Jamaican Caving Notes

Home Away From Home Cave

May 16, 2005 - 12:00-13:30 EST

District: Caledonia

Parish: Trelawny

WGS84 L/L: 18 20 48.9; 77 40 18.9

JAD69: 178869 E, 188238 N

JAD2001: 678980 E, 688526 N

Altitude: 315m WGS84

Accuracy: +/- 15m horizontal; +/- 20m vertical

Type: Chamber cave

Accessibility: Vertical gear

Depth: ~25m

Length: ~150m

Explorers: JCO - 2001

Survey: None

JU Ref: N/A

Entrance size: 15m W x 7m H

Entrance aspect: 230 deg true

Vegetation in general locale: Bush

Vegetation at entrance: Bush

Rock type: White limestone

Bedding: Poor

Jointing: Moderate

Speleothems: Stals, flowstone, microgours

Palaeo resources: None

Archaeo resources: Petroglyphs [?]

Hydrology: Dry

Siltation: N/A

Sink: N/A

Rising: N/A

Stream passage with surface activity: N/A

Stream passage without surface activity: N/A

Dark zone: 50%.

Climate: Warm, semi-humid.

Bats: >500

Bat guano: Large accumulations

Guano mining: None

Guano condition: Fresh, fluff

Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some

Neoditomyia farri: Some

Amblypygids: Some

Periplaneta americana: None

Cave crickets: Many

Sesarma: None

Other species: Two species of araneae common, both family Nesticidae, Gaucelmus cavernicola and Nesticidae fam. Many fungal gnats, species undetermined. Buffo marinus, cane toad, present as invasive. Yellow Boa - 2002.

Visitation: None

Speleothem damage: None

Graffiti: None

Garbage: None

Ownership: Private

Protection: None

Vulnerability: High. Not currently visited by tourists, or people of the district, so no immediate threat, but it is one of the few bat-roosts in the CC with deep deposits of guano that are undisturbed. These accumulations support various fungi, associated gnats, and predators. Microinvertebrates were not looked at, but would be expected to be present. Paleoclimatic records continue to be preserved in the deep guano deposits.

Home Away From Home Cave

[We first present excerpts from the discovery notes of May 11, 2001, and the location of the second entrance in 2002, and finally the visit carried out as part of the PiP Project, in May 2005. Apart from these, two other trips have been made to the cave by JCO members, in 2002, and 2004, with notes posted on the JCO website. As far as we know, these are the only times the cave has been entered.]

May 11, 2001

Home Away Cave

Cavers: R. S. Stewart, M. Taylor

Notes: R. S. Stewart

Susan Koenig passed along the info that she'd been told of a cave somewhere south of the escarpment along the trail to Quick Step from Windsor. I’d heard vague rumours for years of something up that way but had never been able to find anyone who knew where it was. Susan supplied a name: Ian. He'd come across the entrance while out scouting for timber. Several days after putting out the word that I wanted to link up with him, we met and worked out a time to go - May 11.

The trail across to Quickstep stays to the north side of the escarpment until it turns and heads across the cockpit country south of Dromilly. We hiked until we could see the pastureland behind Pantrepant, then Ian led us up straight up the escarpment, aiming for a high saddle at the top. There was no trail, it was very steep, and there were the usual loose pointy rocks and vines everywhere, so it was slow going. In the course of our scramble up, we established a trail of sorts.

It was a very, very hot day and by the time we got to the saddle, I was ready for a break. There's a nice spot to sit, on some small buttress roots, right at the highest part. After a few minutes, we carried on, heading down from the saddle to the south. It was very bushed up and Ian had said we needed to go up again after this. We struggled up the other side of the cockpit that we'd crossed the upper edge of, and hit leveller ground. There was nice forest cover; as we strolled through the trees Ian said, "Yeh mon, dis could be my home away from home. All the wood is right here". After a few minutes more walking through the saddle, we suddenly came upon the entrance. It was a fine, very large entrance that a minutes scrambling into showed to have, down a bouldered slope, a fine drop that disappeared into a very large chamber.

We took a short break, and then I found a good boulder to use as an anchor and tied and tossed down a 30 m line. The part of the cave just inside the entrance is a very wide sloping chamber that intersects the next, larger, chamber at a slope of apx 25 deg. At the intersection is a drop of apx 12 m that extends some 25 m wide. The slipperiness of the slope above means that one must start the rap midway down the first chamber, just below very large breakdown boulders.

I went ahead first, stopping at the edge of the drop for a minute to make sure the 30 m line reached the floor (it did with about 2 m to spare), and told Malibu that it looked good.

We had descended into a very large (50 x 30m ?), very high (over 30m) oval shaped (long axis N-S) breakdown chamber. There looked to be a low opening to the north so we headed that way. The opening is about 8 m, and the same high. As soon as we went in the humidity rose and we hit a very strong ammonia smell from guano. We moved further in and could see a very large accumulation of fresh guano sitting on the central breakdown boulders. Bats in good numbers, disturbed by our lights, flew around overhead. I thought I heard water flowing somewhere off across the cave. The ammonia was intense. We headed across the chamber and as we stirred up fresh guano, the smell became worse. I started wondering how much ammonia a person could breathe and survive. We retreated, and then tried again. It was too much. I decided to say the hell with it until I got some advice. Guy van Rentergem was at the Windsor Great House. I figured he would probably know

We moved back past the rope, I had a quick look closer to the S end of the main chamber, towards the light, but it still looked quite steep, so I thought it would be best if we headed out and came back with ammonia advice.

Ian had gone around to find the second opening he'd heard me mention on my way in, had looked around in that direction, but had seen nothing. We hauled rope and headed out.

When we got back to Windsor, Guy van Rentergem and Adam Hyde were still there, so I was able to ask about the ammonia. They didn't know really, but didn't figure a person would suddenly pass out from it like CO2. I mentioned that I'd thought that I'd heard water. They looked doubtful about that, my having already said that the cave was in a saddle.

I decided that if no one knew of a name for this cave that I was going to call it "Home Away From Home" after what Ian had said on the way. As best as I've been able to determine, no one has been down into it, or is aware of a name. Ian said he thought the Wales Estate had owned the land. That doesn’t seem appropriate, "Wales Estate Cave", so I’ll let Ian have named the thing although he doesn't know that he did. This cave is being recorded as "Home Away from Home Cave" or Home Away for short.

Feb 25, 2002

Home Away Cave

Cavers: S. Koenig, M. Taylor, R. S. Stewart

Notes: R. S. Stewart

The previous two trips we had gone north so I headed off to the southern end of the main chamber. Here I found a steep climb up to the source of daylight noticed last year. Halfway up the climb, a large opening dropping into another chamber appeared on the right that would have needed a second rope. I gave a shout to the others that I'd found more cave, then carried on up. At the top, the floor levelled somewhat and I found another entrance roughly 1.5 x 2 m. Exiting, I worked my way round the hill to the main entrance where Susan and Malibu were waiting at the top of the main drop. They were surprised to have me calling to them from above (I wanted to hide and make duppy noises, but I was a bit tired and it was late.)

May 16, 2005

PiP Project

Home Away Cave

Team: Stewart, Roggy

Notes: RS Stewart

This was a Monday, and Ivor was back in Kingston until the evening. Dietrich and I would spend the day in the Windsor district and tackle one of the most difficult hikes of the expedition in order to reach Home Away from Home Cave. This isolated Cockpit Country cave was first explored by Martel Taylor and I, in 2001. It consists of two very large, linked, breakdown chambers. It serves as a bat-roost, and has great deposits of undisturbed bat guano. There has been no disturbance because of the difficulty in reaching the cave, and the 20-metre vertical encountered inside the entrances. Our hike to the cave was up the steep slopes of the escarpment south of Pantrepant, and through bush that has not only never had a trail, but was littered with fallen trees thanks to Hurricane Ivan. It took us three and a half hours of machete-work to reach the entrance, with ropes and vertical-gear on our backs. It was not easy. Nevertheless, we got there.

After stopping at the large main entrance to take photographs of what we believe to be Taino petroglyphs (see attached photos), we carried on to the small second entrance, where we would be only faced with a steep boulder slope to get in and out, tossed a rope, and headed down.

We worked our way across to the far-end, the roosting chamber, and bat numbers were observed to be relatively low. There did not appear to be many, if any, Artibeus present. It is believed that a great proportion of the bats in attendance this day were Moormops, judging by the sound of their flight when we briefly disturbed them.

The guano deposits in parts of this cave are deep, and fluffy. Over the years, we have been careful to not disturb these, and have limited our contact to the edges. These substantial accumulations are supporting a full range of invertebrates, with the main food-chain being thus (this is also typical of other undisturbed bat-roosts): Fungi grow plentifully, because of the high nutrient input, and upon this feeds larval fungal gnats; the fungal gnats, when mature and on the wing, serve as a constant source of food for the spiders found here, as well as fauna such as the predaceous fly larva, Neoditomyia farri. On the guano itself will be scavengers such as Collembola, eating the fungi and bacteria found in the guano, and predators, like the amblypygids found at Home Away, take advantage of this thriving community of prey.

There are two species of spider that are very common in this cave, both family Nesticidae, with only one presently determined to species, Gaucelmus cavernicola.

Unfortunately, Cane Toads, Buffo marinus, are an invasive in the cave, but the most damaging species, Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach, are not present. We believe this to be because of the total absence of guano mining.

This cave is a good target for paleoclimatic investigations that use ancient, undisturbed guano deposits to determine past long-term weather conditions, and we would suggest that any project that might be conducted in the future in this field consider this site as a high priority. The cave is quite old. It is located in high ground that has not seen any hydrological activity in a very long time, and has been in its present form (other than occasional breakdowns) for many millennia. It is likely that it has served as a bat-roost for a good percentage of that time.

We are listing the vulnerability of this cave as high for the following reasons: Even though it is isolated, and unvisited other than a few JCO visits over the years, it is one of only three bat roosts found within the Cockpit Country Ring-road that retain substantial guano deposits. The others are Marta Tick, and Windsor (in the seldom visited main roost, below the Upper Entrance). Coffee River Cave is very wet, and thick accumulations of guano do not occur. This is also the case in Printed Circuit Cave and Harties Cave-2. The dry, historical roosts, such as Carambie, Wondrous Cave, and Vauxhall, have had the long-term guano deposits either removed entirely, or damaged to a degree that paleoclimatic records have been lost, decades ago.

Regarding the incised markings found just inside the main entrance to Home Away, in 2002: A closer look suggests that they are similar to the petroglyphs found at two caves in Pantrepant, 3.5 km's to the north. We took photographs this day (one of which is seen to the right) that might be of value in the determination of their origin, but it can at least be said that they look similar to the other glyphs, and the weathering/patina is also the same as other sites we've visited that have the same degree of exposure. At minimum, they're not natural, and are at least centuries old - how many hundreds of years, I don't know, but the weathering is similar to Kempshot Cave in St James, which is definitely Taino.

The hike out was much faster, as we had recovered our old route on the way in, hung new flags, and carved a way through with the machete. All the same, it was after this day that I really began to feel the physical effects of the expedition. Minocal's Glory Hole, two days later, was even more of a challenge because of the hike to Home Away this day.

Home Away Cave

May 16, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

This cave was a real adventure just to get to it.  It took Stefan and I three hours to reach it, hiking up a saddle of a cockpit, traversing around the wall of the next cockpit, then ascending a bit to reach a saddle where the cave lies.  The ground had a lot of sharp, eroded limestone rocks that shifted readily underfoot, making for dangerous hiking.  There was also a fair amount of dead trees on the ground that had come down during Hurricane Ivan.

In spite of that, the bush was thick.  I led the way up to the first saddle, chopping and flagging along the way.  It didn't take long until my face was a sheen of sweat and my coveralls were thoroughly soaked.  It was hot and humid.  The only comforting thing was that my overalls prevented the mosquitoes from biting me through them. 

Stefan led the way from the traverse on to the second saddle.  He stopped along the way to plug the antenna into the GPS and found that it wasn't working properly.  He sat down amongst the freshly cut foliage that he'd just felled and tried to repair it with the only tool we had on hand, the small steak knife that I carry into the bush.  It started to rain, but thankfully didn't wet us or the GPS significantly.

Eventually we came to the large, main entrance. Stefan pointed out the petroglyph that he'd found, which is just a circle inscribed within a circle, and I photographed it (IMG_4792,3,4,5).  I also photographed some markings that were just to the right of the petroglyph (IMG_4797,4800).

We went around to the smaller entrance, since it provided easier access to the depths of the cave.  We descended down the steep, slippery scramble with the aid of a rope and figure 8 descenders and reached the bottom of this very large breakdown chamber.  It was strewn with boulders, but along the far wall was an area of just guano.  The ceiling of this cave must have been 100ft above our heads.  It's a really impressive chamber.  We looked for and collected samples, and enjoyed the cool air that allowed us a reprieve from the excessive sweating we'd done to reach here.

It took us about 2 hours to get back from the cave, finding and following most, but not all of the flags that we'd left behind. We also picked up flags from the last time the JCO had gone to Home Away Cave.