One photo in that walk book had long intrigued me – the Pwll-y-Rhyd sinkhole. Who wouldn't be drawn there with this description?
- This is an incredible limestone sink hole where the river pours over its lip and disappears about 200m underground.
I've seen rivers disappearing from view in limestone areas and reemerging many miles away, but never one that plunged down a waterfall and into a cave.
The walk looked easy enough – 8 miles, total ascent negligible – and included a few other interesting features, including one of the most southerly limestone pavements in Britain. The book did sound one cautionary note:
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The route is not well frequented, at least in its early stages, and can be quite difficult, especially in wet weather....
but the sun was shining as S- and I packed a picnic into our rucksacks and, seasoned ramblers that we are, confidently set out from Pont Melin Fach car park for what promised to be a pleasant day's walk.
Soon our path on the bank of the Avon Nedd disappeared and we had to clamber over stones. But dry ground awaited us on the other side and we pressed on joyfully.
This is Pwll Du, where a river emerges from an underground cave. It soon became obvious that most of the water in the Avon Nedd flowed from here.
Upstream the river shrank to a trickle... then disappeared. The path also frequently disappeared and after scrambling along near-vertical banks we gave up and took to the dry river bed.
It was hard, hard walking over those stones and climbing over, or clambering under, fallen trees. Our pace slowed to a crawl. We were averaging less than one mile per hour!
At last we made it to the 'incredible' Pwll-y-Rhyd sinkhole, but 'incredible' it was not! Here too the river bed was bone dry.
Once more we scrambled along the dry river bed and soon had our first glimpse of the feature that we had come so far to see. Cautiously I approached the lip of the sinkhole.
The photo at the beginning of this post was taken on the opposite side of the sinkhole. Where I sat
to take this photo should have been a raging torrent. O dear!
By now we were both feeling tired and a little despondent. The prospect of climbing to the limestone pavement, then through Ystradfellte and down to the Avon Mellte no longer appealed, so we cut short the walk and headed south on a quiet country road, then picked up a pleasant track over farmland and back to the car park.
One day, when I'm in the Brecons and the rains have been plentiful, and the Avon Nedd is in spate, I would love to return. But when I do I'll park close to Pwll-y-Rhyd. No way will I ever try walking upstream from Pont Melin Fach again!
This is Pwll Du, where a river emerges from an underground cave. It soon became obvious that most of the water in the Avon Nedd flowed from here.
Upstream the river shrank to a trickle... then disappeared. The path also frequently disappeared and after scrambling along near-vertical banks we gave up and took to the dry river bed.
At last we made it to the 'incredible' Pwll-y-Rhyd sinkhole, but 'incredible' it was not! Here too the river bed was bone dry.
Once more we scrambled along the dry river bed and soon had our first glimpse of the feature that we had come so far to see. Cautiously I approached the lip of the sinkhole.
The photo at the beginning of this post was taken on the opposite side of the sinkhole. Where I sat
to take this photo should have been a raging torrent. O dear!
One day, when I'm in the Brecons and the rains have been plentiful, and the Avon Nedd is in spate, I would love to return. But when I do I'll park close to Pwll-y-Rhyd. No way will I ever try walking upstream from Pont Melin Fach again!
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