URLE 1 (Krem)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A cave entrance without known shape, dimensions or characteristic peculiarities gives access to a pothole which drops down into a canyon passage containing speleothems. According to Oppliger (2005.02 edited 2010.07 Mss), Cette cavité débute pour une série de puits permettant de rejoindre une zone horizontale, assez étroite par endroits. ETYMOLOGY: The Khasi verb 'ur' means to slip, to fall and -leh- means to do, to perform, to act (SINGH, N 1906: 113). Jarratt (2005.03.06 Mss: Cave Log, vol. XII: 8/2/05) and Brooks (2005 Mss: Meghalaya Diary 2005.02.08) state that -Urle- is an area name and translates as Falling Mud. This is not the case (note 1). Quentin -Cooper- Cowper (2005.02.15 Mss: Krem Urle 5) was led believe Urle means mud that has landslided (according to local kids who eat much monkey - curry). SITUATION (Brooks 2005.02.08 Mss -Meghalaya Diary 2005- Tuesday 8th February): A few hundred metres below the west side of the road between Khaidong and Shnongrim. APPROACH (Brown2005.02.11 Mss: Krem Urle 1): Follow directions for Krem Poh Lum Shyrngan to point 2. A bearing 218 shows [what was in February 2005]a prominent 800 mm Ø tree. Trending towards this leads to N25°21'12.2”: E092°30'37.5”. A 3 m high outcrop with a 1.5 m wide 2 m cleft entrance containing jammed boulders. DEVICE DESCRIPTION 1: Brown (2005.02.11 Mss: Krem Urle 1) shamelessly plays the bullshit card, refers to a bogus survey (not existing), and recommends to: See cave plan [note 2]. 18 m pitch to 3 m passage to large jammed boulders at head of 25 m pitch into 6 m x 3 m chamber. A series of pitches lands on 3 m x 3 m chamber floor with small pool. A passage leads off … DEVICE DESCRIPTION 2 (Brooks 2005 undated Mss amendment to Brown 2005.02.11 Mss): … 650 m of streamway and side passages. Some of which is walking sized whilst most is narrow or low, eventually too low and muddy for further progress. (100 m total of pitches). DEVICE DESCRIPTION 3 (Jarratt 2005.03.06 Mss: Cave Log, vol. XI) entry 8/2/05: A 14 m pot followed by a 16 m pot drops into a huge decorated canyon passage with a strong inward draught. 8/2/09: A first and second pitch, the latter an estimated 28 m deep, to a third pitch needing proper SRT rigging. 13/2/05: Below the 100 m of entrance pitches, the first part of the horizontal cave is Yorkshire style and very pleasant and the side passage --possibly the ancient downstream-- is large, dry and muddy and ends in a too low crawl and possible high level outlet. We attempted to reach this but failed and instead we dug a choked, clean washed hole in the floor which looks good but ideally needs a hammer and a crowbar. Downstream the passage deteriorates to miserable, bouldery crawls with the occasional higher bit. Through more squalor one eventually reaches a choke, which Shelley and I dug through through into larger, ongoing passage with a big muddy bedding chamber above and a couple of other ways on. 14/2/09: The muddy chamber above ends in a mud choke.The downstream passage continues as a grim crawl which goes on and on till it closes down in a very narrow rift taking the strong inward draught [airflow] and two nearby phreatic tubes ending in a boulder choke. DEVICE DESCRIPTION 4 (JARRATT 2005): Krem Urle 1 (cave in the mudslide area) was … to provide some painful caving in an essentially flat-out, boulder and cobble floored stream passage entered via 100 m of well rigged and attractive pitches and becoming too narrow after 0.8 kms [800 m]. Only a considerable amount of squeezing and digging enabled us to get this far [note 3]. Two sections of [relatively] large, dry fossil tunnel failed to yield any easier overhead routes. The general direction of the cave was towards the ever growing Krem Liat Prah system … (note 4). ADVENTURE DESCRIPTION (YUEN 2005: 53): My first trip to ease my back into caving was down Krem Urle 1, a muddy filthy hole, just like a Derbyshire cave exported all the way to India. A total of 788 m of grotty passags, lying in fluorescent dyed water. CAVE FICTION 2005.02.09: Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt (2005.03.06 Mss: Cave Log, vol. XII, 9/2/05), Boycott, Antony 'Tony', Mark W Brown, Quentin -Cooper- Cowper and Jayne Stead went on a recce further down the hill to an area pointed out yesterday. Here two large dolines were found with a significant pot in each. We had no GPS or guide so the position and, hopefully, names will be collected when they are dropped. They both have ladderable pitches leading to possible open passages. A couple of other grotty passages were noticed nearby. CAVE FICTION 2005.08.20: Sheen, Robin F (2005.08.20 Mss: Meghalaya 05) considers the … discovery of Krem Urle, circa 800 m, is of interest because of its likely being the headwaters of Liat Prah Prah. SPELEOMETRY 1 (Arbenz, T 2005.02 Mss: Abstracts.xls): At a depth of 125 m 788.04 m long and too tight. SPELEOMETRY 2 (Brooks 2005.10.05 Mss: Meghalaya 2005 Survey Summary): 788.0. CAVE LIFE: Anthony 'Tony' R Jarrtt (2005.03.06 Mss: Cave Log, vol. XII, 8/2/06) noticed bats (Chiroptera), Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt 2005.03.06: Cave Log, vol. XII, 15/2/05) mentiones crabs (Crustacea: Palaemonida) and says Julien Oppliger identified bones from the cave as -cow- (conf. Bos). Oppliger (2005.02 edited 2010.07 Mss): Cette cavité débute pour une série de puits permettant de rejoindre une zone horizontale, assez étroite par endroits. Sans pouvoir les déterminer précisément, nous avons observé 5 chauves-souris dans la zone des puits. Sur certaines margelles dans les puits, nous avons collecté quelques vestiges osseux de Hipposideros/Rhinolophus sp., Rodentia sp., Soricidae sp. (Sorex ?) et Chiroptera sp.tt (2005.03.06 Mss: Cave Log, vol. XII, 8/2/06) noticed bats (Chiroptera), Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt 2005.03.06: Cave Log, vol. XII, 15/2/05) mentiones crabs (Crustacea: Palaemonida) and says Julien Oppliger identified bones from the cave as -cow- (conf. Bos). Oppliger (2005.02 edited 2010.07 Mss): Cette cavité débute pour une série de puits permettant de rejoindre une zone horizontale, assez étroite par endroits. Sans pouvoir les déterminer précisément, nous avons observé 5 chauves-souris dans la zone des puits. Sur certaines margelles dans les puits, nous avons collecté quelques vestiges osseux de Hipposideros/Rhinolophus sp., Rodentia sp., Soricidae sp. (Sorex ?) et Chiroptera sp.