PCE 2000 - Perlis Caving Expedition

Team Members

 Team 1 : Darren, Colin and Hoi Lan

Team 2 : Weng Sia, Alan Lim, Siew Eng and Min Er

     After seeing the key team members (Leong/Yee1/Yee2/ Tony) breaking away and proceeded to de-rig at the LPS & Baba connection point, existing cavers were then self divided into two separate teams : Team 1 proceeded together with key team members up connection point to further explored Crystal Chamber with the hope to find a connecting passage leading back to the last pitch from LPS. On the other hand, Team 2 (Siew Eng, Min Er, Alan and Weng Sia) was given the task to further explored south from the connection point.

     We (Team 2) headed south precisely at 2.15pm after a short lunch break. The walk towards south was simply interesting as we were actually going through a narrowly blasted walkway with high vertical walls (2.5m high at least) on both sides, stream water flowing towards the north heading back to connection point. Blasted rocks, wire debris, broken pipes, left over food wrappers, used carbide were seen along the pathway. We had to walk carefully in order not to fall down on our knees and get hurt.  We then decided to take a compass reading to determine the direction we were heading, and found out we were slowly walking towards the south east direction to be exact. Heading south was appropriate since we were hoping to find some form of indication or possible leads to Foh Thye. Seems too ambitious and too early to tell, but hey, who knows….why not give it a try.

     We had about 5 min downhill and 15 min uphill walk. Still heading south east, similar to seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, the anxious 20 minutes walk took us to an overhang chamber and a climb following a rotten staircase finally lead us to a large   wide open area or chamber. We found a lot of abandon debris like waste tins, old sport light bulbs, miles of wires, ground sheets, water pipes, rotten wooden planks covered full with white color fungus and etc. A look at the debris found and the setting of the entire chamber, we can safely concluded that the chamber must be used by the tin miners in the olden days as a base camp for resting and storage. The soil found in the area was wet and  loosen similar to soil erosion. The big gigantic rocks piled up on the foreground seems to be the after effect of a collapsed ceiling many years ago. Looking far ahead from where we were standing, we could roughly see a water way lying in the background. To make sure, Alan went to further investigate. Yes, true enough  Alan’s confirmation of a sump in the far end direction matches an earlier statement by Leong, that there could be a possibility of the area leading to a sump.

     This time round, we again measured the direction to head, and decided to moved south west this time round, following a broken hanging pipe above us. There must be reasons why the pipe was located in that manner towards south west direction. We then scrambled through a few rocky climbs, our shoes were all soaking wet and muddy making our climbs extra slippery. Luckily nobody slipped and fell. Despite our anxious search, we did not find any leads towards the south west area as the path soon closes ahead in front of us with falling gigantic rocks.

      The adrenalin rush findings although was meaningless in the south west soon lead us back to base camp area and we are now looking ahead of us……the sump. We then moved towards the sump. Our headlight shined through the calmness of the sump, we could see some form of broken wooden planks and ladder debris lying at the bottom of the sump, again our common sense pushed us further, playing in our mind there must be an answer to the broken ladder pointing towards the opposite wall of the sump. We could also see with our naked eye, a slight inward passage on the other side of the sump. Silence of the chamber made us very nervous, we soon decided that Alan and Weng Sia would swam across the sump to further probe the area, while me and Min Er will stay back for back up purpose. We agreed on a 15 minutes turn around time for Alan and Weng Sia. Soon we could see them swimming across the sump and their headlight disappeared and voices blurred into a passage opposite the sump.

      After 15 minutes, Alan and Weng Sia swam back to where we were waiting and described to us there was a wooden ladder debris in the passage but leads to no where. Curiosity kills the cat, soon me and Min Er decided to join them to take a look their description closely. The water was cold as usual when we were crossing the sump. The swim was short (5 min) and soon we were all into a small passage and water turned muddy and we were all in a small chamber with no landing area. We saw the wooden ladder leading to no where, ceiling were low at 10 ft high from water level. Walls were muddy and Alan shown us the suspected mud sealed wall area. We thought the wall were sealed (signed of well crafted mud blocks) with mud to avoid further intrusion of mining activities and territory in the olden days. No other leads can be found in the water passage, we then head back to base camp area.

      We were still eager to push further despite two disappointed leads. We then headed south east from the base camp to take a look at the final lead. We ended up no where as the path was again blocked by fallen gigantic rocks and we decided to call it a day at base camp since we have to further explore the outer area before the connection point. On the way out, we took a look at a small left turned passage, and found an interesting hole on the ground, some sort like a well (but this is dry), dug through 15-20 ft in the ground. We suspect this could be the left over of tin ore mining those days.

      Now that was an interesting exploration, an anxiously awaiting search that leads to nothing concrete, the southern direction after the connection point remains a mystery. One thing for sure, the mining activities continued to head south in the olden days, every sign of remains in the southern area indicated further human intrusion and mining activities that could further leads to more cave chambers and connections. Hopefully, a possibility find that leads to Foh Thye.

Reported by Siew Eng