Hades to Heaven

Courtesy of some former Peace Corps Volunteers here in Jamaica, I was able to link up with the Jamaican Caving Organization for 5 days of adventure and uncertainty. Coming in I had no idea what to expect, and what I didn’t realize until heading into the first cave was that this group of guys take this “sport” extremely seriously.

I rose before the sun on a Wednesday morning, and “smalled” up myself for the typical public transportation ride from from Falmouth to Ocho Rios, and then on to Ewarton, which is smack dab in the middle of Jamaica. The taxis won’t leave until we are packed in like salty and oily sardines, so as to make as much money as possible en route. Safety is no concern of theirs, or anyone for that matter here in Jamaica. Eventually you get accustomed to the drivers constantly attempting hazardous passes into oncoming traffic.

Upon reaching my destination, I engross myself in a conversation about Jamaican women and parties with a local Rasta man at a morning cook shop. Although I’m ALWAYS hungry I decide not to purchase any of the aromatic food, which consists of fresh cooked yam, dumpling, ackee, and vegetables. I will soon regret this decision.
I look south down the road from the corner and see what must be the cavers I’m supposed to meet here. The sweetest Land Rover I’ve ever seen comes muscling up to the corner and stops. A few gents exit the vehicle and approach me with a warm and friendly hello. Stefan, the super-funny-entertainer-when-drunk-but-dead-serious-when-caving Canadian helps me load my bag into the Rover. Jan, the half Dutch, half Jamaican hops up into the driver’s seat and hits the gas. We’re off like a dirty shirt!

We stop, unload, and gear-up in a community called Pollyground just a few kilometers west of Ewarton. Here I meet the remainder of the crew. Douglas, a Jamaican from Kingston, and two extreme cavers from Belgium named Kurt and Guy. No time is wasted as we gear up and head out for St. Clair Cave. I’ve been warned this is the worst, toughest, and nastiest cave on their month-long agenda. They assure me that if I can get through two days in St. Clair that I’ve earned a JCO t-shirt. Sweet.

A 35 minute hike through the bush brings us to the mouth of the cave. I look down, and for the first and honestly the only time I get a brush of anxiety. My heart starts to pound, but I hide my fears from the crew and just act thrilled. After lowering our bags, we climb down the 15 feet of tree roots to where the sunlight begins to fade, and the darkness begins. Headlamp on, rebreather on my back (37 pounds), and my backpack on top of that, I make way down into the abyss. The first section is rocky and downward. After a short section requiring a rope ladder, it flattens out and gets muddy and slick. A short distance brings us to a junction. One way leads to another entrance, but we hang a ralph and proceed deeper. This is where the “fun” begins.

Soon we are wading through water waste deep, and it’s quite chilly when it hits your nuts! The ground is rocky and jagged, so using hands on the sides of the cave is a must, especially with 45 pounds on my back. These rebreathers cost more than $10,000 USD, so I can’t afford to “mash up” this thing. Further and further we go, and the cockroaches are getting noticeably more plentiful. I stick my hands in them unintentionally for balance. I despise roaches, but I just don’t think about it. I gotta show these guys how tough I can be!

The aroma at this point is of extreme urine, the humidity is at nearly 100%, cockroaches are everywhere, bat soup water, mud, guano, and bat shit is flying into our faces! This is the largest sanctuary of bats on the whole island of Jamaica. There are hundreds of thousands of bats above our heads, and they are aware of our presence. I’m told to try to avoid shining my headlamp up into the bats, but I couldn’t help myself. A moving sea of bats 30 feet above my head. It was unbelievable, and one of the most rare and spectacular sights I’ve ever had the privilege to witness. The place is so noisy from the hundreds of thousands of “squeaks”. I won’t even exaggerate......at this point all these conditions coalesced into the most extreme and unfriendly atmosphere I’ve ever been in. It was difficult to concentrate and keep composure.
It was blatantly obvious at this point that humans were never meant to be in this environment. I was still having the time of my life though!

Thankfully, the intensity of that section passed as we moved deeper into the earth. The next challenge was body-tight crawl spaces, not for the claustrophobic or faint of heart. We formed a chain to pass bags and gear, and managed to negotiate through about 15 meters of crawl spaces. The O2 sensors were showing clear signs of depleted air. We were filthy at this point and panting heavily. A quick break, and we were on our way again. More and more up and down, crawling, wading and scrambling brings us to a bottle-neck of toppled boulders. This is where unload the rebreathers and all heavy gear for our record decent the following day. I was elated when I realized this was it for today as I had skipped lunch. I had only eaten a fried egg and two pieces of toast all day, and was shaking on fumes. We reverse our path, and worked our way back through the shit storm. With heavy loads off, we make good time getting ourselves out.

With gear cached, the next day we do the same thing all over again. Round two we get a killer breakfast of boiled eggs, bread, and fried dumplin’. We get back to the bottle-neck in 2 hours 5 minutes. The O2 levels are worse this day unfortunately. Oxygen at he bottle-neck reads 14.4 compared to 20.9 at the entrance to the cave. Breathing is difficult. Stefan is worn out, and decides to stay at the bottle-neck. Jan isn’t quite sure what he’s gonna do yet. I help out the good ol’ boys from Belgium in loading on their custom made rebreather apparatus, and follow them to the terminus of my expedition. I assist them in getting all their cables and lights in order, and assuring their O2 sensors are in place and working. Only one other person has ever been this far into St. Clair Cave! I feel strong, and my breathing is well under control. I don’t ask outright, but instead hint that I’d like to go further. The answer is a no-go. I get a glimpse of what it might feel like for some mountaineers to be within in a few hundred meters of the summit of Mt. Everest and having to turn around. I was really disappointed, but this wasn’t MY expedition. I understood. Myself, Stefan, and Jan wait patiently for over an hour in a cockroach infested area at the bottle-neck for word from the Belgium boys. Finally we hear two blows on the air horns, the sign that they found the underground river and are on their way back. A short rest and we are on our way back out of St. Clair Cave. I man up and volunteer to take the heavy rebreather again on the way out. I’m sooo ready to get the hell out of this cave by now. I nearly lost my composure in the bat section on the way out. I can’t tell you how delighted I was to see the light of day beaming into the cave mouth as we neared the exit.

That night we walked up the road to a local shop and began to consume many, many Red Stripes, and chat heavily about the past two days. This is where I realize how dangerous and precarious our situation was. Oxygen levels at the underground river were less than 7. That’s one third of the amount of oxygen at sea level, and about the same as on the top of Mt. Everest at 29,028 feet above sea level. CO2 levels are extremely high as a result of a sugar cane processing factory above the underground river. Apparently they dump all their waste water and it seeps into the caves below. As a result, a bacteria that feeds on the sugar is in abundance. This bacteria suck up the oxygen, and discharge CO2 to mix up a deadly concoction of atmosphere. They said I would have died if I had been allowed to follow them to the terminus of the cave where the underground river flows in two directions. If anything had gone wrong down there, there’s nobody trained on the whole island of Jamaica to come in after us. This is real extreme caving! I felt like a badass, and earned my JCO t-shirt on this trip!

The next morning we proceeded to Kingston to Jan’s parents house to regroup, clean gear, and shower. I had no idea what we were in for. His mother had cooked us an unexpected and amazing meal including roast beef with sauteed mushrooms and onions, curry chicken, salad, mixed vegetables, baguette, irish potatoes, Red Stripes, and chocolate for dessert! That night I slept in a king size bed. In the morning I had a blazing hot shower, only my 5th hot shower since arriving in Jamaica last July. (yes, i count my hot showers). And just when I thought I’d seen enough cockroaches, one jumps out of my towel after my shower! YUCK! From Hades to a Heavenly meal, shower, and a good night’s rest in less than 24 hours! Along with piloting a Cessna and scaling Mt. Rainier, assisting a record descent into St. Clair Cave in Jamaica was one of the most rad things I have ever done!

For more info check out HYPERLINK "http://www.jamaicancaves.org" www.jamaicancaves.org