Wyanbene Trip Reports
Contents
Friday January 13, ‑ Sunday 15, 1995
Taking the Plunge: the Big Hole
Anthony Pezzutto in the “Jailhouse” section of Wyanbene Main
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Friday January 13, ‑ Sunday 15, 1995
by John Poulton
Present
Anne, John, Thomas and Matthew Poulton,
Bruce and Alison Rose
Friday January 13, 1995
Arrived at 20:45 Friday night after an extremely good run up from Wollongong, and got our tent pitched almost completely before night overtook us. Settled in on a slightly overcast night, only to be disturbed briefly as Alison and Bruce arrived at about 01:00 on Saturday.
Saturday January 14, 1995
Awoke to a beautiful day and prepared to head underground. The party consisted of Anne, John, Thomas & Matthew Poulton, and visitors Bruce and Alison Rose, whom we were working on to join the club. Headed underground at about 10:00, the other expected campers nowhere as yet in sight.
The water level was somewhat down compared to our last visit although I assume better than it possibly has been in preceding months. We followed the stream to the blowhole and entered the permit section without trauma. The combination lock is definitely a very good idea. Ladder and belay were set and we all descended. The trip to the Mystery Chamber went well and the two newcomers were overwhelmed by the beauty of the speleothems. This having all taken about 2.5 hours we then exited, de‑rigging as we went. A number of bats were also sighted, predominantly near the entrance to the cave system, but could not be identified. It proved to be a very successful trip underground, with everyone being very impressed as usual.
On exiting the cave we were greeted by the missing members. After lunch, a smaller group led by myself re‑entered the cave and pushed back past the Mystery Chamber and along Aitcheson's Bypass. We did not penetrate as far as the Hall of the Mountain Kings before time and impending dinner encouraged us to exit.
As previously mentioned the water level overall appeared to be not unexpectedly down compared to our last visit, but there was still acceptable flow in all areas of the stream way passage visited.
The Wyanbene System remains a very suitable area for introducing newcomers to the beauties of wild caving and instilling in them the need to conserve and protect our natural wonders.
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by John Poulton
Present:
John Poulton (Aged Leader). Anne, Thomas and
Matthew Poulton, Dave Dicker, Bob Kershaw, Wendy Hird and a host of non-members
(being ex and prospective new members) - John and David Kemister, David and Jo
Williams, Tim, Kathy and the Kids Hewitt, Mal, Anne and the kids MacRae, Gary,
Maureen and the kids Brown (plus anyone else that my failing memory has
missed).
The family tallied forth on a reasonable Friday
afternoon with Braidwood and the Currockbilly Mountain cafe in mind (excellent
pasta for those of you with a culinary bent). After a sumptuous meal we moved
southish to reach Wyanbene campsite at about ten past eight only to discover
that Mr Dicker had stolen our campsite. We knew it was ours 'cause it wagged
it's tail when we pulled up! Generously we allowed Dave to stay there in his
primitive "lean-one" whilst we pitched the amalgamated Taj Mahal next
to him. He looked impressed I must say. We then settled down for a good nights
sleep, looking forward to a sunny morning.
Alas,
being Wyanbene, we awoke to a misty AM punctuated by low flying cloud.
Undeterred we prepared. Waiting for Dave and Jo to appear from their tent which
apparently came with them at 1AM that morning. (The sound of the foot pump
being used to inflate the queen-sized airbed at one in the morning is best left
to the imagination). Having fitter everyone out with waist tapes etc, we headed
for the great underground ( the others not being in sight) at TEN precisely.
The
water was cold (as usual) ans we made good time to the blow hole. This was
rigged (the gate surrendered very affably) and the pitch down laddered with no
more than Matthew's standard complaints. We had decided to push to the
Gunbarrel Aven first as David wanted to measure the movement gauge so that he
could escape early to join the next party.
We
had all just arrived at Atchisions Bypass when eerie voices floated up the
streamway to us. Being well aware of the fact that cave ghosts always creep up
on you ans drag you off screaming into the dark we guessed (rightly) that someone had followed us. It
was Mal and Gary and we all decided that we would have preferred the cave
ghosts (or the giant vampire cave worm)! We took the bypass to the escape
tunnel leading to the Gunbarrel. Here we all searched around until eventually
the movement gauge was found (I didn't think that it had ever been lost) and
Dave measured the same. The result was something like 28 thou. All of the
technical types seemed to understand this so I just nodded and looked sage.
Dave then returned to the surface whilst the rest of us scuffled around looking
for the Gunbarrel. Anne who was in fact our pathfinder did eventually isolate the
path and lead us into a very impressive, wet, huge, vertical, wet GUNBARREL
(pretty impressive when seen for the first time).
We
lunched and then retraced our soggy steps, cursing the crawly bits along the
streamway. The boys had a definite advantage being so much closer to the
ground. I was really wet, they only moderately so. Anne and Mal shepherded the
boys along whilst the rest of us detoured via the Mystery (Helictite) chamber.
Always a stunning place to visit. Then up the ladder and out. JOY OH JOY, we
exited to a clear and sunny afternoon. The first time that I've done so in
about five years. Everyone else had rocked up and were being slothlike around
the camp. We stripped and some of us shot off down to the river to wash and
feel better.
The
night decided to drizzle/rain and be otherwise difficult, but the fire kept the
giant vampire cave worms at bay so every one was happy.
Sunday
dawned overcast (surprise!) and whilst the photographic party (ie all the
others) went underground, all the rest of us took all the children (of which
there were thousands) for a walk up to the Big Hole. I felt like St Christopher
after ferrying the kiddies over the river but it was a pretty good walk.
I
can't really report on what the Sunday party did underground. They were very
furtive about it so I have assumed that they were involved in some sort of
arcane subterranean rites. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
(Actually
we re-rigged the caving ladder at the blowhole to avoid damage to the column. We
found out that John who had left the pitch rigged for us used a 20 foot ladder!
A thirty makes life easy John!!! Many of us shorties had fun reaching the
bottom of the pitch. We then visited the Helictite chamber to show Dave, who
had never been there in all the times he had been in the cave! After exiting
the cave we broke camp, had lunch and headed for a swim. These comments from
the Editor)
All in all everyone appears to have
had a very good weekend and we shall hopefully see some new members (and the
return of old members) coming from this weekend.
ADDENDUM
TO WYANBENE TRIP 13 / 1 / 96
In the past, I.S.S. has
installed three strain
gauges in Wyanbene
Cave (WY1) Two
are in the Rockpile
Chamber. The third was installed
near the W.C. in a
section of cave
which looks fairly
"shattered" - it's
probably looked shattered
for the last
1000 years! The results are as follows:
Installed 18/11/78 -------
Original
Check 25/02/79 0.031"
Routine
Check 10/11/79 0.029"
" " 20/12/81 0.033"
" " 6/02/82 0.033"
" " 20/02/82 0.033"
" " 18/09/83 0.034"
" " 13/01/96 0.028"
Actual movements are very small, and
multi-directional. Perhaps they reflect
some cyclic changes in cave temperatures.
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by Macca (Kevin McFadden)
Present: Anne, John and smaller Poultons, Malcolm and family, Terry (friends of Anne and John), Adam Peters, Jason Selman, John Kemister, Susan and Kevin McFadden, Dave Dicker, Wolfgang Stengl and Gerrard Collins.
Friday Evening.
Susan and myself arrived at the caves camping ground at around 10:00pm to find Jason, John, Adam and John Poulton and Co all settled in completed with campfire. After parking the big white beast we greeted those who were still up and after a short discussion on the next day’s activities we headed off to bed.
Saturday.
Around 7.00am saw people emerging from tents, swags, the big white beast etc. During breakfast we determined our plan of action, it was decided that Jason, John and Kevin would head for the fabled Gun Barrel Aven and if time permitted beyond. The rest of the group were to go to the Helictite chamber to do a spot of photography.
So at 9:00am Jason, John and myself headed off into the cave, we made our way to the Key hole were the locked gate is located and after a bit of trouble getting the lock open we slipped through the Key hole set the ladder and rejoined the stream passage. Heading along the passage we came to the Jail formation then on to what makes Wyanbene so infamous, the tight, wet, low and of course long stream passage sections of the cave. After a bit of groaning and grunting we found the bypass and eventually found our selves in a large rock fall chamber, after an unsuccessful search for the Gun Barrel Aven we headed further up stream finding a serpentine stream passage that ended with a brown flow stone wall. We decided to head back to the Helictite chamber to get some directions from Dave, when we got to the chamber it was empty (apparently we had just missed them), on the way out we met the rest of the party at the key hole. As they headed off to look at the Helictite chamber we went back to camp and for a well-deserved swim at the river.
Later on in the afternoon Ann, John and the rest of the gang emerged from the cave, some went to the river for a dip and some started dinner and some even jogged the 5 kilometres back from the river (obviously Wyanbene just isn’t gruelling enough for some people). That evening while enjoying the camp fire and the ubiquitous (isn't that a big word boys and girls) campfire jokes, we decided to launch a new magazine called "Stupid Bloke" to compete with the plethora of vacuos (enough with the big words already) women's magazines, by the time it was late enough to go to bed we had the first issue wrapped up.
Sunday.
After picking Dave Dicker's knowledge of the Gun Barrel, Jason, Kevin, Terry and Gerrard decided to have another go at finding the G.B. aven, while the others took it easy for the day. We entered the cave at 8.50am passed through the keyhole made our way down the ladder pitch and headed for the stream passage crawl. When we got to the first rock fall chamber we searched and found the passage to the Gun Barrel Aven, the passage lead us to a very large chamber located about a third of the way up the aven, Gerrard found the way to the bottom of the aven so we finally made it to the bottom of a very high and impressive aven, even "light-boy" couldn't penetrate the darkness at the top of the aven with his high powered head gear, maybe someone could send up a camera mounted under a hydrogen filled balloon to photograph this wonder, but who would be crazy enough to do such a thing. Any way after oowing and aaring for a while we headed back out and had an uneventful trip to the surface to be back at an almost empty camp at 12:50pm. After packing up we met the others at the river, cooled off and had a leisurely trip home to rejoin the rat race, but I do believe a good time was had by all!
15 - 16 March 1997
by John Poulton should be read in conjunction with above report.
These are my personal observations of the weekend! The opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily reflect the official club stance. Only the names have been changed (or not) to protect the innocent. Therefore, if you recognise your name, I guess you can't be innocent!
Those that made it: John, Anne, Thomas and Matthew Poulton: Sue and Kevin McFadden; Gerrard Collins; Dave Dicker; Adam Peters; Wolfgang Stengal and some interlopers (past and possible future members) Jason and John Kemister; Terry Clout; Mal, Ann, Elissa, Brendon and Connor Mcrae. (A very motley crew indeed!).
Basically everyone turned up at various times throughout Friday night and Saturday and scattered various camp-like things over the site.
Da Boyz[+/- Sue] entered Wyanbene Main in a couple of shifts in pursuit of Gunbarrells, Helictite Chambers etc, during the course of the morning. You should refer to the other reports to expand upon their exploits. After some of them came out later in the morning, all of the kids annoyed Sue for a while, again demonstrating one of the world's great contraceptives. Upon the arrival of the Macraes early Saturday afternoon, we gird our various loins and our party headed for the cave. Anne, Terry and my boys led the way, being trailed a short time later by the Macraes and myself. All navigated the outer section well and we, the later party caught up with the early birds at the ladder pitch where Q had been busy re-rigging the ladder and setting up a belay. The two Macrae boys decided that they didn't wish to proceed further, so while Anne was guiding all the rest of the party down the ladder, I escorted Mal and Co. out of the cave. I abandoned them at the surface and scooted back in catching up with the lead group at the ladder pitch. All safely down the ladder pitch we toddled off along the streamway, our destination being the Helictite chamber (cause Terry hadn't been able to get in last visit and was determined to have a look in his much slimmer guise). That passage was as pretty and enjoyable and damp as ever and we were soon at the chamber. A quick slither from all of us and we were seated in the Helicitite chamber having a quick bite of PM tea. After that it was another uplifting tour of the cave mysteries. No matter how many times we visit Wyanbene there is always new formations to discover and astound. There are some superb helicitites in the "Mystery chamber" - worth a visit every time.
After the obligatory gasps of wonder it was down to the explorations and photography (hopefully they may turn out). Eventually, we realised that we had to depart and did so de-rigging as we went. Another brilliant Troglodytic day!
Saturday night was one of the clearest Wyanbene eves that I can remember and was spent in philosophical conversation around the fire. A new Magazine "Stupid Bloke" was formulated and awaits only a brave spirit to bring it to fruition.
Sunday whilst some of Da Boyz went back in to chase the elusive Gunbarrel, others of us (ie them with kidz etc) went to check out the promising limestone outcrop up the paddock a bit. There are some very tempting rubble chokes as well as a number of tagged holes, so a revisit is definitely in order. I think that we shall try to arrange a survey /exploratory trip in the near future.
Overall, everyone appears to have had a great time. Let there be many more of them!
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This trip report is a composite of 3 reports by Kerin Knuckey, John Poulton and Bob Kershaw. The big and unknown words are John's.
Present:
John, Anne, Matthew and Thomas Poulton; Dave Dicker, John Kemister, Bob Kershaw, Andrew Clark and Jason Bond and visitors Kerin Knuckey, Alison McGibbon, Andrew Scobie and Balradj.
Aims
to show Dave Dicker the Helictite Chamber for his photographic exploits;
to show John Kemister Ceaser's Hall and the Gunbarrel and for John to take Altimeter reading of the cave as we went;
to have a stress free weekend away from the workplace.
"Everyone knows that it always rains at Wyanbene", I hear you say and indeed on Friday night as we drove towards the campsite a storm rolled up on the horizon. We knew that it going to be wet and foggy, after all, Wyanbene always is!
We (Anne, the boys and myself - John) arrived at about 10PM after a basically uneventful trip from home. We'd been hit by the obligatory brief shower on the way in, a harbinger of the deluge to come no doubt.
Setting camp went like a dream with Tardis II behaving very well and we were soon in our little beddie byes and off to sleep. "Waking to a raging storm", we were stunned to be greeted by clear blue skies ("What happened to the rain" I hear you ask? Well you'll have to wait a little longer!).
And in a civilized manner we set about breakfast etc.
Bob Kershaw, John Kemister, Kerin and the "Rovers" (Jason, Andrew) set off and rigged the keyhole (first trip for years where I haven't actually had to open up and rig-and lock up afterwards, such a nice change) scooting off away up the streamway, dropping Dave Dicker off in the Helictite chamber. Dave's acolyte, Rajneesh(?) alas discovered that dark tight places were NOT his cup of tea and proceeded no further than the first, fixed ladder. He spent an exciting day lazing around camp.
[Kerin says] The water was cool but refreshing for the first couple of seconds, when you got used to it when it was just cold.
John brought an altimeter with him to check the height at regular intervals and a compass for direction. John and Bob used this information the next day to try to find an entrance to the Gunbarrel chamber from the top.
Andrew got stuck in vertical squeeze this gave me a chance to get a good close up of his size 11 boot.
In one part of the stream section John and myself noticed there was a form of helictites that was growing in the same direction of the passageway, this could suggest it was going either with the water current or wind direction.
As the saying goes there is more than one way to skin a cat, just be sure who is going which way. There is a place where you can go up and over, under or around an obstruction. I went under, Andrew went around and Bob went up and over giving me a free facial treatment after he landed in the pool I was in.
[Bob says] A group of intrepid cavers conned me into taking them to the Gunbarrel on Saturday after I had readied myself for a days photography with Dave in the Helictite chamber. The Group of Jason, Andrew, Kerin, John and myself headed in about 9am with Dave and Balradj. We waddled into the bowels of Wyanbene and dropped Dave at the Helictite chamber for his pleasure. I was minus my knee and elbow pads and was going to make the others pay!
We were slowed because Andrew had trouble with his 6'6" frame passing through a duck under and we spent about 1/2 hour coaxing him through, finding ways that he thought he could not bend his body.
Into Ceasar's Hall John and myself saw a very high lead into part of the cave near the Gunbarrel and set off to investigate but alas it is unclimbable. But there are several areas to investigate at the rockfall area of the hall - next time. We returned to the Gunbarrel entrance only to spend 15 minutes finding the route to the lower entrance. Eventually John, Jason and myself entered and allowed John to reminisce about his experiences of the balloon expeditions many years ago. The height of the aven is estimated to be 108.8m (June 9-11 1973 trip Report).
We headed for the exit and had a quick journey to the exit, exiting after 8 hours of bliss???!!! and found the sun shining and the warmth inviting as we walked back to the campsite about 5pm after a great day forgetting our woes associated with our weekday activities.
[John writes] Party two (Anne, Tom, Matthew and myself) set off soon after the first party and nearly caught up with them at the second wire ladder. We heard their voices, but they'd skipped before we all got through. (Note: No rain yet, but we all know that it must be coming). We proceeded up the stream way with the boys leading and joined Mr Dicker in the `mystery cavern'. I elected to go no further due to a back problem and so after crawling around discovering yet more new pretties and helping Dave with a couple of his X rated speleo pictures we departed, deciding not to derig as we left. For some reason we felt that the party still in the cave may have raised one or two objections to returning from Caesar's Hall to discover that some smart bum (me) had run away with their egress.
Now, I know what you're all thinking, `The rain will be peeing down when you leave the cave'. Almost right, except for the one small problem - again not a cloud in the sky. What had gone wrong? It ALWAYS rains at Wyanbene! Well, we went for a swim and had lunch and played a couple of games with the boys and still no rain. I was starting to get worried thinking that perhaps the world was coming to an end-so far we hadn't really been rained on since arriving at the campsite. Very unusual: almost X-Files stuff.
We gathered some wood for the necessary blazing inferno, and gathered around `Hotel de Kershaw' for aperitifs etc.
Still no rain! Dinner followed and the fire pit revved up. Gradually the after-dinner, fire-driven revelry got going and after considerable hassling, Alison got out her guitar and the entertainment began. Alison led with some classical numbers and then Jason was persuaded to bend a string and after that it was all go. The Wyanbene-ISS Tabernacle singers were born. A sweeping repertoire of first verses was demonstrated, with most of the caving fraternity lending voice to the chorus. Actually it all sounded pretty bloody good [Esp John's voice -Ed]. The reverie lasted until the early hours of Sunday morning with the agreement that those of us who venture to Tuglow shall come prepared to make even more noise and raucous song. Now on with the saga of the rain. On a number of occasions throughout the evening black clouds boiled up over the hills, threatening to drench us and end the party, and time after time it blew over dropping no more than the occasional drop. Apparently sacrificing a virgin to the rain gods still helps.
Sunday dawned bright and clear (is there no end to the weathers perfidy?) and some surface exploration done on the hillsides behind WB1. John and Bob headed up, up, up the mountain to find an entrance and to see where the cave goes as one traverses the surface. A great walk over the ridge and vegetation changes but alas no limestone but some great tree ferns in the gullies. They returned about 1230 had a wash, packed up and departed.
After that it was really just wind down, go for another swim and head for home. Overall a highly successful trip! Not a huge amount of caving performed but a lot of fun and camaraderie. I hope that everyone else enjoyed it as much as we did. (Even Alison and Andrew who rolled up late and didn't get underground at all). Kerin, Alison, Andrew and Bob set off for Braidwood and lunch in the very hot temps of Braidwood.
PS: It did rain quite heavily in Sydney later on Sunday as massive thunderstorms hit the area. The huge cumulonimbus clouds could be seen from NE of Braidwood heading to Sydney. Ed
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by Bob
Kershaw
Trip
leader: Wal Waerner
Accompanied
by: Bob Kershaw, Anthony and Tony Pezzuto, Helen Roberts, Gary Haslom and Visitors:
Aaron Hawkins (4th Gong Rover), Paul Armstrong (Figtree Venturer),
Greg Pearce (FV), Levi Boes (FV)
It was a
peaceful and stary night when I arrived on the Friday night about 8.30pm. Unusual as this was at Wyanbene, I knew the
weather was sure to change!
Saturday
morning Senior and Junior Pezzuto arrived followed by Wal and the boys just
prior to us heading of to WY-1 about 10.15am to the Helictite Chamber. Our trip was to show Tony some formations
that he had not encountered on his previous trips with ISS. Meanwhile, Wal and
the boys headed for their descent and ascent of the Big Hole.
The cave
was abnormally dry, although the prerequisite amount of water was in the stream
passage to make one wonder why you are here again. Anthony spent a few minutes photographing several formations in
the chamber before we exited about 1.30pm.
Helen and Gary had arrived about 11.30 and decided to catch up on some
much needed sleep.
After lunch
the five of us headed up into the limestone to do what many have done over the
years. That is, to locate (but with a
GPS this time) and undertake a grade 2 survey of any caves we found.
Below is a
copy of an email that I have sent to various cavers about a problem I
encountered when I got home a re-read a couple of old journals I found a few
weeks ago when Ron had dropped the Library at my residence.
The
Wyanbene Riddle
to John
because CSS/NUCC may have tagged some caves at Wyanbene:
To Jill because
SUSS are completing a survey connecting dolines to caves
To Peter
because he has a copy of the documentation sent by Lloyd Robinson or ISS many
years ago.
to Alan
because his name is on the 1973 map
The
story.
I have
been recently been browsing some magazines from our recently re‑aquired
library (SSS journal 1978 22(6) pp 133‑142; SPAR no 25 May 1973
and CSS
the very latest Vol 9 no 1 that had early records of cave bat tagging from
Wyanbene in 1957) . These articles mention/describe and provide tag numbers and
maps for a few caves. It was/is thought that ISS had been tagging caves in the
area according to Lloyd and the info sent to Peter. Where our records are we
don't know!
Last
weekend we were surface trogging to find these caves and we found a few. WY-
4,6,7,8,9. 8 and 9 are not mentioned in
these articles. We have a GPS reading for all of them and grade 2 maps of them.
WY‑9
has such a small vertical squeeze for an opening that only a small chested 16
year old could fit through! Sounds promising futher down if we could get in and
use some acme cave disolver!
However
the confusion arises from a couple of reports.
In 1957
Bat cave on the NE corner, east side of the ridge as it was known then became
WY‑5 Goat cave according to a map by Pavey, Mathew and Warild in March
1973 but is now tagged WY‑8.
Can you
shed any light on the story? What do we call it? Goat or Bat?
Does
this mean that WY‑5 is no longer there or tagged elsewhere?
Peter,What
does the docuementation state that ISS sent you many years ago?
WY‑7
is known as Clarks cave or Bushrangers cave in the SSS journal and Bushrangers in SPAR. Any comments?
Feel
free to pass this riddle on to anyone that you think may be able to help.
A
Reply from Jill Rowling (SUSS)
WY‑9
was entered by two very skinny SUSS people about 2 years ago and reported in a
SUSS Bull, which I can find out for you if you need. Even Mike Lake couldn't
get through with his vertical gear on. I got as far as my lower hips: a good
cork in a bottle, very funny with legs dangling....
The
two intrepids (Chris Norton and Carol Layton) reported that the initial wide
part after the squeeze led down a pitch which seemed to end at a choke however
a bit of rummaging around and Chris was able to descend another pitch to a
"very tiny streamway" with a stony bed. Total depth was about 23m
which puts its streamway pretty much level with the base of the big hillside.
The
strange thing about this cave is the vertical section very much resembles the
cave described and sketched in the Ross Ellis' Speleo Handbook (?) as
"Watts Cave" which was supposedly free climbable and about the same
depth as the first pitch. The description of Watts Cave omits to mention any
squeeze, however the sketch of the first pitch of WY‑9 and Watts
isotherwise the same.
Historically,
the flat area now subdivided from Emu Flat used to be known as Watts Selections
(ref: O. Trickett) so presumably Watts Cave was known for a long time.
Goat
Cave
It's the one with all the bats in at the
moment. I've never heard of it being called Bat Cave! Maybe the battos were
referring to A bat cave rather than THE bat cave, ie they were referring to the
cave they'd recorded bats from rather than the official name of the cave.
Clarkes
Cave
The
cave under the conglomerate overhang is referred to in the Speleo Handbook as
Clarkes Cave, after the notorious Clarke Brothers who were bushrangers in the
old days. I have no idea as to whether they ever really used the cave, but it
does make a good shelter if you needed a lookout across Watts Selections, to
pounce on travellers.
Anyway,
after an enjoyable walk to the ridge and finding those caves mentioned above,
and braving the changeable weather - lightening and thunder and a brief shower
- (Tony certainly has a nose for
finding the difficult ones!), we returned to find the boys practising their
prussiking techniques while trying to retrieve a bottle from a tall eucalypt.
After the obligatory
pre-dinner nibbles and watching the ventures eat tinned food we enjoyed the
warmth a great fire before heading off to slumber land without any slide shows
or sing-a-longs.
Sunday , a
bright sunny and cool day. No early
morning mist to hide the magnificient day.
What was Wrong? We all headed up
the mountain again to search for WY-5 and to draw a grade 2 map of WY-4 and to
see if any of the two thin venturers could get into WY-9. It has a vertical entrance about 50cms long
and 15cms wide!! After a couple of
attempts Paul gave up and Greg with no overalls just slipped through the hole -
and just made it! The cave is vertical
and descends for about 15m before closing down to a hole about 20-30cm in diameter
and according to Greg continues a further 15m to some shiny white stuff?? He climbed up with a belay and almost made
it through the opening but had to be hauled up by the arms to get through -
there were no foot holds for him.
We returned
to camp had a quick lunch and departed about 2.30pm for a hot trip home. Before I left however, I enjoyed a cool dip
in the Shoalhaven River.
Return to Wyanbene Trip Report Contents
Walter’s
story on their Big Hole Adventure.
Taking the Plunge:
the Big Hole
After an uneventful
drive down the Nerriga road we arrived at Wyanbene at 1030am on Saturday
morning where we met up with Bob, Anthony and Tony. From here we headed back to
the Berlang Camping area a few kilometres up the road. After a half hour walk
we reached the Big Hole. The weather at this stage was overcast with rain a
distinct possibility.
The Venturers split into two groups and proceeded to set up the two 100m
ropes we’d brought in, one on either side of the viewing platform which is out
of bounds to rig from. Greg and Paul abseiled in from the rope they had set up,
while Levi and I abseiled in from the other side. The abseil was about 80
metres high and took 5-6 minutes to complete. The depth of the Hole is not
appreciable until you get down into it. A ledge that appeared to be 15 metres
above the bottom was in fact 40 metres up! The main problem we had was with
falling rocks being dislodged by rope movement as well as by the abseilers.
Ensuring that abseilers abseil ‘gently’, keeping a constant pace with no
bouncing can alleviate rock falls. Party members on the ground can wait under
the shelf out of harms way.
Once we’d
arrived we found the logbook and signed our names. A quick trip to the other
side of the hole was made but no water was found (usually some water as the
Hole is at the same level as the Shoalhaven River). We had lunch and then went
to prussik out. Once again trying to prussik ‘gently’ helped to avoid some of
the frayed rope stories written in the logbook. Our only incident out was Paul
getting in the way of some falling rocks that scored him a direct hit on the
hand. At least he was considerate and cleaned the blood off the jumars before
returning them to me! Despite this we all emerged unscathed without any major
damage to abseilers or ropes.
By now it
was 3pm and the sun had come out again to keep us warm as we walked back to the
car. A short while later and we had returned to Wyanbene to find that the rest
of the group had taken off into the scrub looking for caves. I settled into
relaxation mode with a newspaper while the rest of my group decided they needed
to do more prussiking up a nearby tree!
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by Bob
Kershaw and Dave Dicker
Present:
ISS: Bob Kershaw TL
Dave
Dicker, Vonnie and John Kemister
John Brush
and Marj Coggan: Canberra SS;
Jill
Rowling Sydney University SS
Aims:
To use the
RDF survey from 1975 that Lloyd was involved in to locate the Gunbarrel on the
surface;
to retag a wrongly
tagged cave and show CSS and SUSS the location of WY4
Photograph
in the Helictite chamber
Tag any new
caves up on the hill.
Dave left
Lansvale at 2.30pm on Friday afternoon, the temperature being 390C.
By the time I reached Braidwood it had dropped to 250C, and the
weather was overcast. I was the first to arrive at Wyanbene at 7.30. Bob
arrived at 8.00, and John & Vonny shortly after. Jill arrived sometime
during the night.
John, Vonny
and Dave headed into the cave shortly after 9.30 with the intention of
introducing Vonny to Wyanbene and taking a few photos in the Helictite Chamber,
also to look out for anything which looks like aragonite in the same chamber
for Jill’s information. We had a leisurely stroll to the squeeze at the
take-off to the Helictite Chamber, arriving around 11.00. We made our way up to
the back of the chamber, noting some possible aragonites. There are many nooks
and crannies with some exquisite formation growing in them. Unfortunately, some
of the more accessible formation (photographically) is showing signs of being
handled, and as the area is quite active, much of this mud will be impossible
to clean off.
After about
two hours in the chamber, we decided to exit the cave, and despite a few
difficulties in locking the gate, we were out by around 2.00pm. The weather was
still overcast and mild. We had a yarn with three climbers who had caught the
cave bug. They said that a busload of youngsters had entered the cave and came
out some time later. When we were in by the Keyhole, we heard voices, so this
group must have gone into the old tourist section. It would be interesting to
know how many people visit Wyanbene and enter WY1.
John B,
Marjorie, Jill and Bob headed to WY1 to commence the surface trek to the area
on the surface above the Gunbarrel aven about 9am. We found a couple of the
cairns made in 1975 to locate features. We found the general area and Jill gave
us a run down on the geology of the area and why the Gunbarrel formed. The
survey was very accurately drawn in 1975 and we were only a few metres out in
completing this retracing exercise.
A trek
across to the saddle below Wyanbene trig and a morning tea break discussing the
geology and formation of the area.
We
descended to Ridge Mine Pot and Tagged it WY3 as it has always been known.
A trek
around the corner to renumber what was WY8 to the correct number WY5 and a
quick look in side at the shell fossils and listening to the huge number of
bats in the adjoining chamber.
Lunch above
WY9 and then to WY4 but en route we found a small cave which John tagged WY10
and completed a grade 1 survey.
We searched
the ground relocating points that I found last year to identify the location of
WY4 and we found it after a bit of circumnavigation. Down the hill to WY6 and
what looked like another cave to be tagged but it was covered in thorny
branches and we didn’t have any cutters to remove the numerous branches. This
cave is to the north of WY6.
A chat over
afternoon tea, about 3 pm and then John and Marj left to return to Canberra and
then Bob returned to the ‘Gong for a party in Sydney the next day.
Later in the afternoon, the mist spilled over
the edge of the ridge and we had a fine misty rain in the best Wyanbene
tradition. We turned in early and we
had showers on and off most of the night.
Sunday
12-2-00
The first
bit of the morning was sunny and cool – more like autumn than summer. Jill
found that old tents, which leak in the roof don’t necessarily leak in the floor
too, so she spent most of the night in the front seat of her car – at least it
was dry. We had a leisurely breakfast, then, we noticed that the clouds were
rolling in from the east again, so we packed up in an efficient manner and I
got away around 9.30. I stopped a few times between Wyanbene and Braidwood –
mainly to run off the film and I arrived home just after 1.00pm.
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Written by
Kath Rowsell
Permission
has been given by Kath to reprint her article in the ISS Newsletter.
Participants: Bob Kershaw
(Leader – ISS), Bruce Swain (TESS), Ros Quick, Ian Farhall, Greg Leeder and
Kath Rowsell (all CCV).
A little late I know, but here
it is – the trip report from our post-conference caving trip! After hassling
for Yarrangobilly, we were redirected to Wyanbene and on the grounds that Bob
Kershaw (the trip leader) would be there and not at Yarrangobilly. Due to this
fact, and Amy’s strong recommendations, we found ourselves a little south of
Canberra putting up tents in the rain. No one mentioned that part!
Bob arrived soon after and we
got the fire going so we could sit and cook dinner in light rain. Talk soon
turned to caving, with people sharing stories from around the country and
around the world. After the hectic conference lifestyle it was time for an
early night in all camps, so we trotted off to get some sleep in anticipation
of the big day ahead.
Wyanbene is the sort of caving
anyone could get used to. The main cave is all of 200m (alright, maybe a bit
further) up a small slope from the car park and campground. Roaming around on
the ridge above would require a little more energy, but we weren’t here for
that. A short trot up the hill, down the ladder, across the stream way and we
were into the tourist cave portion of WY1.
This is rather muddy and has certainly seen a lot of use in its time. We
poked our heads in, but wanted to stay cleanish for the rest of the cave and so
returned to the stream way and off to the pitch.
First we had to get up a
flowstone climb and through a small hole (this is gated to restrict access to
the more serious and cleaner section of the cave) with no footholds – easy for
some, but Ian and I certainly weren’t enjoying this bit. This is aptly named
“The Blowhole” – the breeze gives a taste of the extent of cave on the other
side as cold air rushes through the tiny hole.
The ladder was short and
partly free hanging, so we made pretty good progress getting six people down
it. Leaving harnesses and belaying gear at the foot of the pitch, we grabbed
out packs and headed into the stream way. A visit to Cleopatra’s Bath for those
with long enough legs, but the rest of us (read me and Ros) headed round to
meet the boys at the bottom. So far WY1 was promising to be a pretty impressive
cave, but there was much more to come.
We stopped for morning tea in
the Helictite Chamber (even Ros’s banana had survived this far – well sort of)
and then carefully crawled around trying not to breathe on anything. This led
to the Triangular Squeeze – not nearly as bad as the Blowhole. Now it was into
the stream way in earnest, with some trying very hard not to get wet. We did as
much dry bypassing as the cave allowed and arrived at the other end of the “Wet
Section” relatively dry.
We have all heard of the
Gunbarrel Aven (of course you have – 110m up to the roof), but we had other
things to do before we could see it. We pushed on into Caesar’s Hall where we
stopped for lunch before heading back to the Aven. We stood at the base trying
to see the top (and succeeded), but I was more than a little concerned about
the large fresh blocks of debris on the Aven’s floor. The walls look like fun
to climb- NOT!! It gives the impression of being in a shooting gallery – and we
weren’t making much noise! It was a most impressive sight.
The trip out was wetter and
faster than the way in, although we took a couple of detours finding out where
to leave and enter the stream way. We emerged to a lovely muggy warm afternoon
(well, kind of warm) to find that the rain had returned. It held off long
enough for us to get changed and cleaned up, but we were soon all safely under
Bob’s tarp enjoying a vast array of nibbly food – the energy required for
cooking proper dinners seemed to be lacking here. The rain kept up, but it was
pretty light.
Another early start saw Greg and myself trailing Ian and Ros on the way back to Melbourne, leaving Bruce and Bob to head for Canberra and then onto more exciting destinations. We chose to go home via Cooma and the Alpine Way – a long slow journey through some gorgeous country – pity you can’t look out of the window when you are driving. We all met up again at Ros’s place (okay, Ian was long gone when Greg and I got there, but the thought was there) to sort out gear and end the trip the way it started. After ten days with limited sleep, too much alcohol and far too much socialising we probably all needed to get home and catch up with ourselves.
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