PHORKE CAVE 1

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A lost cave which disappeared some time in summer 1994 when a major part of the western conglomerate cliff at Phorke collapsed during the monsoon. SITUATION: Above the head of the scree slope and at the foot of the western cliff of Phorke. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1 (April 1980): Phorke Cave A is not an inviting cave despite its spacious, dawn facing cave entrance perched above the bolder strewn pocket valley of Phorke valley and overlooking the clear, green pools of Phusre below. The cave entrance area is rock shelter with a horizontal roof about 30 or 35 m wide and up to 7 m high. The floor ascends about 7 or 8 vertical metre to a constriction (1 m wide, 0.3 m high) at 12 m from the drip-line. This slot ascends — beware of slime— nearly vertical, climbs about 2 m up into a horizontal and repelling belly crawl (more than 5 m wide, 0.4 to 0.6 m) characterised by simply too many well-rounded but head to football-sized and allmost passage filling stones which are not only inconvient but also coered with bat piss drenched guano (keyword: Chiroptera). The somewhat hoz air (without draught) is pungent and contains no small amount of ammonia. CAVE POTENTIAL - Prospects 1 (April 1980): Only the first 25 m were surveyed (H.D. Gebauer, 1980.04.02) and the low passage continues crawl-sized across well-rounded, on average head- to football-sized stones. The worst case imaginable is to find this -passage- going on but if you have ribs made from lorry tyres but the knees and elbows of a camel, you don't need pads. CAVE DESCRIPTION 2 (September 1994): A south-east facing, 5 or 6 m wide but less than 10 cm high horizontal slot. CAVE POTENTIAL - Prospects 2 (September 1994): Impenetrable.