Snake

A China Caves Project

We arrived at the government building in the town on the road after a couple of hours walking and were ushered into a little room out of the sun. We drank green tea trying to avoid swallowing the tea leaves and water was brought for us to wash. Jars of pineapple and cherries were shared round to eat. It was all very hospitable! I indicated that I was tired and was shown to a bed upstairs. Colin went off to play pool with the locals and was soundly beaten!

I woke to the sound of the minibus. It was a nice surprise to see several of the team had arrived to greet us. There was also a Chinese television crew! We excitedly swapped stories. Richard, Dick and Greg recorded interviews for tapes to be given to Radio 4. Hours of tape were recorded and it's a good immediate record of the expedition. Listening to it later, I am disappointed to hear the discussion about pulling out of the area early. I couldn't really grumble, I was lucky and everything was so new to me, never having been to China before, that I could be happy whatever happened. In comparison quite a few of the team had been ill or had bad experiences in their caves.

All the team wanted to go on the Doline Downstream 'through' trip, but Phil was out of action with the sores on his legs and Pete was ill. Richard, Greg and Dick claimed their places , while Paul, Tony, Kev, Steve and Dave drew straws to see who would detackle the top entrance and who would do the through trip.

Women

Paul and Dave lost. It's especially hard on Dave who had been too ill to cave and has had only one caving trip down the 'Great Crack'. Paul was philosophical about it. Richard, Steve, Greg and Dick will finish the survey, while Tony and Kev will pull the ropes down behind them and detackle the cave. Colin is going to detackle the Great Crack with Phil in support and I am going to return to the village of Yits with Zhang and his wife, to thank the people for their hospitality and help our team out with their equipment. The Chinese television team also decided to come too.

Snake

I brought sweets and biscuits for the children and some cigarettes for the adults. I didn't want to go empty handed, but also didn't want to patronise them. I need not have worried, it all went off naturally despite the language barrier. Something of a party atmosphere developed and a crowd of the younger villagers decided to come down the Mie Gong He gorge, along with the television crew. I felt like the Pied Piper.

As we went down, Zhang pointed to a small cave entrance high in the cliffs. Inside it was a coffin. I knew this was a common practise in the old times, but how they had managed to get it there wasn't easy to see. The locals were excellent climbers, but some of the children found the way down quite tough, especially as we climbed down through the thorny underbrush. Everybody helped them and before long we were down at river level.

There was a bit of excitement as we walked along, when a two metre black snake swam across the river in front of us and disappeared into a crack in the rock. Two of the young men immediately rushed over and peered into the crack, their faces only inches from the rock. I hoped the snake wasn't poisonous and about to strike. I walked on thinking the action was over, when everybody started shouting. I turned round to see one of the men spinning the snake round his head by it's tail. He must have reached into the gap and pulled it out. He landed it on a rock still holding its tail, as I rushed over to photograph it. It appeared dazed and I decided to get a close up of its head as it flicked its tongue back and forth. At that moment it darted towards me, the man let go of the tail and I decided I didn't want a close up shot anyway. Everyone fell about laughing and the snake escaped without being killed.

The Village