Jamaican Caving Notes

Spot Valley Cave 1

Escort to Spot Valley Cave 1 by the property owner’s employees took us up a hillside, over some little used trails amidst eroded limestone. The cave mouth seemed to be roughly 5 ft wide by 2 ft high, and surrounded by a decent amount of vegetation. It wouldn’t have been the easiest cave to find, if not for a local having found or lost a goat in it, whatever the story was.

The cave consisted of one large chamber, with a couple little alcoves. We’d come somewhat prepared to shed some light on the situation. We’d managed to get use of a NiteRider HID (High Intensity Discharge) video light, meant for underwater video work. Described by the mfr. as a videographers dream come true, the light is 10w and balanced for 6000K (daylight is 5600-6000K). The light worked like a dream, lighting up which ever side of the room the bulb was pointed at. Hopefully the light helped the combined team of JCO and Dr. Allsworth-Jones locate the many petroglyphs on the cave wall opposite the entrance. The dream didn’t last long, unfortunately. The battery was not well charged, since it only lasted 20-30 minutes, rather than the 4 hours or so that it should last on a full charge. Once the petroglyphs were located, most of the examination was done within a small enough area that headlamps were sufficient, but not ideal.