Slower day - new caver?

Not every day is a major survey day on expeditions.  Sometimes leads do not pan out, other times there are landowner relations to tend to, and of course the occasional wild chase to track down that cave rumor that won't fade away.  Today we set out to survey a 2km long tube up flow from the Gallardo caves we surveyed early in the expedition.

The cave is located on a working dairy farm, and is unfortunately located just behind one of their cattle barns.  They have used the cave for many years as a dump, so much so that they have sealed off the entrance to this long lava tube.  The owners are aware that this is not a good situation and have developed a plan to clean up the cave entrance and sinkhole.  It is a sobering reminder that land use practices around the world have lasting impacts on caves.

Even though our primary objective was a bust for the day, we decided to ask if there were any other caves on the ranch (hopefully unpolluted!).  They indicated that there were more caves at higher elevations on the ranch and that their 14yr old son would guide us to them.  Everyone waited in available shade until he was ready to go. 

When on the equator, you wait in the shade

We walked for 800m or so up through the hand cleared fields and eventually in to a small woods.  Here he showed us a nice skylight entrance to large walking passage below.  Everyone was cautiously optimistic that the tube would go, but our hopes were soon dampened by the realization that the tube was blocked by collapse after only a short distance in both the up flow and down flow directions.  Bob, Eli and Rick T. were able to survey about 60m before calling it quits.

We followed the tube line to higher slopes finding a nice 80m tube segment that Rick H., Scott and I surveyed.  The passages were quite large, but unfortunately this tube was also blocked by collapse in both directions.  Our guide and new friend was very excited about finding this new cave and indicated that he was planning to bring his dad up to see the cave the “very next day!”.   It’s just that easy to be bitten by the caving bug.

Rick Haley and Scott Linn investigate the short lava tube segment

We finished our time on the ranch with an impromptu lunch in the corner of  the field under some trees.  Everyone then began the 1km hike back to the ranch, where we said our goodbyes and headed on down another 1km to the main road where we flagged down a taxi truck and made our way back to town.