Random things in caves

[Dickie]

Do unexpected people count?

I was in a cave in Chimbu Province in PNG and bumped into a local who had a big torch and a catapult and was shooting down bats from the roof for dinner.

He had hidden from us at first because he thought we were spirits!!!!

I also found (and left) a wooden clog sole from a midden in a well-known marble mine near Ashford  - it was about 4 inches long, indicating that there were children or dwarves working in there.

 

[mrodoc]

Pete, When You say Plastic Pig, do you refer to a toy Pig, made from plastic or the ol'e Resin Rocket/3 Pin Plug DelMobile... ie; one of these  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_Robin

Just wondered.

no room for the reliant in there so was the former

 

[darwen dave]

I came across a chamber decorated with sheep skulls today in Gunnerfleet lower cave.
Presumably washed in and then placed in a tasteful manner.

 

[martinb]

A stuffed blue elephant (not life sized!) at the squeeze at the foot of the 1st climb in Jugholes!

 

[Mrs Trellis]

Large rocket in Gaping Gill Main Chamber on a BPC winch meet.

Re-erected at Alderley Edge on the last Open Weekend Sept 4th/5th 2010 - its anniversary.

Talking of which the mannequin formerly in the "surgery" is now in Engine Vein Mine with a warning taped to its wrist - see video in thread above for live action.

There's a roadworks sign at ..er.. Roadworks shaft in Wood Mine and the "Barclays Bank Night Deposit Safe" door on one of the mine entrances.

The "Cerddwyr/Pedestrians" sign at the end of the adit in Wood Mine impresses visitors who entered in mid-Cheshire and are now crossing the border underground!

Stockport's Rubber Duck Caving Club left ..er.. rubber ducks in the sumps they visited.

Obviously before all this cave conservation malarkey the caves were much cleaner save a plethora of discarded ganzies, bicycle lamp batteries and carbide dumps. There always used to be a discarded boiler suit floating in Backwash Sump in Giants which gave a fair imitation of a drowned corpse.

 

[crickleymal]

I came across a chamber decorated with sheep skulls today in Gunnerfleet lower cave.
Presumably washed in and then placed in a tasteful manner.

One of the churns in Noxon Park had a load of skulls placed on the rocks in the churn. It also had a pigs skull that had been sawn in two through the left eye socket. That gave me pause for thought!

 

[Ian Adams]

I once found a dead lifeform in a cave. I have no clue what it was and contacted (I think) Liverpool univeristy with the photo and they asked me to retrieve it (as I had left it in situ)  noting it's exact location and pickling it in a jar of alcohol. I did precisely that and sent it to them. They sent it to Oxford (I think) because they couldn't identify it and then it went off the radar (so I assume it was something unimportant).





You can see the "thing" sat on the ground under my elbow (it was reasonably small). Obviously it was taken a good while ago before I learned that caving in light coloured clothing wasn't a really great idea.....





Ian

 

[ogof addict]

a plastic spider down Rhyd Sych, and a pair of glasses on a formation that looked like an enormous nose, possibly down slaughter stream

bloody bunting down a showcave in Slovenia

 

[Les W]

I once found a dead lifeform in a cave. I have no clue what it was and contacted (I think) Liverpool univeristy with the photo and they asked me to retrieve it (as I had left it in situ)  noting it's exact location and pickling it in a jar of alcohol. I did precisely that and sent it to them. They sent it to Oxford (I think) because they couldn't identify it and then it went off the radar (so I assume it was something unimportant).

Just a thought but I don't suppose it is something unexotic like a fly or moth but with some outrageous fungus growing on it?

 

[Peter Burgess]

Is a dead lifeform, a deathform?  :-\

 

[Judi Durber]

Slaughter Stream

 

[Ian Adams]

Just a thought but I don't suppose it is something unexotic like a fly or moth but with some outrageous fungus growing on it?

Quite possibly Les. It wasn't recognisable as an insect and the "things" protruding were very silvery (as in the photo) but it may well have been an insect that has been subjected to an "outrageous fungus". I can only assume it was not worth reporting in any journal anywhere as it wasn't lol  :blink:

Ian

 

[graham]

Just a thought but I don't suppose it is something unexotic like a fly or moth but with some outrageous fungus growing on it?

Quite possibly Les. It wasn't recognisable as an insect and the "things" protruding were very silvery (as in the photo) but it may well have been an insect that has been subjected to an "outrageous fungus". I can only assume it was not worth reporting in any journal anywhere as it wasn't lol  :blink:

Ian

It's a bit "off" if they didn't bother to tell you, though. Some academics are a bit like that and rarely give feedback to people who are genuine in their interest, if uninformed. In total contrast to museum professionals I know from the major London museums who always reply - and politely - to even the most bizarre and absurd queries.

 

[cavermark]

Tangent.

Seven dead locals in a Meghalayan shaft.

Was there a massive "Deviation" sign in dihedral route?

Not in a cave but I met a garden gnome on a ledge on flying buttress on Dinas Cromlech.

 

[ian mckenzie]

A bear skeleton.

 

[Les W]

A bear skeleton.

Not that random, Bears regularly use caves to hibernate in. Seen bear bones in Slovenia and Wales. Probably some found in Mendip caves as well but CBA to look up anything at the mo.

 

[Amy]

One flipflop. Yes. One.
Who caves in flipflops? and then leaves behind just one?
haha

 

[Elaine]

People lucky enough to live in warm place cave in flip flops don't they? Perhaps they got too hot for 2 flip flops.

 

[Amy]

Well I live in Michigan, the home of 6-month winters and up north where this cave was, there is even a 30-foot high snow pole, and yes, snow gets that high (in fact, a passtime of a friend of mine who lives up there is skiing off the roof of 2-story homes because it just piles up that high!) it's a water cave, so I guess that was probably the logic of whatever person it belonged to for wearing flip flops...you do walk/crawl in water in about half the cave...maybe they one to the mud and then just left the other on the rock? It's certainly not warm water though. Maybe 13-14 degrees? It's quite chilly even in the summer. Technically the group I'm in (MKC) owns the land, and no one is supposed to go into the cave without someone from the MKC and/or permission but locals still go into it and some people just know about it - often college kids who stumble on it and think it'd be fun to explore.

OH! yes and another random thing - we found in that same cave fireworks (roman candles). They were used, so someone was setting them off inside the cave. >_<

 

[NOZ]

Teaspoon  - Dollytubs ledge