Data: Little Neath River Cave. 24/05/2015. Christine Grosart. NOT dived.

Your name:	Christine Grosart	Observation date:	24/05/2015
Site Visited	Little Neath River Cave

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Church Sinks Observations
The river water was
Church sinks flora:
Church sinks fauna:
Church sinks water temperature:
General Church Sinks observations:

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Top Entrance Observations
Accessible by walking up the riverbed?:
Top Entrance Flora:
Top Entrance fauna:
Top Entrance water temperature:
Top Entrance general observations:
Dives done into Top Entrance?:

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Top Entrance Dive Log
Top Underwater Visibility:
Top Water flow:
Tope entrance underwater fauna:
Top Entrance other observations:

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Tradesman's Entrance Observations
Tradesman's flora:
Tradesman's fauna:
Tradesman's water temperature:
Tradesman's water level:
Did you dive at Tradesman's Entrance?:

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Tradesman's underwater visibility:
Tradesman's water flow:
Tradesman's underwater fauna:
Tradesman's general observations:

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Main Entrance Observations
Main Entrance flora:
Main Entrance fauna:
Main Entrance water temperature:
Main Entrance general observations:

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Resurgence Observations
Resurgence flora:
Resurgence fauna:
Resurgence water temperature:
General resurgence observations:

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Little Neath River Cave Observations
LNRC Observations: NO diesel smell anywhere in the cave. One small bullhead in Sump 1 LNRC. Water looked clear with brown tinge. No foam. Water levels average. White substance on the mud bank (rescue dump) subsided since last visit and only minor trace remains.

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Final Observations
General Observations:

Data: Little Neath River Cave. 27/05/2015. Max Fisher. Dived.

Your name:	max	Observation date:	27/05/2015
Site Visited	Little Neath River Cave

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Church Sinks Observations
The river water was
Church sinks flora:
Church sinks fauna:
Church sinks water temperature:
General Church Sinks observations:

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Top Entrance Observations
Accessible by walking up the riverbed?:
Top Entrance Flora:
Top Entrance fauna:
Top Entrance water temperature:
Top Entrance general observations:
Dives done into Top Entrance?:

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Top Entrance Dive Log
Top Underwater Visibility:
Top Water flow:
Tope entrance underwater fauna:
Top Entrance other observations:

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Tradesman's Entrance Observations
Tradesman's flora:
Tradesman's fauna:
Tradesman's water temperature:
Tradesman's water level:
Did you dive at Tradesman's Entrance?:

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Tradesman's underwater visibility:
Tradesman's water flow:
Tradesman's underwater fauna:
Tradesman's general observations:

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Main Entrance Observations
Main Entrance flora:
Main Entrance fauna:
Main Entrance water temperature:
Main Entrance general observations:

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Resurgence Observations
Resurgence flora:
Resurgence fauna:
Resurgence water temperature:
General resurgence observations:

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Little Neath River Cave Observations
LNRC Observations: Through bridge cave sump to sump 2 via canal, and a quick look about halfway back up to flood entrance. A few cut offs from zip ties found in sump (retrieved), 4 big fish (trout) is bridge cave sump. water quality fine throughout cave, no sign or smell of diesel.

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Final Observations
General Observations:

Data: Porth Yr Ogof. 24/05/2015. Michael Thomas. Dived. (Christine Grosart - surface photos)

Your name:	Michael Thomas	Observation date:	24/05/2015
Site Visited	Porth yr Ogof

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Church Sinks Observations
The river water was
Church sinks flora:
Church sinks fauna:
Church sinks water temperature:
General Church Sinks observations: Not visited

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Top Entrance Observations
Accessible by walking up the riverbed?: Yes
Top Entrance Flora:
Top Entrance fauna:
Top Entrance water temperature:
Top Entrance general observations: Not visited
Dives done into Top Entrance?: No

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Top Entrance Dive Log
Top Underwater Visibility:
Top Water flow:
Tope entrance underwater fauna:
Top Entrance other observations:

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Tradesman's Entrance Observations
Tradesman's flora:
Tradesman's fauna:
Tradesman's water temperature: 9 C
Tradesman's water level: 30 cm below ledge
Did you dive at Tradesman's Entrance?: Yes

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Tradesman's underwater visibility: Secci: 4m hand held light monkey, 3m helmet mounted rude nora
Tradesman's water flow: medium - high
Tradesman's underwater fauna: 1 trout - all white
Tradesman's general observations: Secci Disc installed just upstream from Cwmbran junction

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Main Entrance Observations
Main Entrance flora: Harts tongue ferns (CSG)
Main Entrance fauna:
Main Entrance water temperature: Not taken
Main Entrance general observations: Major new collapse on left hand cliff on the approach to main entrance. Large boulders on the path and another large boulder hanging above.

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Resurgence Observations
Resurgence flora:
Resurgence fauna:
Resurgence water temperature:
General resurgence observations: Not visited

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Little Neath River Cave Observations
LNRC Observations:

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Final Observations
General Observations:

Blog Post: Secchi Disc is go!

Secchi disc in Porth Yr Ogof
Photo: Mike Thomas

The secchi disc is in!

Following several false starts due to weather and quite a bit of discussion about how to do it, we've finally attached to secchi to a pot of concrete and found somebody else to drag it into the cave for us!

In seriousness, we're grateful to Mike Thomas, a CDG diver, for agreeing to take the disc in today and try some visibility measurements. He was headed over to Porth Yr Ogof for a dive in any case and I was heading to the next valley to take a group caving at Little Neath River Cave - where we also took a photo of sump 1 (station 7).

Mike pulling the Secchi disc into a fast flowing
Tradesmans Entrance, PYO

I ran over to Porth first to drop off the secchi and took some photos of Main Entrance (Station 4), Tradesman's Entrance (Station 3) and the River levels (Station 6).

I had been wondering, now that the secchi was about to be in place, whether there was any value in keeping the above ground stations. They all form part of the Porth story but seemed unlikely to change very much. Besides, this is a diving project after all.

Porth Main Entrance - in front of the new rock fall!

I considered dropping the surface observations and stations and only keeping the underwater ones - until I visited Main Entrance today!
I was very surprised to see what looked like a very recent collapse. A huge boulder blocked the path to the cave entrance and several other large, tv sized rocks had come down.
So much for nothing changing!
I'm inclined to keep the surface observations as part of the project for now - it just got interesting!

New rock fall by Main Entrance, PYO

Please take care when visiting Main Entrance - there is another massive   boulder just 'hanging' there above the path...

Mike took two viz measurements, one with a hand held light monkey (4m) and one with a helmet mounted Rude Nora 2 caving/diving torch (3m). He had already been upstream and was keen to point out that these were not 'true' visibility readings.

Significant rock falls close to PYO Main Entrance

He also noted one very white trout and shot some video - and also 2 bullheads.
This (in comparison to other reports) is quite a small amount of life, so it will be interesting to see if the abundance improves by the time another diver reports in.

Meanwhile, over in the next valley, I visited Sump 1 of LNRC (Station 7) and my eagle eyed cavers spotted a bullhead in the shallows. No trout this time though (that we could see). No foam and pleasingly, no diesel/paraffin smell. The white substance on the mud bank near the sump (@rescue dump) has almost gone.

Blog Post: Talk in Bristol on Project Baseline

On 14th May, Christine was very proud to represent Project Baseline at Portway Football club for various Bristol based BSAC clubs. The event was organised by Bob Rodgers and was well attended.

Christine talked about the inception of Project Baseline, what the project aims to do and how it is implemented at grass roots level. She talked about her own project at Porth yr Ogof in South Wales as well as the Portland Harbour Wrecks project.

If you would like Christine or Richard to give a talk on Project Baseline, please contact them via this Blog site.

Blog Post: First PB SWC Seminar - and the new secci discs!

Project Baseline South Wales Caves has had something of a whirlwind last 48 hours!
We hosted our first online seminar and were proud to welcome half a dozen attendees. Vanessa Belz was able to join us from the States and kick of introductions.
The object of the seminar was to give visiting divers, cavers and walkers a better and more concise guide to what we would like them to do when they visit the sites and stations. 
This covered how and where to take the 'stake in the sand' photos and how to record visibiity measurements (ongoing) and temperature readings.
The seminar was well received and we are very excited that several attendees would be visiting Porth yr Ogof this coming weekend to try it out for themselves.

To view the slides and information therein, here is the link to the presentation:

PB SWC Seminar #1 23rd February 2015

We have also just received some secci discs so that we can really get down to the nitty gritty of getting some accurate visibility readings.
Visibility is always a guesstimate and depends on so many factors:
The lights the diver is using; where the lights are mounted; the brightness of the lights; any silt or mud previously stirred up; other divers in the sump etc.
We have some anecdotal visibility measurements already but would now like to begin measuring it more accurately.

We'll be putting up a special Blog post and also running a brief seminar once the secci disc is installed, to explain to divers how to take the readings.

Metrosigns website

We would like to thank Metrosigns for providing us with over a dozen hard wearing secci discs which will enable the project to continue for a very long time!

Data: Porth Yr Ogof. 10/02/2015. Michael Thomas. Dived.

Your name:	Michael Thomas	Observation date:	10/2/2015
Site Visited	Porth yr Ogof

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Church Sinks Observations
The river water was Sinking into the river bed
Church sinks flora:
Church sinks fauna: Trout
Church sinks water temperature: 4.c
General Church Sinks observations:

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Top Entrance Observations
Accessible by walking up the riverbed?: Yes
Top Entrance Flora:
Top Entrance fauna:
Top Entrance water temperature: 4.c
Top Entrance general observations:
Dives done into Top Entrance?: No

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Top Entrance Dive Log
Top Underwater Visibility:
Top Water flow:
Tope entrance underwater fauna:
Top Entrance other observations:

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Tradesman's Entrance Observations
Tradesman's flora:
Tradesman's fauna:
Tradesman's water temperature: 4.c
Tradesman's water level:
Did you dive at Tradesman's Entrance?: Yes

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Tradesman's underwater visibility: 4-5m
Tradesman's water flow: Medium
Tradesman's underwater fauna: Trout 10- 12 pigmentation high 2-3 bullheads
Tradesman's general observations: Line in reasonable condition buts lots of natural debris hanging on line belays

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Main Entrance Observations
Main Entrance flora:
Main Entrance fauna:
Main Entrance water temperature:
Main Entrance general observations:

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Resurgence Observations
Resurgence flora:
Resurgence fauna:
Resurgence water temperature:
General resurgence observations:

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Little Neath River Cave Observations
LNRC Observations:

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Final Observations
General Observations: