Anthony Hitchcock
1 June 2008
The official CPSS meet was held on Table Mountain on Sunday 1st June 2008. The following were present: Alan Butcher, Ron Zeeman, Joan Vlok, Mario and Evelyn Fedele, Alf Alfreds and Craig Beall. I joined the group in the late morning. Ron, Alf, Alan and Joan were trying to make progress in the small caves between Blue Peripatus Cave and Canadian Cave. They were attempting to move a large rock to allow access to a lower level, but needed a rope and heavier equipment to do the job.
We walked across to overhang camp to meet up with Mario and Evelyn who were trying to open up a lower passage in Metro leading towards Crossroads. They made some progress in wet conditions, but the passage closed down.
After lunch, Craig and I went to Wynberg while Ron and Joan made their way to Crossroads. We wanted to survey the breakthrough passage. Wynberg was wet and water was dripping in many places. We tried to make our way without getting too wet. I collected an interesting earthworm from a pool in the stream passage and then we made our way to the breakthrough. When we arrived we found the passage blocked by a substantial collapse of rocks and small boulders. We could communicate with the Crossroads party by banging on the walls, but we could not shout to each other. I took a compass reading along the line of the passage and estimated the distance to be 5m. This was also the radio beacon reading. The collapse has blocked the entire passage from the start of the dig in Wynberg to the Crossroads side. The collapse was probably brought about by the heavy rains. I think this passage is too dangerous to attempt excavating the link again. It is probably better to leave it closed so that there is no danger of someone getting hurt.
We went back to the Canadian Cave area. Ron and I surveyed the grotto linking to Blue Peripatus Cave while the rest of the group carried on opening up the cave next door. Evelyn managed to pass by the obstructing boulder and get through to a lower level. She decided it would be safer to return with rope before descending deeper into the cave.