Speleo in Iraq: kennismakingsweekend

Die maandag in januari was het definitief, deze week nog zou ik voor een korte opdracht naar Iraq afreizen. Volgens de Irakese ambassade in Brussel moest ik minstens 1 maand wachten op mijn visum, volgens de telecom-klant gewoon het vliegtuig nemen zonder visum en binnenwandelen. Ne mens vraagt zich op zo’n momenten toch af wie de meest correcte informatie heeft (antwoord: de telecom!) Nu moest het snel gaan. Mijn contactpersoon, Zana, opbellen om mijn komst te melden en trachten te achterhalen met wat soort materiaal ik de speleo’s ginds het meeste plezier kon doen (Antwoord: ‘Everything’) en dit materiaal vergaren bij diverse Spekulozen.

Een dike merci aan iedereen die inging op mijn laattijdige oproep om (oud) materiaal af te staan voor het goede doel. We hebben zowaar 2 volledige sets kunnen assembleren, welke ik aanvulde met delta’s en leeflijnmusketons van mijzelf. Voorts vonden we nog een tiental (ietwat haperende) musketons, lint en 120 meter touw, ruim genoeg om een speleoclub op te starten! Mijn 40 kilo’s bagage als Frequent Traveller bij de Luftwaffe zouden deze keer eindelijk eens ten volle benut kunnen worden; twee volle kitzakken met 3 sets, touw, texair, onderpak, helm stonden gereed gepakt, ik zou bijna vergeten dat ik eigenlijk voor werk afreisde.

Goed nieuws kwam tijdens mijn oersaaie verjaardag (gevierd met een vers appelsiensapke en een waterpijp met druiven-smaak); Zana had met de minister gesproken over een belgische bezoeker van de gerennomeerde Speleoclub der KU leuven en hun expertise op speleo- en diverse andere vlakken. Kortom, we kregen een landcruiser van het ministerie plus chauffeur voor niks en verniet voor gans het weekend, enkel de brandstof was ter onze laste.

Om 7 uur vertrokken we via de oostelijke weg naar Degala (de zuidelijke weg via Kirkuk is korter en sneller maar op dit moment te gevaarlijk). Ondanks een slechte nachtrust hield het panorama mijn ogen open. Eindelijk iets te zien! Voorbij Konya, op het hoogste punt van de weg achter het checkpoint stopten we voor het eerst. Onder ons de vlakte van Dukan, een stukje van het stuwmeer met op de achtergrond het besneeuwde hooggebergte van de uitlopers van het Zagros gebergte. Op de mooie tweevaksbaan van Dokan naar Sulaymaniyah sloegen we rechtsaf naar Chami Rezan. Zana fotografeerde hier een klein grotje met archelogische waarde voordat we de Assyrische grafmonumenten bezochten. Archeologische studies zijn net hervat na 30 jaar oorlog en men verwacht nog zeer veel te ontdekken. Vanuit de artificiele grot hadden we een mooi zicht op het gebergte waarin de Sahra grot zich bevindt.

Shwan, de chauffeur, reed tot op het einde van de weg en parkeerde naast de rivier die uit de wadi kwam. Tijdens het omkleden overtuigde Zana hem om mee de grot in te gaan, het was voor hem tenslotte een ‘unieke kans’. Shwan stemde in en we beklommen de steile bergwand in de richting van een groot gapend gat, een korte maar grote grot doorheen de berg die ooit door Peshmerga’s gebruikt werd als schuilplaats ten tijde van Saddam zaliger. Het was aan de ingang al duidelijk dat het veel warmer was in de grot dan buitenen ik besloot wijselijk geen texair aan te doen. Een lange, smalle en lage rechte passage kwam uit in een hoger deel. De wanden waren wit en mooi proper. Dan volgde een meanderend gedeelte en werd het ruimer. Zana, de expert-fotograaf wou hier enkele fotos maken met zijn super nikon-reflexmachien. Hij negeerde onwetend mijn voorstel tot het gebruik van mijn meeflitser. Ik besloot een demo te geven en hij was met verstomming geslagen als ik hem het resultaat op het schermpje van mijn canon pocket toonde. ‘What is this!??’ De grot daalde lichtjes en werd alsmaar groter; mooie gladde vloer, tot 10 meter breed en hoog, mooi gepolijst. Het leek wel of hier ooit heel de rivier van de wadi doorheen stroomde. Zana kreeg een crash-course ondergrondse fotografie met Shwan als model. Het plezier in de grote gallerijen hield plots op aan een grote instorting. Ik kroop alleen door een (uitgegraven?) etroiture waarachter het weer voortging zoals voorheen. Dan dook het plafond naar beneden en raakte de harde modder op de grond. Ik vemoedde dat dit einde een opgevulde sifon was en graven zou hier zeer lonend kunnen zijn. Drie uur onder de grond, bijna 1.2km ontwikkeling en behoorlijk indrukwekkend. Niet al te technisch, geen premiere, maar wel een voorsmaakje van wat in dit deel van het Pira Magrun gebergte nog kon gevonden worden. Shuan voelde zich goed na zijn eerste speleo-ervaring en onvermoeid reed hij verder naar Sulaymaniah. Ik kreeg onverwachts te horen dat ik zondag een ontmoeting zou hebben met Asiacell, een GSM operator met hoofdkwartier in Sulaymaniah. Of met andere woorden, ik kon hier nog een dag langer blijven!

De volgende morgen reden we verder westwaarts naar Dar Bandi Khan. Twee speleo’s van de would-be speleoclub gingen vandaag mee. We stopten net voor de tunnel voor een panoramisch zicht op het stuwmeer, dat er erg droog bij lag de laatste jaren. In de bocht net achter de tunnel reden we een zijweg op naar het lokale politiestation, waar ik een typische witgeverfde Russische UAZ469 4x4 zag staan. Dit type wagen gebruikten we tijdens onze expedities in Vietnam en ondanks dat ze even oud zijn als ikzelf, nog zijn ze nog altijd in gebruik. We kregen begeleiding van 1 van de politiemannen tot aan de grotingang van Kune Shem Shem.

De ingang, een mooi rond gat, kwam uit in een ruime donkere grot. Het was er erg warm en de bodem lag vol glibberige guano. Zana en co zijn echter erg onder de indruk van de concreties, een rariteit in de (tot nu toe) ontdekte grotten in Irak. Wat mij betreft waren het ‘gewone’ fossiele concreties, niks speciaals. Zana was niet te houden en klom hoger en hoger in het plafond en hoewel ik niet vies ben van een geexposeerd klimmetje, nam Zana voor mij ongeoorloofde risico’s. Hij slaagde er ook in mijn meeflitser te laten vallen, welke 30 meter lager te pletter stortte (deze werd nadien werkend teruggevonden door de achtergebleven speleo’s. Het biscuit-doosje waar hij inzat alsmede de guano-laag hebben hem gered). De klim en de verkenning is nu behoorlijk sportief en mooi. Ik ben blij dat Zana een volledige set aanheeft, zodat we elkaar toch min of meer kunnen beveiligen tijdens het afdalen.

In de namiddag stond SRT-training op het programma. De rotsen boden geen mogelijkheid tot het equiperen van een vrijhangend touw, dus besloot ik (onder het oog van de flikken) een nabijgelegen hoogspanningsmast te equiperen. Stijgen, ombouwen en afdalen werd aangeleerd, fractioneren zou voor de volgende keer zijn.

De speleo’s keerden huiswaarts, Zana en Shwan terug naar Abil. Na een douche was het tijd om terug serieus te wezen. Ik deed mijn deftige kleren aan en belde de partners in Irak dat ik klaar was hen te ontmoeten. Het restaurant waar we samenkwamen serveerde geroosterde karper met als entree ‘fish testicles’. De HR manager sprak vlaams, verkoos Duvel boven alle bieren, woonde ooit in Leuven en had een Belgisch paspoort dat hij verkregen had als valse vluchteling. Interessant gezelschap! Ik kan niet wachten om terug te keren, hopelijk nog voordat het te heet wordt.

Winter caving in Lilburn

The plan

After the Lilburn trip got cancelled last weekend due to impending snow storms, Wilbur - who was leading the trip - decided he wanted to give it another try this weekend. Four of the original party of seven were still up for it: Wilbur, Marek, Will & me, the others having to cancel for several reasons.

Getting there

Friday, early afternoon, Will & I took the train to Palo Alto where Will & Marek picked us up and off we went on Highway 85 driving through remarkably green undulating landscapes and onto Highway 152 through the San Joaquin Valley, passing the San Luis Reservoir and having an early dinner in a great taqueria in Los Baños.

With a full stomach we went on to Fresno, where we had a brief stop over at Howard's house to pick up the keys to the cave and to the cabin in Kings Canyon National Park. Howard is one of the old timers of the San Joaquin Valley Grotto. Since he couldn't make it on the trip this weekend, he graciously offered to act as our Fresno HQ, monitoring our activities via radio updates.

Around 21.00 h that evening we arrived at the jeep's destination. What should have been an easy 8 km approach from the Redwood Saddle Trailhead (see map), had turned into a much longer trip (16.8 km to be precise) since some of the roads were still closed after the storms last week.

An epic journey

We parked at the Big Stump parking lot on Highway 180, hiked on the sometimes dangerously icy Highway 180 and Generals Highway for about 6 km, put our newly bought snowshoes on at the "Overlook" and cut down a fairly steep slope to catch up with the secondary Redwood Saddle Road below and finally reached the regular trailhead around 23.40 h.

Even with snowshoes on, our feet would often sink about 30 cm, sometimes even deeper, in the soft and deep snow. This made our progression much more difficult, especially for the person paving the way in the front, constantly scooping up snow. Every hour Marek would establish radio contact with Howard to keep HQ up to date on our progress. The to-be-remembered one-liner that came up in one of those conversations and described our trip very well was "We're not as near Chinquapin as we thought ... This is going to be an all-night epic!". And right he was ...

Although progress was slow and difficult and we didn't have the time to enjoy it properly at the time, we walked through an amazingly beautiful landscape: a forest with giant Redwood trees, virgin snow glistening in the lights of our caving helmets, the occasional animals footprints and no sounds whatsoever, not even of the bears who were probably sleeping it up in their dens thickly covered with snow.

Finally!

At 4.00 h on Saturday morning we arrived in the cabin and - luckily for us - we didn't have to dig out the entrance! Wilbur started the old-fashioned cast iron stove, while Marek got a fire going. Warmed and revived a little, we fetched water, installed the emergency exit ladders, Wilbur dug out the bear (-proof) box, we ate something, had a hot chocolate (thanks for that Wilbur!) and went to bed around 6.00 h.

The next morning (hmm, or rather the same noon) - all being somewhat stiff and tired due to our "epic" walk (and despite the vitamin I for some), we decided to take it easy on the caving and do a course-familiarizing through trip for us newcomers, to be followed by some surveying and checking out leads near the exit. Wilbur spent 45 minutes digging out Meyer entrance, while Will and Marek went to check out the historic Lilburn entrance.

The cave

With more than 27 km in passages, Lilburn is the longest cave in California. It is a complex three-dimensional system dissolved within beautifully banded black and white marble (yes, the cave is formed in marble and not in limestone!) and has several large streams. The cave is managed as a research area and most work in it is conducted and organised by the Cave Research Foundation.

We made it into the cave around 16.00 h and it definitely fulfilled every expectation that might have been raised by all the stories we've heard so far. It is beautiful - especially in the lower stream washed passages near the Meyer entrance where the marble is not covered with mud. And it is a lot of fun, my favourite type of cave, the scrambling up and down one!

After descending the 12 m deep entrance pit with a cable ladder, the cold draft coming from outside fell away and we could start to enjoy a relaxed trip. Marek & Wilbur first made a slight detour passing Telephone Pit to show us a dazzling white flowstone and rimstone formation called the Glacier.

The way on was through a series of narrow canyon passages formed along nearly vertical joints intermixed with the tubular passages of the East Stream. The marble looked magnificent here! We saw beautiful examples of anastomoses (intertwining networks of veins in the marble) and pendants (shape-wise looking a lot like stalactites, but instead of being deposited by water, they have been carved out of the bedrock by water) hanging down from the mother rock.

On our way to the Hex(adendron) Room (originally named for the six passages meeting there until more exploring found that there are actually nine!) we saw the Big Yellow Hungus Thing flowstone-drapery-stalactite decoration (see picture - taken by Bill Frantz) and some very nice, bright yellow rimstone cascades and bath-tub-sized pools. From the Hex room, we made a detour to go and see the Enchanted River’s resurgence, the White Rapids, passing one of John Tinsley's sediment collector sites. Then we passed “That Room” with its mountain leather hanging from the ceiling like dead leaves and continued our way down Curl Passage to the emerald pool in the Lake Room.

Climbing up nearly 30 m up to the Upper Old Cave area, we admired the 6 m tall Great White Pillar (see picture - Bill Frantz) and, passing a very unpleasant and nearly 40 m deep drop called the Crevice, went on to the 2 By 2 Complex with its twisting, branching passages sparsely decorated with white, orange and red flowstone and cave pearls.

Then it was on to the Bacon Rind Room (see picture - Bill Frantz) where we went poking around for leads. The map didn't seem to make too much sense for that area so we concluded that the entire area would have to be resurveyed some other time and proceeded towards the historical entrance passing some nicely-named climbs up like the Ice Cream Cone.

We made it out of the cave by 21.00 h (the hardest part of it all being the walk back to the cabin through the deep and soft snow without snowshoes), had delicious food (fresh veggies, beans, Weiner sausages, mashed potatoes & Ramen noodles accompanied by hot chocolate), Wilbur & Marek did some maintenance in the cabin and went to bed at a decent hour.

Return

On Sunday morning everyone felt refreshed by a good night's sleep, we had breakfast, cleaned up the cabin and started heading back to the car around 11.00 h under a drizzling sky, again keeping regular contact with Howard at HQ. Although we had much more uphill stretches than on the way to the cabin, for some reason the walk seemed to go a bit smoother ... probably because we could walk back in our own footsteps (discovering en passant that we sometimes did ridiculous detours - a testimony to how snow and night time can change your perception of a landscape!) and maybe also because Howard and Janet had invited us for dinner and a hot shower in Fresno that evening and we were all looking forward to that.

Around 16.00 h we were all glad to be back on the Generals Highway, happy to take our snowshoes off and relieved that it had only started to rain more heavily for the very last part of our journey. After another 3.5 km, Marek got a lift from a friendly Hungarian family who dropped him off at Big Stump so that he could come and get us by car.

The worst part of our journey eventually turned out to be the end of it ... having to rearrange bags and be out in the cold rain after we had been in the warm car for a couple of minutes. Luckily the Visitor Center at Grant Grove had a covered porch where we could change clothes and even found heated bathrooms that were still open!

The perfect ending

At 17.45 h we were well on our way to Howard's where we were treated to a delicious chicken & cornbread meal with loads of side dishes. Janet even made us pumpkin pie, the perfect treat after an intense weekend!


Many thanks to:

• Howard for the sleepless hours and all the logistic support
• Janet for putting up with Howard on Friday night and making us a delicious meal
• Wilbur for organising the trip and making me toast on Monday morning
• Marek & Wilbur for driving us safely
• Will for being my perfect stove
• All the guys for not making me pave the snowshoe trail (:-s) (not that I wouldn't have done it ...)

It was a great type 2-kind-of-fun weekend, I think I might come again next time ... ;-)

Pictures

Participants:

• Will Heltsley alias Wilbur (trip leader)
• Marek Cichanski (Lilburn veteran)
• Will Moffat (Lilburn newbie)
• Joke Vansweevelt (Lilburn newbie)

Blitzactie naar Cantabrië : 23 -28 januari 2009.

deelnemers van spekul : Katleen D.; Koen B, Walter S.,  Dirk H.

deelnemers van Secja (Madrid): Miguel; Carlingis, David, Antonio, José, 

Gedurende een kletsnatte 4 dagen explo in Canto encaramado werd uiteindelijk het vervolg van de rivier gevonden.  Een collector met allures van Verneau (den onze is ietske groter) werd  ontdekt en over enkele honderden meter geexploreerd... Continua :-)

Enkele foto's

of meer in espanglish  ..

bernard op zaterdag

dag wereld, dag mensen, dag vrienden allemaal,

Terwijl enkele kleine spekuloosjes uit hun grotje kwamen - welkom Jasper en Naima! - , ben ik voor het eerst sinds veel te lang weer in een grotje gekropen.
Den Bernard!
Ooit in een ver verleden (toen ik juist wist hoe ik een afdaler moest inweven) ...ben ik al eens afgedaald in den Bernard, maar ik kon me daar geen steentje meer van herinneren.

David L en Dirk waren goede gidsen ;-) En gelukkig was het in de grot lekker warm. Het omkleden nadien en vooral bij het wassen van de touwen was ietske frisser.

Ik heb genoten van de grot!
Nog veel meer van da in 2009...

Groetjes en da al jullie wensen mogen uitkomen!

Thanksgiving with the Cave Research Foundation (CRF) at the Lava Beds National Monument

Wednesday 26th of November: Will and I were packing our caving and camping gear for the first time since we've arrived in the States! We were not sure what to take; other country, other habits ... Will H - who spent the night at our place that evening to make logistics easier - luckily gave us some tips.

Next morning - Thanksgiving Day - we took BART to Oakland (across the San Francisco Bay) where Brad picked us up in a rental car. We set off on an ~ 8 hour journey North, almost into Oregon. On the way we got some interesting insights in rocket technology, Mormon life and California geology and had a great view of the snow topped Mount Shasta from a little town called Weed ...

Around 17 h we arrived in the RC (Research Center or was it Recreational Center?! ;-)) and met the already present cavers from as many as 4 caving clubs: SFBC, Diablo, Mother Lode and the Shasta Area Grotto! We made some food and had some delicious chicken with veggies generously shared with us by Frank, Iris and James.

At about 20 h, it was time to go out into the cold and acquaint ourselves with the lava landscape. Will H. took us to Indian Well, the cosily lighted Mushpot Cave which is a developed (as in 'made easily accessible to the public with paved floor and plaques to explain the different features') lava tube and then searching for Lava Brook and / or Thunderbolt caves. We never found them (GPS's!), but stumbled upon Sentinel Cave, one of the larger and very interesting lava tubes with at least four superimposed levels; almost like a real cave!

The next morning Bruce - our trip leader together with Pat - had a serious announcement. This Thanksgiving CRF (Cave Research Foundation) trip marked the 20th anniversary of exploration in the area. To celebrate this event, we had to make sure to keep in mind the most important goal of the day: "YOU MUST HAVE FUN!"; which meant we could do some "course familiarisation" (i.e. be a "tourist") and explore Mammoth Cave, another of the bigger lava tubes with almost 2.5 km in passages. It is probably the only muddy lava tube around here and we were promised tons of mud. It turned out not to be that bad after all thanks to a relatively dry period preceding our visit. Upon request everybody was back around 16 h at the RC to start preparing for the Thanksgiving potluck dinner, which included the traditional turkey, a roast ham and a plethora of side dishes and desserts. It was a great evening and - just like the turkey - we all got really really stuffed!

The following day Will and I took off with Shane - who is the Park Ranger responsible for the caves -, Cyndi and Brad to the Big Nasty. We had been warned thoroughly about the Big Nasty: extremely uneven terrain due to expanded and then collapsed surfaces, snakes - luckily not so much in this time of the year - and prickly bushes all over which force you to crawl on hands and knees to get through. Although somewhat intimidated Will and I decided to go through with it and it proved to be a very good and productive day. An hour and a half walk bushwhacking led by Shane's gps brought us to promising territory and we managed to topograph 16 survey points (which is a good score apparently since you have to measure every station back and forth due to the lava's interference with the natural magnetic field) and still going before we had to go home. (You don't want to be out in the Big Nasty after dark, mountain lions all over!) Back in the RC, Brian took us to the Northeastern corner of the Monument for a visit of the Petroglyphs and in the evening we had another great meal: delicious soup made with turkey stock, an exquisite Oriental Style noodle dish and Italian pasta.

On Sunday morning, Will², Brad an I had to leave to be back in town by the evening, but not before getting to the top of Schonchin Butte. Will & Will, fighting over who would get to be addressed as Will and which one of them had to take on a pseudonym decided to have a contest ... first to the top ... The previous record set by Beej was 10.5 minutes. They managed to get it down to 8.5 minutes. I'll leave you to ask Will and Will who actually won ...

We decided to go back to San Francisco by the scenic route passing through nice landscapes and through the cute little town of Adin where we had an artisanal smoked hamburger sandwich. Further down the road we had some more fun playing around with some stones and around 20 h Brad safely dropped us off again at the Oakland BART station. Pity we couldn't stay longer in Lava Beds ... but it was a great trip to start our US caving career with and we'll be back! ;-)

Find some pictures here and check out Brad's video here (I hope)

Volcano trip

Dag Spekulozen,

hieronder het verslag door John Tinsley van onze trip naar Volcano, een klein onooglijk dorpje in het El Dorado - oftewel Goudland - van California. Tonnen grond zijn hier weggespoten geweest op zoek naar goudklompjes, en er valt nog steeds goud te vinden! Wij waren echter op zoek naar iets anders: grotten ...

Fotokes zijn te vinden hier en bij coco.

Groetjes uit frosty Philadelphia,
Will & Joke

Volcano Area Novice Caving Trip
8 December 2008

It was a gorgeous day as the Tule fog burned off while driving across the Great Valley. Ten of us collected at the Post Office in Volcano, California. Frost lingered until mid-morning in sheltered valleys and in the topographic bowl that gave the 49ers the notions that (1) the area was a volcanic crater and (2) said volcano was the ultimate vein-based source of the placer gold that they sought so avidly. The miners were correct about abundant placer gold, which was derived from gravels deposited by an ancestral Mokelumne River, but the local topographic low containing the town of Volcano owes more to the lens of carbonate rock being more erodible than surrounding non-carbonate rocks. But I digress.

Almost all participants arrived by the appointed hour of 10 AM; one carload wandered in late bearing an apologetic if unreconstructed but admitted sleepyhead. No one seriously objected because the landowner met us at the post office and proved to be a master raconteur. He entertained us with accounts of the town's history and a few of its more colorful past and present residents while we waited. He then accompanied us up the hill, looked over the caves, and then left us to do our caving while he hiked over a part of the 200-plus acres he owns. An extremely affable fellow, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the region, its history and its people, he patiently answered our many questions and corrected errors in our grasp of folklore while we kitted up. He suggested that the preferred place to park cars was in the lot adjacent to the town hall, rather than the lot next to the Catholic Church, which convenes services on Saturday afternoon. The town hall lot is about a block further away from the trailhead, and is quite commodious.

So we relocated from the post office to the municipal lot and made final preparations for the trail and the caves. After selecting the equipment required, we hiked to the caves via the customary route, passing the cemeteries, the road gate with now-breached barbed wire on the east end, and the hydraulic mining tailings pond with grove of acidic-soil-loving conifers. The area was quite dry with no Zuider Zee. [For the uninitiated, the Zuider Zee is a name given to a giant lake that forms atop the tailings in the winter; during the late 70s, heavy overnight rains trapped several vehicles, and at least 3 cars got mired to the axles and then were forcibly extracted.] We found the caves without incident and initially visited all entrances to acquaint folks with the geography and the various expressions of urushiol-bearing vegetation (poison oak). As we had a large party, Robert Darrah generously had volunteered to co-lead the trip. Robert took half the party to Mushroom while Tinsley led the remainder to Santa Claus. Halfway through the day, we traded caves, so everyone got to see both. Of arguably greater significance was the dynamic duo of Will Moffat and Joke Vansweevelt who wasted no time in exploring all of Santa Claus, commencing with the discovery entrance. (I think this is the first time in about 12 years of leading trips up there that anyone has tackled the chimney entrance; several have tried but got filtered out owing to insufficient clearance at the top of the chimney.)

Robert rigged Mushroom Cave with a cable ladder and 11 mm PMI, so folks could amuse themselves with their vertical gear if they brought it, or if not, could be belayed down and up the cable ladder. This arrangement worked well. Santa Claus Cave was quite dry; only a few water droplets clung to stalactites' tips at several points in the cave. The inviting lower fissure did its thing and drew in the unwary, who then explored the nooks and crannies, then climbed up and continued past the site of the old Ice Cream Cone formation and down to the lateral fissure. The lateral fissure did its thing, inducing caution in the inexperienced, but with encouragement, all but Tinsley went down and back. Tinsley grabbed a fine 20-30 minute nap while waiting to assist anyone who might need help up and out of the fissure. No one required any assistance. The fissure was dry. We briefly considered pouring water from canteens down said fissure to grease it up a bit, to raise the level of sport a notch or two, but we then drank the water instead.

Between Mushroom and what Mr. Ketron called Pearl Cave, this is a great place for vertical practice. The pit entrance to Pearl Cave offers simultaneous rappelling and ascending with good light and a second walk-in entrance, so participants can cycle through exercises multiple times. Mushroom awaits any interested Pearl Cave graduates, being slightly bigger game. These caves, located about 50 feet apart, beat Connie's Cave as a practice venue, and there are no known bat-related issues, yet.

After exiting both caves, we de-rigged and stashed gear in packs for the return hike. Reaching the cars in a now-shadowed if not slightly dusky parking lot, we packed up and then departed Volcano for Gianini's Italian Restaurant in Pine Grove, beating the evening rush and enjoying post-trip socializing, fine food, and commodious conviviality.

These caves are short but nicely decorated, the hike isn't arduous, and the weather was perfect. It turned out that most of the true novices who had signed up initially turned out to be unable to participate, so the level of experience was unusually high and possessed of a distinctively Continental-international flair. It was a low-stress experience for the leaders, which was most pleasant. It was Jason's first cave, and he fared perfectly well and seems eager for more. It is safe to assert that a good time was had by all.

Participants: Leaders were John Tinsley and Robert Darrah. They were ably abetted by totally cooperative and enthusiastic corps of cavers: Jenny Kuo and her friend, Jason Cabassi, Al Keller and Dominic Ramirez from Diablo Grotto, Mark Bellias, Will Moffat, Joke Vansweevelt, and Mike Davies.

3D in Jezus-Eik

Zaterdagavond... Eindelijk was het zover: DDD-montages van grotten in Zuid-Frankrijk en in de Joesteeted Naaits: TAG-area, Lechuguilla... ‘k Heb het echt voor concreties (vermoedelijk omdat ik er nog niet genoeg gezien heb in mijn speleoloven :-)) en beter dan dit wordt moeilijk... Daniel Chailloux en Michel Renda hebben me echt opnieuw doen wegdromen.

Ja, ‘k heb nog wat te leren als ik hun 3D-foto’s zie die op esthetisch oogpunt “af” zijn, quasi perfect in het 3D kader gemonteerd. Of 'k moet gewoon wat meer tijd spenderen in concretie-grotten :-) De technische aspecten en de fotografiemethodes die Michel en ik tijdens de projecties bespraken, hebben me een stuk wijzer gemaakt. 't Zal een keer interessant zijn om zijn methode te proberen. Veel van mijn info komt via het internet, maar er gaat toch niets boven een discussie met iemand die zelf de foto’s neemt.

De reacties op “Explositie” waren heel positief. Zoals ik het zag, contrasteerde het wat met de andere montages: De schilderijen van Anja Crommelynck tegenover de meest vreemde concreties. De Reseau de Fresnes tegenover Lechuguilla. Een documentaire tegenover een verkenning van talrijke droomgrotten. Iets luidere tegenover wat rustiger muziek. Enkele technische imperfecties tegenover bijna 100% verzorgd. Soms aparte 3D-effecten tegenover het klassieke werk.

Op het einde op het podium moeten komen met hen was echt te veel eer. En in al mijn kluts kwijt zijnd vergat ik toen de ganse organisatie te bedanken voor die avond. Een ganse 3D-installatie van Parijs naar Jezus-Eik krijgen (en terug!) is echt niet vanzelfsprekend, laat staan om zo’n zaal vast te krijgen. Bij deze: DANK! Dank voor de mooie avond en dank dat ik er ook deel mocht van uit maken!

Dit zal echt een heel mooie herinnering blijven. En ’t motiveert ook om verder aan 3D-projecten te werken...