Sima de la Higuera

Description

After much debate as to who would go on this trip, the mad-dogs piled into Dr Cock’s rental for the 30 minute drive from our base at Federación de Espeleología de la Región de Murcia. After several failed attempts at finding the spot to park in, the doctor exasperatedly announced that the car would not be capable of driving up the gentle slope ahead. A long hike in the midday sun awaited. Shorts, t-shirts and SRT kits donned we set off on the pine forest lined track, which soon turned into a path up the hill. Arriving at the trig point Monica announced that the cave key had been left at the car. Whilst the rest of us enjoyed the Spanish sun and mountain views, Monica set off back down the hill. Once back, we quickly made our way down the far side of the hill and located the entrance (turn right at the trig-point). The cave name translates to ‘The Cave of the Fig Tree’, for the large tree growing from the entrance, with huge roots reaching down the shaft. Jack started off rigging the cave with the WSG’s brand new 80m cuerda. As we descended, the impressive tree roots stretched for almost the whole first 70m section, gradually becoming thinner and more dispersed. When we got to the traverse at the end of the first section, Jack realised we still had another 60m rope to go, but had run out of krabs. With some shouting back and forth, we pillaged all spare krabs, even stripping the krabs from our bag’s donkey dicks. This allowed the full descent through what can only be described as a crack lined with razor wire (without a warmbac to protect our bacs!). The sima immediately delivered with cracking hypogenic formations. We left our SRT kits and bags at the bottom of the rope and followed the conservation tape through the popcorn covered passage. The path quickly came to a dead-end with a viewpoint over the glass village – passage sloping up away with needle like formations floor to ceiling. About turn and a traverse around a puddle, the passage narrowed to a squeeze with a 3m drop on the other side. This tall rift quickly came to an end with the way on below the left hand wall. This popped out into another chamber strewn with pretties and a deep blue pool. With no obvious way on we explored a side passage that ended with the skeleton of a dog (?). Turning back, Monica came to the realisation that the way on was through the pool. We made our way through and continued exploring the passage beyond. The cave kept impressing with new formations, including these remarkable smooth bulbous formations, ranging from the size of an egg to over a metre across, making the whole area feel like the set of an alien film. The navigable passage quickly ended with a wide chamber full of stalagmites, similar to Otter Hole’s Hall of Thirty. Most of the 5.5 km of passage is off limits to visitors for conservation purposes. At the end of the cave, we spent a few minutes trying to take some arty photos with our lights placed around the place, before heading back the same way we came. The only notable part of the return was Peter kicking bolders down the entrance pitch to Matt and Monica below. We left the cave rigged for another team to derig on Friday (hopefully).

Written by Jack and Kiran