Waterfall Country

Leaping over the edge.

• We set camp in the forests near Ystradfellte.
• The beginnings of sunset.
• Sunset over Gwaun Hepste.
• Sunrise brings a distant, hazy view of the four mountains of the Fforest Fawr range; Fan Gyhirych (725 metres), Fan Nedd (663 metres), Fan Llia (632 metres) and Fan Fawr (734 metres), with the scar of Gwaun Cefnygarreg (457 metres) to the right. The forests have their own car park and signs pointing to the waterfall routes, but these miss out a large amount of the interesting parts of the route, so we follow the road to the Porth yr Ogof car park.
• We drop down the stairs to the Trademan's Entrance to Porth yr Ogof, which carries the river that has been flowing unseen under the dry riverbed for a while.
• The start of the upstream sump, a long section of the cave accessible only to divers.
• The first warning signs, at the base of the steps.
• The massive entrance to Porth yr Ogof, largest of any cave in Wales at 20 metres wide, and 3 metres high. The river only flows into the entrance in flood conditions. The thickness of the rock to the dry valley above the cave is not very much, but this is the Dowlais limestone, and is very strong.
• Warning signs by the entrance.
• Inside the entrance porch.
• Looking out of the entrance.
• The water enters from the Upper Stream Passage, and immediately flows into the deep White Horse Pool, with the horse-shaped calcite streak.
• One of the large sections of the Right Hand Series, which contains 5 more entrances. There is an entire tree wedged in the passage here, and many more through the cave, which shows just how powerful the river here is when it floods.
• The start of the Great Bedding Cave, where the White Horse Pool ends. This part is around 25 metres wide, but it gets another 5 metres wider just downstream.
• We head for some other entrances. Do you think they might be trying to warn us about something? Like maybe the resurgence pool is not safe? Maybe?
• It sure is looking that way.
• We enter the cave near the downstream end of the Great Bedding Cave, where a final sign directs people towards the safe exit.
• Downstream, the river flows into the resurgence pool.
• This is where it all happens; the resurgence pool. This pool, barely 20 metres of swimming.
• Warning by the resurgence.
• The Mellte then flows into a pool in the river, often used as a swimming pool.
• River Mellte, heading for the Four Waterfalls route.
• The first of the four waterfalls, Sgwd Clun Gwyn.
• From there, the path hangs onto the edge of a cliff to reach the next waterfall. This path had suffered from a small collapse, but this has been fixed. There is a much longer bypass if this path is impassable.
• The upper waterfall of Sgwd Isaf Clun Gwyn.
• The middle waterfall of Sgwd Isaf Clun Gwyn.
• The waterfall photographer.
• Red stream bed at the base of the middle waterfall.
• The entire river charges into this channel.
• And thunders down the lower waterfall of Sgwd Isaf Clun Gwyn.
• The separate sections of Sgwd Isaf Clun Gwyn.
• Exposed bedrock.
• Photographer beneath the bedrock.
• The final main waterfall on the river Mellte; Sgwd Y Pannwr.
• The waterfall path climbs up to the upper path, which bypasses all waterfalls to get back to Porth yr Ogof in one direction.
• In the other direction it turns left, and leads up the Hepste valley. A path to the right then drops steeply back down to river level.
• Here it reaches the most popular waterfall, Sgwd Yr Eira. Though not as impressive as Sgwd Isaf Clun Gwyn, it is certainly very graceful, with an excellent viewpoint, and it has one more trick up its sleeve.
• It allows you to take pictures like this.
• The official footpath leads behind the waterfall in order to cross the river Hepste.
• Sunlight playing games in the spray.
• Trees over the Mellte, the reason for this mountain range still being called Fforest Fawr - the original meaning of "forest" having long since fallen out of use.
• The path now stays clear of the river, through the forests. That means it has climbed all the way back up again from river level.
• Ruins of houses and farms dotted around the forest.
• At last the view opens up, and shows the target for the end of the day. This is the start of the Neath valley, where the Nedd Fechan, Sychryd, and Mellte join to become the Neath (Nedd). The target is the Craig y Ddinas, the top of the lighter coloured tree line on the left.
• A tree struggling to survive under the weight of the undergrowth.
• A path joining from the left at the start of the Craig y Ddinas. Note that the OS Explorer maps are completely wrong here. The path down the Sychryd no longer exists, although there is a path that goes up it instead. There is only one path over the Ddinas, and that heads along the top, then down the right side of it, to reach the bottom. This is the usual end of the Four Waterfalls walk.
• An upper entrance to the East Dinas Quartzite Mines.
• The Sychryd Gorge, with several mine entrances on the left. This area also has a few caves, being made from a spur of limestone.
• The Sychryd Waterfall.
• The main entrance to the West Dinas Quartzite Mines.
• In the West Dinas Quartzite Mines passage. Really shouldn't do this without proper equipment. We return to the main path.
• Looking down from the top of the Craig y Ddinas. See the fence for scale.
• An interesting way to prevent land slides, and advertise at the same time.
• Craig y Ddinas.
• We went out for some sustenance, and stopped at the Old WHITE HOR E Inn. You decide what letter is missing. Anyway, she wasn't inn today, so we successfully went in search of an angel instead. She took a while to open up, but an hour after that, satisfied, we headed back to pitch the tent.
• Sunset at the Craig y Ddinas.
• Coed y Ffyrnau - appropriately named "Forest of the Furnace".
• Hawthorn on Craig y Ddinas.
• Pylons marching into the sunset.
• A good place to stop.
• The next morning, we started up the next valley; the Nedd Fechan. This runs along the national park border, with the left bank (where the path is) being outside it. It is possible to do a large loop along this river and end back at Porth yr Ogof within one day, but that does not leave enough time for looking around, and we were taking it easy.
• Undercut.
• Sleeper blocks from when this path was a tramway, used by the local mines.
• Yellow wagtail.
• Most mine entrances, such as this one, are annoyingly fenced off to keep tourists out.
• Mining buildings decaying by the river.
• The river then splits, and we take a short detour to follow the national park border up the red-bottomed Pyrddin.
• Pyrddin cascade; Pump Pwll.
• The imposing cliff, with its graceful waterfall - Sgwd Gwladus.
• Another chance to walk behind a waterfall, so of course we do. This one is much more slippery than the last one, not being so well trodden.
• Now back at the Nedd Fechan, we take a quick look at a mine. No fence? This one would be worth a visit.
• Then again, maybe that's why there is no fence.
• Not quite enough to be a gorge, but pretty nonetheless.
• A nice cascade, but the only good viewpoint means sliding down a muddy slope. Given how many people seem to have tried this, a proper path is in order.
• Nedd Fechan cascade.
• The Horseshoe Falls. Clearly not such an impressive picture as the one taken looking directly up the series of cascades (that one's in my wallpapers gallery), but this shot shows quite nicely why it is named after a horseshoe. Ω
• Sgwd Ddwli Isaf, the next impressive waterfall on the trail.
• What else is a photographer to do?
• And finally Sgwd Ddwli itself.
• A small cascade signifies the end of the waterfalls route and Pont Melyn-fach. One of the loop routes is here.
• Moss stal.
• Thick garlic beds releasing their scent into the valley.
• The path continues high above the river, as it develops into a gorge.
• Nedd Fechan.
• A little further on, another road signifies the alternative loop route back to Porth yr Ogof. We continue beyond it.
• A deep, black pool, Pwll Du, is a resurgence for the caves of the Nedd Fechan. It's places like this that make me happy not to be a cave diver. The map now starts talking nonsense, and leads us on a path - little more than a sheep track - along the slope above Pwll Du. Not a nice place to walk with a heavy pack, since any mistake would mean falling and drowning in the pool.
• Fractures in the limestone.
• A rock fall seems to have wiped out the path. There may be an alternative path over this part, but we couldn't see it. We get the impression that this place sees very few visitors.
• A bulbous tree, the basis of the Dyson vacuum cleaner.
• Just upstream, the river rises from its bed, and the upper valley is dry. This is the other main resurgence for the caves in the valley, known as R1.
• Cave entrance on the cliff at the start of a deep gorge section. My knowledge of the caves here is not good enough to identify it, but I am told it is probably Ogof Siom.
• The dry gorge of the upper Nedd Fechan.
• Scaffolded cave entrance in the river bed, probably Ogof Cas.
• Too ... many ... captions. Treehouse? What happens when you forget to clean out the gutters? Temple from Tomb Raider? Anyway, I just love the way the roots have crept along each wall until they finally found somewhere to dive into the ground. Nature reclaims all. I am told that the fossil resurgence Cwm Hew Bwub (named as Cwm Huw Bwub in the book) is in the valley just behind this.
• We take a path up onto the side of the valley, where we get a view of Fan Nedd and Fan Llia. We leave our bags at the edge of the last forest, then detour down to the river again.
• The gaping chasm of Cwm Pwll-y-Rhyd. In flood conditions, the river flows as far down as here, before being swallowed by the cave system.
• Rift entrances beside Cwm Pwll-y-Rhyd.
• Looking towards the connection with White Lady Cave.
• The connection leads through deep water which soon sumps and requires diving equipment.
• In the other direction is a series of side passages.
• In the side passage.
• Aven up to a higher entrance.
• A little upstream is the gaping entrance to Bridge Cave, with the river sinking upstream of it. Beyond that is Little Neath River Cave, which is the master cave in this area.
• Back up in the forests, and one of my favourite pictures.
• Last camp, and end of waterfall country.
• Pillow mounds on the Pant Mawr moor. In case you don't know, pillow mounds were artificial rabbit warrens (used for rabbit farming) made from rocks covered with soil. They are around 500-1000 years old.
• Crossing the moor.
• The moorland here contains some excellent examples of limestone pavement, exposed limestone with the joints etched out.
• Scallops in the limestone, indicating flowing water.
• Rift patterns.
• We join a section of the Beacons Way, which, like us, is trying to get somewhere else.
• Crossing Pant Mawr moor. Several kilometres of this boredom. In the mist on the right is Fan Gyhirych, and below it is Pant Mawr Pot. Somewhere. This featureless moor is quite monotonous, just watching the kilometres tick by.
• Now at the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu nature reserve, a large shakehole dig marks the old sink of the Byffre stream, and a possible entrance to Ogof Ffynnon Ddu.
• The current sink is almost indiscernible, but from here, it enters the cave system, deepest in the UK, third longest, most complex, and the only underground nature reserve in the UK.
• This should be a great view of the Black Mountain, beginning with Fan Hir (761 metres). But the weather is getting worse, and the mountains are invisible.
• The distant row of terraced houses is Penwyllt, the end of the walk. It is the building of the South Wales Caving Club.
• The remains of a quarry building. It did not survive.
• The steeply sloping tramroad that carried the minerals down to Penwyllt to be processed.

Given the weather, we choose to bunk in the club house instead of using a tent. Either way the costs are low, there are showers, changing rooms, cooking facilities, arm chairs in front of a fire, and other comforts. The last day had been short, deliberately to give recovery time before the caving trip.

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