genesis Gallery. Our route out was via the Canal Bypass where we diverted off to spend some time exploring the passages of the North East Inlet Series. We were soon back in the Canal Bypass and made our way to the streamway. We took the advantage of the very warm water to follow the passage out at stream level all the way out the cave. Some low ducks were passed and an encounter by Brendan with a giant fish provided the entertainment of the day.

Present: Mark Burkey, Loz Appleby and Brendan Marris