24
OCTOBER
2006
OCTOBER
2006
|
24 OCTOBER 2006 |
Shaun and Bruce explored the river
bed between Yen He Dong and just beyond Bai Dong. Their first stop was the slot
in the river bed whose pitch was estimated on a previous recce at a liberal
20m. This was one of several possible openings into a passage below that would
act as a plug hole once the river started to flow. They hung a neat Y-hang that
gave a clean descent of 13m with rope to spare. Nearby, the passage stepped
down an awkward 4m climb onto a uneven terrace above a lake. There was not enough
rope to reach the water once it had been threaded through a natural belay in
the left hand wall. The pair decided to swap their ropes over and Bruce had
to help Shaun back up the step with the aid of linked footloops. Shaun remained
at the bottom of the pitch and Bruce took the 7m rope to look for a shorter
hand from the surface.With Shaun shouting from below, various skylights were
located amongst the vegetated river banks, but none were suitable. In the end,
a bolt was drilled and the rope hung onto a very greasy ledge, a high point
in the passage below. This was backed up to a dodgy bolt, that had cracked the
thinly bedded bedrock when tightened, using the tape haul chord from a bag.
Not ideal, but adequate. With the larger rope, the lake was reached and the
pair waded across to a nearby rocky beach. With no boat, Shaun stopped behind
whilst Bruce swam welly-less along the canal as far as a narrow constricted
sump. On the left were a couple of minor incoming passages, one that soon required
a 4m climb and the other which was water filled and initially lower which continued
for 80m or so to another climb. In the other direction the lake turned a sharp
corner and ended in a blank wall.
Back on the surface they investigated a few other drains off the river bed a
little further downstream. An oxbow was found of c150m on the left hand side
and a descending passage with a soil bank and some tree debris was followed
a short way to a small pitch with flared walls that could not be climbed out.
Further downstream a descent the two split up and Bruce wandered into a passage
on the rhs ('Sink34') which he followed for 200m before returning to meet Shaun
and GPS the entrance.
Ged went to the TV
station and spent all day shooting an re-shooting footage. He came back sying
that he was exhausted by the whole affair. As a result, he almost fell asleep
at 5pm
Harvey had a rest day.
Xiao Dong
-GPS'd on a previous day by Harvey.
John, Tony P, Eddie,Moha surveyed
Niu, Arthur collected millipedes, crickets, moths from the cave.
Of note were seen 3 carved millstones of about 0.5m diameter and several nitrate
pits and nitrate washing baths. The GPS was taken by Arthur UTM 49R 0325714,3356927,1118m
Long Gu Dong
Tony, Kutya and Marci followed behind Graham and Dave to re- survey the connecting passage as far as the first serious lake which was found by Ged and Dave the day before. They covered about 980m of passage.
Dave and Graham boated across this
lake and got the bottom of the connection pitch visited by all at the start
of the trip and rigged by Ged & Bruce. The rope unfortunately was no longer
in place.
Emma, Mike and Emerson followed
the fossil passage from bottom of 50m pitch, so did not not cross the sump lake.
Marci, Kutcha, Tony H re-surveyed Belgian survey along fossil connection following
Graham.
We all had dinner
at the showcave and were taken
there in a big coach. The meal was excellent and Ged took the opportunity to
hold a meeting outlining the progress made and possibilities of the area with
the help of diagrams and maps blue-tacked to the wall.
We returned back to hotel in a smaller bus and Bruce travelle back with He in
his trusty van. From here we went to a night club in town where speeches were
made and lots of beer was consumed. There were plenty of snacks, and a disco
with strobes. Various people took to the floor like John Travolta with others
standing around clapping them on.
Ged and Zhanghai voice their thanks and report on the expedition
Members of the Lichuan Travelling & Exploration Association at their
disco
