NING BING RANGE, WA – 27 June – 13 July 2023
Surveying caves in the old days was pretty hard, using a compass, fabric tape measure, graph paper and clinometer. The introduction of a DistoX (laser) was a game changer, and the quality of the maps was second to none. Now we’ve got Topo Droid and I discovered on this trip that it takes mapping to the next level. No more calling out the distance, bearing and inclination to the person drawing the map, the DistoX “speaks” to the App!
Mind you, there were some hick-ups and frustrations for the first couple of days, but by the end of our 2 weeks, Bob, Jim and I were like a well-oiled machine, zipping through tunnels and squeezes in no time at all with Garry off taking awesome photos. And the caving was pretty good too!
In the main we were a group of four, Bob (Fearless Leader), Jim (Dora the Explorer), Garry (The Tick Magnet) and me (Mum).
Sorry my photos are crap. Big thanks to Jim, Garry, Les and Bob, all of whom shared their photos with me. If I’d known I was going to go into such great caves that were so highly decorated, I would have taken my iPhone with me every day (a pain to keep it charged though).
Day 1 – Tuesday 27th June – as it had rained just after breakfast, we hung around the campsites until we were sure the rain had dissipated. Then we set off on foot to locate some “missing” caves, ie, they’d been tagged but the GPS location was iffy at best, KNI50 and KNI90.
Explorer pose – because of the rain in the morning, everyone else had a raincoat but I didn’t (it never rains in the Kimberleys), so I borrowed Bob’s umbrella.
After a morning of looking for KNI90 and not finding it, Garry went down this small hole. Bob and I were just sitting there chatting and he looked across in front of him and there it was, the tag for KNI50. Bob’s gob smacked that we didn’t find the tag earlier. The way to get into KNI90 was over a dodgy big rock (decidedly unsafe), Garry had gone down a hole which was also unsafe, so they decided to relocate some rocks to make it easier to get in.
On the way back to camp, Garry had me pose beside this massive pile of limestone, photo turned out amazingly good, thanks Garry. (photo: Garry K Smith)
With KNI50, we didn’t find it, but we did find a promising hole, Garry went down one dodgy entrance but came out a better one, so Bob gave Jim and me the job of surveying this hitherto unknown cave the next day.
Day 2 – Wednesday 28th June – Jim and I headed off to the untagged cave (Bob and Garry took the hire car back to town). We’d surveyed for a few hours and went back to the entrance. Jim had glued the tag in place, and was down below me. I was just sitting there and Holey Dooley, there was the tag for KNI50, so had to scrape the glue off the rock to remove the now redundant and incorrect tag. We’ve named the cave Holey Dooley because there were also lots of holes in the walls.
I’m in the main chamber now and Jim is walking across from the entrance, lighting up the rock below him. This chamber was very big, probably the size of a house.
There were quite a few areas with good decorations in them, it still blows my mind that somewhere that is so arid can have these great formations.
This was originally a column, but at some point in time, there was some sort of movement in the cave and the middle of the column broke away from the bottom.
Jim (now known as Dora the explorer) checking out what we found as another entrance for the cave, he made a cairn so that if we were exploring on the surface, we’d be able to recognise the entry point for this cave.
We were over surveying (Drawing on graph paper, not using Topo Droid) by lunch time so we went back to camp for a swim.
Day 3 – Thursday 29th June – with a cloudy day forecast we decided to walk over to KNI159 which I had helped survey the previous year with David W-C. Apparently we hadn’t finished it so the aim of today was to finish the survey off.
Nice easy walking from our campsite.
Bob found a passage to the left that we hadn’t seen last year. In the process of surveying when Bob and Jim got to the top (it’s a daylight hole with a big boab at the top) they were waiting for Garry and me to catch up, they decided that this piece of rock that resembled the Sphinx! So we named this chamber the Boab Nut chamber (on account of the big boab tree) and the KNI155-159 system the Sphinx System. (photo Jim C)
Apparently, last year, they found a big muddy chamber, which we eventually arrived at after crawling-belly sliding through 30m of dusty sand. After surveying a well decorated chamber, we didn’t have the time to survey the muddy chamber (which looked like it had other tunnels leading off from it), so we called it quits with the intention of returning the next day to finish it off. Total surveying for the day 266m – with much frustration on Garry’s part.
Jim in the big muddy chamber.
Day 4 – Friday 30th June – we left at 7am and drove down to the area where we could walk back to KNI159 to finish off surveying the muddy chamber. I didn’t want to crawl through the sandy/dusty tunnel again, so I sat in a big open chamber (daylight) to wait for the guys to finish. I estimated they’d be gone for 2 hours. However, the 2 hour guestimate turned into 4 hours as Dora the Explorer kept finding new leads and new chambers. If I’d known I’d be sitting there for 4 hours I would have taken my Kindle to read. We were out just after lunch time, and when I went off on a “toilet break”, I found a small cave near the major entrance which is now known as KNI159a and named Kiddies Cave.
Going back to where we finished off yesterday, this was a section that was a bit hard to get over, it dropped away below where Garry’s arm is, I tried going up over the top (not a good idea), and then returned the way Garry’s going here, both options were less than optimal!
Some nice formations just beyond the daylight area in the gryke.
Jim admiring the roots in the gryke.
The tunnel that I drew the line at, crawling on your belly for what seemed like 30 or 40m.
The gryke where I had waited for them to finish off the surveying.
On the flood plain walking back to the car.
Day 5 – Saturday 1st July – We woke up to rain which didn’t stop until 8.30 so we had a lazy morning, then off to KNI90 to survey again, with Jim and I using pencil/graph paper and Bob using the Topo Droid. We found another entrance which we exited and could see quite a way over the valley. We finished at 3pm with still lots more to go.
A small side entrance into Tunnel Cave KNI43
We walked thru the KNI43 Tunnel cave on the way home – we’ve driven past this small cave so many times, and never stopped to look at it.
It rained from just after dinner to midnight (46mm in all), this was going to clip our wings a bit as we wouldn’t be able to drive on the dirt roads for quite a few days.
Day 5 – Sunday 2nd July – We sat around most of the morning waiting for the wet vegetation and the rocks to dry out after the rain and then headed off around 10.45am to continue the KNI90 survey with Jim doing the pencil/graph paper and Bob again sketching on the Topo Droid. We finished up at 4pm with still another passage to do (will we ever finish surveying this cave)?
Day 6 – Monday 3rd July – Left camp at 7.30am to survey KNI50 (Nice Cave) a mere 15 minute walk from camp. I was on the DistoX with Jim picking out the points from which we’d survey and Bob on Topo Droid. We surveyed to an entrance on the other side of the block of karst, popped out into daylight and walked back around to the other entrance.We went back into the cave after lunch and did more surveying – by now we’re getting pretty efficient with the surveying and knocking off the passages very quickly. Once we’d surveyed enough for the day and exited and when we were walking back down to the flood plain, I fell and twisted my ankle, so I hobbled back to camp whilst the others explored more of the karst. The others had a nice time finding new holes!
Day 7 – Tuesday 4th July – I stayed in camp all day whilst the others went off surveying. In the afternoon WA residents John C, Donna, Steve and Les pulled into camp, they’d made the drive out through the mud (lots of wild stories there), to join us for a few days caving.
Day 8 – Wednesday 5th July – We set off this morning with a very civilised departure of 8.30am. We walked across the creek to the flood plain and then looked around for a “research cave” for an experiment in 2024 which will be undertaken by some grad students. Once we found a suitable cave, we took a lot of soil samples in and around the cave (very strict protocol for collecting samples). These samples will be sent over to Italy.
Day 9 – Thursday 6th July – Bob had a rest day but the rest of us walked over to KNI80 (Cathedral Cave) so we could show off this magnificent cave to those who hadn’t seen it before. There was a snake in the cave, possibly looking for small frogs to eat, we found about four frogs. Garry did a lot of photography in this cave as it’s one of the best ones yet found in the area. This has to be one of the best caves, and this time I got to explore more of it than last time (the snake was off-putting though).
One of the features in this cave was the “pelican” formation, it definitely looks like a pelican to me.
Looking from one of the passages over past the main chamber to another passage/gryke.
Walking through one of the grykes
Les at a lovely formation, at the back of this was a very small frog, about the size of a man’s thumb, there were quite a few of these small frogs which is probably why we came across a snake in the cave (frogs are snakes fav food).
The next cave over, there is a connection between this cave and Cathedral but no-one seemed keen to give it a go.
On the walk out, big flat sections of karst almost like a road you can walk on.
More of Cathedral cave.
And still more from a different angle.
Gour pool with unusual formations, sort of like cave pearls but much bigger.
Day 10 – Friday 7th July – today we went to an area north of KNI159 – we had to drive there, the road was a bit “iffy” in places but we managed, driving slower than normal.
Jim, Bob, Garry, Les and John C on the walk to the karst block.
We did a lot of exploring, looking for grikes that were promising.
Eventually, Jim found a pomising cave (later tagged as KNI164).
Decorations in KNI164. Only Garry and Jm saw this as it was down the dodgy drop.
Jim and Garry went down the dodgy drop (about 11m), I took one look at it and said “no way”. Jim was still keen and set up a station to survey from, either down the big hole in front of him, or a squeezy drop next to his feet.
We all then agreed that it was too dodgy and best left for next year when they had vertical gear. and exited.
John & Les who had joined us for the morning, left at this time to go back to Kununurra and the rest of us crossed the valley to search for other entrances. We followed this dry stream-way further up the hill.
We eventually found ourselves in “Miranda’s Maze” (imagine Picnic at Hanging Rock and the calls “Miranda! Miranda” that’s how much of a maze it was.
More of the maze.
And more.
Eventually we walked into a “bowl”, well, the others did, the drop was too high for me to get down or back up again. Garry found an entrance hole with a large vertical drop. Bob looked over the end and was delighted to find the Sphinx looking up at him, and there, beside him was the boab tree.
The way in and out of the big bowl that we had found.
After our exploration of the bowl, we had lunch in the shade, then walked around to KNI159 to finish off surveying around some of the boulders at the entrance – good to know that KNI159 is now “finished” thank God.
Day 11 – Saturday 8th July – A short walk today to KNI046 to survey this cave which was found ages ago but never surveyed. True to form Dora the Explorer found an extension out to a skyshot (daylight hole) which headed towards KNI049! Garry was on Topo Droid on this day and by 1pm (which is when we called it quits), had surveyed 163m of passage – some of it very highly decorated. We were going to have to return the next day to finish the survey, took longer than the last few days today.
We walked along our camp swimming hole and then up a small hill to get to the cave.
Bob looking up notes from the past visit(s) and Jim going off to explore.
Jim setting up one of the survey stations.
Day 12 – Sunday 9th July – Back to KNI046 to do more surveying (so close to camp, a mere 140m!), we completed it and then commenced surveying KNI049 that Jim had found the day before – very hot in the cave and some of the drops were a bit risky so we decided to postpone until 2024 with climbing gear.
Bob laying down on the job drawing the cave on his phone, and me setting up the station, or measuring with the Disto.
Passageway out of KNI46 to get to the entry for KNI49.
Looking back from KNI149 to where we exited KNI46.
Bit of a climb up to get out of KNI149.
How Jim (Dora) found these entrances to the caves is beyond me, you had to scramble up and over this boulder field to get to it.
KNI49 gorgeous cave decorations.
On the way back I convinced Bob to visit a doline that I was sure would have a cave in it, so we headed over to it, and sure enough cave! Yaaa, but then we discovered that it had already been tagged and surveyed KNI126, and that I’d actually been in it. Was very hot so we retreated back to camp for a swim.
Les (Santa) turned up mid afternoon bearing gifts, fruit, vegetables, red wine and the most delicious barramundi steaks that I’ve ever had. We all then took a walk down to the Butterfly Gorge – hardly any there this year.
Les (you can only see his legs) crossing the creek on a convenient tree after going to the Butterfly Gorge. The rest of us opted to go through the scrub rather than fall off the tree!
Day 13 – Monday 10th July – Our group of 5 (now with Les), headed back to 8 Mile Bore and we walked over to a creek which had many large tufa dams in it.
This “rounded ledge” is a tufa dam, the water flowing in the creek thousands of years ago, would have had a high calcite content (having flown through the caves), when the water wasn’t flowing quickly, the calcite would have built up like this.
Further upstream, the creek with pools of water, the bottom of the pools had what looked like deposits of calcite too.
Eventually the creek with the tufa dams led us to a side creek with a spring (warm clear water) coming out of the side of the hill. Bob having a drink of the water. Later on, when we returned to this spring we saw a large water monitor going up the spring opening (which was quite small, so there must be some “cave” up there.
We then continued walking up to towards KNI151, along this cattle pad.
And here we are at KNI151, a beautiful permanent water hole (aka Mertens’ Water Monitor Cave) which has historically had a large water monitor there but wasn’t there this time. Amazing to find permanent water out in the middle of this arid area. Someone has dived down in this pool and found a passageway down a few metres.
On the way back to the creek, we passed this unusual boab with three trunks – you don’t often see boabs like this.
More tufa dams in the creek.
We then walked around to the south to another karst area to explore “features that the Lidar image identified”. We found a few holes in the ground, Garry and Jim went down this one which had a small streamway at the bottom. We allocated KNI165 to this feature.
Bob and I then went up to a large “doline” to check that out. Nothing other than a streamway that went down into a small hole “nothing to see there!”. But the big flat plateaus of limestone were interesting (made for easy walking too).
Garry found a “hole” that he thought should be investigated, he spent a lot of time excavating rocks, with nothing to show for it.
We did find one small cave, after we went down a bit of a gryke, we crawled down under an overhang and then had to crawl through.
Then up and over this small barrier. There was quite a lot of decoration at the end, but at the end of the day, not worth the effort of surveying it (which we did anyway).
This is the sort of gryke that we found the previous cave it.
Back up on the limestone platforms which were riddled with cracks. The only benefit of getting up this high was that we had mobile reception (for those who had their mobiles with them).
It had been a full-on day, exploring a very large area, not finding all that much, but it was an opportunity to write off this area as “nothing to see there”.
Day 14 – Tuesday 11th July – We headed north today to the Spook the Owl Cave area this had been found last year but not surveyed and we were going to check out the area as Bob wasn’t in the group that found Spook the Owl.
KNI169 cave – we found this small cave, there was a dodgy climb to another passage which Garry did, but it was so sketchy that none of the rest of us would consider it. This entry chamber was pretty cool.
Following the karst up from KNI169, Les found a pink tape (dated 2022), which led us to Spook the Owl Cave. This is definitely an abseil to get into it, but following the karst back down to the valley, Garry found another entrance which he explored and found that it went down to the bottom of the Spook the Owl entrance, we left the surveying of it for next year so that Brian E can abseil into it (and maybe scramble up Garry’s passageway to exit).
Les found another entrance, again an abseil, so this will be explored next year.
We then made our way to Marvellous Cave (KNI163) which we found last year, I wasn’t part of the survey party then, but today we’d attempt to finish it. Jim, Bob and I did the surveying (with Topo Droid now behaving), and it was very quick and efficient. There was also much more to this cave than I expected, we eventually called it quits at 2.30pm, finishing up in an amazing big chamber very highly decorated – mind blowing actually!
This formation was at the top of a slope from the bottom the ceiling was really high up (around 20m I think), and the whole chamber was highly decorated.
I had remembered a bit of crawling, but there was certainly more than I remembered this year, we had to do a bit of excavating to get though some spots!
more great formations.
A highly decorated passage.
Les in front of a pretty nice flow stone, there would have been water all the way through this cave, which has drained away over thousands of years, leaving the flowstone sitting above the floor.
We didn’t finish off Marvelous Cave, that will have to be finished next year, but disappointed as there was much more decorated cave to see. Back to the car over this nice creek, with a snake hiding amongst the rocks.
Day 15 – Wednesday 12th July – Garry was having a “rest day” today as his back was playing up, the rest of us ventured to an area never before explored. We were basing the exploration on a “fly over” that Les did with a friend in a gyrocopter in 2022. Les had spotted some likely caves and GPS’d them. Bob didn’t have a Lidar image of the area, and as, in the past, holes weren’t always that visible from a distance, he wasn’t confident that we’d find anything. And it was an area that others had looked at from afar and came to the conclusion “nothing to see here”. So, with no great expectations, we drove as far as we could over the flood plain and then started walking.
We walked into a small valley full of Bat Winged Coral Trees – so the valley has been unofficially named Bat Winged Coral Tree Valley.
We found and surveyed KNI170, now known as Vindication Cave because Les’ insistence that there was had now been vindicated!
Jim beside a hole which was definitely a pitch to be abseiled.
This area was in a deep “hole” in the block of karst, but you could walk up to it from the flood plain, because it was such a large “hole” it was easy to spot from the air, but from the flood plain you wouldn’t see it.
Jim and Les had scrambled up this small slope and found another entrance that they followed and it ended in a 30m pitch (KNI171), but then another passageway lead to another small entrance out to daylight. This definitely needs to be explored in 2024.
And yet another big cave, further around the block of karst from the 30m pitch cave.
quite a bit of decoration here.
This small walk in cave had a large green frog in it, we couldn’t see it, but each time we shone our torches on the hole it was in, it croaked really loudly, was frightening the first time (LOL).
Bob showing where the tag for KNI172 has been put (this photo becomes part of the documentation which Bob will submit to WA National Parks).
And yet another tag, this one for KNI173.
One of the smaller blocks of karst.
This block of karst was then named the FOMO block (Fun Opportunities with Many Openings – and also since Garry was back at camp with FOMO)! We left the surveying for 2024 confirming that many caves are here to be found in the future. The best part of today was that we were going into caves that no other human had ever entered, pretty mind blowing – very hard to find in Australia a place where no man or woman had ever been before.
Day 16 – Thursday 13 July – Les very kindly drove Garry and me back to Kununurra today so that we could catch tomorrow’s flight back to Sydney.
This would have to have been one of the highlights in my caving life, to be in such a remote area and find pockets of caves as yet unexplored is truly amazing. I will miss out next year, but hope that I’ll be able to go in 2025, even if I can’t cave, I can live vicariously through everyone else’s adventures and maybe be the “Camp Cook!”. And yes, I’m a convert, Topo Droid is definitely next level surveying and the way of the future.