Let there be light by Greg Holmes
Memories of Scaling Poles by Sushila Thomas
(Otherwise known as blind caving at Yarrangobilly – Part I).
Participants: David Jackson (Trip Leader), Verity Morris, Greg Holmes, Fiona Catanzaro, Tim Dunnicliff, Michael Stephenson.
Well, after a long drive down from Sydney in great conditions, we acquired the key and after a quick bathe in the thermal pool we entered the quite spacious accommodation of Cotterils cottage, just after dark on Sunday evening. An early night’s sleep interrupted only by the movements of some rather loud and large rats followed.
By Monday morning we had found that these rats had assumed the appearance of David, Verity et al. They also had the good fortune to inform us of some problem with batteries, something about not having enough lights, and hoping that we could see in the dark. After a brief light count, we scrummaged around and found enough lights to go around. We eventually picked up the courage to leave the comfortable cottage and enter the wilderness. We headed down the long but easy fire-trail to Coppermine Cave. This was an enjoyable experience for all, even the inexperienced ones, and but for a flicker near the entrance, all lights functioned properly enough to view some substantial decoration. The cave itself was an excellent exploration, following a simple river passage, until a little deviation into a squeeze bit near the gated section. Whilst most of the ground slid through the narrow gap, this author decided not to, and to guard from the rear, you know, just in case… Just what wonders lay beyond that chamber I cannot report, however those who went through saw it as a highlight of the cave.
Upon exiting Coppermine, the group moved upstream towards another cave which took up the afternoon. Just as we ended the days caving and started to return to the cars, the heavens parted and rain fell, drenching the group. Tuesday dawned and the group headed towards East Deep Creek, infamous for this group due to injuries sustained previously. However this was not the case here. Instead the group witnessed some dramatic formation in upper EDC in the detrogification zones. However just as the cave started to get pretty, the cave began to get pretty dark. In the end Fiona had to walk out using only light from created from other people, which made some pretty interesting climbing out of the second detrog-zone. In the afternoon half the group explored lower EDC, whilst Fiona enjoyed the well lit outside world.
On Wednesday came the most impressive part of the trip. It was the day of the grand Eagle’s Nest through trip, and the group had some heavy persuasion with the lighting gear in order to tackle this cave. For Fiona, yesterday’s lighting disaster was too much, so she explored the surface world, and has many tales to tell of them. However my space here is limited, so I shall just say that she enjoyed the countryside whilst we crawled through the depths of the deepest cave in mainland Australia.
We found the cave despite an utter failure to locate the path leading to it, perhaps the trail markers are no longer there, as we saw no sign of their existence. Yet we located the grand doline that holds the entrance to Eagle’s Nest, and as soon as a ladder was rigged, the group climbed into the cave. At least no ice formations were present. Up to the squeeze and whilst most went through with only minor discomfort one member (myself) was forced to take the challenging alternative, ie the climb up the rift and over the squeeze!
The group intrepidly travelled from near the top of the cave (yet not to the Eyrie) right down to the muddy depths of the dig. In between was one of the most exciting, prettiest, largest, sportiest and generally the most fun cave I’ve ever seen.
After reaching the depths of Eagles nest we had to climb back to the top, helped by the now customary flickering lights. After an energetic climb we exited the cave, and began a very tired walk back to the cars.
On the Thursday, the final day for Tim, Fiona, and myself, was spent by walking down for a brief visit to Mills Creek Swallot, followed by a walk down the river, culminating at the thermal pool. The water of the Yarrangobilly river was surprisingly warm, (although it was in January), and very pleasant to walk/swim down. Several side-caves were explored along the river, with interesting finds including muddy resurgences, cold springs and other pretty sights. All in all, a pleasant and relaxing end to a fun week.
As the sun set upon Cotterils cottage, the next group arrived, not knowing what wonders the next day would bring, but that is another story.
Participants: David Jackson (Trip Leader), Verity Morris, Tim ???, Michael ???. Sushila Thomas, Suzanne Johnson.
Guest: Jo Ingarfield, NPWS Ranger.
Having been informed by our illustrious leader (originally known as David Jackson but recently renamed Russell, having been observed to do so) that Greg and Fiona were leaving early on Friday morning, my flatmate, Suzanne, and I figured it would be safe to present ourselves at Yagby on Thursday night. The trip down was uneventful, disregarding Suzanne being spaced out on valium, it being a very long drive to Yarangobilly, and Suzanne’s car being very unairconditioned for the whole journey!
Awaking on Friday morning, I was delighted to discover that this week it was not common practise to get underground before midday.
And so it was at about this time that we introduced Suzanne to her first caving experience – Upper East Deep Creek. She was spoiled to have such a beginning, as Upper East Deep Creek is gorgeous, if freezing! We got to tiptoe in bare feet, having detrogged, across ice-cold flowstone to wonder over sparkling pretties of all descriptions. Geoff McDonnell has been there and undoubtedly has photos if anyone wants a look, though I can’t imagine how he and his camera were ever persuaded to leave the cave!
Exiting the cave Suzanne experienced another first (and the rest of us experienced yet again) the peculiar navigational skills of the aforementioned Russell. This involves a technique not dissimilar to that employed by Dirk Gently (of "Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams). All I can say is at least Russell always seems pleased to be where he ends up. On this particular occasion Russell developed an appropriate mathematical formula, chose a few air particles to follow, and set off for North Deep Creek with the four of us in tow.
He soon found himself at West Deep Creek, was very pleased to be there, and promptly went underground, with two in tow – the other two of us were too hot, bothered and lazy to follow!
Apparently West Deep Creek goes down and down and down through lots of fresh sharp rockpile. After a suitable period of time a soggy David, Verity and Michael emerged and told us it was raining in the cave, there was so much water dripping through.
Cooling off in the thermal pool (?!), and wandering back to Cotterill’s Cottage we plonked on the verandah, and remained so until bedtime, having at some stage dragged dinner out of the kitchen window and plonked it with us. A strange phenomena was observed at Yagby that is not known to occur in the City. At about dusk little pinpricks of light begin to appear in the sky, their number increasing until the darkness is awash with little sparkles, called stars. A good portion of the evening was given to contemplation of this spectacle. A few were even seen to proceed across the sky, and were therefore given the name "satellites" – "satel" meaning ‘to move’ and "lite" being and accepted alternative spelling of ‘light’.
North Deep Creek, missed on Friday, was on the agenda for Saturday. Having followed Russell, who again pursued a random air particle, we were all pleased to arrive there. Clambering around underground I could only recall with fondness the eight scaling poles we dragged through there on the last Yagby trip with which not to do the January Series, and I mentioned with a slight hitch in my voice that caving without scaling poles just isn’t the same.
NOT.
North Deep Creek is a mostly harmless cave that just muddles along following a streamway, has only one ladderphobic-unfriendly pitch, and enough stunning pretties to keep us all aestheticaly pleased. A relaxing day was had by all, which carried on into the night and next morning.
During the night Michael’s car had been dreaming of the petrol station in Talbingo, and having coerced Michael and Verity into joining it in following its dreams, Russell, Suzanne and I had no choice but to wander the countryside – blue sky, flowers, hills, caves, river; not much to look at really. Leak in the Creek was inspected and only had a trickle leaking into it instead of being flooded. Russell also showed us the Tubes, but we were too busy relaxing to look inside, and instead paddled our feet in the river off a rock.
At a telepathetically ascertained time we returned to the cottage to meet Verity, Michael and Jo – a ranger whom Russell had befriended and persuaded to join us on our trip to Bathhouse. Watching Russell don his wetsuit I realised he must be serious about the bath.
Bathhouse is wet to say the least. It has bits of passage that a wetsuited bottom can dam up and dump waterfalls from when the bottom is removed. It also has a little waterfall over a little ladderpitch which to those of us coordinated enough could stay out of, and those of us less coordinated were subject to drenching. All in all it was much fun, and a good end to a great weekend.
As we were reluctantly leaving for home Russell discovered some Canberra Speleo people, so we relieved ourselves of their gear that had been borrowed for the NZ expedition. I almost relieved myself of Russell as a passenger, but he stopped talking in time to jump in the car. Not that he needed to – he could have caught up with me down the road as I waited for my darling car to cool off after getting all excited about the hot weather and big Snowy hills.
In summary it was a very pretty, very relaxing, lovely weekend, and we all lived happily ever after.