July 14, 2004
"Spelunking"
by Sean McCarthy

Yesterday we dropped off Earthwatch Team 1 and tomorrow we pick up Earthwatch Team 2, so today was a free day for all of us on staff. Jodie had mentioned some caves that are close to Mahajanga, so we decided to rent another four wheel drive truck and set out to find them. We woke up before the sun rose so we would have as much time as possible to explore the caves. I’d like to blame it on still being half asleep, but I walked out of my hotel room with no boots, no flashlight, or any other equipment that is necessary to go hiking in a cave. Luckily Julie reminded me before we left to grab my headlamp. I’m still trying to get a hold on this outdoors stuff.

It was a very bumpy road that rivers and streams crossing over it. Yes, not under the road, but water flowing across it. You can only cross this road during the dry half of the year.

A thicket of trees and bushes hid the entrance to the caves. As we entered, there was unfortunately some vandalism to the stalactites and stalagmites. Some were spray painted, while others were knocked down completely. But the deeper into the caves we went, the vandalism lessened and the cave showed less signs of human activity.

Some of the huge stalactites met the stalagmites halfway to the ceiling and formed large columns. In other parts, I could follow the sound of the dripping water to the spot where tiny deposits of minerals, future stalagmites, were forming on the cave floor. We then followed the sound of bat calls into a huge cavern with a large colony of bats overhead and a smelly and slippery layer of guano underfoot.

I was really amazed where there were openings in the ceiling of the cave where sunlight would pour in from above. But the most interesting part was that the trees around these openings had sent large roots straight down to the cave floor and followed the path in the cave for over 100 yards or more.

In contrast to the large caverns, there were other areas where I had to crawl to get further into the cave. We finally stopped and decided to turn back when the only way to go further would have involved crawling through a small tunnel that had a small stream flowing at the bottom of it. At that point, I had just bashed my head very hard, and very clumsily on a stalactite, so I didn’t mind turning back.

There is one cavern that is over 5 km in length, all underground. In the time we had to explore, we only saw a small bit of the cave system. We emerged onto the savanna through a different opening than we had entered. My sense of direction was all turned around, so I was glad we had the guide to point us back to the direction where we had started. This was definitely a very cool introduction to spelunking.