7 NOVEMBER 2006

Back to Diary Page

Showcave extension

With only a couple of days remaining, our attention turned to the last survey station reached beyond the showcave. Zhanghai, Zheng, Bruce, Eddie and Tony headed into the cave at speed to reach the start point. Tony looked pretty bad and had not been well during the night. Of course as always he still decided to come and have a crack. We intended to make up two survey teams and leapfrog ahead to make as much progress as possible. Tony was paired with Zheng and learnt the survey process with amazing ease and understanding after just 3 legs. Bruce and Eddie proceeded 300m ahead and left a cairn and note showing their start point and hence Tony's stop point. Zhanghai went ahead route-finding and picking suitable survey stations whilst the other two surveyed. The passage was straight and in places beautifully decorated with flowstone, curtains, stalagmites and bosses. The floor of the streamway soon developed into short canals and Zhanghai was reluctant to take the plunge. Fortunately these pools were relatively short and the team forged ahead. We were soon joined by Zheng who had completed the survey leg and sent Tony back out. The active streambed became bedrock and was largely coated with calcite 'icing'- very beautiful.

A couple of extensive boulder chokes were neotiated a stream level before a final chamber was reached with a pitch down to the cascaded stream. Zheng was sent to find a climb down whilst Eddie and Bruce caught up with the survey. Zhanghai expored upslope and returned excitedly to borrow a camera with which to photograph some beautiful gour pools at a higher level. A tricky climb down accessed the bottom of the pitch and the ongoing stream soon ended in a long pool choked by a large flowstone formation. Bruce swam to the end to confirm that there was no way on.

The return was speedy and Bruce and Zheng got out 20 mins ahead of the others into the cold dark night. The cave temperature is warm and constantly in the 20's Celcius. A quick shower was grasped back in the nearby village accomodation before the others emerged. Time to have a long awaited beer before dinner.

Back at our room we entered the survey data to reveal just how close the 'Doline' entrance cave had come to the main passage. The survey reported 5m in plan and 40m in height based on our GPS fix. Accounting for any error this was as close as it gets. At the connection point and in the main showcave passage, Bruce has climbed +20m up a large flowstone ramp headed by a waterfall from a slot 6m above the highest point. This was presumably the incoming passage. The end point of the 'doline' entrance was extremely aquatic with perched canals involving a couple of ducks. It was abandoned when it developed into gravel bedding beyond a waist deep pool.