UMKHANG (Krem)

History

EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1997.02.22, trip 1: Georg Bäumler and Lieutenant-Colonel Fairweather W. Mylliemngap are said to have "discovered" the entrance to a cave known to people familiar with the area since time immemorial. Simon J Brooks had learned that »Georg and the Colonel go prospecting down the valley from Krem Um Lawan [Krem Umlawan] and locate some large cave entrances, Krem Kharasniang and Krem Um Khang« (Brooks, S J in BROOKS, S J et al 1998: 29). Over the next two years, thanks to the often brutal enthusiasm of Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt, the cave was explored in a Mendip style refined to a degree touching perfection down to its most repulsive aspects of violent destruction. Each and every nook and cranny of the cave was looked at while all possible digging sites were dug and the impossible ones were tried or banged and banged again without the slightest trace of repect or awe -- only for the sake of a little success at the cost of eternal loss. 1997.02.23, trip 2: Team 1 (Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt (book), Boycott, Antony 'Tony', Estelle Sandford and Paul Arthur Edmunds) and 1997.02.23, trip 3: H. D. Gebauer (book), Georg Bäumler (compass, clinometer) and Lieut.-Col. F.W. Mylliemngap) survey, map and explore 1300 m of survey length (Brooks, S J in BROOKS, S J et al 1998: 29). 1997.02.24, trip 4: Anthony 'Tony' R. Jarratt, A. Boycott, E. Sandford and Kyrmen 'Hope' C Hiwot Passah »go on relatively unsucccessful jungle bashing exercise for an hour, followed by a dig (using crowbar) … that yields another 200 m of passage« (Brooks, S J in: BROOKS, S J et al 1998: 29). 1997.02.24, trip 5: P. A. Edmunds and Andrew "Andy" Peter Tyler »spend afternoon photographing in Krem Um Kharasniang« (Brooks, S J in: BROOKS, S J et al 1998: 29). 1997.02.24, trip 6: P. A. Edmunds, Rapahel Warjri, Brian D. Kharpran Daly, and Donbokwell "Bok" Syiemlieh »finish day by taking photographs in Krem Um Kharasniang« (Brooks, S J in: BROOKS, S J et al 1998: 30) but we can safely assume that they did not take photographs into the cave but rather out of it. EXPLORATION LOG (quotations from Jarratt's Mss Meghalaya cave logs of 1997 and 1998): 1997.02.22 (Antony 'Tony' Boycott, Georg Bäumler, P. A. Edmunds, H. Daniel Gebauer, Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt, Brian D. Kharpran Daly, Lieut.-Col. Fairweather W. Mylliemngap and Estelle Sandford): »A large entrance located on the LH side of the road going downhill from Lumshnong and behind the tea houses lead to some 290 m of pleasant, roomy galleries on the RH side, which Tony, Estelle, the Colonel and I surveyed. A dead porcupine was found at the end of this series. The others surveyed the main passages finding ca. 300 m of generally large galleries and a second entrance with a pulsating draught. A hoped for connection with Krem [–>Kotsati-] Umlawan was unfortunately not discovered. We caught up with them in a blind side passage where I noticed a passage near the ceiling some 7 m above the floor. By climbing on to a large boulder I was able to throw a knotted rope into the passage where it dubiously jammed, and assisted by Tony and Georg I succeeded in scrambling up into it. It looked uninspiring but Paul and Georg joined me and off we went, surveying along on unpleasant Austrian style rift passage well endowed with botryoidal stal. We kept expecting to oxbow back into the main cave but the bloody place just kept on zig-zagging into the distance for ca. 150 m until we thankfully popped out into a largish entrance chamber where the sound of traffic could be heard. Some 400 m of well decorated and assorted cave was found to the right and a possible, draughting dig into an aven was left for another day. On leaving the cave to retrieve our bags and rope we found yet another cave adjacent [this "Quarry Cave" is a separate, unrecorded site of little (?) interest] in a nearby active quarry. … and returned to the unexplored entrance to survey another 200 m or so of similar passage including a superbly decorated 10 m aven. The whole system totalled some 1.34 km and in many places the rock was polished by the passage of animals –hopefully porcupines and not bears– though some suspicious scratch marks were noted at one point! Before we finally packed in for the day, Paul and I checked out a couple of crawls (Paul getting the one with the 6" spider in it). Mine degenerated but Paul got the connection with the other entrance to make it all one large system. Back at the tea shops we were met by the others who had come back to effect our rescue as we were so late! Thankfully they had the jeep so we got a lift home after an excellent day's exploration.«1997.02.24 (Boycott, Edmunds, Kyrmen 'Hope' C Hiwot Passah, Anthony 'Tony' R. Jarratt, Andrew "Andy" P. Tyler): »After a lift down the road in a Tata truck …we carried on to Um Kharasniang where our five foot crowbar was put to good use on the boulder choke blocking the way on. I quickly cleared enough to gingerly squeeze up through into the base of a circa 10 m aven and then down into a short crawl leading to walking size passage. The others joined me but surveying was cancelled as the pencil had got lost in the jungle! We followed some 200 m of reasonable passages with oxbows and a short high level to reach a short crawl past a big spider into a larger gallery which Tony recognised from the previous day. We had made another connection to Um Khang this time into the Dead Porcupine Series. So still no way into an active level. … we started walking back but soon were riding in style hanging on the back of a tractor.« 1997.02.27 (Boycott, Brian D. Kharpran Daly, Jarratt and Raphael Warjri): »Umkhang was reached by a different path -- a house having been built over the original one! Raphael videod us as we went in. At B2 in "dead porcupine series" we started the connection survey to Um Kharasniang -- some 260 m of hard work which I suspect the local lads found a bit testing in places. Two more connections were found back to Umkhang -- one with a grim choke up into a 10 m high aven with no easy way on. These connections were to the area near the second entrance. When we eventually surveyed through the dry squeeze into Kharasniang, we poked around various grim descending crawls, one of which I dug through in two places to end at a choked sink. There is no obvious link to Umlawan [i.e. Krem –>Kotsati] from this cave. Raphael had manfully dragged his video through the crawls to take footage of the mapping and digging activities.« 1997.02.28 (Boycott, Spindro Dkhar, Kharpran Daly, Jarratt and Sandford): »Got a lift on a tractor to the wooden shack labelled "Hotel" and wandered up the track to the Um Khang second entrance. We examined everything we could find on the LH side of the main passage and in "dead porcupine series" finding little of interest and no obvious potential links to Umlawan. A couple of digs were pushed in the floor of the main passage where flood water obviously sinks but they didn't go far. This may be the best place to try but may be easier from Um Lawan if one knew where to look. We then surveyed out from yesterday's last station and did a surface survey down the track to Rift Pot and Krem Umkseh –much to the astonishment of the miners and quarry men.« Later in the day, Boycott, Kharpran Daly and Jarratt took a bamboo pole with affixed electron ladder to high level leads in Krem Kotsati-Umlawan between Lake Inlet, Rift Pot Chamber and the Cascades to look for possible leads towards Krem Umkhang-Kharasniang: »… a couple of climbs were done but to no avail. I free climbed up in a few places finding odd bits of passage and an interesting calcite choke with a good draught going up into it. Digging with a bit of rebar and a rock failed to get me through and a hammer and a chisel will be needed here. It certainly needs another look one day. On downstream examining all inlets and climbs but again failing to find anything significant. … we headed out, looking at Rift Pot more clearly en route …« 1998.02.19 (Boycott, Jarratt, Brian Johnson and Mylliemngap): »… Brian spotted a tube near the entrance which he explored for some 40 m to where it entered the main cave. Several other windows into this passage existed. This short find was surveyed for the record. Nice passage, but not the hoped for link to Umlawan. As we were leaving from the collapse entrance, I noticed a low crawl on the LH-side which I pushed for c. 8 m to the head of a c. 10 m pot. Tony then took my place and went down to the main cave lower level and entered the loose aven which I pushed last year. My hunch was correct and a voice connection proved it to be the same place. Foiled again we checked out a few crawls (in one of which I crawled under a huge spider which I failed to notice!) before leaving the cave for another tea shop. Some careful studying of the survey is needed. Not a great winner of a day but at least a few question marks have been answered. (Apparently, while I was crawling out from the top of the aven there was a minor earth tremor which I didn't notice).« 1998.02.05 (Jarratt, Ian E. Chandler, and Kyrshan Myrthong): »We entered the field entrance to Umkhang and went down into the Kharasniang passages to the tiny, dry sink in the floor with a strong draught and which I think may be the hoped for link to [Krem Kotsati-] Umlawan. The hammer, chisel and crowbar were put to good use here for an hour or so but to no avail as the boulders blocking the hole were too big and awkward to deal with. Bang would be the best solution here… Giving up on this site we went for a short tour around the upper levels as far as Umkhang entrance. The main passage sink was rechecked and found again to be a hopeless prospect. Having done our best and tried every possibility, we can now leave this cave alone with clear consciences!« 1999 1999.02.06: Jarratt and Tom Chapman attacked the boulder blockage in Porcupine Passage to try and get through into Umlawan, but failed; chiseling they gained about 20 m of passage. 1999.02.17: Boycott, Jarratt and Neil Sootinck went to bang boulders but got a misfire. 1999.02.20: Jarratt, Boycott, Neil Sootinck, Betty "Betsy" Chhakchhuak, Vanlalruata and Alfred Vanchhawng had a pre-breakfast trip and cleared and fired another bang. At midday Jarratt, Boycott and Neil Sootinck returned, cleared the site, laid a third bang, and then went to hammer for several hours on a flowstone blockage in Anglo-Sikh series in Umlawan. 1999.02.21: Jarratt, Sootinck, Vanchhawng and Vanlalruata made another early morning trip to check out the last bang. It had done a good job so they continued digging the way forward until J’Rat nagged them it was time for breakfast. 1999.02.22: Boycott, Sootinck and Vanchhawng passed the dig in Anglo-Sikh series into 50 m of branching passage. Two are stal choked and the third rejoins A-series via a tight crawl which was penetrated by Alfred only. Then they went to the banged dig passage in Umkhang, dug out and passed it for 15 m in a 0.5 x 0.3 m draughting tube to a too tight squeeze for Alfred. 2000.02.27: Jarratt, A.R. (Meghalaya cave log 2000): »Brian and I … spent a jolly hour inspecting the dig in Umkhang, confirming Tony Boycott's report that it became too small without further chiselling and digging. A tinier descending side passage would require bang. A fair amount of spoil was washed in by the summer stream. The site was tidied up and the digging tin and used detonating fuse was removed from the cave.« Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 02/07/2016