Diving Jenolan Caves

 Cave diving, Caving, NSW  1 Response »
Jul 072014
 
Diving Jenolan Caves

About the site Jenolan Caves are a huge tourist attraction up in the Blue Mountains of NSW. The extensive show cave system sees thousands of visitors every year. The local caving groups are still in exploration mode in the further reaches of the cave, adding to the map each year. It’s been three years since I last dived Jenolan Caves. That trip was memorable for the first dive on Saturday morning being the only one we did – 10 minutes after getting into clear water, a tidal wave of mud turned up. Flooding rain meant diving was off for the rest of the weekend and with many of the paths flooded out and closed to tours we went for a [read more…]

Mud, mud, mud in DD4 cave

 Cave diving, Caving, Victoria  2 Responses »
Jul 012014
 
Mud, mud, mud in DD4 cave

About the cave DD4 is a streamway cave in western Victoria, close to the South Australian border. Unlike the crystal clear sinkholes of Mt Gambier DD4 is a small stream winding its way through limestone…and lots and lots of mud. There is a lot of walking passage through the cave, as well as a lot of areas where rockfall leaves you climbing over or under. And then there’s the mud. Lots of it. About the trip We visited DD4 for a reason – to follow up on sump exploration there from several years ago. Agnes Milowka put nearly 70m of line into the terminal sump of the cave and reported that it continued. It seemed about time to see how [read more…]

Exploration in Elk River

 Cave diving, Caving, Victoria  No Responses »
Jun 242014
 
Exploration in Elk River

I’ve been a little busy recently, as you might have gathered from the sporadic updates to the site. I’ve been bouncing from Victoria to Tasmania to South Australia and back again caving and diving. So instead of posting things in the order in which they happened, I’m going to start with the most recent and fill in the gaps over the next few weeks. This photo above is my favourite from this weekend just gone – the moment of triumphant return with empty reel in hand. The photo was taken (and the line was laid) in Elk River cave in eastern Victoria. As per previous posts here, here and here, we’ve been putting a bit of work into this cave [read more…]

Waterfalls in Boulder Jenga

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
May 132014
 
Waterfalls in Boulder Jenga

About the cave Tassie has some beautiful caves, which are also known for being somewhat of a summer-only destination. Not that it’s any warmer underground in the JF in summer…but it can be a touch drier. The cave pictured above is JF398, the entrance of which was discovered and tagged back in the 80s. Earlier this year the massive boulder pile that fills the entrance down to 35m below the surface was passed, and the cave named Boulder Jenga. Exploration occurred during one of the driest periods of the year. A small stream above the entrance sinks into the cave and recent rain made our trip last weekend a little wetter than initial exploration. About the trip With the key [read more…]

Images, suspended

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
Feb 182014
 
Images, suspended

About the cave These images are from the Junee Florentine in Tasmania, from a cave called Dwarrowdelf. I was down there the weekend before last, with the intention for the trip to refine my SRT technique and get some practise in. After Saturday on the climbing wall in Hobart improving rope lengths, on Sunday we headed to Dwarrowdelf. The cave was selected as it has a series of SRT drops in a row without much (any) horizontal cave in between. As well as nailing down my skills and improving the speed of my rebelays, I was keen to attempt taking pictures while on the rope. From previous caving adventures I have shots of people leaving the bottom, and appearing or [read more…]

Waterfalls in Growling Swallet Cave

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
Feb 072014
 
Waterfalls in Growling Swallet Cave

About the cave Growling Swallet is an extensive “dry” cave system in the Junee-Florentine karst area in southern Tasmania. The early parts of the cave are complex with multiple routes and leads off in different directions and at different levels. After some distance it straightens out into over a kilometre of mainline streamway passage. The cave temperature is around 8 degrees, a little colder than your average mainland cave. About the trip I was down in Tassie over the Australia Day long weekend two weeks ago with a group of cavers from across Australia. There were a few different missions underway, including some that resulted in an impressive new connection between caves. Our focus was Growling Swallet and the sump [read more…]

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