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Jamaican Caving Notes |
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Nov 8, 2003 COOL GARDEN CAVE 2 Position: North Ent: 18 19' 42.1" N, 77 49' 05.4" W South Ent: 18 19' 39.0" N, 77 49' 04.8" W Field notes: I. C. CONOLLEY Cavers: I. C. Conolley, M. Taylor. S. Surana It was a caving weekend again. It was Saturday November 8 and Sunday November 9, 2003. Intrepid cavers, Ivor and Malibu, of the renowned Jamaica Caving Organization would be host to intrepid caver, Sanjay Surana, taking him to a number of caves in the Cockpit Mountains. It was a late start on Saturday, as intrepid caver Ivor was not intrepid wake-up-early-after-a four-hour-drive-to-Last Resort Ivor, but we were off to pick up Sanjay who had flown in from New York the night before for a caving weekend. So, to Mobay at his hotel and then on to our first cave, Cool Garden 2, in Flamstead, St James. Yes this is Cockpit Country too. We had been here before and had some harassment so I said to Malibu, "We are going through the back door." We found the spot where Stef and myself had emerged from the cave the last time we visited, to the shock of the resident whose house was quite nearby. "My God where did these people come from?" Anyway, after he had got over his initial shock and realized we were real, we became friends. It was his place that we went to. We parked in their driveway, and Kevin who had been with us the last time again quickly showed us where the entrance was. Toting all the gear we got to the mouth of the cave. It was a descent. We just barely saw the bottom as they had recently bushed the area and had thrown all the cuttings into the hole. We tied off and I gave Sanjay a crash course in descending. He managed to put on the harness by himself okay - must have practiced this. I know my first time, I had to be helped. I showed him how to put the rope into the figure eight and secured it to the 'biner. Before going down I let him get the feel of it - brake hand and footworks. He was a natural. Malibu had gone down first and now he followed. I went down last. We had company. Apart from Kevin, there were a couple girls who insisted they come with us - dangerous we said. One asked if I couldn't take her down on my back. It was an emotionally exciting prospect but DANGEROUS. The red flags went up in my head and regrettably had to say no. All three of us in, we proceeded on in the cave. There was water. Not a lot but there was a flow in the lower streamway. We easily avoided walking in it and made our way through the simple single passageway. It was an interesting treck. The cave lacked the exciting stalactites descending from the cave ceiling, and the stalagmites growing from the floor, but the boulders, solid and huge, were much in evidence indicating that there must have been a collapse of sections of the cave ceiling at sometime in the way distant past. We saw one or two pieces of flagging. The last time I came through here I remember that I had taken an upper elevation that proved most difficult to traverse, so having got to a certain point, I had us all go down into the streamway where the water was running. It was this path that Stef had taken when we went through together. As I had been travelling on the upper level, throughout the journey, it was not evident to me that there was adequate space below, so I had not even attempted it. But after going through the rigorous gymnastics and eventually getting out and saying to Stef how agile he was to have got through that bit.... what did he say. Ha. What bit. He had not gone there. He was in the lower streamway. There was a passageway there??? My mouth had dropped. I will know next time. This was next time, and I knew, and we did not follow my earlier example. This was all near the end and we soon saw light. It was a challenging scrample up out of the hole, but with the aid of roots and stones, we made it out. Mali went back for the rope and we all stood around chatting and waiting. It was exhilirating. We were muddy but satisfied. This is where we would get in the next time. We had seen the owners of the property when we went in and they indicated that there were eight caves on the property. I took that to mean possibly four as we knew of at least two with two entrances. But yes this seems an interesting place to be and from their property the atmosphere is quiet and no harassment. (More notes for Cool Garden 2) |
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