Wynberg Crossroads Breakthrough

 

Anthony Hitchcock

4 May 2009

 

The breakthrough from Wynberg Cave to Crossroads Cave is a momentous event in the history of caving in South Africa. I say this because barring some minor connections still to be made we have a ‘master’ cave system extending from Giant’s Cave in the southeast all the way to Wynberg Cave at the north-western end of the ridge. Anyone suggesting these caves to be part of one large cave system, a few years ago, would have been taken away by men in white coats. So maybe it is fitting that people mad enough to spend hours in cold, wet, uncomfortable surroundings digging and removing boulders at significant personal risk were rewarded with this breakthrough. Thanks must go to Mario and Evelyn Fedele and Alf Alfreds who have spent so much time exploring the many holes in the area. They have shown us the way and pointed out the key cave entrances that ultimately led to the breakthrough. They have also taken to excavating the promising leads that have been shown through the surveys prepared by Ron Zeeman. When Darryl Holland and I mapped the passage in Crossroads Cave heading towards Wynberg we thought that we were faced by an impassable collapse. This did not deter Mario and Evelyn who managed to dig through to an upper chamber that considerably reduced the distance between the two caves. Then on the first weekend of May, Alf set about digging from the Wynberg end while a team dug towards us from Crossroads. It was a team effort, but Alf more than anyone, made the breakthrough possible. He dug like a man possessed and finally 15 minutes before we decided we would stop, he broke through the sand plug. The story is recorded in the meet report below, but the passage from now on will be known as Alf’s Breakthrough. It is also fitting that Vic Moll from SEC was there to help open the last metre between the caves, symbolic of the camaraderie in SASA.

 

03 May 2008

 

Darryl Holland, Eugenie Bahlsen and I went to Wynberg Cave armed with long poles to assist probing into the dangerous dig towards Crossroads Cave. We started at 14h00 and dug for about two hours. The large boulder that had crushed Mario’s finger was removed and other dangerous rocks knocked down with the poles. We dug up at an angle of 30° into a very sandy plug. All the while sand, stones and rocks were falling from the ceiling. We extended the passage and soon the poles were no longer long enough to effectively dig away at the face. I decided to go around to Crossroads to see if I could dig from that side. I made some progress along the left wall, but there is not much room to manoeuvre. At about 16h00 I attempted to make contact by shouting and succeeded in making voice contact with Darryl. The voice contact was faint, but good progress on the banging we could hear up until that time. We were tired so left the cave and walked to the Mountain Club Hut where we spent the night.

 

04 May 2008

 

I went to fetch Mario, Evelyn and Marco Fedele from Constantia Nek. We were joined by Vic Moll from SEC and went back to the club hut to decide what to do in the cold wet conditions. We decided to continue the dig in Crossroads and Wynberg Cave where we were protected from the rain. Alf Alfreds, Vic Moll and I went into Wynberg Cave while Mario, Evelyn, Marco and Eugenie went to dig from the Crossroads side. We made good progress in Wynberg owing to Alf’s fearless enthusiasm. He entered the slot after we removed dangerous looking boulders set in the sand plug. Most of the material along the walls and in the ceiling consisted of small stones and rocks in compacted sand. When we exposed a large boulder we retreated to safety and knocked it down with a pole. Alf continued digging at the ‘coal face’ for hours, while I removed the material he pushed behind him. In the meantime Vic went to lend a hand in Crossroads. We extended the Wynberg dig to about 4m past the last survey beacon and we still could only get faint voice contact. I noticed the small chamber where Alf was digging becoming filled with condensation. We were getting tired and decided to stop at 14h00 and resolved to ask Ron Zeeman to bring his radio beacon to see whether we were digging at the right angle and in the right direction. Alf decided to try one more time at 13h45 and attacked the sand face with gusto. He soon became very excited as he broke out of the sand plug to expose a small area of rocky choke with a strong breeze flowing from between the rocks. We decided to call it a day and were packing up when Vic joined us in Wynberg. The rest of the party had left for the hut.

 

Vic was really excited to see the progress we had made and offered to go back to Crossroads to see if the opening in the sand plug presented better communication possibilities between the two caves. He left the cave with Alf and I settled down to wait. In less than half an hour I heard him calling from the other side of the choke and quickly scrambled up to the digging face. It was soon apparent that the dig in Crossroads was below the excavated passage in Wynberg. I asked Vic to look a bit higher and he was able to see my light peeking from between the stones and rocks packed in a narrow slot. A light tap on this brought down some rocks and we could see each other through an arm sized hole. We worked carefully removing more rocks and sand and soon had a reasonable gap. Air was pumping through the gap from the Crossroads side. Vic went to fetch his camera, while I removed loose stones and sand to make the area safer. He returned to say the camera was not working. We contemplated Murphy for a while and then decided that it looked safe enough for me to squeeze through. I became stuck half way and had to reverse back to Wynberg. I removed my belt and battery pack and tried again. This time I managed to get through most relieved to be past the danger area.

 

Vic managed to get his camera to work again and he took some pictures to mark the occasion. This was a momentous occasion where CPSS and SEC shook hands to celebrate a major achievement in the history of caving in South Africa. We left the cave to join Alf who had elected to take a well earned rest. We then photographed the man who had worked so hard to make the breakthrough.