Expedition Log

Day 18 Saturday 28th January 2006

Moose, James and Robbie set off from camp at 8.30am to look in the area to the west and north-west of the northern end of the Ora Doline. Unfortunately it began to rain as they set off and continued all day. From the moment they left camp they were soaked to the skin.

They soon reached the point where Moose, Jean-Paul and James reached a couple of days previously. They had called it the Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs. They had then headed SSW down into the valley and discovered very little, so today they continued from their last point and headed west to WNW up the slope and down another valley. They explored the valley up to the right once they had descended into it. Moose climbed down into a shakehole only to discover a cave.

They grabbed their headtorches and crawled inside. It was small and wet. Moose soon reached a 3m pitch down which was descended, leading to another drop that went down in two stages. The three of them stopped at a point looking down a third drop which was much more serious and would need a rope and some abseiling gear to go any further. They had only headtorches and no helmets. On the return through the flat-out crawl in the water there was a noticeable draught blowing inward, then outward, then inward, pulsing like there was a large body of water causing a powerful draught as it rose up and down. Moose called the cave Challenger.

After lunch in the entrance out of the rain they continued onwards and upwards following a similar bearing WNW over another ridge, dropping down into another valley with an active stream flowing in the bottom. As James was leading cutting with his machete he turned left (South) and followed the riverbed downstream. Sure enough, before long, they discovered a second cave. Although there was no significant draught passing through, it looked to be larger and much more exciting. The entrance soon dropped into a vertical system. James free climbed down a 20m pitch and Robbie managed to follow a short way with great caution. James then climbed down a 4m pitch shortly after the first pitch.

This cave looked a bit larger and fluted walls of sharp pointed cream-coloured limestone.

On James’s way back up the large pitch the outside stream waters had grown significantly. When James was halfway up the pitch, trying to negotiate the crux of the climb the pulse waters raced over the edge and poured down the drop cascading in a waterfall. James got soaked whilst bridging the 1.5m gap from one wall to the other. He soon climbed up and joined Moose and Robbie. They both thought it was very amusing. James joined in the laughter once he realised that he was safe and sound. He called his cave Pulse Pot.

It was now Robbie’s turn to discover a cave. They continued on the same bearing once they had retraced their steps back to the head of the valley. The ridge continued to rise and then dropped back down again after only twenty metres. Robbie cut a track down on the other side straight to a pot where a dry river bed ended. It was blind, so much for thinking it was going to be easy. They continued over another ridge and down the other side where the descent was more serious than previously. They ended up in a hollow where two river beds intercepted each other where they found two caves. One was very small and sharp with a stream falling through it heading southwards, the second a large 4m almost circular pot approx 20m deep with a large boulder wedged at the top. There seemed to be a steady constant draught blowing inward. This was great news. This was the largest cave found so far and had a good draught and was furthest away from the Ora Doline. They managed to get a GPS fix on this spot before returning back towards camp.

At the junction of the Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs Moose climbed up northwards to a summit and overlooked another large shakehole which Jean-Paul had missed only a couple of days ago. Moose led in, having to move a few rocks but reported that it was a blank. They left one valley unexplored.