Meghalaya
TETENGKOL BALWAKOL
In February '94, I was fortunate enough to spend a month in Meghalaya, North East India, with seven other cavers. After several days spent negotiating restricted area permits and establishing where we could and could not visit we decided to explore in three main areas. Firstly Cherrapunjee / Mawsynram (East Khasi Hills), secondly Siju (South Garo Hills) and lastly Balpakram (South Garo Hills). It was also decided to separate into two teams of four; this would help with the logistics of transport and give us more freedom to cover our chosen areas.
17th. Feb.
The sun was already well up when our two jeeps set off from
Despite our desire to get changed and head off to explore caverns measureless etc., we had to observe the rituals of social niceties. A meeting with Hemason M. Sangma, the village head man (Noc-Ma), regarding the caves, involved several glasses of tea and offers of beetle nut. Eventually it was agreed that the Noc-Ma would lead us up river to the cave. The walk-in takes about an hour, the route at first crosses paddy fields and then enters the jungle following the Chibe Nala gorge. The Noc-Ma, a short wiry man dressed in flip flops, shapeless trousers rolled up to the knees, ill fitting jacket and carrying an ancient single barrel shot gun tied to a piece of string over his shoulder, lead us up the river. We followed over large banks of sand and shingle, the river soon narrowing into a gorge, its steep, craggy, limestone walls, jungle clad, alive with birds and monkeys. We passed two hot springs (32 and 35 degrees Celsius) before the river became a succession of isolated pools as it started to play that exciting game of hide and seek that quickens the pulse of any cave explorer. Eventually we arrived at a spectacular stretch of the Chibe Nala, the river here runs in a series of deep, blue-green pools, liberally decorated with huge blocks of limestone and pure white sand banks. The eastern side of the gorge consists of massive slabs of rock rising almost vertically and set with impenetrable jungle; the western side is a continuous wall of rock in which the almost round 'HobbitÂ’ hole entrance of Tetengkol is to be found.
TETENGKOL :
Alternatively interpreted as "
At the entrance we hurriedly kitted up and as I was ready
first I rushed in to have a quick look around. The entrance passage, clean washed, finely scalloped and approximately
1.6 by 1m reached a small stream after about 10m. I set off upstream in slightly larger passage
traversing about 150m of joint controlled development, stopping when it
diminished to less than 1 m high, then rushing back to meet the others. On my return the rest of the team had not arrived
so I pushed on downstream. The passage
runs almost parallel to the Chibe Nala, slowly diminishing in size, until after
130m, I, having been reduced to flat out crawling in the stream, returned. When I met Jenny, Shoon and Daniel, they were
already busy with the survey and as there was not enough room for more than
three to work I went off to push the upstream passage. Passing several side passages I soon arrived
at the previous limit and pausing just long enough to check on the local young
man who decided to accompany me (dressed in white shirt, slacks, slip on shoes
and no light) we pushed on. Some twenty
or thirty metres of stooping later, the passage began to enlarge and we were
soon trolling along a two metre tube. This fine passage ended suddenly at a junction with a superb
river-passage (
The journey out of the cave and back to the village passed in a euphoric haze, dreaming of caverns as yet unseen. The excitement however was not over for the day, as on our return to the village we were to be treated as honoured guests and invited to eat at the home of the Noc-Ma. After a superb meal, lots of tea and several Biries (a small cigar, hand made out of Birie leaves with dubious effects) we were ready to leave. As it was now late and we had 8 kilometres off road and 20 kilometres of appalling road to drive before we could sleep, we were keen to be going, but, the Noc-Ma had other ideas. Apparently one of the village hunters had just returned with a Barking Deer and we, as honoured guests, must have a share of the kill. Simon and I were taken to a house where the deer was skinned and jointed using nothing but a razor blade and an old bamboo knife. Later, after shaking hands (yet again) with what seemed like the population of a medium sized city we set off, very tired, very happy and with about 2 kilos of fresh meat.
18th. Feb.
After an all too short night (at the Circuit House in
Backmara) and a breakfast of Puries and Channa Dhal we were again heading for
Nengkong. The twenty eight kilometre
journey was uneventful but: uncomfortable and by mid morning we were engaged in
the elaborate game of trying to change in front of 30 or 40 villagers who were
all desperate to find out if we were white all over. During these gymnastics we were in
conversation with the Noc-Ma who gave us information regarding other caves in
the area: - Matchakol (
19th. 20th. 21st.
22nd. Feb.
The next four days were spent in the Balpakram area where our team was singularly unsuccessful in discovering significant new cave, despite close encounters with vanishing rivers, moving boulder chokes and large spiders. However, that, as they say, is another story.
23 Feb.
We returned to Nengkong with the intention of staying in the
village for the next few days thereby saving on travelling and having more time
for caving. The villagers were very
pleased at our return and soon found us a place to sleep (the mustard seed
store). We soon dispensed with the
necessary niceties (several glasses of tea and endless hand shakes) and were
once again tramping up the Chibe Nala. This time we stopped to examine Matrongkol (
On our return to Tetengkol we first surveyed the maze of
joint controlled passage in Daniel's Topo Teaser Series, before moving on to
Again time had beaten us so we returned to the village, happy that we still had more leads than you could throw a stick at.
24th. Feb.
The tasks for the day were to survey the Balwakol Series and
to examine all the un-entered leads off
Having finished the survey of the Balwakol Series we moved
up
25th. Feb.
We spent the day going to look at another cave Dobhakol, (
26th. Feb.
This was to be our last day in the Nengkong area, so despite many passages not pushed to conclusion in Tetengkol, we decided on the following plan: one, to try to descend the rift found by Simon, two, to tie up several survey loops in the upper end of the cave and three, to spend what remained of the day photographing the cave. We had just failed to achieve our first objective and were starting on our second when I looked under a low arch at the side of the passage, and there between easily movable boulders was a big black space. Having dispatched the boulders and ascended an easy climb I found myself in another huge chamber (Brian's "I'm sorry I think I've found a way through the boulders" Series). With the floor of this chamber consisting of huge slabs some 5m across and the roof a large unsupported malevolent presence, it is not surprising that conversations were carried out in whispers. We commenced surveying the new-chamber but the sound of falling water enticed us into a side chamber where a small stream was found tumbling into a shaft which occupied most of the floor area. Traversing around the unstable lip we entered a fine stream passage, this was followed passing several (un-entered) side passages for about 200m. At this point the passage had diminished to a high, narrow, inclined rift, requiring sideways travel. Just when we were about to give up we popped out at the base of a clean washed, elliptical shaft, its fluted walls rose sheer for at least 20 m, the stream reduced to fine spray by its fall from passages as yet unseen. Returning to the big chamber (Agoraphobia Chamber) we continued our survey only to be seduced yet again by the sound of a stream. This time the stream passage only went for 30m to a wide, high rift, with the water cascading from an obvious large passage about 10m above. Completing the line survey of Agoraphobia Chamber we found ourselves in an impressive passage about 10 to 12m square, this was followed to where it split into several smaller passages, none of which were pushed to conclusion. As we were fast running out of time and, as yet, had not taken a single photograph in the cave, we made the difficult decision to leave many ongoing passages unexplored. We photographed back to the entrance wishing we had more time to do the job properly and it was with great reluctance that we finally left the cave.
Epilogue.
Tetengkol is now the longest cave in the Indian subcontinent, having over 5 kilometres of surveyed passage, it has at least 27 ongoing leads so the possibility of doubling its length is quite high.
The Chibe Nala area also offers Matrongkol (not fully explored), Dobhakol (not fully explored), several cave entrances seen but not entered, a massive resurgence (not closely examined) and a 3 kilometre totally unexplored limestone gorge. Needless to say, I for one wish to return.
Expedition members involved in the Tetengkol exploration were Jenny Brooks, Simon Brooks, Daniel Gehauer and Brian Johnson.
The other members of the Meghalaya '91 expedition were Tony Boycott, Helen Harper, Rob Harper and Chris Smart.
MEGHALAYA - ΣΨΝΟΠΣΙΣ
02 February to 02 March 1994:
Simon BROOKS, Tony BOYCOTT, Jennifer BROOKS, Herbert Daniel GEBAUER, Helen HARPER, Rob HARPER, Brian JOHNSON & Chris SMART
|
A
|
B
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C
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D
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E
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F
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1
|
Area
|
Cave
|
Survey
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Alt +
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State of mapping
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Text print
|
2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3
|
BALPAKRAM
|
Mahadeo Chirenkol
|
1,679.30
|
17.29 (-0.88, 16.41)
|
wire
|
y
|
4
|
|
Mahadeo-?-Kol
|
1.028.26
|
18.30 (-2.81. 15.54)
|
wire
|
y
|
5
|
|
Mingsingkol
|
507.62
|
16.54 (0.00, 16.54)
|
wire
|
y
|
6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7
|
CHERRANPUNJEE
|
Krem Phyllut
|
1,003.11
|
29.21 (-8.54,20.67)
|
wire
|
y
|
8
|
|
Mawnluh-Aven (30,21)
|
|
11.42 (0.00, 11.42)
|
wire
|
y
|
9
|
|
Mawnluh-b (598,35)
|
|
15.05 (-11.24, 3.l81)
|
wire
|
y
|
10
|
|
Mawnluh-Fossil (265,82)
|
|
23.27 (-23.27, 0.00)
|
wire
|
y
|
11
|
|
Adds to Mawnluh (3607,3)
|
834.38
|
Total length: 4501.7m
|
|
|
12
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
13
|
KHARAKOL
|
Bok Bak Dobhakol
|
1,052.53
|
31.64 )-13.74, 17.90)
|
wire
|
y
|
14
|
|
Dobhakol
|
1,616.30
|
14.66 (-3.73, 10.93)
|
wire
|
y
|
15
|
|
Tentengkol
|
4,666.96
|
45.32 (-0.51, 44.81)
|
wire
|
y
|
16
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17
|
MAWSNYRAM
|
Krem Dram
|
421.54
|
13.98 (-2.76.11.22)
|
wire
|
y
|
18
|
|
Krem Phusjasim
|
244.57
|
13.82 (0.00, 13.82)
|
wire
|
y
|
19
|
|
Krem Lumsymper
|
135.87
|
3.28 (-0.98, 2.30)
|
wire
|
y
|
20
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21
|
SIJU
|
Shit Pot
|
161.94
|
18.49 (-18.49, 0.00)
|
wire
|
y
|
22
|
|
Dobhakol-a (131,85)
|
|
1.80 (0.00, 1.80)
|
wire
|
y
|
23
|
|
Dobhakol-b (517,57)
|
|
26.38 (-5.04, 21.34)
|
wire
|
y
|
24
|
|
Dobhakol-c (49.24)
|
|
9.02 (-6.66, 2.36)
|
wire
|
y
|
25
|
|
Adds to Dobhakol (2900)
|
649.42
|
Total length: 3198.8m
|
wire
|
y
|
26
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27
|
TURA
|
Tetenkol
|
8.00
|
2.2 (-0.00, 2.2)
|
drawn
|
no
|
28
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
29
|
|
Total:
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12,390.50
|
Metres surveyed length
|
|
|