Steve Openshaw

The route to the entrance leads via the dry riverbed, amongst rounded rocks and deep pools. In daylight these rocks are slippery with algae and moss. Between the boulders I picked up a small pebble which has been ground to a perfect sphere; a stone ping pong ball.

The river of boulders ends at the 100m high entrance to the Downstream Doline Cave. Here Colin and Steve found a 14m pitch, dropping directly into a deep blue lake. 30m beyond this they could see another bigger drop. Colin rigged the pitch and abseiled into the lake. The water was surprisingly cold and he quickly found himself sinking downwards. Close to drowning, he hauled himself back. Steve then attempted to cross the lake, but with the same lack of buoyancy as Colin he could not get across. Back in Xin Long, Steve had to visit another cave to collect stalagmites for scientific purposes, which was why I was recruited to accompany Colin to the Doline.

We become fairly rotund after wrapping ourselves with foam.

Photo: Dick Willis

Colin and I have a rather silly or desperate plan to cross the pool. We decide to wrap foam sleeping mats round our bodies for buoyancy, because we don't have wet suits. Colin wears thermals and I wear 'Buffalo' gear, under cotton boiler suits.

With the extra buoyancy Colin manages to swim across the first lake. There is a small ledge before the next drop. He puts a bolt in and rigs a tyrolean, tensioned with the idea that I will descend largely out of the water. Unfortunately the stretch in the rope means I drop into the water anyway! There is not much room on his ledge, so I abseil 7m past him to another ledge. 58m below that there is a larger lake. It is necessary to put two more bolts in to avoid the 9 mm rope rubbing against the rock.

The rope hangs free of the rock on the last 50m to the water. My 'Petzl Bobbin' descender is far too fast on the thin new rope. It hasn't been washed before coming to China and is slippery.

There is a danger of going out of control, too fast. The only way to slow it to a safe level is to descend using a soft lock, even with a brake karabiner. There is danger here too because the soft lock can drop out, especially if the rope is held above the descender. On a later trip this happens to me, but by then the rope is slower and just controllable.

Yangtze 94 Index

Top

Explore