11
OCTOBER
2006
OCTOBER
2006
|
11 OCTOBER 2006 |
The team leave for Wuhan
We all seemed to sleep well initially
that night, but several of us woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep.
Breakfast was at a cafe up the road from the Institute.
Eddie starts the chopstick learning curve at breakfast
Our first task afterwards was to select from the Institute tackle store the
equipment we needed for our trip. This included ropes, dinghies, bolts, hangers,
slings etc and a few items left behind by Arthur Clarke on the 2005 trip that
he will need on this year's trip. Eddie and Harvey sorted through the equipment
and catalogued it whilst Tony, Bruce and Ged pulled it from the dusty shelves
and ferried it to a collection point. We were pleased to discover that we still
had 60 large flashbulbs from 2005 and a reasonable number of smaller ones.
We followed this with a meeting upstairs in the computer room where Zhanghai
and Han detailed the objectives for the expedition and gave us more information
about the Teng Long Dong system. Several maps were requested for our use in
digital form and Deng kindly set about scanning and extracting this information
for us.
Whilst this was being dealt with, the team and Zhanghai grabbed an opportunity
to go to Severn Stars Park, which is a nearby ornamental park with a cave and
zoo. There were a variety of animals there including a very sleepy tiger with
which it was possible to be photographed and a panda. There were many girls
in traditional? colourful dress with whom you could be photographed and also
several decorated seats with peacocks perched on either side where your photo
could be taken for a fee. Unfortunately we did not have time to look at the
cave that Ged said was worth a visit.
Ged collects his tourist photo from the model
Pagodas opposite Severn Stars Park - Guilin
Back at the Institute, Bruce exchanged data and photos of the previous trip
with Huang and also aquired maps of the Lichuan area that Deng had prepared.
The others packed the mini bus with our personal caving bags so that we didn't
have to take them on our train and flight to Enshi and on to Lichuan. The mini
bus will be driving directly to Lichuan with all the equipment.
Bruce at this point was beginning to feel unwell with a dose of the trots and
so refrained from eating.
After supper in the Institute restaurant, the team caught the 8pm train to Wuhan
Our train arrives at Guilin station
