Expedition Log

Day 16 Thursday 26th January 2006

Superb weather this morning as Moose, Robbie and Jean-Paul headed out on the first cave hunting mission of the trip. The cave hunting party departed at 0905 and skirted round the North edge of the Ora Doline. A prominent dry valley was encountered which they presumed ran parallel to the main doline. They followed it and, passing one small choked sinkhole, they eventually got to a point where they could see straight across the doline in an East-West orientation and gazed at the camp 418m away. They managed to obtain a GPS fix and then headed West (away from the Ora)

After more ascents and further descents they into another dry valley which led (downstream) in a SW direction. The first sink hole looked good but again was blocked at the entrance with vegetation and mud. They continued SW to the final sinkhole of the day containing a large decomposing tree stump. Way on down behind this the way on was again blocked in the same manner. They couldn’t get a GPS fix on the final sink so then retreated back to camp. The final position was estimated to be two kilometres from camp and under one kilometre from the western edge of the Ora Doline. The best option appeared to be to go west away from the doline and the associated valleys. They arrived back at camp at 4pm.