speleonet

New Britain's Underground White Water

This months National Geographic magazine features an article (mostly photos) on a recent caving expedition to the island of New Britain. Here's a link to the online portion.

Images from... "Expédition Nationale PAPOU 2005"

I followed this expedition last year by translating the updates. Whilst revisiting them I clicked through to their home page and discovered that they have posted a slew of images from the trip.

Particularly interesting are the shots of the "Rarang" resurgence which is perched 140m/ 460' above the ground. After making the climb they discovered that it sumped out after only 200m/656'.

New Britain Island Expedition Update

Here is the latest news, dated February 23, 2005 from the FSS expedition currently underway on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea...

On the plateau Malu Cave was derigged. Topography confirms a depth of - 270 meters. Exploration stopped in a small passage with no air that can flood to the ceiling dangerously fast.

In the small valley located between the pits: Nambawan, Melchi and 7-012, we explored several previously located entrances. One of them finishes at - 100 m in a narrow traverse with airflow. There is not enough time left to explore the others.

The Lali resurgence now stands at a lenth of 5 km and + 250 m vertical extent. The Bairaman team carries out a dye tracing today and will return to base camp tommorow; except for Tristan, Barnabé, Jean and Tudor who will be picked up by helicopter.

The transport by helicopter will take place, weather permitting, on February 26. Part of the team will hike to Maïto and the other will travel by way of the river to the ocean.

The helicopter will transport our gear in two trips; one from the base camp and another from the Bairaman team's camp. The Papous people will take the rest of the material of the camp for their own use, because we descend with only the material spéléo, the personal material, the chain saw and the power generating unit. The material will be washed in Palmalmal and the last should arrive at this village on February 26 at the evening.

Team members returning to France on March 6 will take the boat for Rabaul and Kokopo on February 28. The rest , departing March 14, will finalize arrangements for the shipping of the gear back to France and will sell of the chainsaw.

Everyone is very well and everyone embraces everyone.

The final update will be via e-mail dirently from Kokopo.

Notes on the Translations:

I can't read or speak French. But by using Google's transalation tool, being familiar with caving terminology and spending a little time rearranging sentence structure I was able to, I hope, make the updates intelligible for English speaking readers.

Google's tool is good enough to create the basic gist of the text; but some sections, I found, could be turned into confusing jibberish by one word not translating. As well; certain words translated, but did not import correctly in a contextual sense.

For instance in this update the word 'tronçonneuse' came out as 'slicer'. Now I'm sure that they didn't haul a deli-style meat cutter up into the jungle and within the context, the word 'slicer', to me, could refer to only one tool. Wordreference.com confirmed my hunch by returning 'chainsaw' as the English equivalent of the French 'tronçonneuse'.

In another example the word 'coloration' was translated to 'colouring'. A quick search in the dictionary turned up the alternate meaning of dying. If the Bairaman team - the team which had been exploring the resurgence cave Lali - was dying something it stands to reason that they were conducting some dye tracing experiments.

Google could make no translation of 'étroiture', but by removing the 'ure' it returned 'narrow'.

Other times it worked by re-translating individual sentence sections independently of the paragraph within which they resided. The first paragraph of this update, as a whole, returned as...

On the plate Dom Malu was déséquipé. Topography confirms - 270 Mr. In this cavity exploration is stopped on a gallery at the large risk of raw (small volume) and without draught..

But by isolating overlapping sections of the second sentence and then pasting them back together you get a result which makes more sense...

In this cavity exploration is stopped on a gallery at the large risk of rising (small volume) of believed and without draught.

... which I took to mean the cave terminated in a dangerous, small passage which they believe can flood to the ceiling rapidly and that has no airflow.

I also tried to retain some flavor by not over-translating. So instead of...

"We're all doing fine and everyone says hi."

I left it as...

"Everyone is very well and everyone embraces everyone."

Keep an eye out for a possible documentary of the expedition by French speleo-photographer and filmmaker Luc-Henri Fage.

New Britain Island Expedition Update

Here is the latest news, dated February 20, 2005 from the FSS expedition currently underway on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea...

The team of canyoneers succeeded in reaching the team Bairaman by the opening of "Populi" canyon, which ends in a cascade of 180 m. The exploration of resurgences, at the time of the descent, did not give anything.

The team of Bairaman continues their explorations on resurgences Lali and Sau.

Lali currently has 4,300 meters of mappedd passage with a vertical developement of + 180 m thanks to an additional 600 meters of new passage in the smaller of the two streams which run through the cave. Explorations continue.

The Sau resurgence is being derigged. Indeed the climbing gave 50 m of galleries which arise out of the cliff. The access to Sau, by a climbing of 120 m, will remain a great moment.

The advanced camp downstream of the small valley of the 7-012 cave pusded the new discovery . Airflow remains strong but the final meander of low dimension is dangerous in the event of significant rains. The prospection of this zone did not result in any further discoveries.

The camp will be dismounted in the upcomimg days . The transport by helicopter is set for February 26 and the first already have left the camp. Bertrand, Anne-Dye , Olivier, Jean-Marc and Laurent join Marie, Jacques and Yoann with PalMalMal.

Everyone is very well and everyone embraces everyone.

New Britain Island Expedition Update

Here is the latest news, dated February 16, 2005 from the FSS expedition currently underway on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea...

The Bairaman team continues their explorations of the resurgence caves - Lali and Sau. Lali - the larger of the two - has been mapped to 3.5 kilometers, most of which being heavily decorated fossil passage. Sau Cave was reached [via a 100 meter waterfall climb] and starts out with a watery gallery eventually sumping out after 200 meters. However, an unpushed, high, climbable lead could bypass this sump.

Malu Nickel Silver and 7-012 caves were de-rigged and surveys completed. Nickel silver has 1600 meter of passage, 7-012 cave - 2600 m. An advance camp has been established downstream in the small valley were 7-012 is located.

A promising new cave has been found in this area. Initial exploration stopped in going passage with a draught at a depth of 50 meters. A team left to descend in the content moved back by the canyon from resurgence "populi". [ I have no idea what this last sentence means!]

The rain has picked up quite a bit in the last three days. We measured nearly 80 mm of water during this time period. The paths are begining to turn into mudslides but the ground had been dry so absorption limited the flows. The temperature oscillates around 22 °C on the level of the base camp located at 1220 m of altitude.

The transport by helicopter which will allow the descent of the material is planned for the end of the month. The material will be conveyed in PalMalMal where it will be washed, counted and stored.

Everyone is very well and everyone embraces everyone.

Next update on February 20 or 21.

New Britain Island Expedition Update

Here is the latest news, dated February, 13, from the FSS expedition currently underway on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea...

The Bairaman team climbed a 100 meter waterfall to reach a resurgence called "Sao" and explored another resurgence called "Lally" to more than 2.5 kilometers in length.

Malu Nickel Silver cave was explored upstream beyond the cascade until the sump. Downstream a cascade of 95m dropped into a very vast room followed by a sump near the coast at - 225m depth.

More than ten small caves not exceeding a hundred of meters of depth were explored on the plateau around 1200 m altitude. It took more than 10 hours of bushwhacking in the jungle in order to reach them.

Marie and Jacques have descended to village from Maïto. Marie went to look after the inhabitants of Maïto because the village has neither doctor nor dispensary.

The village is located a days walk from base camp on an intermediate plateau between the zone which we explore and the coast. There is a regrouping wanted by the Australian colonizers in 1964. Previously, the hamlets all were dispersed on the intermediate plate.

The inhabitants of Maïto have much at their market but their food primarily consists of sweet potatos, "Tarous", cucumber, coconut and pineapple. The meat is a meal of festival?, particularly the pig.

We have not had much rain lately, which poses problems of supply water, for the washing of the material and the people. But the rain finally arrived, which allows showers and washings and to replenish the reserves.

Everyone goes well and everyone embraces everyone.

L. Mestre

New Britain Island Expedition Update

Here is the latest news, dated February, 10, from the FSS expedition currently underway on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea...

The downstream exploration of the 7-012 cave ended with a siphon near the coast at a depth of - 423m, just after a beautiful 54 meter pit .

The Bairaman team carried out a climb of 75 m to reach a resurgence and explored another resurgence 2 kilometers from base camp.

Malu Silver cave was explored upstream to three cascades which require climbing; in the downstream section an 80 meter cascade with impressive flow volume is being rigged. This cave should be the upstream of the collector of 7-012. [This cave should turn out to be an upstream infeeder to the main river passage of 7-012 cave ?]

Today, two other entrances which were discovered on the plateau at 1200 m of altitude, will be descended.

The papous drive out the wallabies, small marsupials populating the forest. They leave traps with collet. At the time of our rise to the camp they had succeeded in catching one of them with a dog. The meat of wallabies is delicious.

The forest shelters also wild dogs, small crocodiles (maximum 1 m) and casoars. We make so much noise moving about we have yet to see any.

Everyone is fine and says hello.

Guerard

Now they can top off their pizzas with Wallaby meat!

Nakanai Range - Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinee

The Speleological Federation of France is sponsoring an expedition which is currently underway on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The 27 member team will be exploring, studying and mapping the high karst region of the Bairaman River.

If the team returns with quality footage, photographer and filmaker Luc-Henri Fage plans on producing a documentary of the expedition.

They will be using paramotors (mototized parachutes) to scout locations.

... go here for the official site of the expedition.

Here is the latest news from the field dated February 7, 2005. This was translated using Google translation tool and then reworded in places to make more sense. Please excuse any rough spots.

The entire team has made it to base camp. The last helicopter from Maito dropped off Jean and Barnabe on Friday.

Pit 7-012 is entirely réequipé (rerigged?), topographié (GPS coordinates determined?) and exploration is being picked up were it left off in 2003. The team is bivouacking in the cave.

Five among us arrived this evening in the large one moved back at the foot of the camp (?) ; they left quite excited and ready for a five day trip to locate and explore a resurgence that is visible from base camp.

A new cave, named Melchior Malu, is being explored as well. It is located close to the 7-012 and recuts a collector (takes a stream ?) which could be the upstream segment of the stream in 7-012.

Additionally, two new entrances were also discovered on the plateau at an altitude of 1200m.

Every two of three days it rains for several hours, allowing us to collect the water we need.

Finally, we've manufactured a baker's oven in which we make not only bread but also cakes and pizza pies, a true happiness! Everyone is doing well and sends their regards.

GUÉRARD

They've got pizzas. Not bad!