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Jamaican Caving Notes |
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Mar 28, 2004 THATCHFIELD GREAT CAVE Position: Entrance 1: Reserved due to biological resources. Contact JCO Field notes: R. S. STEWART Cavers: R. S. Stewart, I. C. Conolley, M. Bellinger, M. Taylor, G. van Rentergem, A. Donaldson, W. Lee, R. Stirling Time in: 11:00 EST, Time out: 15:30 EST THREAT VULNERABILITY: High Our visit to Thatchfield Cave, in Jan, 2004, had left us so enchanted with this beautiful system that a return visit had been planned for this expedition to get to know the cave better, and to see if we could find anything new. We had also been contacted by Andrea Donaldson, of NEPA, and Wendy Lee, of NJCA, who had expressed an interest in joining us for one of our visits to the underground, and this cave seemed best suited to new cavers. There are no verticals until well into the cave, the chambers are large, and the only difficulty encountered is a little mud in the lower sections. The visit had been arranged for today, Sunday, March 28. As always, when we must meet others en route to a cave, we were late arriving at our pre-arranged meeting place; it wasn't the best first impression that we might have made on our guests, but it truly seems inevitable that we will run behind schedule. The fact that the rental car I was using had an exhaust system riding about 10 cm off the ground, and that we accordingly had a very slow trip from Windsor to Sherwood Content, didn't help things. At any rate, so it goes... When we were all finally at our destination, the roadside by the Lighthole of Thatchfield Cave, with cars parked and cavers assembled, we changed into caving clothes, sprayed with Pyro, and headed for Entrance 1. The hike to the entrance, of about 200 metres, went quite smoothly considering that I'd only found it once before, during the previous visit. Apparently, I still have a few neurons firing, because I was able to dredge the memory of several blue plastic boundary markers tied around trees, out of the memories of 17 caves visited during the previous session, and with only a quick consultation with Ivor as to which side of a large boulder we had taken before, we soon arrived at Entrance 1. I must admit to some apprehension as to how things might go in the cave. I have seldom acted as a guide, other than tending some researchers, local people who tag along, and new JCO cavers. Today was different; we had true guests. I was also aware that two of the guests were valuable members of the Jamaican environmental community, and it wouldn't be a good thing to have either of them take a fall, knock their head off something, or just start asking themselves, "What on earth am I doing in here?" This was also the largest group that I've ever been caving with. We were a total of ten people, unlike our usual team of three or four. I made a point of saying a quiet, unheard, "Jah guide, protection", as I led the group into Entrance 1. Guy van Rentergem had elected to stay up top, searching out possible openings into the "Avens" area of the cave, the location of which were calculated by Guy early that morning, using the JU map. By using compass and pacing, he would explore for new entrances. The nine who went in were the above listed cavers, and two other NEPA associates, young men, both strong and capable, whose names I have lost. The scramble down to the passage that leads to the Lighthole went well, an encouraging sign, as this was the only, "dangerous", part of the route. Ivor and Martel were taking care to watch over our guests, and I was able to move out ahead to relocate the crawl into the New Cave. This was found, with no time lost in the search. While the first of the group passed though the crawl, I was able to get an anemometer reading of the very strong blow into the New Cave, varying between 8 and 9.5 km/hr. We began to follow the gully that conducts seasonal waters through the New Cave, the intention being that this route would do the least damage with this large a group because it was occasionally scoured and resurfaced with mud. After some one hundred metres, Wendy let us know that she had run out of time. She was caring for several small birds, temporarily residing in her pick-up truck parked back at the Lighthole entrance, who required feeding every three hours. She had calculated her turn-around time and had reached it. While the rest of us carried on, Ivor took Wendy back to Entrance 1, and then to her pick-up truck. Continuing to follow the gully, we eventually arrived at the drop down the terraces into the lowest section of the cave. The approach to this point had taken us through a bit of mud, something that the JCO members were quite used to, but our guests weren't. At the end of the approach, to the top of the drop, it was of course necessary to turn around and head back towards the junction that would lead to the Avens; we had left the vertigear in the cars, it being unlikely that we would have time to descend into the lower passage. I realized, by several comments made by the guests, that they didn't consider the view from the top of the drop to have been worth the slogging through the mud, which would now have to be repeated. Unfortunately, I had lacked the foresight of a guide, who would consider what a non-caver would find interesting, and had instead led the group as though, like myself, they would naturally want to visit the furthest point into the cave as was possible. The mud factor hadn't even occured to me. By the time we were back in the area of the junction, I was starting to feel rather guilty about having taken the group through the muddiest part of the cave twice, and while my mind mulled that over, I followed Rona, (who had moved out front), without thinking, along a route that took us high on the side of the chambers that led to the junction. Rona was, of course, seeking a drier path above the mud of the gully. The result of this was that we cruised right on past the junction without me even noticing it, high on the side of the chamber opposite the junction, and soon found ourselves in the area of the Avens, a part of the cave that I had not visited before. I was slightly confused about where we were, but because it is very difficult to get lost in Thatchfield Cave, (and accordingly, I had not bothered to flag on the way in), I gave it little thought, knowing that we would figure it out when it came time to head back to Entrance 1. Our guests had indicated a desire to await us at the junction, while we visited the Avens; they decided to wait for us instead where we now found ourselves. In front of us rose an incredibly large flowstone cemented talus slope. At the top could be seen a way over into small openings. I headed on up this, followed by Mark. High on this slope, the small openings led into the uppermost part of what was apparently a very filled-up break-down chamber. Through the openings could be seen the most magnificent helictites that I have ever come across. They also covered the ceiling of the chamber outside of the openings, but inside, they were astoundingly plentiful. They had formed on an inverted forest of stalactites, numbering in the thousands, and were composed of fine, pure, translucent, white calcite. I carefully wormed my way in under them, taking care to not destroy them as I passed through, and looked for a way on at the other side of the chamber. I found nothing, and the air was very still, so I wormed my way back out through another opening and then began the climb back down, with Mark. At this time, it was decided that we would begin our return to Entrance 1. I was still somewhat confused as to where we were, having not seen the junction as we journeyed to the area of the Avens, and seeing a large passage extending in the right direction, back a short distance from the flowstone-talus slope, I confidently stated, "I think it's this way". One of the group who had ventured into this passage, (towards the Avens as it turned out), informed me that it in fact dead-ended after no great distance. I'm afraid that our guests at this time became rather apprehensive about our ability to get back out, this indicated by a few worried questions. Myself, I had no fear, realizing that the junction must indeed be behind us and that we had cruised past it without noticing. There are few passages in Thatchfield and the one we sought was about 60 m wide and half that high, so it seemed unlikely that we would be unable to find it. As we wended our way back towards the junction, we met Ivor coming towards us on his return from ferrying Wendy out. He had gone as far as the drop to the terraces, not found us there, so had returned to the junction and then made his way towards the Avens. A quick consultation ensued, the large exit passage was found, and we headed back to Entrance 1. I am afraid that my first real effort as a guide did not go as well as it might have. This is entirely my fault. I made no attempt to put myself in the shoes, (muddy boots, actually), of our guests. I let myself be distracted by non-caving issues, and this resulted in my not noticing the junction, and then starting to lead the group out via a dead-end. If I repeat this sort of thing in the future, I have to do a better job of it. It should be noted that the bat numbers seemed down since our Jan 25/04 visit. Susan Koenig informed me afterwards that she had observed a similar occurence in her monthly monitoring of Windsor Cave, and that she believes it to be part of a normal seasonal variation. The inward air-flow that I had measured at the crawl to the New Cave very much indicates the unfound presence of other openings. Guy had no great luck in finding them from above, but there is little doubt that they exist. We are hopeful that we will have certain instruments in the future that will assist us in the finding of them, by trying to detect acoustical signatures of bats that use these openings during the time of emergence, soon after sunset. More notes for Thatchfield Great Cave. |
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