Grottes et karsts de Chine
Sur les traces de Xu Xiake

NUMBER EIGHT CAVE (BA DONG)

By Ernie Shield

This cave is located in a box canyon close to the village of Ba (Chinese for Eight), near Bala Town. The prominent 20m wide and 13m high entrance lies below a vertical cliff and is reached by a steep scree slope. Inside the entrance the floor descends, covered in large boulders, at about 40 degrees for about 120m to the mud floor of a large chamber, the edge of which has fascinating water-worn, sculptured, solution “Swiss cheese” rock, angled stalactites and stal bosses and flows.

The party consisted of Dave Appleing and Ernie Shield, a group of cavers from Nanning, Cheiry and two television photographers, one dressed in his best suit with no light. Working our way left round the chamber there was no obvious way on, apart from an insignificant 20m high passage! On our left were steep cliffs and boulder slopes disappearing into the darkness. Very impressive! After a session of climbing under and over boulders, we eventually emerged at a 5m high stall boss and the start of the main chamber.

The echoes were phenomenal as you entered the darkness, everything disappearing into a black void, and lights failed to penetrate the gloom. A 38m high calcite boss loomed out of the darkness with a steeply rising boulder slope to the left, and with the ceiling about 80m above.

We followed the right hand wall round the massive chamber to a descending 15m wide flowstone ramp, with the ceiling now about 40-45m above. Below the ramp water could be heard noisily making its way through boulders. Dave climbed down to a small inlet which ended in a hanging sump. The passage continued down over more boulders, becoming narrower until eventually the roof lowered and a stream was encountered flowing from left to right. The downstream passageway gradually sumped between mud banks and was not entered as it was static enough to allow calcite rafts to grow across the surface, leaving a crispy layer on top.

Upstream the water is knee high and only goes 15m to a domed chamber with a large active flowstone and stalagmites and a sump pool with a big gour rim pool. There was a strong draught and a large number of bats too. The cameraman followed us upstream filming all the time, even when the water was up to his waist, with a smile on his face and mud on his best suit. We were most impressed.

Dave and I attempted to catch a catfish in the sump pool, with no success. Cheiry found a child's fishing net and promptly caught a long nosed fish and a shorter more transparent one, both with orange colouring. Both seemed blind. These were put into a water bottle to be taken back to Ruth Shield for analysis.

The Chinese contingent made their way out, while Dave and I started surveying, eventually arriving at the big stal boss and calling it a day after 7 hours underground. Dave and I returned the next day and surveyed down to the lower wall from the stal boss and back to the entrance passageway. All that was left was the big black void and the entrance chamber. We decided to survey to the left of the cavern, hoping that eventually we would cut across the passage which descended to the sump.

The steep slope was climbed to a ridge which dropped vertically to the entrance chamber.

Many 30m survey legs followed until the back wall and ceiling came into view. The chamber was then followed to the right passing a few small formations and steep drops into the black void.

Much mention of the “Where the heck are we?” type was made. We surveyed to a corner where a well decorated chamber with ancient flows, stal and pillars lightened the day. Following the wall, the boulder pile started to descend steeply and great care had to be taken as the boulders were very lose, and we did not wish to loose sight of the wall or end up riding a rock. The descent continued into the unknown, passing some sparkling formations and eventually dropping into the bottom of the main chamber. More pleasing than anything else was the sight of the large stal boss. We were not lost after all! The survey was then abandoned for another day, and we made a hasty retreat to the surface after more than 8 hours surveying. The entrance chamber could wait for another day.

Cheiry had waited outside the cave for all those hours, and had become worried when we did not appear, so at 8:30pm she had rung up the rest of the team to initiate a rescue. We popped out at 9pm, knackered, much to the disappointment of the rest whom we met at the entrance. They got their revenge; we were too late for dinner at the hotel, so were taken to a street market, a result of which both of the surveyors had stomach problems the next day!

Dave and Ernie returned the next day with Zhang Hai, Chen Lixin and Julia Tian who were filming and taking photographs. We continued surveying from station 62 which was in the upper gallery. This led past many ancient stal bosses and pillars. Once this had been completed - and much posing had been done - it was back to the big stal for lunch, to watch the camera team get lost on the boulder pile!

We continued to survey out, being passed by the camera crew who exited at 5:30pm, followed by us at 7pm. We were invited into a local farmhouse for a meal of rice, pork fat, pig's liver, pak choi and other titbits we were reluctant to have identified. As always the local people were generous, friendly and helpful.