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"Yes, I know a very good cave you should visit..."
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China Caves Project
Swallow Cave
Hong Chi Ba Area
Meanwhile Ben, Zhang Ren and I were following up reports of another site, Swallow Cave. We drove with the others for about eight kilometres to where Professor Zhu had arranged to meet local guides.
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Mind the snake... What snake?
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The journey to the entrance was particularly memorable involving a 6 km hike up and over hills, through bushes and thorns and dodging a snake on the way. |
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"Yes...it's just up there now!"
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It was raining quite hard and misty, so when we came to a precipitous drop we weren't able to see the bottom. This may have been fortunate, as we could see the way now led over some narrow and very slippery grass ledges.
Encumbered by wellington boots, heavy packs and a fear of death, we weren't quite as nimble as our guides on this section. In fact we ended up clutching frantically at bits of grass and twigs and passing the packs to one another.
Eventually our guides pointed to a cave entrance about five metres up a cliff face.
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Ben Lovett enjoys single tree technique.
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We managed to climb up to the entrance with the aid of a broken branch. |
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The cave passage at this point was about five metres high and two metres wide. The way into the cave led upwards at an angle of forty degrees, aligned with the dip of the limestone. Unfortunately the cave gradually diminished in size, passing several smaller interconnecting crawls, until we reached two avens, one hundred metres from the entrance. It now became apparent why this cave was prized by the local people.
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Cave swiftlet
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Built into the avens were the rotting remains of wooden scaffolding. This had been for the purpose of collecting the nests of the cave swiftlets that inhabit the cave. No doubt the local people thought they were honouring us in revealing this cave's location. They could hardly be blamed for failing to understand we just wanted to explore caves. We didn't seek caves with economic or culinary value.
Swallow Cave did not yield anything further of significance to us, but it had been a somewhat comical adventure, illustrating the cultural and language barriers inherent in an expedition like this.
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Liang Feng Dong
