WAKANTA GOP

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A large, dark cave entrance (15 m wide, 8 m high) gives access to a passage of similar dimensions, arriving from the east. ETYMOLOGY: The Garo -Wakantagop- (thorn-bamboo hole) is compounded of -wa- (bamboo), -kanta- (thorn) and -gop- (literally: -down-), a relatively large sized closed depression (doline). SITUATION: In the north-east corner of Wakantagop, a huge doline about 300 m wide and 80 m deep, which lies deep inside the jungle (note 1) and at a walking distance of two and a half hours north of –>UmblekaCAVE DESCRIPTION (after Jantschke 2003.02.16 Mss -Fahrtenbericht 2003- entry 16.2.03): Descending across big stones into a cauldron, one reaches the head of a calcite cemented collapse front (keyword: speleothems) which leaves a breakdown chamber on the right-hand side. Already 40 m from the cave entrance, it is possible to descend between boulders to a rivulet, and to follow it downstream to a cauldron. On the upstream side of this cauldron, a squeeze down through boulders gain the rivulet once more but it soon forms a deep pool that was not swum. It is likely, however, that the collapse front closes the cave at this low level as well, because it likens, both in direction and flow, another sink (note 2) at the contact of nummulitic Siju Limestone (Eocene) on arkosic Mahadek Sandstone (Upper Cretaceous), which we found on the way home along a different route somewhere east of Wakantagop (after Jantschke, note 3).A large, dark cave entrance (15 m wide, 8 m high) gives access to a passage of similar dimensions, arriving from the east. ETYMOLOGY: The Garo -Wakantagop- (thorn-bamboo hole) is compounded of -wa- (bamboo), -kanta- (thorn) and -gop- (literally: -down-), a relatively large sized closed depression (doline). SITUATION: In the north-east corner of Wakantagop, a huge doline about 300 m wide and 80 m deep, which lies deep inside the jungle (note 1) and at a walking distance of two and a half hours north of –>UmblekaCAVE DESCRIPTION (after Jantschke 2003.02.16 Mss -Fahrtenbericht 2003- entry 16.2.03): Descending across big stones into a cauldron, one reaches the head of a calcite cemented collapse front (keyword: speleothems) which leaves a breakdown chamber on the right-hand side. Already 40 m from the cave entrance, it is possible to descend between boulders to a rivulet, and to follow it downstream to a cauldron. On the upstream side of this cauldron, a squeeze down through boulders gainA large, dark cave entrance (15 m wide, 8 m high) gives access to a passage of similar dimensions, arriving from the east. ETYMOLOGY: The Garo -Wakantagop- (thorn-bamboo hole) is compounded of -wa- (bamboo), -kanta- (thorn) and -gop- (literally: -down-), a relatively large sized closed depression (doline). SITUATION: In the north-east corner of Wakantagop, a huge doline about 300 m wide and 80 m deep, which lies deep inside the jungle (note 1) and at a walking distance of two and a half hours north of –>UmblekaCAVE DESCRIPTION (after Jantschke 2003.02.16 Mss -Fahrtenbericht 2003- entry 16.2.03): Descending across big stones into a cauldron, one reaches the head of a calcite cemented collapse front (keyword: speleothems) which leaves a breakdown chamber on the right-hand side. Already 40 m from the cave entrance, it is possible to descend between boulders to a rivulet, and to follow it downstream to a cauldron. On the upstream side of this cauldron, a squeeze down through boulders gain the rivulet once more but it soon forms a deep pool that was not swum. It is likely, however, that the collapse front closes the cave at this low level as well, because it likens, both in direction and flow, another sink (note 2) at the contact of nummulitic Siju Limestone (Eocene) on arkosic Mahadek Sandstone (Upper Cretaceous), which we found on the way home along a different route somewhere east of Wakantagop (after Jantschke, note 3).