Caving anybody? Check this out!

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LeonDude

Bachelor Dog
Joined
Sep 26, 2007
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Location
Gauteng - Centurion
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Suzuki DR650
It’s been a while since I’ve had time to do any kind of report, but on 19 January we re - visited a sinkhole that is so amazing that I just have to tell you about it.
This sinkhole formed about 15 years ago to the south of Joburg, and only one person had ever been lowered down it. Back then, the farmer awoke one night from a thundering sound like an explosion. Upon investigating the next morning, they found that the corn field had a gaping hole in it. Things were a bit more relaxed back then, regarding safety measures, and they tied the farmer’s son into a harness and lowered him down the hole. The son saw nothing at the bottom, and he was pulled out again, all wide eyed and scared.
So fifteen years go past and after visiting the hole one day the caving club decide they have to go down there. What they find is nothing short of amazing. I didn’t go down, but Cave Girl did, and these are her photographs.
There is a cave. It seems that when the sinkhole had first fallen in the cave had been plugged up, but now it has opened up and the team went in. They discovered a new cave, and followed it for 400 meters. That is a huge amount of cave. After 400 meters they came to a very steep and long drop which they could not pass.
Next month, they will be going back with more equipment to map and explore the cave, so maybe then I’ll bring you some more info.
For now, here are a few pics.

Here is the first glimpse of the hole. It doesn’t look like much, and is about 18 meters across.
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Uh, how deep did you say this hole was? At first we didn’t know, as the electronic equipment wouldn’t give us a reading.
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Can you see the caver on the end of the rope? Poor Gerrie. He was the first one to go down, and it turned out the rope was too short. So Gerrie had to climb back up the rope. Now look, you do a climb like that only once a day, so Gerrie will have to wait until we go back to have his chance to explore the cave.  In this photo he is still six meters from the bottom of the cave.
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This is the rig they used. They parked a vehicle on each side of the hole and then John, an ex merchant mariner, strung a rig across for the cavers to descend and ascend from.
You guys can have it, I’m not hanging 50 meters above the ground. Yep, the hole is fifty meters deep, measured by the length of rope it took to reach the bottom of the sinkhole.
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This picture is taken from inside the cave, looking out into the sinkhole. The floor of the cave heads down at about 35 degrees.
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Over the years a lot of stuff had made its way down there, mostly wire and old tyres.
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I find the next two photos the most amazing, as it shows the bottom up view of the sinkhole, with a caver on-rope. They use the SRT method of getting out of there, meaning you climb out by yourself, on your own steam.
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I wish I could convince myself to hang in the air 50 meters above ground, then I could go down there and give you a personal account, but my palms go clammy just thinking about it.
Next month, I’ll try to find time to update this for you! .


 
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