The March 2009 Expedition
Deep Holes, Bad Air, Unlisted Caves, and Old Cockpit Country Trails

The Asuno - March 25, 2009 - Photo: Jan Pauel
Click for full size.

hree accounts of the Jamaican Caves Organisation (JCO) visit to The Asuno on March 25 have been posted on the server: Asuno - J Pauel, Asuno - RS Stewart, and a video compiled by Guy, currently in low resolution, with higher to follow, at Asuno Video - G Van Rentergem (57 MB WMV). Collectively, they present a thorough documentation of the 2009 descent - the first to take place since the original KHE exploration in 1965.

(Jun 11/09)
Jan Pauel has posted a video of our visit to Coolshade Mountain Cave (9.6 MB WMV), taken March 24/09 with his compact, waterproof, digital photo camera. It doesn't record the greatest footage, but is fairly bomb-proof, and survives caves, such as Coolshade, that destroy the more expensive, delicate gear. An account of the visit will follow (the first, in depth, since the 1983 exploration by the JCC).

(Jun 9/09)
Guy Van Rentergem has recently made some great additons to the website, Caving in Jamaica. In particular, check The Obelisk description, and the details on rebreather design and construction. Good stuff.

Progress is being made on posting the rest of the reports for the March session. We hope to have it complete before the next session begins in mid-August.

(Jun 4/09)
Bouygues has acknowledged receipt of Jan Pauel's report, which we've posted in .doc (html will follow) at Curatoe Hill Cave.

An email enquiry from our friend, Minke Newman, regarding conversion of the 1:12,500 topo coords to JAD2001, Lat/Long, etc, has prompted us to finally post the method online (one less item on the to-do list) at Clarke 1880 Jamaica Imperial Grid. It accompanies the JAD69 and JAD2001 pages to now supply a complete set of methods for converting between all three Jamaican coordinate systems (a first for the internet).

(May 29/09)
The JCO is pleased to welcome another Caribbean speleo website to the internet (there aren't many of us). Dr Paul Shaw, UWI - St Augustine, has a great site underway at The Caves of Trinidad and Tobago. Please have a look, and bookmark it.

(May 28/09)
We've posted a video of Curatoe Hill Cave (29 MB wmv) taken by Jan Pauel on May 23. JCO members are asked to view it and use it in conjunction with Jan's emailed preliminary report to offer recommendations vis a vis Highway 2000 and preservation concerns.

(May 27/09)
A video of Jan Pauel describing the Australian Red Claw invasion of the Cave River System, recorded by Guy while Stefan and Kurt were in Hulls Cave, is on the server as an 8 MB low-res wmv.

Jan and Ives were in the field last weekend near May Pen carrying out a rapid assessment of a cave on the route of the Highway 2000 extension, at the request of Bouygues. A report, and recommendations, will result. After receipt is acknowledged, it will be posted on the JCO server.

Stefan and Guy are making progress on the Jamaica Underground Supplement. The main task at present is to find, and organise, all of our data, published notes, unpublished fieldsheets, and put it into a printable format. Stefan is working on the former; Guy is already very much on top of the latter.

An account of our descent into The Asuno last session will be posted later in the week, complete with videos.

(May 19/09)
Guy Van Rentergem has posted a full video for Hulls Cave, Aboukir, which is quite spiffy and provides a good overview of the visit. It can be downloaded as a low-resolution 30 MB wmv, or a med-resolution 51 MB wmv. We've also added it to the main photos/videos page, which is where more videos will appear soon. There's a lot of very spectacular footage from the last session, and the server has whole heaps of bandwidth. We intend to get most of it online, at least in low-res versions.

In other news, Alpart, as of last Friday, is out of business for at least a year, which bodes well for the survival of Smokey Hole (Jamaica's deepest). Alpart was steadily closing in on the cave during 2008, and despite our best efforts, the JCO was never given an iron-clad guarantee that they'd establish the buffer area we'd asked for. Alpart is majority owned by UC Rusal, a company headed by a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska, formerly a billionaire, who made his fortune during the turbulent post-Soviet years of the 1990's. Due to the recent economic crash, he is now facing bankruptcy. Oleg, and UC Rusal, cared nothing for the environment of Jamaica, and only wanted their pile of money to grow ever higher. Important caves and sinkholes were destroyed during their operations (documented thoroughly by the JCO), which will result in future flooding in Manchester. Farmers were scammed out of their land with empty promises, and have nothing to pass on to their children. Reclamation, when it actually took place, was a joke, with only enough topsoil replaced to grow weeds. All in all, the island is better off without Oleg. Goodbye, and good riddance.


(May 6/09)
More reports and videos from the last session are in the pipeline, and will appear later this week.

In other news, a meeting between the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), and Jamaican non-governmental organisations with an interest in environmental concerns, will take place this Thursday, May 7, at 10 Caledonia Avenue, Kingston. The Jamaican Caves Organisation (JCO) has been invited to attend, and will be represented by Jan Pauel. As always, the JCO is pleased to collaborate with NEPA to further cave preservation in Jamaica, and we hope for a productive meeting.

Ivor Conolley, the JCO archaeo expert, was mentioned in a March Gleaner article regarding a dig of an 18th century slave village at Papine that he's been leading. Apologies for it taking so long to get the link in the News.

Guy Van Rentergem has produced a new version of the St Clair Cave map utilizing data gained from our recent visit. Please take note of the warnings regarding histoplasmosis, bad air, and flooding. St Clair Cave, in parts, is very dangerous. Do not use the posting of the map as an invitation to get yourselves into serious trouble.


(Apr 23/09)
A video clip of Jan Pauel at Hulls Cave on March 26 (11 MB wmv) has been posted on the server. It's a good example of the educational component of the JCO sessions, and we invite interested parties to download and use it themselves.

Because of the current problems with White Nose Syndrome (WNS) in American bat caves, the JCO requests all cavers visiting from off-island, especially from eastern North America, to disinfect all gear and ropes that will be brought to Jamaica. Please regard this as the minimum protocol - it's best to not bring any equipment that's been used at bat roosts in affected areas. We'll post a separate page on the situation in the coming days.


(Apr 21/09)
Two reports are now online based on fieldwork done during the last session. Guy Van Rentergem has posted his account of our visit to St Clair Cave on the JCO server, as well as on a Dutch rebreather website that was very helpful when he was designing the equipment used in the Acheron. Stefan has posted a report on the exploration of Hulls Cave, Aboukir (edited on April 24/09). More will soon follow.

(Apr 8/09)
The March session has gone quite well, with most of our major goals met, and no casualties. We have many photos, and hours of video to work with, which we'll start to post in the coming days, but for now we invite you to view a short video trailer in low resolution (12.7 MB WMV), or medium resolution (27 MB WMV), put together by G Van Rentergem. Accounts based on notes and fieldsheets will begin to appear next week.

The participating team included: K Borstad, K Garrez, D Harrisingh, A Hyde, J Pauel, RS Stewart, G Van Rentergem; and from the Peace Corps, A Ekparian, D Ingleman, A Kolb, T Moss, A Schumaker, and S Zagorski. Also contributing was A Padalka, who assisted RS Stewart in prep work for the Cockpit Country transect, as well as a descent of Devils Staircase.

Our accomplishments included: a partial exploration of the Acheron at St Clair Cave using rebreathers in 7.9% O2 air; a descent of the 187 metre deep Morgans Pond Hole, the first since the exploration visit by the JCC in 1975, with us having reached the bottom of the shaft, but out of rope for the final 10 m descent into the river passage; a descent of The Asuno (137 m), the first since the KHE exploration in 1965; completion of the exploration of Smokey Hole Cave; the location and partial exploration of New Hall Cave; the location of Blocked Shaft-1; and the discovery of two new sites near Aboukir, one of which, Hull's Cave (named after the owner, by us) is over 100 m deep, entered via an 80 m deep shaft, previously unexplored, with a sizeable batroost in a large dome-shaped chamber.

We'd like to thank the many local people who assisted us during the session, especially: Marie and Carlos in Pollyground; Marcia, Shelley-Ann, and Bull in Cross Keys; Lisa in Aenon Town; Bertie in Aboukir; Marlon Campbell in Grant Bailey; Ives and Hoskins in Windsor; and Tony in Accompong Town. Bless up, and much respect.


(Mar 14/09)
The next major JCO session begins tomorrow, March 15. If all goes as planned, we will report in this space on April 7 that we've accomplished all of our goals, with no casualties.

Amongst the sites visited will be Smokey Hole, Morgans Pond Hole, Volcano Hole, Asuno Hole, and St Clair Cave. The photo at left is of the rebreathers that Guy designed and built to tackle the bad air in the Acheron.

Email will not be answered until April 7. In the event of emergencies that require our assistance (rescue and/or body recovery), we can be reached at Stefan - 876 414 2489, or Jan - 876 990 7255.

Little more. Jah guide and protect.

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JCO Update

(Mar 2/09)
Details are being finalized for the March session, with things coming together quite well. Our plans will be solid later this week, and an updated exped email will be sent out to everyone involved.

The Peace Corps will be well represented, with a total of twelve volunteers hoping to join us, most of whom are from group 79, on-island until July 2010. We hope to squeeze everyone in, and, as always, are very glad to have them onboard. The PC/JCO relationship has existed since late 2003, when Mark Bellinger first contacted us, and has been of great benefit over the years. We would like to see it continue for some time to come, and hope that Barack Obama in his economic deliberations will see fit to maintain Peace Corps funding, and perhaps even bump it up a little. It represents the best of the USA. Much respect.

(Feb 16/09)
The Jamaican Caves Organisation would like to express our appreciation for two recent, very helpful, donations:

Many thanks to Geoff Kegerreis for a supply of "Rite in the Rain" paper and binders. With this, we now have solid fieldbooks for more of the team, and can worry less about jotting down notes in wet conditions.

Also, many thanks to Jennifer Carey for the donation of a stereo microscope. It will make a world of difference in our struggles to identify cave-adapted invertebrates. To date, we have been using hand-lenses, and a very old, very poor microscope (cracked optics - fuzzy image), owned by Stefan. Now, at last, we will see things in proper detail, and (with a little ingenuity) record sharp photographs that we can then email to colleagues who know troglobytic critters better than us.

A big-up to both of them, and much respect. The donations were made purely because of their love of the environment, and their desire to preserve it. We'll try to do our part by using the gifts well. The information recorded will be applied directly to our efforts to preserve the caves and karst of the island.

In other news:

The next major JCO research expedition will take place from March 15 to April 6. The participants will include K Garrez, J Pauel, M Rohr, RS Stewart, M Taylor, G Van Rentergem, and K Walker, with others likely (we're still sorting out schedules). Further information on the exped will be posted in the coming weeks. There are great things planned.

Dr Christoph Schubart will be back on island soon, for two weeks of fieldwork. The JCO has been doing what we can to assist. Part of his research involves aquatic cave-adapted invertebrates (stygobytes), with his studies serving as yet another demonstration of how important caves are.

(Jan 31/09)
Jan Pauel was with NEPA at the Pollyground entrance to St Clair Cave on Wednesday carrying out bat monitoring. The outing went well, with relatively few casualties, none human (there may be one less cat). A short video of the visit, recorded and compiled by Jan, can be found here (9 MB .wmv).

The two recent visits to the cave have presented us with a bit of a mystery: At the east end (Lemon Ridge), on the previous Wednesday, the three species caught and released (Mormoops blainvilli, Pteronotus macleayii, and Pteronotus quadridens) consisted only of males. At the west end (Pollyground) the five species caught (Monophyllus redmani, Mormoops blainvilli, Pteronotus macleayii, Pteronotus parnellii, and Pteronotus quadridens) included both males and females. The reason why females were not found at the east end is unknown. Perhaps the greater flight-path to the east is involved (1800 metres, versus 200 metres to the west); perhaps it's something else. We'd like to follow it up when time permits, with the cooperation of NEPA, and net again at Lemon Ridge to see if the bias persists.

In other news, Guy Van Rentergem's rebreathers under construction for the Acheron in March are nearing the testing phase. If all goes as planned, each unit will supply six hours of breathable air, which should be more than enough for the exploration and survey of the new passage.

(Jan 22/09)
Jan Pauel was in the field yesterday with the NEPA crew carrying out bat monitoring at the Lemon Ridge entrance to St Clair Cave. Catch and release netting began at 17:00 and continued until 19:40. The hike out along the now dry Black River bed went well (with the aid of JCO headlamps), and the team was back in Kingston by 22:00.

Surprisingly, cats were observed at the Lemon Ridge entrance - they've long been a fixture at the Pollyground end, but we didn't realize they had both entrances covered. The concern is that not only do they catch and eat bats during the nightly emergence, they carry a parasite called Cutaneous larva migrans (CLM) that has afflicted many visitors to the cave over the years. The process is such: The CLM is deposited by the cats in their faeces, and it then moves into the surrounding dirt. If visitors sit on the ground, it migrates into their skin, and then takes up residence for several weeks in areas of the body that one would very much prefer to be parasite-free. At some point, the cats should be eradicated, but this new information suggests that the surrounding bush has a wide-spread population, which may make the task impossible. Unfortunately, the feral cats are not only eating bats, they're eating birds, lizards, coneys, and anything else they can sink their fangs into, with, in all likelihood, a corresponding impact on local biodiversity.

The spring downstream of the outer cave entrance noted during our visit in July 2008 continues to be active, and apparently flows year round. We have yet to determine the source.

Jan will return to St Clair Cave with the NEPA crew next Wednesday, January 28, this time at the Pollyground entrance. As usual, we're glad to help. As Jan noted in his email report, "I must say that everyone of them are to be commended on their good attitude and work ethic."

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JCO - 2009

(Jan 8/09)
The Jamaican Caves Organisation is entering 2009 in good form, with much on our collective agenda. We look forward to a very productive year, perhaps the best yet.

First and foremost in our plans is continuity. Everything that the JCO accomplishes is possible only because of the efforts of those who came before us. Principally, the Geological Survey Dept, circa 1950 (GSD), under McGrath, and the Jamaican Caving Club (JCC), led by Ron Read, Alan Fincham, and Adam Hyde, from 1958 to the late-1990's.

The records and accounts of the GSD exist in an accessible form solely because of Alan Fincham and his book, Jamaica Underground. None of our members knew Mr McGrath, or had mutual friends. There are no oral stories that have been passed on to us. But, from 1958 to today, there has been a direct link from caver to caver. Ron Read checks in when he has time. Dr Fincham gives us guidance. Adam Hyde is with us. The current group includes David Lee, Don McFarlane, Guy Van Rentergem, and Andreas Haiduk. Indeed, we are blessed with having every principal Jamaican caver active in the last 50 years as part of the team. It is quite incredible, and an honour for all of us.

Unlike the JCC, the JCO has published only to a limited degree since our formation in 2002, relying instead on relatively ephemeral electrons, and magnetic states, stored in various computers and website servers. In 2009, with the permission and encouragement of Alan Fincham, we intend to change this. The JCO will publish a supplement to Jamaica Underground that will bring things up to date, and supply hardcopy for those who may follow us. It will include all of the notes and data found on the JCO website, the data headers and register from JU, Guy Van Rentergem's notes and maps, plus specialist sections by several of our PhD colleagues. We will try to do a very good job of it, and produce something that will be valuable for many years to come.

Secondly, our expeditions and fieldwork will kick up a little in 2009. Along with the continuing NEPA outings led be Jan Pauel, there will be a major expedition in March. It will include a push into the Acheron River, at St Clair Cave, led by Guy Van Rentergem, using recently designed rebreathers that will, we hope, enable us to explore and map this unknown part of the system. There will be a return to Morgans Pond Hole, Smokey Hole, Volcano Hole, plus visits to various unexplored sites that are on our to-do list. Also, the author of this item, RS Stewart, will spend a week in the depths of the Cockpit Country doing prep work for the transect. This has been long on the agenda, and progress must be made.

Later in the year, at least two major research expeditions will take place. More will follow as schedules firm up.

Ongoing research outings will continue on occasional weekends throughout 2009. We invite those who have contacted us in the last months wishing to join the group to keep in touch for those via Jan Pauel. They're usually a little easier, and better for beginners. Please accept our apologies if we have not contacted you recently - we very much appreciate your requests to join us - unfortunately, we can't afford a secretary, and things are forgotten - feel free to send us follow up emails as a reminder.

Most importantly in 2009, the JCO crew will continue to be the guardians of the caves and karst of Jamaica. It is our mission, our raison d'etre, and a responsibility we take very seriously. All of us know that if we don't do it, no one else will.

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JCO Update

(Dec 23/08)
The Jamaican Caves Organisation crew would like to wish all of our bredren and sistren a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Guidance, and protection. May the worrisome global conditions in the sunset of 2008 give way to a fresh, clear dawn in 2009.

This will be the last News update until New Years. JCO email contact will also be intermittent until then, but all of them will be read and answered eventually.

(Dec 22/08)
A JCO group (Martel Taylor, Ivor Conolley, Jan Pauel, Andreas Haiduk, and Adam Hyde) crossed the Troy Trail on Saturday to carry out some minor maintenance (re-flagging), and obtain a better GPS track. They were joined by several guests, including Kimberley John of TNC-Jamaica. The weather cooperated, and all went well.

. (Dec 17/08)
Jan Pauel will be in the field today, at Thatchfield Cave, monitoring bats with Andrea Donaldson and the NEPA crew. Thatchfield is one of the most important bat roosts in Jamaica, and high priority for protection.

(Dec 9/08)
We've posted a video taken during the Lemon Ridge recon on Nov 22, as a 20.3 MB wmv. The videographer is Jan Pauel and the other team member is Ivor Conolley.

(Dec 5/08)
Jan Pauel and the team from NEPA had a successful outing at Peyton's Cove Cave on Wednesday.

Thanks to Wendy Lee for bringing it to our attention that RJR has helped itself to one of our photos, used in two of its items, here, and here, apparently found through a Google image search of "bauxite mining". We've put a copyright notice on the online image so that in the future people know the source.

(Dec 3/08)
Jan Pauel will be at Peyton's Cove Cave in St Mary today assisting NEPA in a bat monitoring project. We hope to post a report on the outing later this week.

(Nov 27/08)
Conolley, Haiduk, and Pauel will be back at Lemon Ridge this weekend refining the initial route found last Saturday. The 1:12500 topo section that covers the area has been accurately georeferenced, which should help with things.

(Nov 24/08)
Conolley and Pauel were in the field over the weekend at St Clair Cave. The Lemon Ridge entrance was reached from the south, which avoided a crossing of the river. The new route still requires a little fine-tuning, but once this is done, we will have established an all-season track to this important site.

(Nov 18/08)
Tomorrow's visit to St Clair Cave with NEPA is still uncertain because of the weather. The problem is that the known access routes to both entrances cross the upstream section of the Rio Cobre, called the Black River in that part, which has been in flood on and off for the last couple of months. There are no bridges, other than a large fallen log we used until Gustav washed it away, and when the river is up, it's impossible to swim or wade across - the current is too strong. We've considered stringing a cable over the river to rig a Tyrolean traverse, and still might do that for the western end of the cave, but there may be an easier solution for the eastern end - determining a new route to Lemon Ridge from the south, which doesn't cross the river. Accordingly, several of the JCO crew intend to carry out recon this weekend to look into things. They may get lucky and find an existing track, or they may spend several hours swinging machetes through the bush, aiming for the Lemon Ridge GPS position obtained last June. Either way, they should get there, and it will give us an all-season route that will enable regular monitoring of the biology and hydrology of this very important cave.

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(Nov 13/08)
A visit to St Clair Cave planned for Nov 12 with a group from NEPA has been delayed because of the recent rainy weather (there's a river to cross en route to both entrances), and is now scheduled for Nov 19.

The St Clair notes linked to above should now, in theory, be fluid to 1024px wide. If it looks wonky, please let us know.

Mike Rohr's account of our interesting day at Morgans Pond Hole last July 25 is now on the server.

(Oct 29/08)
A visit to St Clair Cave with a team from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) scheduled for today has been postponed until Nov 12.

(Oct 24/08)
An account of our "adventure" at Morgans Pond Hole on July 25 has been posted on the server. Regular visitors might notice that the page is fluid (it stretches) from 760 to 1024 pixels. In the past, all of our pages have been fixed at a width of 760px. The webmaster for the JCO, unfortunately, has a monitor with a horizontal resolution of only 800px, so is relying on others to confirm that all works as it should. If anything looks unusually wonky, please contact us and we'll try to fix it. Once we know it's ok, it will become the new template for fieldnotes.

(Oct 13/08)
John Maxwell had an interesting column in yesterday's Observer that mentions the threats to Smokey Hole Cave (Jamaica's deepest), and Dunns Hole Cave near Stewart Town. He includes a quote from a JCO account of the descent of Dunns (only the second visit known) that describes a large, beautiful stalagmite. The full version can be found at Dunns Hole, Mar 31/06.

(Oct 11/08)
We've just done some maintenance on the JCO News. A large chunk of what used to appear on this page, from Dec 12/06 to July 29/07, has been shunted to the newly created News Archives Vol. 6. It will allow the main News page to load faster for those on dial-up (was up to about ten minutes).

We've also tweaked the index.htm (should be fluid up to 1024 in all browsers, we hope) and added an "Easter egg" to one of the pages (clue on the index).

(Oct 1/08)
A visit to St Clair with NEPA scheduled for today has been postponed due to high water in the upper Rio Cobre. Wha' fi do.

The assessment report for Charles Town Cave, Maroon territory in Portland, visited on July 18/08, is now on the server. It includes a plan and profile map based on an associated survey by the visiting team (Conolley, Pauel, and Stewart).

(Sep 22/08)
Conolley, Haiduk, and Pauel were in Pollyground on Sunday attempting to visit St Clair Cave. Unfortunately, the Black River was in flood (upper Rio Cobre, not the one in St Elizabeth), and the log we've used to cross it during such times (as seen in the Bourdain video) appears to have washed away in Gustav. The team made a valiant effort to fight their way directly through the river, but it proved to be impossible (strong flow, deep water, hidden dead-fall, and large, sharp rocks). An outing with NEPA to the site is planned for Oct 1 - we hope the rains ease off before then.

(Sep 18/08)
Several of the on-island crew will carry out a monitoring visit to St Clair Cave this Sunday, Sep 21, to record post-Gustav data on suspected flushing events associated with variable air quality in the Inferno. The team will include Conolley, Haiduk, Pauel, and possibly Hyde.

More notes and video for the July expedition will be posted later this week. Charles Town Cave, and the map that resulted, will be next.

We'll also sort out the recent News items (getting a little long), and probably shunt some of the stuff at the bottom of this page into the archives.

(Sep 4/08)
A cave preservation video recorded at Marta Tick on July 23/08 has been moved to the server (15 MB wmv). The report that accompanies it will soon follow. Marta Tick is the most important cave in the Cockpit Country, and high on the list of sites in need of protection.

(Sep 1/08)
Gustav has dumped much rain on the island, but at least one district, Cross Keys, Manchester, benefited by having a very deep cave nearby, as reported in today's Observer. Smokey Hole is Jamaica's deepest cave, and takes much water in severe weather. According to local residents, it did so once again during Gustav, thereby preventing local flooding. Unfortunately, ALPART continues to mine their way toward the hole, and we still have no solid promise that they will stay back at least 250 metres, as requested by the JCO in 2007.

(Aug 26/08)
This is the main birthday week for the JCO crew: On Aug 26, Jan turns 40 again; on Aug 28, Stefan (head madman of the JCO) hits 50 again; and on Aug 30, Elizabeth will celebrate her 24th birthday (slightly younger than 2007). Congratulations to all of us for surviving another year, despite close calls at times.

(Aug 21/08)
Miss Lilly, the Secretary of the JCO, and the Auntie of Usain Bolt, is in the news again today in the Jamaica Gleaner.

(Aug 18/08)
A big-up to Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man. You ran like the wind, bredren. Also, a big-up to his parents, and his auntie, Miss Lilly, and everyone else in Coxheath and Sherwood Content who helped to make him what he is.

(Aug 16/08)
The report for the monitoring visit to Dromilly on July 19 has been posted in html at Dromilly Cave. Please note that we have asked NEPA to establish an EIA process with regard to tourism at Jamaican caves. In conjunction with the request, the JCO has suspended all caving activities that are not directly related to research. We ask that other environmental organisations do the same.

(Aug 8/08)
Andreas Haiduk has forwarded his trip report for the July session, now turned into html and posted here.

Also, please note the photo of the amblypygid lower in this section. If you click on it, you will get a full resolution version (5.5 MB jpg). We believe the genus is Phrynus, but could use some expert help in adding the species name.

(Aug 7/08)
Four videos, by Jan Pauel, of Stefan and Andreas at Noisy Water 2 on July 27, 2008, are now on the server in wmv at NW2-A (8.6 MB), NW2-B (11.3 MB), NW2-C (3.3 MB), and NW2-D (4.5 MB).

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The July 2008 Expedition
Deep holes, long rivers, muddy slopes, and close calls

(Aug 6/08)
The JCO field crew has survived another session of fieldwork, although at times it was much dicier than we prefer.

The most harrowing situation arose at Morgans Pond Hole, Manchester, through no fault of our own. The incident was not reflective of the local community, with whom we have generally had excellent relations, so we have decided to not post details on the website other than this mention as to why we were only there for one day, rather than the planned two. Next session, we will be back in force with the prep work already done, and enough crew to keep everyone safe from external dangers.

There was also an interesting hour at the Lemon Ridge Entrance of St Clair Cave, while trying to get out, which involved two scary slides down a mud-slope, but we managed well enough and did what we set out to do.

On the positive side of things, we were successful in most of our endeavours, and have recorded valuable observations and data. Amongst the accomplishments were:

Mapping of an unlisted bat cave near Charles Town, Portland (Conolley, Pauel, Stewart) on Jul 18;
Monitoring of Dromilly Cave (Conolley, Pauel, Stewart) on Jul 19;
Exploration of three unlisted deep sinkholes near Huntley, Manchester (Hutchings, Kennedy, Pauel, Stewart) on Jul 21-23;
Monitoring of Marta Tick Cave (Kennedy, Pauel, Rohr, Stewart) on Jul 24;
Prep work and survey at Morgans Pond Hole (Kennedy, Pauel, Rohr, Stewart) on Jul 25;
Monitoring of the Cave River system (Haiduk, Pauel, Stewart) on Jul 27-28;
Assessment and GIS referencing of the Worth Park/Riverhead/St Clair system (Haiduk, Pauel, Stewart) on Jul 29-31, in assistance to NEPA.

The expedition was capped off with a fine dinner at Jan Pauel's on the evening of Jul 31. Amongst the attendees were Dr David Lee, Andreas Haiduk and family, Ivor Conolley, Stefan Stewart, Andrea Richards, and, of course, Jan Pauel and his parents, Mr and Mrs Pauel. Logistics were handled by the ever-dependable Barbara and Barbara.

The first report from the expedition has been forwarded to NEPA, and posted online in an html version at: St Clair Cave. The exact coordinates have been removed from the public document because of the importance of the site. Please excuse the poor rendering and code-bloat; it was generated with MSWord from the original .doc to save time.

JCO Update
Reconnaissance, Assessments, Surveys, Television, Videos, Books

(Jul 15/08)
This will be the last update until Aug 2.

The next extended period of JCO fieldwork will take place from July 18 to 31. Amongst the items on the agenda are: a recon of Long Mountain; a return visit to St Clair Cave to assist NEPA in the search for the possibly extinct bat P. aphylla; a visit to a possible Taino site in Portland; a resurvey of Morgans Pond Hole to ascertain whether Smokey Hole is truly the deepest cave in Jamaica; descents, with mapping surveys, of the best of Paul Kennedy's Huntley sites; and an exploration of a sinkhole in Manchester done in assistance to JFLAG (there may be someone down there).

The crew will include J Pauel, P Kennedy, A Haiduk, IC Conolley, A Richards, A Oberli, RS Stewart, and several representatives from NEPA.

JCO email will not be checked during the expedition, so don't expect any replies until after August 2. If it's an emergency situation (rescue), you will find phone numbers on the /contact.htm page.

(Jul 2/08)
Jan Pauel and Paul Kennedy were in the Cockpit Country last weekend acting as guides for Derek Burnett, a writer for Discovery Channel Magazine. Our assistance was supplied pro bono to forward the message of how important the Cockpit Country is, and why it should be preserved. Things went well, and on the JCO side of it, we gathered some important, new information.

The Quick Step community association appears to not be carrying out tours to Marta Tick Cave at present (the trail is bushed up again), which is good news. But, guano extraction has resumed at Windsor Cave (which we intend to do something about), and Oxford Cave has seen no recovery of the bat-roost, which has been severely degraded by excessive visitation.

(Jun 25/08)
Dr. Donald McFarlane has forwarded a scanned copy of the original survey sheets for Still Waters Cave, recently found while tidying up. The Still Waters mapping survey, carried out by the Liverpool University group in 1977, is one of the finest efforts that has taken place underground in Jamaica to date (it's a very complex cave, and not easy). With his permission, we've posted it on the server to ensure that it will never be lost. We invite interested parties to download the pdf file and save it to disc.

Also, an extended period of fieldwork will begin in mid-July. More on that soon.

(Jun 24/08)
The Jamaican Caves Organisation would like to thank Dr. Philip Allsworth-Jones for having recently made two of our crew, Stewart and Van Rentergem, lead authors on a paper presented to IACA regarding Taino sites in Spot Valley, St James.

We would also like to pass along the news that Dr Allsworth-Jones' excellent book, Pre-Columbian Jamaica, is now in publication, available from the University of Alabama Press.

(Jun 18/08)
The all-consuming monster of the internet, Google, has recently added Jamaica Underground to its Books search, so it's a good time to remind everyone of this incredible work by Dr. Alan G. Fincham. It continues to be the most comprehensive overview of caves in Jamaica, and is truly the "bible" of the JCO.

Jamaica Underground is available from UWI Press. However, we recommend that you buy it directly from our esteemed friend, Alan, who can be contacted at EDITagfincham@googlemail.com (remove the EDIT - it's there to foil the spambots). If you have any serious interest in the caves of Jamaica, this is the book for you.

(Jun 12/08)
Several of the crew were in the field over the weekend, knocking off some very good work in Manchester. Huntley Hole 5 was fully descended for the first time, by Pauel, Haiduk, and Kennedy, furthering the recent efforts of Zane and Kennedy. Surface assistance was supplied by Denton Tyndale, Louise Henriques, and Miss Adiline. The total depth was found to be 102 metres. Paul Kennedy has supplied the first account of the outing, at Huntley Hole 5. Jan's account will be next. Two videos have been posted, a 29MB mpg from Paul, Huntley Hole 5 - Helmetcam - Jun 8/08, and a 5MB wmv from Jan of Andreas on descent.

We've recently added a domain to the JCO website account in aid of Accompong Town, www.accompong.info. We ask any Maroons with regular internet access to please contact us.

Elizabeth Slack is currently on the road in California as part of her studies (park management). We hope to drag her back to the island after all of that's done, and have her put in charge of a national park, or something else commensurate with her skills.

(May 13/08)
Brian Zane was back at Quashies River Cave last week. We'll post a report describing conditions as soon as possible.

(May 5/08)
Prime Minister Golding stated last week that he will force RIU in Montego Bay to demolish the fourth floor of the hotel, built in contravention of the approved plan. This is encouraging and may indicate that Jamaica is finally getting serious about enforcement of breaches to environmental rules and regulations.

(Apr 21/08)
The JCO crew would like to wish our intrepid compatriot, Paul Kennedy, a very happy 22nd birthday. Bless up, respect, and keep on finding those deep caves in Manchester.

(Apr 17/08)
Elizabeth Slack, of the JCO, has forwarded a cave preservation video produced recently as part of her studies in "foreign". We've posted it on the server in two versions: medium resolution (60MB wmv), and low resolution (30MB wmv). The running time is 4:07 minutes.

(Apr 8/08)
A Press Release was issued yesterday by the Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group (CCSG) and the Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network (JEAN) that urges the Government of Jamaica (GoJ) to finally announce the Cockpit Country boundary decision. Both groups, CCSG and JEAN, include members of the Jamaican Caves Organisation (JCO).

We ask that the current governing party in Jamaica, the JLP, release the report of the boundary committee (a creation of the previous regime, the PNP) as soon as possible. If the JLP does not support the output of the committee, it should say so. If it does, it should let the rest of us know what has been decided. We see no need for all the secrecy.

(Mar 24/08)
Pauel and Kennedy were in Huntley, Manchester, on Mar 15, tackling Hole #5, assisted by a very solid surface crew (Miss Adiline, Emery, Clive, Walder, Shane, Lovette, Robinson, Desmond, Juney, and Deverley).

Hole #5 was pushed deeper than the last visit, but remains, tantalizingly, incompletely unexplored. At a depth of 100m, on a small ledge, Jan and Paul ran out of rope, with at least 12 metres more shaft visible below, dropping to another horizontal surface. As the shaft above that point has already shifted slightly to the side several times, there is a chance that it does so yet again. Best of all, Hole #5 is just one of several very deep undescended holes in the district, and as Manchester is the parish with the deepest pits on the island (Smokey and Morgans Pond), we see great potential in the Huntley district. It's very high, with a great depth of white limestone beneath it. During the next main session of fieldwork, we'll return in force, with very long ropes, and attempt to survey the deepest holes right to the bottom.

We've recently moved more videos to the server, and updated the photo/video page. Amongst them is the Bourdain segment. The others, ours, can also be found here: Noisy Water 1, Aug 1/07 (4.7MB wmv), Swimming at Clapham Cave, Aug 1/07 (4.1MB wmv), The Crew at Douglas Castle, Aug 2/07 (10.5MB wmv), The Crew at Coffee River Cave, Aug 6/07 (8.9MB wmv), Elizabeth on ascent at Logans Hole 2, Aug 9/07 (9.7MB wmv), Andreas at Schwallenburg, Sept 23/07 - First Descent (6.8MB wmv), Andreas at Schwallenburg, Sept 23/07 - Second Descent (4.5MB wmv), Andreas at Schwallenburg, Sept 23/07 - Ascent (7MB wmv), Coffee River Cave Crab, Aug/07 (6.9MB wmv), Elizabeth at Quashies, Aug/07 (13.4MB .wmv), Elizabeth at Bird Hole, Aug/07 (8.6MB .wmv), "Uncle" at Bennet Cave, Aug/07 (9MB .wmv).

A new section has been added to the website, Equipment Reviews. Paul Kennedy came up with the idea and the start of the html code a couple of months ago, and we've finally made progress putting it online. There are only two reviews so far, but we intend to add to it as time goes by. We've also edited the main page to make room for the extra link, and replaced the jpg image that's been there since Sept/02 (a major change).

(Feb 27/08)
Brian Zane and Paul Kennedy were in the field Tue, Feb 26/08, at Mafoota River Cave, in St James, to experiment with new gear. A visit to Wales Pond is next on the to-do list for the MoBay crew, in aid of Joan Blake's project to recover a blocked sinkhole.

Our account of the Clarendon mine survey, carried out in January, now has several videos to go with it - the ladder in the shaft (14.4 MB wmv), the Second Adit (19.9MB wmv), and sampling jarosite (13.8MB wmv). Even though the project wasn't actual caving, only cavers could have done it. Please be advised that the mineral that looks like gold is jarosite (hydrous sulfate of potassium and iron). Don't waste your time scouring the hills ;-)

Expect a lot of new videos in the coming weeks - Jan, the videographer, has recently made great progress on the editing, file-conversion, and ftp upload front.

The Bourdain show that aired last week has brought in some interesting traffic. Surprisingly, much of it's arriving on search engine variations of "Jamaica cave cats" (we didn't realize the things would be so popular). A fuller description of the cave Tony visited (and the cats), can be found at St Clair Cave, Mar 21/06 and St Clair Cave, Jun 3/06. We're tempted to post the inside scoop on the Bourdain shoot, complete with photos/videos, to explain how we ended up in St Clair Cave with an American televison crew, but our better judgement might prevail.

(Feb 12/08)
An episode of the Anthony Bourdain show (Travel Channel) that we were involved with last November airs on Feb 18. The blogs of Anthony Bourdain and the producer, Diane Schutz, make for an interesting read. Apparently, there are at least occasional reservations. In the star's defense, it should be noted that he actually handled thngs much better than how he presents it (which, according to the TV Guide interview, was one of the scariest things he's ever done). It's show-biz - wha' fi do. On our end, we'd like to state that the Bourdain crew were solid, impressive, and a cool bunch of characters. Much respect to Zach and Todd, the videographers, and Paul Cabana and Diane Schutz who kept the production side of it together.

The next main session of fieldwork will begin soon after March 26, 2008. On the agenda is the continuation of the St Ann inventory, several days exploring the best of Paul's Huntley sites, and a descent of Morgans Pond Hole. Morgans Pond was the deepest known cave in Jamaica (184m) until our exploration of Smokey Hole Cave (194m). It has only been descended and surveyed once, by the JCC in 1975. Although we trust the accuracy of their survey, we would like to revisit the site to assess it and check the depth. It will also be a good inagauration of our newest rope, an 11mm PMI Pit Rope, 216m long (710 ft). On that, we'd like to thank the people who donate money when possible. Please be assured that it all goes into gear, such as our new monster rope. The Red Stripe comes out of our own pockets.

An account of the abandoned mine survey is almost done and will be posted in the next couple of days. We used new gear, and new techniques, and would like to share the details.

(Jan 29/08)
Two separate JCO outings took place over the weekend: In Huntley (Manchester), Paul Kennedy and Brian Zane carried out reconnaissance at Huntley Hole 5, one of Paul's recent discoveries, and in Runaway Bay (St Ann), Jan Pauel, Louise Henriques, Wendy Lee, and Simon Lee conducted an assessment of a cave recently reported by parties at Braco.

Brian reports from Huntley that they reached minus 44 metres, descending down a series of steps in a fairly narrow shaft (2 to 3.5m). A sketch map by Paul can be found here. Exploration remains incomplete, but the outing has confirmed that there is much potential in the district that calls for much more work.

At Runaway Bay, the team investigated a medium-sized chamber cave, about 25-30m across, with a small entrance, that is in relatively good health. A batroost with numbers in the hundreds was observed, as well as associated invertebrates (cave crickets, amblypygids, spiders). A yellow boa is reported to have taken up occasional residence in the cave, no doubt to consume rats that are using it opportunistically (eating fruit dropped by bats, as well as edible inverts). We're hopeful that Braco in their wisdom will see fit to protect the site as an important component of the local biota.

(Jan 21/08)
From Jan 8 to 13, Pauel and Stewart were engaged in a rather unusual assignment - the exploration and mapping of a mine abandoned in 1863, done to alleviate our chronically poor funding situation. Flooding prevented penetration below the 57m level, but a heroic effort was made to survey the accessible sections. This included the use of a 24 ft ladder that was extended across a shaft partway down to reach an otherwise unreachable passage (a first for the JCO, and a real learning experience, to say the least).

As part of our recompense, the JCO received digital survey equipment. The equipment was put to good use during the assignment, and we expect it to be of great help during future cave research. (JBI has not seen the last of us - we'll get back to them soon)

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JCO Update

(Jan 6/08)
Paul Kennedy was back in the Huntley district of Manchester recently, and located a number of new, unexplored sinkholes that are now on the to-do list.

Elizabeth Slack will represent the JCO at a conference in Chicago this February. She will promote JCO rapid assessment and inventory techniques as a valuable tool for the documentation of speleo sites in Illinois.

Jan Pauel and Stefan Stewart will be in the field, in Clarendon, from January 7 to 14. Emails will not be answered during the period, so don't bother sending any.

The Jamaica Environmental Advocacy Network (JEAN), of which the JCO is part, will meet with the Prime Minister on January 11. Wendy Lee of NJCA will act as our proxy, as we won't have time ourselves.

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The November 2007 Session
Television Crews, Bad Air, and Deep Holes

(Dec 3/07)
The Jamaican Caves Organisation has recently completed a brief, but productive expedition. From Nov 10 to 15, Haiduk, Hutchings, Kennedy, Pauel, Petrova, Stewart, and Zane assisted two international video crews ("Caribbean Dreams", at Mafoota River Cave, and "Anthony Boudain - No Reservations", at St Clair Cave), carried out a first exploration of Huntley Sinkhole in Manchester (apx 90m deep), revisited Logan Hole 2, and managed some good prep work for our future exploration of the Acheron River, at St Clair Cave (we refound the route to the Inferno Plus, flagged the hell out of it, returned to Riverhead Cave where we observed how quickly the bad air varies, learnt of another possible source for the Acheron, and figured out a way to explore it between Worthy Park dumps (which will require their assistance)).

The next set of notes posted online will be the Cave River system, as part of our interim report to NEPA on the St Ann project, 2007, expected to be done by mid-December. On the GIS side of things, Elizabeth Slack has been busy compiling all of the positional information posted on the website, as well as pursuing sites that have been noted by us, but not yet fully described. On the latter, much of this involves requests of information still on fieldsheets and in GIS files, which is forcing the principal investigator (Stewart) to buckle down and organise data that should have been tended to some time ago. As a result of her efforts, we expect to carry out a major update of the online JCO databases before the end of the year.

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JCO Update

(Nov 8/07)
The JCO will be in the field from Nov 9 to 16 (so hold off on the emails - we won't see them anyway). Amongst other things, we'll assist the crews of two different televison shows at two different caves. The first will be on Nov 10 with Caribbean Dreams, at either Belly-full Cave or Mafoota River Cave, both in St James, depending on the weather. The second will be with the crew of the Anthony Bourdain show (Travel Channel) on the 13th at either St Clair Cave or Worthy Park 3, near Ewarton, depending on the weather. We'd like to make it clear that our assistance is being supplied pro bono, with our main proviso on involvement being mentions of the need for cave preservation in Jamaica. We don't particularly care if any of us appear on camera or not - the priority is to get the message out. In addition to guiding the media people, we'll explore some recently reported, unlisted, deep shafts in Manchester, and knock off some more of the targets for the St Ann assessment project.

Two of the crew carried out recon recently at two widely separated sites. Brian Zane had a look at Sewell Cave in MoBay on Sat, Oct 27 (one we've wanted to locate since 2004, when we were doing the St James assessment project), and Paul Kennedy was in Huntley, Manchester, on the same day checking into a newly reported sinkhole, which is now on the to-do list for the next exped.

Brian Zane was underground last Sunday, Oct 21, taking photos of Quashies River Cave in aid of a future Natural History Museum (UK) publication. One of them will be seen above, in a low-res version (click on it for a higher res).

On Sunday, Sep 23, Jan Pauel and Andreas Haiduk were in St Ann exploring a deep sinkhole for the Highway 2000 crew (Bouygues). A report by Andreas on the visit can be found at Schwallenburgh Sinkhole, St Ann.

The Jamaica Observer had a very cool article on Elizabeth Slack (JCO) also on Sep 23, which has been reproduced here (it wasn't posted on the Observer website, so we've put it online ourselves).

Guy Van Rentergem has forwarded more notes for the Feb/07 session, which will go online soon.

(Sep 21/07)
Tthe JCO would like to congratulate the JLP on their recent electoral success. We hope that they remember the importance of the natural heritage of Jamaica, including caves, as they go forward in their mandate. We will certainly do our best to remind them of it.

On a subject more directly related to caving: We finally have an account of our Feb 16/07 visit to Gourie online at Gourie Cave. We'd like to thank Daphni Daniels for sending us an email asking why it wasn't there yet, which prompted the effort.

An account of our fifth attempt to enter Golding River Cave, last Oct 15, which included carrying a generator into a deep valley, and then through the bush, has been posted at Golding River Cave - Oct 15/06. In addition, the sixth attempt, carried out on Feb 19/07, when we finally had success, is now online in two accounts: Van Rentergem's, and Stewart's.

We'd like to thank Joan Blake for bringing yet another cave to our attention. The site is in MoBay and might be one of the three inside the city limits, listed in the Register, that we've yet to find.

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The August 2007 Session

(Aug 28/07)
The JCO has recently completed a very successful expedition. From Jul 28 to Aug 12, A Haiduk, D Harrisingh, B Hutchings, P Kennedy, J Pauel, EA Slack, A Snauffer, RS Stewart, H Wallis, and B Zane, explored and assessed a number of caves in St Ann, Manchester, and the Cockpit Country. Amongst the more notable of our visits were: a first descent of an unlisted 100-metre deep shaft near Bensonton; a first descent of an unlisted 65-metre hole in the same district; a first descent of the 60-metre deep Logan Hole 2, in May Day; and the completion of the Cave River System, done by finding and assessing Clapham Cave. Other sites visited were Coffee River Cave, where we travelled beyond the fourth rockfall, Quashies, where we made further progress on establishing an all-season route, Brambribo Cave in Douglas Castle, Ken Connell Cave in Bensonton, and several others that are part of our current St Ann NEPA permit project.

A number of CD-R's that contain photo and video files taken during the last expedition arrived on Aug 24, sent by Jan Pauel, and we intend to start getting them online this week. We'll post info here.

Unfortunately, our Aug 8 meeting with Alpart was postponed, this learnt the day before the meeting was to take place via a representative of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI). This was particularly unexpected, as we were not aware that the JBI intended to be present in the first place. From what we've been told, Alpart prefers to have the JBI involved, who in turn would like to have NEPA and the WRA involved. This is all fine with us, but we very much hope that the concerned parties can find time to meet with us during the next session of fieldwork, in October. During the interim, we will attempt to estabish a dialogue via email that will present our concerns and recommendations in greater detail. News on our progress will appear on this page, and be shared with the press, as it occurs.

The JCO had several new members onboard during the session (Harrisingh, Hutchings, Kennedy), all of whom were rock-solid; we hope to see them back with us again in October.

In addition to the new members, a Peace Corps trainee group (names to follow) was with us on Tue Aug 7, in Noisy Water Cave 1. The visit had two goals: to serve as an introduction to cave biology and hydrology, and to carry out some basic cave maintenance by doing a bit of a clean-up. We believe that at least some of our guests gained an insight into the workings of the Jamaican underground, and several large garbage bags worth of trash were removed in an attempt to maintain the drainage capacity of the Cave River System, so we deem the outing to have been a success. With any luck, we'll have a few them onboard for future expeditions.

Along with the new members of the crew, we had some of the old hands onboard. Andreas Haiduk, Brian Zane, Drew Snauffer, and Elizabeth Slack were their usual dependable selves and a great help. Andreas carried out a solo exploration of a deep shaft near Quashies, Brian and Andreas pushed Quashies itself, and Elizabeth was first on rope at Logan Hole 2.

A special mention must be made of Elizabeth Slack's presence for the fieldwork. Eliz has done much work with us in the past, but, unfortunately, is now living in Babylon. We're very grateful that she found two weeks in her busy schedule to fly back to Jamaica to join us, and we hope that it happens again on a regular basis.

Our intrepid photo/videographer, Jan Pauel, was very busy last session, and we have a great wealth of images and videos to pass along. Some of these will be large video files, with a higher resolution than we normally post. As usual, they will be in user-friendly formats that can be easily saved to hard-drives (i.e. not Flash, such as YouTube). Please check this page in the coming days - we will link to files day by day as we get them processed and moved to the server. Notes and accounts will appear on the website as soon as possible, with notification and links also posted here.

(Aug 28/07)
This is the main birthday week for the JCO crew: On Aug 26, Jan turned 40 (again); on Aug 28, Stefan (head madman of the JCO) hit 50 (again); and on Aug 30, Elizabeth will celebrate her 25th birthday (ahem). Congratulations to all of us for surviving another year.

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