Jamaican Caving Notes

Good Hope One Cave

April 1-2, 2005

District: Rock Spring

Parish: Trelawny

WGS84 L/L: 18 18 40.8; 77 34 28.2 (Sink)

JAD69: 189154 E, 184264 N

JAD2001: 689264 E, 684553 N

Altitude: 495m WGS84

Accuracy: +/- 15m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical

Type: Stream passage

Accessibility: Scramble

Depth: 3m

Length: 155m

Explorers: KHE - 1965

Survey: KHE - 1965

JU Ref: Text - pg 184; Map - pg 185

Entrance size: 1m W x 2m H

Entrance aspect: ~210 deg true

Vegetation in general locale: Bush, meadow

Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow

Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction

Bedding: Moderate

Jointing: Moderate

Speleothems: Stals, flowstone

Palaeo resources: None

Archaeo resources: None

Hydrology: Wet

Siltation: Heavy

Sink: Active

Rising: Active

Stream passage with surface activity: Minot flow

Stream passage without surface activity: N/A

Dark zone: >95%.

Climate: Cool, humid.

Bats: None

Bat guano: N/A

Guano mining: N/A

Guano condition: N/A

Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some (from rising ent)

Neoditomyia farri: Some (from rising ent)

Amblypygids: None

Periplaneta americana: None

Cave crickets: None

Sesarma: Some

Other species: None seen.

Visitation: None

Speleothem damage: None

Graffiti: None

Garbage: Much

Ownership: Private

Protection: None

Vulnerability: High. Siltation and garbage is severe in this cave.

Good Hope One Cave

April 1-2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack, Newman

Notes: RS Stewart

Sink: WGS84 - 18 18' 40.8" N; 77 34' 28.2" W; Alt: 495; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: ~210 deg true

Rising: WGS84 - 18 18' 45.0" N; 77 34' 27.4" W; Alt: 495; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 0 deg true

Good Hope One Cave is the first of several stream passage caves found downstream of Mouth Maze. There are two entrances: the Sink is located at the end of a seasonal riverbed that starts at the Good Hope Glade Sump Entrance of Mouth Maze; and the Rising is on the other side of a saddle, in a different cockpit. Access notes for both entrances will be found in the introductory notes for this chapter.

We located the sink to the cave first, on April 1, with the help of a local man named Calvin who showed us a track from the east side of the Mouth River sink, over a saddle to Good Hope Glade. The following day, April 2, we would return to the glade and find the downstream rising of Good Hope One Cave.

April 1, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack, Newman

Notes: RS Stewart

The hike over the saddle from the Mouth River was not bad - a little steep, but not long. Just before the glade, we hit a main trail and learned from Calvin that this started at the end of the Good Hope Road. We were already familiar with it, having seen it the day before with Gary, who had told us it went to Good Hope glade. We now had both ends sorted out.

As soon as we were down into Good Hope Glade, we intersected a deep seasonal streambed that meandered from our left (southwest) north through the cockpit bottom. Following this, we soon reached a series of several muddy pits that were acting as sinks. The last of these seemed to be the one that would contain the entrance to the stream passage, but it was much too mud-choked to enter. It was now late in the afternoon (we had already done Harties Cave-2, and Farmyard earlier in the day). We didn't want to push any further into the bush in search of the rising, in case we got caught out after dark on the hike out, so we reversed back along the streambed to see what we could find at the rising end of it. We weren't exactly sure which cave we had yet, and checking the upstream source would help to narrow things down..

At the top-end of the riverbed, we found an entrance to a passage that held deep water, and a small flow trickling out. We decided to follow it in. At points, we were up to our necks, half-wading, half-swimming, with the ceiling of the passage only 20 cm above us. Minke Newman, an intern for TNC-J, was with us for the day. Before this outing, she had never been in a non-tourist cave before. She had already dealt with Harties Cave-2 fine (not exactly an easy cave), and would show herself to be brave indeed for this next little jaunt. She didn't whine, complain, just stoically followed along, as we moved through sections where the ceiling was so low you had to turn your head sideways to keep your chin out of the water. After about 100 metres of this, we hit a sump and could go no further, so we turned and made our way back out.

Once we'd had a chance to plot GPS positions afterwards, we could compare things to points that we'd already gotten, especially the main entrance to Mouth Maze, and could determine that the muddy sinks were Good Hope One Cave, and the long sumped passage at the top of the riverbed was one of two entrances to Mouth Maze at Good Hope Glade. The one we were in is the one that is shown with a sump in the KHE map for Mouth Maze.

The Mouth Maze passage held S. verleyi, and N. farri. This will be included in the notes for Mouth Maze, along with the position.

We now began the hike out, and although I was in favour of going back over the saddle to the end of the Mouth River, the others preferred to hike out along the trail to the Good Hope road. This was fine, as we were able to become familiar with the track, but it did mean a fair hike on the road to get back around to Miss Buckle's.

Good Hope One Cave - Sink

April 1, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: DK Roggy

We were guided to a glade just north of the main entrance to Mouth Maze cave by a local gentleman named Calvin.  The glade stretched from north to south, and was bordered on the east and west sides by steep rock walls.  We entered the glade through a saddle on the south side and proceeded north for approximately 200m before we came to a large grassy depression that turned out to be the entrance (the sink to be specific) of Good Hope 1 cave.  There was some confusion over where we were that led us to believe that we had reached Good Hope 2, but the correct determination was made once all GPS data were plotted by Stefan.
When it came time for us to end the days explorations we followed a trail from nearby that went roughly East.  After 7 minutes walk, we found ourselves at the end of the double-track trail that is runs alongside "Banga-Swanga cave" and behind Carambie cave.  Knowing that trail meant that we had traveled the periphery of the district and helped me to feel that we had a good grasp of it.

Mouth Maze - Sump Entrance

April 1, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: DK Roggy

We backtracked about 100m south from the Good Hope 1 sink and dropped down onto a dry riverbed, partially obscured by vegetation.  With some machete work, I came across a boulder-strewn entrance of perhaps 1.5 feet tall and 3 feet wide.  Going through solo on a brief recon jaunt, I waded through water about 5 feet deep, then came to a dry, rough, eroded passage.  I promptly went back and what I reported to the rest of the team seemed to match the description of Good Hope 1 (rising) so we initially thought it was that.  We all went into the cave and didn't get very far before coming to a sump.  What we had found turned out to be an entrance to Mouth Maze, once all GPS data were plotted by Stefan.

April 2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

We hiked to Good Hope Glade via the track from the Good Hope Road, after parking near the end of it. After reaching the sink of Good Hope One Cave, we crossed through the saddle beyond the sink, to hit the cockpit where we expected the passage to be rising. Once through, we soon found it low on the east side, as soon as the saddle is left behind. An entrance a few metres high, and less wide, is found past boulders and leads to a stream passage. We followed this but could not pass a sump shown on the KHE map as a deep pool. This was only about 30 metres in. Apparently, either it was a dryer time of year when they were in there, or they ducked through.

S. verleyi and N. farri were present in the passage. Eleuths were using the outer part of the cave. A GPS position was taken, and then we carried on across the cockpit to find GH Two Cave.

We are listing this site with a high vulnerability due to the great amount of garbage being washed in, and through, this cave. Siltation is also great. This is a good candidate for investigating methods to inhibit input of garbage.

Good Hope One Cave - Rising

April 2, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

Good Hope 1 rising was pretty easy to find from the Good Hope 1 sink.  I proposed that we follow the approximate bearing that Jamaica Underground indicated from the sink to the rising.  We did that, going up a saddle to the NE and down the other side and found the sink below some large boulders that allowed for a couple of different ways to and from the actual entrance. It should be noted that at the time we thought that we had found Good Hope 2 rising, but that was cleared up once all GPS data were plotted by Stefan.