Grottes et karsts de Chine
Sur les traces de Xu Xiake

ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE IN CEMETERY CAVE

By Dave Williams

At a distance one could be forgiven for mistaking Ernie Shield for the anti hero from a popular sitcom referred to in the title of this piece, especially when he takes his helmet off but there the similarities end. I had the pleasure of two splendid days with a good natured Ernie recreating Cemetery Cave passage by passage by the process of survey. We were assisted by Ged and Yidean, and of course a few locals on the first day.

This rather interesting cave’s entrance lies on a hillside just above the single track road. A short approach walk up hill passes through a traditional Chinese Cemetery where colourful buntings russel in the wind suspended from white Stuppa like gravestones. There were no Gothic horrors here, just the peace and tranquility of resting ancients. Just above, the entrance to the cave can be found at the foot of a rocky outcrop.

Rock steps lead up indicating its use by locals and stacks of bamboo were found just inside the porch. The cave cuts directly into the hillside with minimal variation in direction or height. Easy walking leads to several sections of passage way containing many chert nodules and some beautifully striated rock can be found. Some small passage ways leading off the main passage were found but these closed up almost immediately except for one narrow oxbow which Ernie Shield explored and then insisted we should survey. Ged however dismissed it as too small to bother with.

Eventually, a climb up and down a calcite bulge lead to an area where huge claw marks were found, the span of which matched an outstretched man’s hand, measurements and photographs were taken of these. It was as if someone had tried to claw their way out of the cave at some point was this a zombie that had escaped from the cemetery we thought! The cave continued into the hillside until a greasy and dangerous climb up a flowstone wall led to a traverse into a larger chamber. It was on this climb, whilst telling the others to be careful, that I slipped and fell approximately 2.5m landing on my back across some jagged rocks. Luckily, I had a full pack loaded with food, gear and water sample bottles which cushioned the landing. I immediately jumped back to my feet like a highly sprung grave digger. I managed to escape unscathed except for a sore wrist. The possible consequences of a bad fall at this point are pretty frightening. If it had been more serious at least it wouldn’t have been a long way to the nearest cemetery!

The larger chamber was explored and beside the usual crickets and Hairy Marys, a brown rat was spotted and its rather smelly nest was found between two large rocks. This was over 600m into the cave. Shortly after this, a tricky climb down led into a streamway and a change in character for the cave. Downstream soon sank into boulders with no way on and up stream continued on along a clean washed out stream bed requiring some crawling. The passage way in this area felt pretty unique as the rocks were beautifully coloured red, brown, yellow purple and grey. More crawling led to several small climbs and crawls around blocks until the passage again gained height. Eventually, the passage opened out into a chamber with a mud bank on one side and an area of washed out streambed leading to a perched sump emitting a gentle flow of water. The cave contains several areas of good formations of stals and gours and as previously mentioned, an unusual colourful and striated rock. Cemetery Cave didn’t prove too spooky at all we did however spot a bat but on closer examination it didn’t turn out to be a vampire!

Yidean took some very professional photographs that seemed to capture the unusual nature of this cave. Ernie got a bit impatient

with the slow pace of the photography on the return trip and as we stopped for yet another “I promise this will be the last shot” cantankerous cries of “I don’t believe it!” could be heard as Ernie headed back to the entrance.

[Dave Williams]