28 August 2010 Caving at Wee Jasper
Map: Couragago 1:25000
Getting There
This walk was organised and led by me a CBC walk, with technical consulting from Bill Wallace:
Saturday 28 August - Caving at Wee Jasper. With guidance from Bill Wallace who knows these caves and has been in them many times, a look into a couple of the caves. No ropes required, but helmet and light, and clothes which will get very dirty. Map: Couragago. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$60 per car. Limit: 10.
8 of us met in Duffy and drove in 2 cars via Uriarra Crossing, Mountain Creek Road and Wee Jasper Road to the Fitzpatrick Trackhead in Wee Jasper. The Mountain Creek and Wee Jasper areas are looking as pretty as a picture, with huge amounts of water about. Bill drove up ahead of us and picked up helmets and lights from Mountain Trails. The drive took around 1hr 15mins.
Photographs
Access all primary pics here. All thumbnails in the walk report are active - click for a larger picture.
Walk
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| Track Caving at Wee Jasper and Micalong Creek |
We kitted up and Bill gave us a thorough briefing. We felt very comfortable in his safe hands, along with John S. Both are accomplished cavers of many years experience. Wandered up the Hume and Hovell Walking Track a hundred metres or so and came to the entrance of Signature Cave.
Bill belayed a rope and we entered down the incline. With a bit of water around turning the cave floor to slippery mud in places, my volleys were definitely not the best foot ware for the conditions.
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| Bill briefs the party | Heading towards Signature Cave | Entrance to Signature Cave | Entering Signature Cave |
The photos can speak for themselves - a magic place. Grafitti in places, some as old as the late 1800s. Most done in black soot. The signatures reminded me of the walls my parents-in-law's attic toilet at The Old Vicarage - but here the visitors' book was vandalous. An area of rimstone dams, not pristine because of the large number of visitors over many years, but still most interesting.
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| Signature Cave | 1 Signature Cave | Signature Cave | Rimstone dam in Signature Cave |
Water droplets twinkled in places. Down an easy crawl, we came to a dragons tooth which bonged quite nicely - listen to it on the YouTube video clip 
. We had ample time to poke around a bit, finally coming back up a level through the crawl and eventually back out into the lovely sunlight.
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| Water droplets in Signature Cave | Signature Cave | Dragons tooth that I bonged in Signature Cave | Bill leads the way |
Heading back to the cars for lunch, Bill pointed out an entrance or two to the Dogleg Cave. Neither looked inviting.
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| Another entrance to Dogleg Cave |
After lunch we drove towards the Micalong Reserve and stopped at Dip Cave. A little wetter than Signature and some of the scambling a little more extending, but great fun. Deposits of black bat guano in places, which Bill said was mined as fertilizer and taken out by flying fox through the hole in the daylight chamber. After an excellent look around, we resurfaced.
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| Entering Dip Cave | 2 Dip Cave | Dip Cave | Dip Cave |
Dirty business, this caving. Bill had warned us to wear old clothes and bring a towel or something to sit on in the cars.
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| 3 Caving is dirty business | The Gang |
We drove the couple of kilometres through Swinging Bridge Reserve to Micalong Creek Reserve. Most of us went for a short wander up Micalong Creek, which was absolutely steaming along. The usual river side path was underwater, so we never saw the waterfall, but clambered up a rope-assisted steep path to high above the creek.
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| Micalong Creek signage | Climbing the high point on the Micalong Creek track | Descending the Micalong Creek track | 4 Micalong Creek |
A wonderful day, thanks Bill and John. Company from Frank, Karen, Madeleine, Quentin, Peter and Stas.
Distance: 2km Climb: 175m. Time: 1 day
Grading: S/E; E(6)
KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: Caving at Wee Jasper and Micalong Creek
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This page last updated 20Aug22