On a chilly but bright morning we had a change of venue to the canal between Herbert and Holly Street bridges In Pontardawe. We were joined by Ieuan Johns who is on a 70 hour placement with us, kindly sponsored by Swansea University History and Humanities Department.

The first task of the day was to remove a tree that had toppled into the cut. Gordon was in “Nellie” and Ieuan was soon hard at work retrieving the cut lumber.

Martin, Sharon, Paul and Gareth cleared the path downstream from Holly Street. They cleared conifer needles, sycamore and a lot of leafy mud from about 70 metres of towpath and this is what it looked like when they finished.

Time for tea, with a double dose of baking by Ronnie and Gill. Our chums from Whitethorns marched past, stopping only to stoke up with cake.

After tea, yet more invasive weed was removed, this time upstream from Herbert Street. Alan W psyched himself up by daubing his cheeks with gooey mud.

Elsewhere, Gill and Sue were in Annette’s poly-tunnel cum coal mine, transforming polystyrene into knobs of nutty slack. Let’s hope Annette approves.

In the Buried Lock site, the men swept water from the bottom of the canal route in preparation for the arrival of the concrete base later in the morning.

We had great fun on one of the most picturesque urban stretches of the canal and we look forward to having Ieuan with us for a few weeks.