HARTALI (Krem)

History

EXPLORATION HISTORY: 2014.02: Manuel Ruedi had inspired Thomas Arbenz to order somebody to check a limestone outcrop close to the Kharkhana school (circa 400 m) (anonymous Brooks, S J et al. 2014.04.05 Mss: Diary Meghalaya 2014 Second Edit: 11th February, Tuesday). 2014.02.11, trip 1: Tudor Tamsa and Bhushan Poshe went looking for the outcrop and found a cave entrance 20 m from the road (4 m wide and about 1 m high). They explored two small chambers …. They also noticed a slight inward air draught. They went back to camp, had lunch (anonymous Brooks, S J et al. 2014.04.05 Mss: Diary Meghalaya 2014 Second Edit: 11th February, Tuesday). T.Tamas and B.Poshe followed information of T.Arbenz and M.Ruedi (Arbenz, T 2014.12.26 Mss: Tudor Tamas & Richard Hudson 15-02-2014 Krem Hartali.doc). 2014.02.11, trip 2: Tudor Tamsa, Bhushan Poshe, Richard 'Rich' Hudson and Richa Jain rigged an 8 m drop … found a squeeze connecting to several chambers leading to a … second, lower [cave] entrance … Tey checked several leads … deciding to leave the survey for the next day (anonymous Brooks, S J et al. 2014.04.05 Mss: Diary Meghalaya 2014 Second Edit: 11th February, Tuesday). T.Tamas, R.Iain, B.Poshe and R.Hudson rigged and explored the cave (Arbenz, T 2014.12.26 Mss: Tudor Tamas & Richard Hudson 15-02-2014 Krem Hartali.doc). 2014.02.12, trip 3: Peter Ludwig joined Tudor Tamsa, Bhushan Poshe, Richard 'Rich' Hudson and Richa Jain to eventually survey what had been previously found and to hopefully find the area master cave that must surely exist. The team swiftly surveyed down to the first pitch which was re-rigged. Peter decided to body belay his way down and was persuaded otherwise as there was a spare harness for him. A nice piece of exploring and climbing by Bhushan added a new section of passage not spotted the previous day. After surveying through to the second entrance the team completed a closure loop via a crawl from the entrance chamber before completing the survey int the final choked crawls (anonymous Brooks, S J et al. 2014.04.05 Mss: Diary Meghalaya 2014 Second Edit: 12th February, Wednesday). T.Tamas, R.Iain, B.Poshe, R.Hudson and P.Ludwig surveyed the cave (Arbenz, T 2014.12.26 Mss: Tudor Tamas & Richard Hudson 15-02-2014 Krem Hartali.doc). 2014.02.17, notrip: Manuel Rued, Oana Chachula, Tudor Tamsa, and Michel 'Boesch' Bösch went at 4 p.m. for bat research and trapping to Krem Hartali, the cave nearest to the Kharkhana camp. We had the information already from Richard and Tudor about some bats with big ears, which seem not to be Rhinolophus luctus. So after few minutes we got there and set out a mist net. A dead snake and interesting snail were found close to the entrance of the cave. Somebody had killed the snake today. As soon as it got dark the smaller sized bats came out but were too smart to get caught in our net. After 5 30 pm, a large carnivorous bat - Megaderma lyra - flew directly in the net. So once again another new species ha been found by the expedition as well as a new one for the list which we started in 2011. At the camp, we had great show showing the bats to the cavers. We plan to return to this cave with a harp trap to catch the smaller sized bat species (anonymous Brooks, S J et al. 2014.04.05 Mss: Diary Meghalaya 2014 Second Edit: 17th February, Monday). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018