Caves 'n' Corals
All photography on this site by Estelle Sandford
Caving Expedition to Meghalaya in India - February 2010
An early start on the Saturday for our Heathrow to Delhi flight, followed by hanging around Delhi airport, then a flight to Gauhati in Assam and then a 5 hour taxi ride and finally arriving late afternoon at Brian's house in Shillong on the Sunday.
Spent the morning shopping and kit sorting and then lunchtime we loaded up the jeeps and got on the road to Umkyrpong, where we were intending on setting up a base camp. We arrived after dark and was a late night by the time we'd got ourselves settled into our tents.
After an element of faffing, we were soon split up into groups and underground or recceing. My trip was Krem Dieng Jem with Simon, Sarah and Hellie. Surveyed several side passages and got an idea of the routes in there so we could carry on in different directions tomorrow.
A second day into Krem Dieng Jem exploring the routes off 5 Ways Chamber. Imo, Hellie, Vikram and I followed a stream route and after some interesting swimming/surveying, we found ourselves in Krem Tyngheng, thus already making the big connection and only day 2 of caving!
11th February
Back into Krem Dieng Jem with Sarah & Leila surveying side passages off the new finds from yesterday. Didn't take camera today so no pics.
Bit of an easier day, surface recce near the village and checking out a survey of a cave previously discovered called Krem Wah Mytngam with Sarah, Tom, Hellie and Erfan.
A day spent in the Sumasi area with Hellie, Imo and David dropping a few shafts that had been noted in previous years. Both Krem Syntoin and Krem Priang Rong yielded very little cave.
Today was a trip to a cave nicknamed Vertical Labbit (real name Krem Khlie Mynsngad with Chris, Sarah and Pankaj - bit of a Mendip style system and not really overly inspiring, ending in a terminal sump in both directions.
Krem Dieng Jem to survey more side passages with Ronnie and Prakash and the other team resurvey the connection. Didn't take camera underground, but a few camp fire photos instead.
Local recce and caves with Derek, Hellie, Amulya and Sumi. Checked out 2 shafts that didn't go anywhere and one cave, Krem Khnai Umkrypong which we saw a rat in and also found a load of animal bones in and surveyed.
Krem Shalong was around 2.5hours walk from camp, but well worth it when we saw the shadow of the entrance looming behind the trees. Did a shortish trip as we knew we had a fair walk back and got bearings and surveyed a side passage
After the long walk yesterday, opted for a local recce trip with Jean-Pierre and Mel with a local guide. We were shown a resurgence into the Kopili River, which didn't look very inspiring and a couple of other caves, all called Krem Lamyliang, so we surveyed the first one of these we'd found.
Back into Krem Dieng Jem in the upstream section with Sarah and Cookie. Since my last trip in, quite a few more trips had been done and a lot more passage found and surveyed. We started at a swimming section and then climbed up into a dodgy boulder ruckle and chamber which we named Bouldermort! Left loads of ways on for the next day.
I had a day off around camp drawing up surveys and resting a swollen foot. Few pics from around camp.
Back into Krem Shalong with Mark B and Vikrant surveying side passages around the White Rabbit area. Better walking route had been found to get to and from the cave since my previous trip.
Krem Shalong again for the last full days caving. Two teams with Alys, Mark B and me in one team doing side passages while Thomas and co were doing the main passage using the DistoX with the PDA. We found a fairly major crossroads with massive ongoing leads and decided that was the best place to walk away and leave it for another year! Major party night as no caving planned for the next day!
Aside from many people nursing some serious hangovers, today was spent washing, cleaning and sorting out kit, plus ensuring all surveys were inputted onto the computers and drawn up properly. (only a couple of photos - Imo hung over and one of our toilets)
Decamping to move on. Umkrypong is near the Assam border and our destination for tonight is Dawki, which is right down by the Bangladeshi border. We packed up and got away around lunchtime and stopped for an afternoon snack in Um Lawan before arriving at Dawki just as the sun was setting. We crossed the river and set up camp on a sand bank by the river where we were to party and celebrate Simon's 50th birthday party.
Lots of hangovers today, swimming in the river helped along with the leftover curry from last night! Some people went boating up the river, then we packed up camp, crossed the river again and headed back from Dawki to Shillong.
Final clean up and sorting day at Brian's and shopping in town and the market and a last night at the hotel in Shillong before a very early start.
Very early start (5:15am!) and off to Gauhati airport and then onto Delhi and home. Landed back in the UK first thing on the Sunday.
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Last modified:
April 16, 2010