Descent 275 is now with us. Yet another issue compiled during this plague year, but still packed with interesting and informative material – and there is even news of new exploration in England! Newsdesk starts with an update on how the pandemic is affecting caving in the UK and cautiously welcomes the reopening of caves…
Travel to Mars with Descent 274 …
Descent 274 has now arrived! This is the second copy to appear since lockdown so as can be imagined recent exploration doesn’t figure highly but nevertheless Chris and Judith have put together a readable and informative issue. Newsdesk has had to go to Mars to speculate on new cave discoveries – otherwise it is largely…
International Greenland expedition’s record-breaking trip
Researchers from four international universities have returned from an expedition to a remote area of north-east Greenland where they broke two records. The team, comprised of researchers from the Universities of Innsbruck, Akron, Oxford, and Sheffield, documented and explored more than 30 caves that had never previously been visited. In doing so, they broke their…
Hang Son Doong- the cave that built a village
Veteran caving film maker Sid Perou has teamed up with photographer Ryan Deboodt to produce a compelling thirty nine minute film about the discovery of the world’s largest cave passage in Han Son Doong cave in Vietnam, the resulting development of tourism in the area and the beneficial affects not just for the local population but also for conservation.
Shot on location earlier this year the film follows the impact of the area of the Vietnam war, early discoveries by British and Vietnamese cavers and includes stunning footage of the cave.
Watching the film it’s hard to believe Sid’s contribution to the film, comprising over 50% of the footage, was shot using just a £400 handy-cam and a zero budget!
Event: Expedition to the Deepest Cave in Bulgaria
If you’re at a loose end from the 4th of April – 15th of April 2018, the Pod Raba Caving Club are organising an expedition to Kolkina Dupka cave, the deepest in Bulgaria, and one of the longest. The camp is located just outside of Zimevista village, some 50km away from Sofia, Bulgaria, and anyone…
Kan-i-Gut Expedition – an open invitation
Kan-i-Gut is a natural cave that has been extensively extended by miners over the centuries. The cave is located in the northern foothills of the Turkestan Range in the Batken region of south west Kyrgyzstan. The cave is being explored by the Kyrgyz based Foundation for the Preservation and Study of Caves, who…
Expedition News: The Caves of the Kosua, Papua New Guinea
Far from the floods back home, a team of fifteen cavers, mostly from Ireland, spent Christmas and New Year exploring caves in the Papua New Guinea rainforest. The Kosua tribe own land near Mount Bosavi in the Southern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea. In 2011/12 a successful reconnaissance expedition had explored caves around the…
News: Doux de Coly resurgence and Dordogne rivers in flood
Having seen the weather reports from Britain’s caving areas, your intrepid correspondent was quite happy to be safely ensconced in the Dordogne region, with little wind, no frost & not much rain. Or so I thought until a short trip out showed that all the local rivers were bursting their banks in quite spectacular fashion….
Expedition News: New Deepest Cave in Myanmar
The British Shan Plateau Expedition has just returned from their sixth expedition in seven years with the discovery of the new deepest cave in Myanmar. The five person team spent three weeks exploring the potential for caves on the western edge of the Shan Plateau, near the town of Ywangan. Initially based near the base…
News: Matienzo 2015 report now online
Phil Papard has recently published the Matienzo 2015 report on the Matienzo web site. With around fifty cavers involved at various times throughout the year 2015 has seen another 5.4km of cave found, pushed and surveyed as well as another 4.5km of resurveying work carried out and one hundred and twenty eight new caves and…