What I did at the 2nd BSRC - IV - Tuesday

Tuesday 17 June - excursion to Sidhidrokastro

On Tuesday, we made the excursion to the home town of the Mavros Brakhos - Black Rock - Caving Club. This excursion was very much anticipated by the Greek cavers and the number of people coming for the excursion was such that one coach was not enough to transport everyone. In this way, most of the Greek cavers found ourselves with Balkan guests in our cars - something which greatly helped in the "getting to know eachother" department. The coach pulled out in front, setting off for Sidhirokastro and behind it a large caravan of cavers cars followed.

The plan said: Cave of Zesta Nera (hot waters) - a through trip cave of about 400m with a waterfall at the exit and rather rare travertine formations; a visit to an archaeological site and to the Palaeontological Museum of Thermopighi as well as a meal.


Coach full of cavers!

When we reached the cave of Zesta Nera (named for the hot waters which flow through it at 23 degrees centigrade), we prepared ourselves, put on our wetsuits and booties and entered the cave - which is home to a large colony of bats. The bats woke up and filled the cave with their flapping, and at the same time a large log at the upstream entrance was displaced, releasing a torrent of rubbish that had been thrown into the cave entrance in the past. To say that all this made a bad impression on our guests may be an understatement - the cave is now affectionately known as the "Cave with shit". Despite the foul smelling and unexpected problem, everyone left the area with a more definite picture of why cave protection is so important. The upstream entrance served as a dumping ground for rubbish (unknown to the local authorities), thereby polluting the waters flowing through the cave.


Down-stream entrance to the Zesta Nera Cave!

SELAS cavers preparing to enter Zesta Nera

Kostas from SELAS "chasing" the bats

Brief video from Zesta Nera

After the cave and a filling meal offered to us by the Mavros Brachos caving club, we went to the palaeontological museum of Thermopighi, which houses fossils from many geological periods. The Cenozoic mammals steal the show.


SELAS Cavers in the Palaeontological Musum of Thermopighi

Why so long in the tooth? Hipparion fossil in the museum!

The SELAS cavers (Erato, Annika and myself) returned independently of the coach and visited the Mosque (Camii) of Serres, which is in rather bad shape but very interesting indeed - not only architecturally, but also because of the interesting wall paintings still visible inside.

Erato - urban exploration!

What I did at the 2nd BSRC - III - Monday

Monday 16 June

On Monday morning, and while most participants had gone to visit one of the caves nearby, the representatives of the member states of the BSU conducted the General Assembly. Greece is a founder member of the BSU and one of the bureau members is Greek - Nikos Mitsakis is the vice president of the BSU.

On the agenda, amongst other issues, was the accession of Romania to the BSU. Until this time, Romania had only been present as an observer - the motion was passed unanimously. The third Balkan Speleo Reunion Camp was awarded to Turkey - it will be organised by the Turkish Cavers' Union (TCU) either in Antalya or Kastamonu.

Other subjects concerned the annual fees of the members and other administrative matters. The fourth BSRC was awarded to Romania for 2010. Discussions into the issue of further expansion of the union were also made (to the North and East) but without positive results. Today all members are countries which unquestionably have some part of the Balkan peninsula within their borders. Greece is in against expansion beyond the Balkans for fear of losing our focus.

BSU General Assembly held in Drama during the 2nd BSRC

What I did at the 2nd BSRC - II - Sunday

Sunday 15 June

On Sunday we had the established annual Nationwide Cave Rescue Drill. The scenario involved an injury in the "Acropolis" part of the Maara Cave, which is a little further in than the end of the tourist route. SELAS had a slightly lower turnout than at other rescue drills, and some of the Greek clubs chose not to send their rescuers to the drill at all. I did not have the pleasure of participating as I was stuck in the camp secretariat, but as far as I know, everything went well (despite the "victim" needing to pass water continuously - probably the result of being in a wetsuit for so many hours).

In the evening we had the first video presentations and enjoyed the first showing of SPOK's the educational film called, "Emilios, Sophia and the cave". Eva Kamilaki introduced the video and talked about the work being done on education by her club, SPOK in Crete. The presentations continued every night until the end of the camp. The subjects covered exploration in all corners of the world from Mexico to China and Indonesia. The many videos with biospeleological subjects were especially interesting especially those from Karstic springs in Hungary and Serbia. The fireside music and dancing ran concurrently with the presentations and then continued well into the night.

The camp fire started each night

Balkan bagpipes!

Lefteris and Eva watch the presentations

The area where the presentations were made

What I did at the 2nd BSRC - I

Introduction

The Balkan Speleo Reunion Camp is organised annually by the Balkan Speleo Union (BSU). It all started last year in Trigrad, Bulgaria and it was there that the organisation of the second Balkan Speleo Reunion Camp was awarded to Greece. The Hellenic Federation of Speleology (of which SELAS is a founding member), undertook the organisation of the camp on account of the fact that it is the only secondary level speleo body in Greece. It was decided that the camp should take place in Drama, a prefecture with very much caving interest. The dates for the camp - 13 to 22 June were perfect for the Greek participants as they included the three-day weekend of pentecost. Drama is a long long way away, though - let's not joke around about that. It is a huge journey to set off on the 630km for Drama. Despite this, we made the journey, we knackered ourselves on the drive, but we enjoyed it and it was worth it.

The schedule included: opening ceremony on Saturday 14th June, National Cave Rescue Drill on Sunday 15 June, General Assembly of the Balkan Speleological Union (BSU) on Monday 16 June and then various excursions to show caves and wild caves in the area - to the impressive Maara, to Alistrati, to Chionotrypa, to Maroneia and to the caves of Sidirokastro. There was a coach organised for most of these trips.

My club - SELAS had one of the largest presences from the Greek side - with about 15 of our members making the trek up to Drama - a good proportion of the 90 Greeks in total who were present. Most of those present (130) were from the neighbouring Bulgaria - only about 15km down the road, whereas there was also a large number of people from Romania and Turkey with one participant each from Cyprus, Hungary and the Ukraine. These last three are not members of BSU but some cavers from these countries were interested and had come anyway.

It was very interesting to meet cavers from other Balkan countries and cavers of all ages - there were high-school kids from Romania and white-haired septuagenarians from Bulgaria and all points in between. There were scientist speleologists and researchers (geologists, biologists) as well as the "hard core" explorers, cavers who have been involved in the exploration of some of the deepest caves in the world. The nightly meetings around the camp fire helped greatly in getting to know eachother as there was plenty of music and plenty of freely flowing liquids distilled in all corners of the Balkans from whatever fruits one has handy… after a few sips from one of these not even the Slavic shepherd bagpipes could get in the way of a good time.

In the evenings we all had an opportunity to watch presentations made by the camp participants - mainly in video format. There were short films from far off places like China and Indonesia but also from closer to home - each one showing videos from his homeland. There were also stalls set up by each of the countries with books, posters and informational material.

The opening ceremony featured a speech by the representative of the Speaker of the Greek Parliament, representatives of local self government at regional, prefectural and municipal levels as well as the Ministry of Culture (Ephorate of Paleontology and Speleology of Northern Greece). After the speeches of the national representatives of the members of the BSU, the Second Balkan Speleo Reunion Camp was declared open and we had an opportunity to enjoy the tasty treats prepared by the woman's collective of Prosotsani, a gift from the mayor. There followed music and dancing.





Brief video - how to get to Prosotsani.

Back safe from Vercors 2008 as well

And i'm like getting totally behind on all those things we should write about...

back from Crete and the Lion!

Back safe... much to write about, including the transcription of my first paper diary in years!

Recent news

So - the 2nd Balkan Speleo Reunion Camp is over (news coming soon, I hope), the 4th European Speleo Congress is coming soon (I am booking transport and accommodation this week) and I am getting myself ready for the lion (this one on Crete).

Too much to write about...

But is it art?

So a few weeks ago, one fine Sunday morning, I set off from home to go up to the cave of the Lion on Hymettus. The idea was that Katerina, one of our new members and a fine arts student at the University of Athens would be doing something for her final exam piece and needed this to be done in a cave.

The lion is a nice little cave. Currently being excavated by the ephorate of pal/spel of southern Greece. It used to have the digs open to the air and dangerous, but they have been covered with nice iron grating. The rubbish dump in 2006 used to be full of shards that had been missed by the sieve-monkeys. Last week it seemed to have washed away in the rains we have had since then.

So - what's this all about?

Well, the idea is that Katerina would play Al Gore's documentary: "An inconvenient truth" inside the cave and record this. The recording would then be taken up mount Olympus and nailed to the living rock along with recordings of other things Katerina has prepared (video of a globe being eaten up by bacteria, something to do with the double helix of the human DNA, etc).

The concept of recording something else playing in an environment which is totally alien to video and TVs with stalagmites in the background and no movement or sound is kooky enough. But is it art?

2nd Balkan Caving Camp

I am happy to announce from the blog that the Balkan Speleological Union (BSU) has decided to entrust the organisation of the second Balkan Caving Camp to the Hellenic Federation of Speleology. The camp, according to the information currently available on the FHS website indicates that the camp is to take place in Northern Greece between 13 and 22 June 2008.

Archedemos and friends

It's Bjork!! in the national archaeological museum of Athens!!!

Cave of Zeus on Zas, Naxos

Well, it's big and its dark and I need to go back because I didn't explore it as much as I would have liked.



The most amazing thing was the number of tourists trying to get up there in the midday sun with flip-flops, no hats and no water (and of course, no torches).

The cave itself is mainly a large breakdown chamber with some interesting bits for exploring into the "floor". Most of the floor is covered by a black slime, which looks like it could be many centuries of sheep shit, but I may be wrong. There are shards everywhere as well, mostly coarse, but some recognisable as classical. I hope to write more when the photos come and I have processed the sketch map I made on site.

Farewell Zenas

The Greek caving community is mourning the sudden loss of Ioannis Zenas. Iannis maintained the site Spilaio for years and initiated the very popular WCN which did a great deal to further the dissemination of caving news internationally.



You will be missed.

New personal depth record

My new personal best for depth is now -315m, after a good long stint in Propantes. a group of us went up at the weekend with enough rope to rig a good 250 meters beyond the lead we were intending to push, but things (starting with the strength of the rock, but also the morphology of the place) were against us.

The rest of the group - everyone apart from Erato and myself went through the narrows at -315m into the "new sections" of the cave but came to a dead end a little further than they had gone last month. There is still a lot more work to be done.

And of course, the weather was fine while we were entering and while we were inside (although it was raining inside from the drippings of the humidity) and a little before the last man came out, the rain started. It drizzled, then it picked up, then it worsened, then it got better - like this, right up until about two pm the next day - so we packed our tents and got everything together in the rain, and mud everywhere, in the cave, out of the cave, in our hair, in our sleeping bags - mud everywhere.

Anyway - I am not as hampered by excesses of lactic acid as I was during my first wisit to the cave, but I am a little sore here and there and a little bruised from my chest harness.

In all though, the new personal best was worth it, as was the fun to be had all weekend with the other boys and girls.

Back to Parnon

I spent last weekend up on the Paliochora plateau again, the last weekend of the season. Next year again - and all of winter to complete the write-ups.

This weekend, going back to Parnon, a little further south, this time, to the famous Propantes. Currently at -315m officially, a little more in practice and hopefully, by this time tomorrow, a lot more in practice. I am not making any promises about writing anything about this, as this year has been a difficult one for keeping up to date on the blog or more generally. I have only just managed to put up my report on Paloumba (January 2005)!

Stuff that’s not been done…

Well, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that’s not been written about. It’s very hard to balance when the workplace has demands which are logical in their bread-on-table-way, but sometimes irrational in their pressing nature. The most important and pressing of things that’s not been done is a decent write up of the latest adventures at Dersios, where we have been going about once a month since June and where we have been surprised again this year with what we have found.

I have picked up a new survey programme called Therion and I have slowly been transferring the survey data from Dersios over to Therion to make the survey look a little better than it has been looking in the past.

I also owe a proper write up of the Kastelorizo adventure, including the discovery of three vertical caves, two of about 10-15m, one with a surveyed depth of 60 odd which continues. For these I need to finish the survey and then write them up, the sooner the better, especially since the people at the ministry are getting frisky and are phoning me for my report – never known them to do that before! But especially since we are thinking of going back, which means that we have to ask the ministry again, and they will ask me about my report for March and then yadda yadda yadda, you know. For that I have been trying to learn Therion too. Almost there. Almost to the point where we will be able to produce a pencil-less survey (yeah so I use a biro inside the cave).

Anyway – so why the sudden guilt trips and writing splurge?

Well, like I said, things are tough in RL and when things are tough in RL you cling to dreams and dreams are stuff that you think about when you day dream and when you are on the Attiki Odos doing 130 km/h in heavy traffic but your mind is on a mountain underground. Until recently all I have thought about has been Dersios and how the rocks change colour from one part to the other and what things are like at the end of the third sump and dammit when will someone manage to reach the end of the third sump and tell us what lives there?

Recently, though, something else has gotten hold of the imagination and has started sneaking itself into my mind’s eye - somewhere en-route to work after the Kifissias ring road when all the Derios daydream is coming to a close and there it comes, the new, the unknown, the challenge that will keep me busy to get ready and for which I will probably never be physically ready for, try as I might.

There has always been this thing about superlatives – you know – there would not be much point in having them in a language if they did not captivate and motivate. My "Every Boy's Handbook" from the late seventies, just when I was proficient enough to read it, was crammed full of interesting things like semaphore and rank diacritics of uniformed soldiers and whatnot, but it also had page upon page of superlatives: the longest, the tallest, the oldest, the hottest, the coldest – superlatives fascinate boys almost as much as sergeants’ stripes and capital cities.

But to reach the superlatives, one must do a whole lot of training and spend a whole lot of money on gear and kit, and this will be difficult.

We had a first meeting of the team who will be going for it and we set a tentative date in August of next year.

I hope to write about it, as regularly as my mood will take me and as regularly as my work allows. It’s superlative for Greece at –1,208m (about four times deeper than my personal deepest), but only about place 34 on a global scale. Still, the opportunity to cross the km mark will be present, and if I am conscientious enough in my training and if I eat all my greens, maybe I too will be there with the big boys who were gathered last night at the club to begin to plan the attack.

Dreams and superlatives then, but first: work, then clearing the backlog – how very prosaic.