Cave and Dive |
Tian Xing 17th to 18th June 2001
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China Caves Project 2001 Expedition Log |
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17th June 2001 |
Brian Judd, Eoghan and Anne Lynch, Oz Williams, Wookey, Conor McGrath, Zhang Yuan Hai |
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Madam Tan had arranged for Rob Garrett and Erin Lynch to go to other areas on 'The Magical Mystery Tour'. Lev Bishop and Chris Densham decided to join them and they all left Tian Xing in the morning. We hadn't expected this and it meant changing plans to adapt to the sudden loss of expedition personnel. Those remaining were taken by jeep to near Xiao Dong Ba village. The jeep belonged to the Hui Bang tourism company, who bought Furong Dong for 30 million Yuan on a 50 year lease. It currently costs 50 Yuan to go in the cave and recently there have been 50,000 visitors a year, half the number when the cave was first opened to the public. Our expedition is good publicity for them. |
 L. to R. Anne, Wookey, Oz, Conor, Eoghan - asking Zhang if he knows which way to go. |
| Anne Lynch continues: From drop off point, we intended to complete journey to Da Xiao Dong on foot, with assistance in route finding from Zhang Hai. We had great difficulty locating the doline - and took approximately 3-4 hours to find it. We were all very tired at this stage, and agreed to dump the gear at the cave entrance and change the handlines on the slope down, leaving the caving until tomorrow. Again had difficulty with route finding on the way home to Tian Xing village, however we were saved by the GPS and arrived home to a welcome feast of potatoes (thanks to Zhang Hai) at approx 7:30pm. Brian was disappointed that no film crew awaited our arrival. | |
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18th June 2001 |
Anne Lynch and Eoghan Lynch |
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After a tough morning, sorting the gear, having breakfast & lunch, we headed up to the Mi Dong farmhouse to shift the gear to the junction farmhouse. Armed with a note from Zhang Hai explaining that we needed 3 porters @ 20 Yuan each to move the rope, we negotiated with 1 porter @ 40 Yuan who insisted that he was able to carry 550m of rope! And was ably assisted by Eoghan who carried 200m of rope. Arrived at the junction farmhouse and looked for the key of the store (which was previously hidden by Brian under a shoe) thought at one stage it had been eaten by the resident duck, but eventually the key was found, dropped the gear off, paid the guy, took a location on the GPS for the Mi Dong junction and headed back to Tian Xing village for dinner. |
18th June 2001 |
Oz Williams, Brian Judd, Wookey, Conor McGrath |
 Oz, Conor and Wookey with camera crew |
Got a lift in a very smart 4WD up the track towards Xiao Dong Ba village, stopped about 15 mins walk from the farm house. Took some silly photos of Brian using his 'mobile' phone and then moved on down to our new residence. Dumped our over night gear, met our hosts and then headed on down the doline with camera crew in tow. |
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Wookey headed off down Da Xiao Dong to start rigging, whilst Conor, Oz and Brian started surveying and taking photos. After surveying the massive entrance (100m + wide) chamber entered a 'narrow' passage and dropped first short pitch where we met Wookey rigging the next pitch and bathed in bright camera lights. A pattern of short pitches, deep pools, more rigging and more surveying soon entailed. |
 Conor McGrath Da Xiao Dong |
 Log Belay |
At -50m and 350m in from the entrance we ran out of rope with the cave still going and at the head of a 10m? pitch. The cave's very clean washed with some very handy flood debris, Brian used a log jam for rigging to save on bolts. Pulled out and returned to the farmhouse for a top feed of rice, potatoes and bacon, yum yum. Phoned Tian Xing a few times and then crashed out to the sounds of Chinese TV and a bloody cow bell. |
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19th June  |
