Five caves and a 'classic' through trip

After visiting Little Neath River Cave last year Mike and Lucy suggested a visit to the other caves lower down the river, and so we planned our day along the Little Neath River. After the obligatory breakfast at Luigis (nearly brought back up by Lucy as we took a diversion along some precipitous roads to avoid the closed Clydach Gorge) we headed to Nedd Fechan and parked up close to Bridge Cave.

Town Drain

Our first cave of the day was Town Drain where we headed down to the squalid end, and then returned via the crawling entrance to emerge directly opposite our second cave of the day - White Lady Cave.

White Lady Cave

We entered via the main entrance and took some video as we went in. Some playing about in the sump pool followed before we headed up the higher branch to reach the duck. Mike made several passes through it for the video before we exited into the gorge where we chased the fleeting suns rays warm up.

Pwll Y Rhyd

A little time was spent exploring the different entrances to the dry cave and the not so dry passages close to the sumps. We found that the low passage into the Pwll Y Rhyd EXtensions was too slited up for us to get in. A few 'through' trips were completed between the many entrances before we headed back up towards Bridge Cave.

Pwll Y Rhyd - Nedd Fechan

Bridge Cave

A very ordinary visit to Bridge Cave which included exploring all dry passages to the sumps before a return to surface.

Ogof Dan Y Maes Y Parcio - Through Trip

The oh-so imaginatively named "Cave Under The Car-park" would be our finale for the days caving. A cave never visited by us before and one that may possibly have collapsed a little since it was dug out by the Westminster S.G, we entered with a little trepidation. Located in the the opposite side of the shakehole to Bridge Cave, it started off as a quite pleasant crawl, but soon degenerated to being flat out over cobbles. After a short distance a small chamber was entered and after poking our noses in the higher level leads it became clear that the only possible way on was the low flat out crawl through cobbles and boulders. This continued for a couple of body lengths before it turned left and another couple of body lengths took us into some larger passage. Now the roar of the Nedd Fechan sinking could be heard and we passed through some wider passage with sharp rock protrusions to a large flat slab that we slid over. On the other side we gained a small chamber where the Nedd Fechan entered and went down a steep passage to the sump on the right. The way on was clear as daylight streamed through an entrance blocked by driftwood and a multitude of spiders and their webs. We fought our way through the debris to emerge into daylight.

Mike emerges from Ogof Dan Y Maes Y Parcio

Present: Mike Bonner, Lucy Collins, Keith Edwards and Brendan Marris