Jamaican Caving Notes

Good Hope Two Cave

April 2 & May 13, 2005

District: Rock Spring

Parish: Trelawny

WGS84 L/L: 18 18 49.8; 77 34 26.7 (Sink)

JAD69: 189198 E, 184541 N

JAD2001: 689309 E, 684830 N

Altitude: 490m WGS84

Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical

Type: Stream passage

Accessibility: Crawl

Depth: 0

Length: 200m

Explorers: KHE - 1965

Survey: KHE - 1965

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

Entrance size: 5m W x <2m H

Entrance aspect: 200 deg true (Sink)

Vegetation in general locale: Bush, meadow

Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow

Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction

Bedding: Moderate

Jointing: Moderate

Speleothems: Undetermined

Palaeo resources: None

Archaeo resources: None

Hydrology: Wet

Siltation: Moderate

Sink: Active

Rising: Active

Stream passage with surface activity: Active

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: Forestry Reserve

Protection: None

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

Good Hope Two Cave

April 2 & May 13, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack,

Notes: RS Stewart

Sink: WGS84 - 18 18' 49.8" N; 77 34' 26.7" W; Alt: 490; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 200 deg true

Rising: WGS84 - 18 18' 53.5" N; 77 34' 25.3" W; Alt: 490; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 90 deg true

Good Hope Two Cave is the second 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 rising of Good Hope One Cave; and the Rising is to the northwest in a different cockpit. Access notes for both entrances will be found in the introductory notes for this chapter.

The Sink was found on the afternoon of April 2, and the Rising on May 13.

Good Hope Two Cave - Sink

April 2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

After we had found the Rising entrance to Good Hope One Cave, we had generally followed the riverbed that starts there (but with us not actually down in it), until it disappeared below a saddle on the northwest side of the glade. At this point, another streambed joins from the east, after a series of muddy sinks and low bedding-plane passages in the side of the hill. The drainage from the cockpit is through a wide section along the bottom of the hill, and the actual entrance to GH-2 Cave was not immediately apparent. In fact, it was not until our second visit, on May 13, that we were sure of the position for the true entrance.

After scrambling around in various low wet undercuts in the hill for a while, and not having much luck, we decided to look further to the northwest in the cockpit bottom to see what could be found. At 18 18 53.4 N, 77 34 36.4 W, 300 metres from the GH-2 Cave sinks, we found what we determined afterwards is an unlisted sink at the end of a stream. We didn't spend much time trying to find a way in, and didn't have any success, but this site should be looked at again.

The time was now late afternoon, and we had already been in several caves earlier in the day, so we pulled the plug and hiked out.

Good Hope Two Cave - Sink

April 2, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

From Good Hope 1 rising we followed a dry stream bed that meandered, but generally progressed to the north.  The stream bed was perhaps 2m wide and as much as 3m high, with steep sides.  I led the way chopping and kicking vegetation out of the way.  A lot of the branches were covered with dry soil and material that had been deposited during times of high water.  The dry material dropped off of the branches as I struck it, landing on myself and inevitably sticking to the sweat on my neck.  This caused me to itch and generally get peeved.  I put my negative energies into chopping and we made pretty good progress.

Eventually we reached Good Hope 2 sink.  I don't recall the appearance of the entrance, but I did note that the chamber within had a heavily bedded ceiling.  The chamber was pretty wide, and sloped down perhaps 20 degrees.  To the left the ceiling appeared to get progressively lower and closer to a body of stagnant water.  To the right was some flowing water that apparently left the cave by some means that we did not determine.

Good Hope Two Cave

May 13, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

During the second PiP expedition, we returned to Good Hope Glade to finish things off. Parking again at the end of the Good Hope Road, we made good time on the hike to the Rising of GH-1 Cave, and this time walked right down the bottom of the riverbed that starts here (mostly dry at this time). The garbage was really quite something - bags, bottles, old shoes, you name it, was littered along the entire route. No one lives or farms in this glade (it floods), so obviously it was all coming from the sink of the Mouth River after having travelled through Mouth Maze and GH-1 Cave.

This attempt, we found the actual entrance to GH-2 Cave, but the time of year and the flood-risk suggested that we not go in. A couple of things can be noted: There is not much silt at the entrance to the cave, because the flow in is through a very wide section of bedding-plane at the bottom of the hill, and it has not been concentrated like at the GH-1 Cave sink. The garbage fed to this point is not being trapped to any extent at the entrance to the passage and much is washing in. Despite there having been much rain in the weeks before, with the Mouth River quite active, the riverbed through the glade was still mostly dry - apparently, the phreatic zone had not yet risen enough to cause a surface flow.

After getting a GPS position, we worked our way through the saddle above the sink to find the Rising.

The saddle that needs to be crossed is a little dicey to get through. A vertical cliff of about 15 metres is directly above the sink, and on either side of this rock outcrop the hill is only slightly less steep. We went to the right (east) and had to fight our way around trees, including Cowitch, perched on the steep slope. The rocks are loose. I was the first through this, and got Ivor to throw me the etrier so that I could tie it to a tree at a safe point for the others to use - I was somewhat concerned about the others taking a very nasty fall. The downward side was easier.

Once through the saddle, we went down into the cockpit, and swung left (north) to look for the riverbed that we expected to find starting at the Rising of GH-2 Cave. We found it where the KHE area plan indicated it should be, about 300 metres from the saddle.

At the top of the riverbed was a fissure type entrance (strongly jointed) with a pitch of over 5 metres dropping into the rock. This matched what we would expect for the rising of GH-2 Cave, going by the KHE account. We didn't have a rope, not thinking that we would need one, but we had a very long etrier (10 metres). We tied this to a tree, fed it into the hole, and Ivor headed in. The etrier didn't get him quite to the bottom, so he wasn't able to explore up the passage.

Although we did not get into the passage, we would expect that S. verleyi would be present, since they are in all of the other stream passage caves in Rock Spring. N. farri would also be possible.

A GPS position was taken at the entrance, and then we followed the riverbed downstream as best we could (we couldn't walk in it most of the time, because of trees washed/fallen in, and mud) until we reached the sink to Far Enough Cave.

We are listing this site with a high vulnerability for the same reasons as Good Hope One. There is a great amount of garbage being washed into, and through, this cave. Siltation is also great. This is a good candidate for investigating methods to inhibit input of garbage and silt.