Johansen’s Cave – not all doom and gloom

From the limestone above the entrance to Johansen’s Cave, you can see the how the limestone was quarried form the side of Mt Etna, there is a “road” that zig zags across the face of the mountain. The limestone in the foreground of the photo is what some people call “tower karst”, it’s very, very sharp if you slip and fall on it. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

In a 4WD vehicle we were able to drive right up to the entrance of J1-1 Johansen’s Cave, tourists to the cave have to walk up a fire trail (just a 1 – 200m walk if that). Being able to drive my cave cleaning gear right to the entrance was a bonus. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

This is the entrance chamber to J1-1 , you walk down these steps into the cave. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

J1-1 Johansen’s Cave:  After going through the big steel gate that you see in the distance, there’s a bridge so you can cross over a bit of a hole, some went down the hole, but I saw a cane toad just as you go down, I wasn’t keen on passing it so I didn’t bother exploring it. These are the majority of the surveyors. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

E Chamber:  Cathi H-H, the organiser of the trip with the first really bad graffiti that we found. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

I didn’t go to this section, but here’s Cathi at one of the gates that have been installed, that pretty much anyone could crawl under LOL. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

I came away from Johansen’s thinking that there wasn’t much formation in the cave (disappointing), obviously I didn’t go to all the areas as this flowstone is spectacular. (Photo:  Garry K Smith

J2-3 lower chamber.  This was one of the few chambers that had “formations” in it. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

E Chamber, with Rod posing for Garry, he’s actually standing on a rock that he removed a big red cross from. The gray cross is one of the historic carbide lamp pieces of graffiti that I couldn’t remove. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

This is J2-3, the lower section which Jim and Garry abseiled down to survey it. I didn’t go down into this section, but looking at it here, would have been easy for me to do. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

The group on the first day assessing the difficulties that they would have surveying. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

This looks like a tunnel into the Trestle Chamber, I removed a lot of graffiti from this area. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

The last day, Garry followed Rod and I around so that he would have a couple of models for his photos (that’s me), to give him scale. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Another “scale” photo, it’s a big cave. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Me in another “scale” photo. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Upper section of J2-3, another photo to give you an idea of the size of some of the chambers. In the old days, this would have had at least 2m of guano on the floor. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Another shot in E Chamber. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Also in E Chamber. 

This is the entrance to J2-3, with possibly Jim about to make his way down holding onto these tree roots. I managed to get down ok (nervously), but when I’d finished my work, I had to get back up with my bucket, pack and spray bottle. Have to say it was easier going up than down. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Another shot in E Chamber. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Half of the group in what might have been E Chamber (not quite sure). (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

J2-3 – I had to photograph the graffiti before I removed it, and then take an “after” shot so that we could document what I had removed. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Rod gave me a hand on a few occasions, we had to have cloths to soak up the water when we sprayed the dust away so that we didn’t leave residue behind. (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Both Rod and I attacking some of the yellow paint (hard to get off). (Photo:  Garry K Smith)

Me in one of the tunnels off E Chamber, was hard standing up scrubbing but on my knees was even harder LOL. (photo: Tina W)