Hidden Earth 2024

Caving in the Abode of the Clouds, Meghalaya, NE India - February 2024

60 minute Lecture|Simon James Brooks

Abstract

The Caving in the Abode of the Clouds Project began exploration in NE India, a part of the world that was not considered at that time to be a major caving area, in 1992. February 2024 saw a remarkably large multi-national team of 30 in the Sakhain and Muallian areas of the Jaintia hills of Meghalaya. Over the the three and a half weeks the expedition was in the field another 13.9kms of new cave passage was explored taking the total length of known and mapped passage in Meghalaya to 551 kms. This presentation will guide the audience through the 'story' of this years expedition, why 30 is not too many, large shafts up to 150m deep are a plenty, huge relic passages seem to be ongoing, cave entrances assumed to just drop into already known systems yield fine pitches and yet more stunning stream ways, and why nearby coal mines prove irresistible to the curious expedition members.