15th September 2019
Saturday evening: I decided to drive over to Gower this evening rather than Sunday morning. After ‘phaffing’ around too much it was after 18:00 by the time I was on my way. There was an amazing sunset as I drove west and a big harvest moon had risen when I arrived at Cefn Bryn, about 21:00. There were several vans already parked, I found a good spot and joined them for the night.
Sunday: The main reasons for driving over yesterday were, this morning, fulfilled – I’ve had a little ‘vamping’ fix and a peaceful, relaxed morning after a good nights rest. The sun was shining but I was thankful for having my down jacked. Fresh coffee, samosa, bhaji and vegetable spring roll for breakfast before setting off to Overton to meet John at 09:30. Stopped briefly in Port Eynon to use the facilities there. Looked at the sea and thought to myself “wish I had my swim shorts”, it was high tide and like a mill pond.
John was already at Overton and we were soon on the walk to Harry Thomas Cave. At the cave we went to the final ‘chamber’ at the current end and John gave a run-down of the latest progress. John has dug a pit to recover more animal remains and there were still plenty more to excavate. I had brought along a 100 LEDs UV flashlight (395nm wavelength), we turned off all the other lights and illuminated the finely decorated chamber with UV. The effect was even more dramatic than I had anticipated, revealing differences in fluorescence in the speleothems and the more recent moonmilk. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera, we will have to repeat and record the process next visit.
I returned to the surface, sorting out the haul lines on the way up. With the hauling system ready all the rocks stacked on the platform were loaded into the bucket and pulled up to the entrance. The rocks cleared I suggested we clear some of the bags, but John was determined to excavate some more. I returned underground and we picked over the cobbles and boulders to recover a variety of animal bones in variable states of preservation, including bovid, cervid, canid, lagomorph, rodent and avian. A mixed assemblage to be dried, cleaned and sorted.
We recovered dog skull number 40 and there is every possibility that more will be revealed as excavation continues. Could really do with another spoil shifting session to remove a bulk of the cobbles and boulders. Time flies when you are busy and enjoying yourselves and before we knew it, time to pack things away and make our way home.
The bones were sorted into trays and I carefully carried them up to the surface where they were wrapped in cling film to be transported back to Overton where the vehicles were parked.
