This years trip was another small year with only the core group returning and some how nothing ever got written up. So this is just a brief description and some photos of what we found, written up 9 months after the fact. We decided to move over into a new doline this year located to the west of the town of Dos Aguas. It is another 5km long by some 3 - 4km wide doline with many internal dolines and another flowing stream that sinks into a large entrance. The local people often go on picnics in this area and had told Tachi about it our first year on the plateau. We also figured this must be the one Fishesser's cave scoopers had entered back in 1984 for 1.5km and left it at a second sump with a climb heading up out of sight. This was to be our main objective along with the normal scouting around.
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Tachi in front of outer C. Durazno entrance. | |
| Tachi in front of real C. Durazno entrance. There is a 4m drop directly behind and an easy downclimb down behind on the left. | |
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Claudia in streamway before the 1st bypass. | |
| Claudia at top of 1st bypass pitch. | |
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Claudia in the 1st bypass series. | |
| Vicente in 2nd sump. | |
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Tachi leading the 2nd sump bypass traverse, after having done the lead climb to get up there. | |
| View out past the traverse. You can still feel the breeze in your face here! | |
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Camp Durazno. |
Now that you have seen what the cave looks like I can give you a brief run down on what we did. Our first day of caving saw few motivated people (first day of vacation and all that) so only Vicente, my wife Margarita and I went into the cave. We managed to survey in to just before the 1st sump which was only about 450m. It was slow going with one member of the crew not wanting to get her feet wet, this being a river cave and all. We were all quite impressed by the big logs stuck in the 10 to 15m high roof (those same logs that can be seen in the entrance photo). We noticed lots of side passages which we mopped up the next day after turning the corner, literally, and hitting the 1st sump. Thus we surveyed up into what became the 1st sump bypass, a nicely decorated, mainly walking, series that cut the dog leg the stream had made in going through the sump route.
Once the 10m pitch at the end of this by-pass series was rigged (none of the rock seemed very solid) we dropped down into a chamber about 50m across by some 80m long and quickly established the downstream side of the 1st sump. Then it was off on the stroll downstream in what became known as the Boring Stompway, for what should be obvious reasons. It averaged 10m wide by 10m high and just went like that in ankle to knee deep water for 1km. The walls tended to by covered in dark mud, which is why none of my photos turned out, they just sucked light. Again we passed a few side passages, one of which Ruthi ran up for about 400m in 10m wide passage - still going. Then the stream dropped down a couple of small cascades, turned a corner and hit the 2nd sump.
The potential climb up was off on the side and started with a 4m mud slope that is easily negotiated, leaving about another 6m to the top. You could also see into this upper area from back around the corner so we tried to throw a paddling rescue throw line up and over, but it just wouldn't co-operate with the over bit. So Tachi (our secret weapon) had a go at the lead climb after I managed to lasso a knob part way up for the initial piece of protection. The rest went easily (for him) and he installed a bolt so the rest of us could get up. That climb then opened up the vista (seen in one of the photos above) of the cave continuing along at the high level, in a big way. There was just the detail of the pit that we had just come up to get past. So Tachi again went to work leading the climb around the top of the pit (also shown above). At this point we had the whole gang together anxious to see where it went. After scooping ahead to see the drop down to the stream again I turned back with Claudia to take photos. Tachi dropped the pitch into the stream to only find a short bit of passage and the 3rd sump. Meanwhile Vicente was working on a big mud slope above that later went up to another climb and another pitch down to the stream. By that point the Guadalajara gang were already on the beach at Marauata so Ramón and company decided to leave the cave rigged as Tachi was almost up the aid climb with a breeze in his face. They also noticed on their way out that the breeze had picked up in the pitch going down as well, so two ways on downstream are awaiting the next trip. The big question will be how high the cave floods each year and whether our rope on the first climb will be usable. The surveyed length up to the top of the 3rd sump by-pass is 1.7km. Looking good!
Chris Lloyd
Oct. 8, 1999
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