Trip report
| 2008-07-26 | Caving at Cliefden, Central West |
| Trip report: | |
| Cliefden 26 July 2008 – Murder Cave by Grant E Participants: Dave T., Rod, Jon C., Mark, Elanor, Grant R and Grant E. 26 July 2008 – Murder Cave by Mark & Elanor Arriving Friday night, the Cleifden Caving Hut provided members with a great alternative to putting up tents in the rather chilly night air. Next morning the frost melted quite quickly and we set off circa 10.30 into Murder (CL2) to find the elusive blue stalactite. Without a map, we were dependent on a few handwritten notes from Mark’s conversation with Denis Marsh to guide us. It was lucky we had them. After entering the cave, we proceeded down the main passage, into the first big chamber. At the other end, John decided to go no further, and stayed behind. The other six Hills cavers were still keen to get to the “blue stal” so continued through the rift section past a couple of slippery slides, trying to stay traveling level. At the last steep slide section, we could go no further at the same level and still couldn’t locate the danger sign, so decided to head down a level at the second slippery slide. At the bottom there was the danger sign, so we knew we were on the right track. Then it was a matter of a quick climb and then into the chamber with the blue stal. The stalactite was not as grand as some people’s expectations but it was discovered. After a number of photos of the decorations in this chamber, during which some dead end leads were explored, we decided to head back to John, as we had agreed to meet him at 12.30. At the ‘danger sign’ room we decided to split our group because four of us were keen to revisit a section just looked into on Hills’ last visit. These four stayed in the cave for another couple of hours while the remaining three got out. The four went down the rift section, then along a series of passages to the area with an abundance of decoration. Many photos were taken of the amazing helictites, straws, flowstone and shawls. The tape was still in place barricading one the prettiest areas. Mark and Grant. R explored another vertical lead at the beginning of the crystal section. This was found to link up with one of the chambers near the bottom rift section. The remaining three decided to do a bit of aboveground exploring. On the way back to the cars, walking over the saddle from Murder cave they found and GPS marked a tagged entrance () on the other side of the hill. The landholder had told them that it was possible to drive to the entrance of Taplow Maze (CL8) via a river crossing. They managed to find the way as described, stopping to have a look at the doline entrance (CL22) of Transmission Cave. On the other side of the river, the car parked on the flat, Hills went up the hill in search of Yarrawigah (). After a quick search one gated entrance was located and marked, then after the ring of steers slobbering all over the car had been shooed, Hills drove off towards Gable Cave (CL7). However, it was getting late (about 3.30) and about the time for the four in Murder Cave to exit, so everyone met back at the caving hut. Gourmet meals prepared with the excellent facilities, we all sat by the fire and chatted before bed. 27 July 2008 – Taplow Maze by Grant E Participants: Dave T., Rod, Mark, Elanor, Grant R and Grant E. Jon C on the surface. I had managed to get hold of a map of this cave which, although not perfect, assisted navigation considerably. The cave entrance is a basic pot hole type. This was rigged for abseiling although the first few metres could be free climbed without too much difficulty. Shortly after this is a pitch of about 5m which was rigged with a ladder. The cave then follows a rift over the Crack of Doom. The cave then divides into a number of low passageways. I was expecting these to be tighter than they turned out to be, but much of the time was still spent on hands and knees. The passageways, particularly those not far from the entrance, also became extremely dusty as the group crawled through. We went via the Ticket Office to Drum Crawl then down a low passageway to Taplow Station. After a bit of navigational probing we also found our way to larger sized passageway of Central Station. The trip out was via another lowish crawl back to the Ticket Office. We all exited the cave a bit after 2pm. Athough Taplow Maze is not as extensively decorated as Murder Cave the mass of interconnecting passages makes it an interesting cave to visit. There is certainly much more to this cave than we saw. Any takers for Mark’s Reward near Wits End via the Corkscrew after Chock-A-Block Squeeze, as shown at the far southern end of the map? 27 July 2008 – Taplow Maze by Mark & Elanor The map of Taplow Maze was the main focal point for the breakfast conversation and reading material. Everyone decided to just go in as far as we could and see where we ended up. It had rained in the night, keeping the temperature up, but we now could not drive over paddocks to the maze. We had some fun crossing the river, only one wet foot. We found the gate of Taplow quite sufficient as an anchor for the ladder and rope we decided to rig. Everyone except John went in at 10.10. Taplow Maze was dusty and grovelly, and great fun was had by all. The map turned out to be quite handy and accurate, and the Crack of Doom, danger sign, Ticket Office, Drum Crawl, Aragonite Crystals, and Pancake Chamber were all easily identified. Heading for Central Station was a little confusing, but we realised we had overshot and ended up in Taplow Station, where some photos were taken. During this time Rod went to explore the lower section. Finding the Crystal Oasis proved not hard, (Mark said they were ok although small), we found our way to the Railway Tunnel and then turned around at the following rockpile, deciding that we would try to find an alternative route back. There was one little bat at this point. The Galleries had a few more tunnels than were mapped, so there was a bit of circling, but eventually we identified the shawl and came back to the ticket office via a nice narrow tunnel – the most dusty yet! At the Crack of Doom some photos were taken while Mark and Grant R. went to explore the tunnels under the entrance. The map didn’t seem to show what they found, but they think they were heading into the northern part of the cave. Elanor came back to the bottom of the entrance pitch via a narrow rift. Everyone was out at 2.10, then headed back to the cars, finding John had taken refuge there from a shower. It was starting to rain and turn cold just when we went back for lunch and cleaning up. We turned off the power and water and closed up the hut after leaving a message in the visitor’s book. At the farmer’s house we dropped off the key and fees for the weekend’s caving then went home through the snow to Sydney, looking forward to returning next year to see more of the Maze and other caves. | |
Photos from the Club's photo library
Photo Library » Caving » Cliefden » Cliefden 2008 - July
Cliefden 2008 - July
thumbnails > small > medium > large
Cliefden NSW
Cliefden Caves
Murder Cave - Cliefden NSW
Murder Cave - Cliefden NSW
Cliefden Caves
Cliefden NSW
This album also contains additional photos for members only.