Niugini Caver Vol 7 No 5.Pdf
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149 Volume 7 Nuaber·s December 1982 I' Twice Yearly K8.0Q per volume Niugini Caver is. the publication of the Papua New Guinea Cave-Exploration Group, an informal association of persons engaged in speleolpgy in Papua New Guinea. Edi~tor:. Geoff. Francis, P.O. Box 1824, Po~t' Moresby. -As.&~:: John Wyeth, P.O. Box 5854, ··Boroko. Bernard Pawih,, P .. o. Box 102, Univers.i.ty. .John- Wyeth,, Ann Holdsworth • · .John Wyeth, Post Courier. CONTENTS Telct'Ok: B~l1'rlg··"" -~dita, • ................................................................ 15 o Highest~. Peak$ in·Papua New Guinea: R .. M. Bouike •••.• ~ ••........ ~ .. 151 Access ·Problems at Kaimomo Cave, Eastern Highlands Province: R. Kerr ...... 15-3 Light, ·Sources ·for Cders in Papua New Guinea: R .. M. Bourke •.••.. ; •• ·......•. 154 Maig Muir:ene, Ch~ Prov.ince: A. Monserrat ....................... ""' ...... 160 The··· ·caving·--·· ·sc.ene.: R. •.M.1 Bourke ., • • • .. • .. • ... • • • • • •••• ·• . • • • • • • . • • • . • .. • • ••. _. '. • . 16 2 FasaiVil C.We, Eatem Righlattds Prori.nce: R. Kerr ... : ............... '·.· ..•.. 164 of Nembi: R.M. Boul:ke et al. ••...••..•••........ 166 Syngenetic; Soluti~ .~· Reef Limestone:' G. Francis ............... ~ ••.•••.•••. 172. Spe:leopersoulity: Neil Hickson: R.M. Bourke ••.••• " .................. ~ •..... 174 ::·CO'fBl:.;_P,~: ' . ~ :«fvtlie'AteA"i8> Expedition descending. the Crucible,, Atea Kanand-a. :c(Ph:c~o~;-::· :~- \Pugsley) - 151 NIUGINI CAVER VOLUME 1 NUMBER 6 . BDJGIRI CAVER VOLUME. 7 NUMBER 5 150 TBE·HIGHEST MOUNTAIN PEAKS IN.PAPUA NEW GUINEA *R.M.Bourke Recently Carol Clayton, Neil Hickson and I climbed Mount Otto (3,546 metres) which is near Goroka. This is considered a high peak in the Eastern Highlands. Out of interest I made up a list of the highest peaks in Papua New Guinea from · .· ·. ·· · · · • c . ·-'to be produce·d by the l).ew team· this is ·tb7 fi-rst ias- ,oi! N1ug:i:n1 . aver. .ttia out the last mpmoth issue the 1:100,000 topographic maps. I was surprised· to find that there are at - We would b.ke to ~Malcolm.Pound for.ge therg contributions to the C'!ve. least 45 peaks higher than Mount Otto. In places, such as the magnificent (Volume 7,. HOs .. 2-4: .) and. for hu numerous o Malcolm will be going finl.sh to limestone country of the Andabare River headwaters west of Kandep in Enga, · .... • .. G. .over the past seven years. H EZ:p:lorati.:on: roup . will Mike atid .lean Rourke. , owever, . the river valleys are almost as high as the summit of Mount Otto! The actual -Aus.tralia·',at the end ~£.the. year, a 8 ·. h . nd of 1976, so it is posnble summit height does not indicate how high you have to climb. The climb for Mike and Jean .·"went finis~" once befo:. :~s!n:e eof a few years • Mike wrote Mount Otto and Mount Michael is about the same as for the big peaks of Wilhelm ~ha~ they will r7t~ aga~n '!-fter and hope·fully will continue his and Gi luwe (1, 600 to I, 800 metres) . The climb up to some of the peaks in 60% of the material in thi.s 1ss~e an , . Papua is considerably higher! contributiom to Niugini·Caver in the future. .. • . s of Niugini Caver .will be .produced The list is presented in Table 1. For each peak I give the name, the province(s) From now on 1t u hoped that two 1ss;el . 8 No . 1 mainly to a report on the in which it is located and (in brackets) the relevant 1:100,000 topographic each ·year. It is ~tended to de~ote. o ume. 'Ma~ch 1983. Unfortunately it has sheet. "Unnamed peak" mans only that it is not named on the topographic Muller '82 expedi~on and·to bri.n~ i~ ::tt:K.s.oo per year, as productioI? c?sts map .. The symbol "c" before the altitude indicates that the altitude is been- necessary to increase subscl::L~tio • '1979 when the present subscr1pti.on approximate only because no spot height is given, and the height is taken from . · • 1on vi th everything else s1nce ' · . b have::.· ruen a ·. · g . · h. that Niucrin. i caver will once again · e the highest contour line. The actual altitude may be up to 40 metres higher. level was set., However, we.do ope Iii, There are at least 48 peaks of 3,500 metres or higher in P.N.G. However. aPPearing:·on a;• replar basi.s • in places, such as in the Sarawaket Ranges in Morobe Province, there ~ . p . d long· with the later are numerous unnamed peaks over 3,500 m in a limited area. These have -tot , . · . f Mike Rourke .and Malcolm oun ., a 1he· uwu•ent ~~t~es o . e unfortunate for the P·.N.G.C.E..G. been included in the list of 48 peaks. Even a cut-off point of 4,000 m departure of Neil Rickson next ~e~r, a-r . b t bats or to collect water, would not eliminate this problem. Altboughnat~ouals·freq~ently vu~~ ~~v:: tomu~: an· expatriate dominated . the ·systematic expl~ation of cavmember'S~ the North Solomons group·are the It is of interest to note that peaks of over 3,500 m occur in all mainland pursuit. Benuttd Pawih and. a f:W loration at the moment. Furthermore, provinces except for Gulf Province. A number of the highest peaks and ranges t>nly nationals wbo are.active in cave ~ent in Pa ua New Guinea is now are composed of limestone. These include Mount Saraw.aket and other peaks in the amount.of. ~.xpl.orati.on by cavers res1 It s·e.a!s inevitable, therefore, the S.arawaket Range of the Huon Peninsula, the various peaks of the Star . , ·- 1 h f . • t was 20 years ago· · ... 11,1& . d · · Mountains on the Indonesian border, the extemely dissected.Mount Kaijende in cons1der~Ji·~7'·'~ ess t an l. • .• 11 depend maialy on overseas expe it ions -~-t: spe:.·-·.,.-.legy in ·Papua. N~~ Gud. i.ne~itions of this year, for some time to . Enga and Mount W.amtakin between Telefomin and Oksapmin. Caving expeditions .like• "th~··HUller 1 82 ~d Kai.Jen e e-r- have visited all of these areas as follows: French to Mount Sarawaket in 1978; -eome. Australian (1965) and British (1975) to the Star Mountains; USA/Australian to Mount Kaijende in 1982; and British to Mount Wamtakin in 1975. Whilst the. results of trips to the very high altitude karst cannot be considered conclusive, they have been very disappointing in these high areas in all instances. The only significant result was that the French found a number of small caves at 3,700 - 3,800 metres on Mount Sarawaket,which are amongst the highest in the world (Bourke, 1982 ) Caves aside, the high peaks are exhilarating places to explore and then is no shortage of them in Papua New Guinea. REFERENCE Bourke, R.M. ( 1982). The greatest caves of Papua New Guinea (December 1980) Niugini Caver 7 (2,3,4): 28-37 * P. 0. Box 384, Kainantu, E. H.P. , Papua New Guinea. 152 . NIUGINI CAVER VOLUME 7 NUMBER 5 153 NJ:UGINI CAVER VOLuME 7 NUMBER 5 Tahle 1 The highest mountain peaks in Papua New Guinea ACCESS PROBhEMS AT KA!MOMO CAVE, CHIMBU PROVINCE Summit altitude (m) Peak R.Kerr * i, · Mt 'WiThel.m., Madang/Simbu/WHP {Bundi) 4 509 Kaimomo cave is located near Kaimomo village in the Chuave District of the 2 Mt Giluwe, SFIP/WHP (Mendi) 4 367 Chimbu Province. The cave was visited on 8/3/80by a party of 15 people, 4 121 g Mt Sairt~W:aket, Morobe (Kabwum) mostly novice cavers, from Goroka Teachers' College. Difficulties were 4 104 '· 4 · . Mt K.abanga.tll.~ (2) , WHP (KUbor) experienced in. negotiating a reasonable entrance fee. Initially the 4 071 '·<t·:~~:~:1f~·~.;:·"mnn~e·fi ~:I<;. -(1)., sarawaket Ra, Morobe (Sarawaket) Village spokesman refused to allow us access to the cave. Subsequently tL· ': ~ Mt C~~1la, Star Mountains,· WSP (Yapsiei) 4 015 he relented but declared that the past system of paying only one man was c.4 OOO 7. · ... \:· · M.t Bahg'eta 1 Morobe .(Kabwum) unsatisfactory and therefore we would have to pay everyone in the village. c.4 OOO ~. ' .Mt Victoria; Central/Orb (Kokoda) · We pointed out that this would result in an exorbitant charge and that no 9 Mt Albert Edward (East Dome) , Central (Albert Edward) 3 990 one would visit that cave because of the high costs involved. 969 10 Mt Kubor (2), Simbu/WHP (Kubor)·· 3 11 Mt Iguntam (2)., · Simbu/Madang (Minj) c.3 960 Fortunately two of our party spoke tok ples and were eventually able to 12 Unnamed peak, Star Mountains, WSP (Yapsiei) 3 932 negotiate an entrance fee of K2.00 per lecturer and KO.SO per student. 917 13 NM/J/14, Morobe (Kaiapit) 3 The villagers calculated the total entrance fee for 6 lecturers and 8 880 14 Mt Kegeraga (2) , WHP (Ialibu) c.3 students as K14.50. · Although their mathematics were somewhat suspect we 15 unnamed peak (2), Finisterre Ra .. , Madang (Saidor) 3 878 did not challenge this particular point as the error was in our favour. 16 Mt Albert Edward (West Dome) , CP/OP (Albert Edward) c.3 840 One of the arguments we used to obtain a reduced fee was that it-was unfair 800 17 Huxley Peak, Central/Oro (Kokoda) c.3 to introduce a new system of greatly increased charges without forewarning 18 Mt Kusiwigas (Scorpion), Star Mountains, WSP (Yapsiei) c.3 800 potential visitors.. However in response to this they suggested that the new 19 unnamed peak ·{2), s.w. of Teptep, Madang/Morobe (Gali) c.3 800 charges would be gazetted by·a public notice in the local paper.