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Jamaican Caving Notes |
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Jan 31, 2004 BERTIE SINKHOLE Field notes: I. C. CONOLLEY Cavers: I. C. Conolley, R. S. Stewart, M. Bellinger, D. Williams It’s now Saturday, January 31, 2004 and time for caving again. The plan is to go over to St. Ann, cave in Aboukir - actually making contact with a family there and having them take us to a sinkhole. After much difficulty we find the family and with a family member guiding us find the sinkhole. It looked fairly innocuous but we could not see the bottom and figured it was a long way down. Again it was one of those classified by people in the area as "Bottomless". We had figured what that meant. They did not hear the stone thrown down there hit the bottom. Okay Stef starts the rigging. This is much more complex. No simply tying off from a tree and lowering the rope over the side - too many sharp stones, too deep - best the rope is touching nothing. Stef takes the first go. Again we have Mark, and Delroy is here with us - his first trip out with the crew. He is enthusiastic and a "thinking being". He stays up and sees all is well on top. I go second following Stef, and then Mark follows. It is a long way down. It is about 180 feet. It is truly a shaft. It does not open out the further down you go as so many of the other sinkholes. It opens but very slightly so at the bottom there is really not that much space. Just some ten by fifteen feet. The rock is mostly devoid of stalactites and stalagmites. About two thirds way down there is a massive boulder that is stuck between the two sides of the cave wall. An earth tremor of some magnitude could dislodge it. Not a difficult climb up and we were off on a track back to the vehicles and over to Bensonton. (Continue to Hutchinson's Hole) |
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