The YRC Oman Caving Trip

Ged Campion

This caving expedition proved to be a complete success. Four members of the Y.R.C. caving contingent, Ged Campion, Harvey Lomas, Bruce Bensley and a prospective member Alan Fletcher, joined with other-cavers, some already living in Muscat, to travel to the Selmeh area in the mountains of northern Oman. The base camp was established on 1st February 1997, on a limestone plateau, 1500 metres above sea level. Local support was given to the expedition by the Navy and Police services, supplying equipment, food and water to the camp. The Oman “winter” (25° C) made it possible to move around reasonably comfortably but local knowledge suggested that rainfall, albeit infrequent, is more likely to occur in the winter! We quickly realised that given the very hard, arid land surface, flooding in the caves would be virtually instantaneous making the exploration veiy serious indeed. Four existing caves were known and originally explored to a limited extent by a small American team in 1985. However, the team was too small to make a significant impact on extending the caves. All the caves discovered had leads that just needed pursuing.

Over a two week period, the caves Three Window Cave, Funnel Cave, Arch Cave and Seventh Hole, were linked creating a super system some 12 kilometres in total length. The cave passage discovered was no less than spectacular. Huge phreatic tunnels with beautiful formations were found and the caving was veiy sporting.

Despite the small amount of precipitation in the Oman mountains, the caves hold a considerable volume of water stored from one year to the next. The exploration often required swirnming along canals and across small lakes! The temperature in the caves was warm enough to utilise cotton boiler suits etc. All access to the system except the resurgence, some 7 kilometres from the base camp was via deep shafts. The Seventh Hole for example, involved 250 metres of abseiling before one was able to anive at the horizontal passage. The Selmeh system is now the longest in the Middle East and certainly the deepest. There is still much potential for caving in Oman and the amount of limestone in the area holds much promise for the future discovery of caves. The team would like to thank the Y.R.C. for providing funding for this expedition.

A full report will follow soon.