Discovering Borenore

BORENORE – 19-20 October 2024
With most of our “usual” caving areas closed, MSS were making a concerted effort to “break out” and familiarise ourselves with some other areas.  So, I contacted the Orange Speleos (OSS) and they agreed to show us around.  Big thanks to OSS for being so generous with their time.

We were staying at the Molong Showground – a nice camping ground outside of Molong township – and part of the Molong Golf course.  When Polina, Vamsi and I arrived, John and Kathy G had already sent up their caravan, and we were ready to put up tents, and then a thunderstorm rolled in.  Polina and Vamsi continued to try to put up their tents (rookie error), I tried to stay out of the rain.  Thankfully, the storm passed over quickly and John was able to put up his gazebo so that if it rained again, we’d have shelter.

Shortly after the storm passed over, Jim and Onni turned up … and put their tents up without the rain LOL.  We were all in bed by 8.30pm – obviously all tired after the 4 – 5 hour drive from Sydney.

Next morning we woke up to drizzle.  We were supposed to meet up with the OSS people at 9am but with the rain, the organiser called up and asked to change the meet up time to 10am.  The MSS people decided to head down to the Reserve to have a look at The Arch, and just as well that we did because Chris T and Ian E were waiting for us there!  So, we headed over to the Arch.

The Arch (BN1), no permit is needed and there are passages all over the place, great cave to bring kids to where they can race around and explore.  Good first cave for Polina and Vamsi as it would be their first caving trip.

Vamsi made me very nervous climb up this high LOL.

The river was murky after the rain that we’d had the day before. The river runs through the arch.

We met the rest of the OSS group (Ian C, Denis M & Jackie) back in the parking lot, and the OSS guys took us to meet the landowner, and then we set off for the next cave. The grass was very wet and it was still quite misty as we walked through the fields.

Whilst it’s no problem to get a permit for the Borenore Reserve Caves, you need to have OSS members to accompany you if you wanted to see any of the private caves.  And, even on the Reserve, we really didn’t know what was available, this was an opportunity to find out more.

Vamsi going down the first cave (Skull Cave BN115 – There are some bones at the bottom of skull cave but Jim’s let me know that it’s named because of a formation that looks like a very scary skull). We set up a ladder for the 3m pitch and top belayed everyone that wanted a belay.

The next cave (McDonald’s Cave BN113) had a vertical pitch so Chris, Jim and Onni set it up (Ian E in the background checking them out). Once they’d all gone down (I didn’t bring my SRT gear with me), Ian C, Vamsi, Polina and I headed off to see some caves on the reserve.

We made our way to the gate between the Reserve and the private property. It took quite a while negotiating our way over fences and through lush green fields. Polina learning how to get over a locked gate, she probably could have crawled underneath it!

Eventually, after checking out a small vertical cave on the Reserve that we didn’t know about, we arrived at Veranda Cave and Chris and I were able to check out some graffiti that had accumulate in this cave, and agree what “should” be removed (with National Parks agreement).

I encouraged Vamsi and Polina to cross the river in Veranda cave to check out how big it is (and it’s huge). They were initially reluctant but once they made the decision to cross over, they had fun.

Once we’d finished with Veranda, we made our way back to the locked gate via the tourist track (a longer walk than I remembered).  We then all went our separate ways, with plans to meet up next day at 9am so we could see some Molong Caves, we weren’t sure what to expect. After a circuitous route, we arrived at a “parking spot” and set off – finally we were seeing the good weather that the region is known for.

The first cave, a deep vertical cave, so we rigged a ladder (and a top belay).

Jim preparing to go down.

The area around the cave where we had to set up.

It took a lot of time to get those down the vertical pitch and then back up again, and before we knew it, we were heading back to the cars.

On the way, John and Kathy showed us a small horizontal cave that they’d found, MO1, amazingly large chamber for something at ground level.

Back at the cars, the group before we all went our separate ways!

A great weekend, achieved all the goals that I had set … find out what’s available both on and off Reserve, and forge a relationship with the Orange cavers.  In fact, the weekend exceeded my wildest expectations.

So, what’s next, we’re getting a permit for two on Reserve caves, AND, clean up the graffiti, plus we’ve hired a house and will have a Murder Mystery night to boot, with OSS members invited along.  Big thanks to everyone for the weekend, and to Ian E for some of his photos.