Last but not least Meghalaya 2017 Expedition Week 4

chunky

Well-known member
Monday 27th
Krem Puri.
On our last venture in I had located a large boulder chamber which was very unlike the rest of Puri's orange sandstone and was a distinctive way marker for navigation. As the whole chamber was coated in slippery mud it was named 'Greasy Chamber'. From here we clocked up over 380m of new passage. Looking back at the expedition diary this was written up as ranging from 'interestingly tight' to 'Vast Canyon-Like' passage. The interestingly tight body sized passage made for very interesting surveying and I have to admit after 50m of this I was rather relieved when we found what would come to be called Canyon Lands.

Tuesday 28th
Back to Krem Puri
The night before there was some discussion with Thomas as to whether we were coming to an end of Puri's never ending maze like passages and if there would be enough unmapped cave left to warrant a return another year.

Jess and I joined Mark Tringham and headed back in to Canyon Lands with the intention of pushing East in to the survey void.
We were soon discovering a whole new labyrinth with multiple intersecting passages every few meters.
After several hours we had surveyed passage which yielded no less than 50 stations and 82 question marks.
The question was answered, there would be more than enough reason to revisit Puri.

We had logged up another 430m by the time Mark released us from our chores.
As a treat when we finish I'm generally allowed quarter of an hour to either take photo's or go off and explore. Today I chose explore and dove in to the maze of passages to our right. After 5 minutes I found myself in a wide streamway, something I had not encountered before in Puri, and excitedly went back to report it to the others. We went up stream for around 50m before it changed character again and went in to a series of canyon type rifts stretching in to blackness. We were out of time and so headed back to relay our findings to the others.


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Jess in The Greasy Chamber

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Mark at the approach in to Canyon Lands

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The ledges here were definitely more sand than stone!

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Jess in Canyon Lands

Wednesday 1st of March
Krem Liewlong
This would be our last days caving and Jess and I would be joined by Chris Smart for a photo trip in to a cave that Thomas had described at having beautiful pure white formations.
We would spend a few fun filled hours here: mostly crawling, flat out occasionally, often wet, looking for these stunning formations. ]
Eventually we took a couple of snaps of the only formations we found and admitted defeat. Totally turned around we wound up hunting through the wrong boulder choke for quarter of an hour before realising our mistake and exiting in to a beautiful sunny day.
Thomas would later look at the photo's and confirm we were in the right place and photo'd the correct formations but.... perhaps he had overstated them just a little ;)

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Chris in the entrance passages

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Jess at 'the stunning formations'

Thursday 2nd March
After packing up camp Jess and I took the thick blankets, pillows and other 'luxuries' we had accumulated over the last month to a family we had become friends with in the week.
They lived in a tiny tin shack, had barely anything and always greeted Jess and I with warm smiles,  insisting we come in for tea and show them the photo's we had taken that day.
After our goodbyes we headed off back to Shillong, after two weeks of sleeping on concrete with a punctured thermarest and washing out of a bucket we were very much looking forward to hot showers and a bed.

Friday 3rd March
The kit fettling went quickly and we were soon released from our tasks of cleaning and stowing the gear to be used another year.
Jess and I spent the day wandering the amazing markets and finished the evening at a local cinema where you have to stand for the Indian national anthem at the beginning of the film and they still have intermissions half way through the feature :)



In Summary
I hadn't intended to write this blog (who can say no to Pegasus when she bats her eyelids at you) But I have enjoyed writing it and am very glad to have a record to look back at in the future...plus any excuse to bore people with my photo's is always good in my book...so thank you Jane.

For me Expedition caving was a very different beast to my normal sports caving. It is exciting, boring, exhilarating, infuriating, exhausting and rewarding. Every day is a new adventure and each day most definitely brings with it a host of new challenges.

I look forward to hearing in the future what discoveries are uncovered in Meghalaya, and also if Krem Puri does indeed claim the accolade of the longest sandstone cave in the world.

I'd throughly recommend expedition caving to anyone who wants the thrill of being involved in new discoveries and personally can't wait for my next adventure.
 

Duncan S

New member
Cheers Mark  :clap:
I've been on just one expedition and only hit a small cross section of your experiences - just wow!

Blimmin good write ups - see you at CaveFest :D
 

richardg

Active member
Thanks for this spectacularly put together account of your adventure....
Fantastic pictures, I always like the inclusion of the human element in caving shots so that a picture illustrates some of the story in itself.....

Richard.
 

chunky

Well-known member
Thanks Roger and Richard. Your comments are much appreciated. 👍

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