Day 27 Tuesday 13/10/09

Today we were to search for more undescended shafts. A relative of Aziz, Karim, had found some entrances whilst looking for lost sheep. We collected Karim from his flock and put him in the back of the Land Rover with EP for an hour’s off-road track to an isolated valley, Zaarour Valley. Whilst driving the track JC managed to fall off his bike twice!

When in the valley and unpacking we realised that MC’s SRT kit was missing. It must have been lost on yesterday’s walk out. JC and Aziz went back on the bike to try and locate the missing kit, whilst MC went with Karim to locate and GPS the cave entrances. One was a simple 15m blind, open shaft whilst the other two had smaller entrances and stones seemed to rattle deeper down.

Using EP’s SRT kit and a 40m rope, MC rigged one of the entrances and started to descend. At 26m the bottom could not be seen but there was a rock bridge, so MC pendulumed across and placed a bolt on the bridge for a rebelay. The remainder of the rope was used as a traverse across the bridge to a side of the shaft away from rockfall from the surface. Two bolts were installed for the next pitch and MC then climbed back out for more rope and to recharge the drill battery.

Upon reaching the Land Rover, JC and Aziz were back with the missing SRT kit. After recharging the battery and collecting a 70m rope, MC and EP went to continue the shaft whilst JC went for a look in a cave at the valley bottom that the French had explored a few years before. MC went down to the rock bridge and continued deeper into the cave, placing two more rebelays before bottoming out at 88m. EP stayed on the rock bridge to photograph MC as he came back up.