Expedition Name (& Club): Ethiopia 2010

Destination country: Ethiopia
Region: Kundudo Mountain

Lat: 9.4356 Long: 42.3419 Elevation: m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Natalie Uomini

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

To push exploration of caves discovered in 2008 on Kundudo Mountain and finish the incomplete surveys. To do systematic searches for new caves and GPS map, explore, and survey them.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

Please explain the aspects of the trip which make it eligible for Ghar Parau funding.

All of the UK team members have good field experience, through either caving expeditions or fieldwork in remote places. The UK team will be joined by non-UK cavers including three Italians from the 2008 Kundudo expedition, a Swiss cave diver who was on two previous caving trips to Ethiopia (1994 & 2004, unpublished), a New Zealander who co-organised the recent expedition that broke the first -1000 barrier in NZ, and three Ethiopians with extensive knowledge of the region. This expedition will give the less experienced team members an excellent learning opportunity for them to become future expedition leaders.

Detailed description of objectives:

Give a more detailed account of the purpose of the trip, including any particular known caves you intend to visit, specific areas where you will explore for new cave, and scientific experiments you will attempt.

This expedition will build on the work done by previous expeditions in Kundudo. Our local caving contacts Marco Vigano and Asfawossen Asrat were on some of the previous expeditions and Marco will be our expedition guide.

Kundudo (9°26'8.00"N 42°20'31.00"E) is a limestone mountain 2900m high capped with basalt, with many springs emerging around the base. The limestone is between 300 and 400 metres thick in this region (Catlin 1973). We will finish exploring and surveying the Gursum Pearl Cave (Yaguutaa Gursum / Holqaa Oromo), which was discovered in 2008. We also plan to do a detailed GPS mapping and surface exploration of the mountain in order to understand the hydrogeological system to help us target our prospection areas. We plan to use thermal satellite images from remote sensing to also identify potential cave entrances. The team's photographer will document the caves and the prehistoric cave art that is known in the area. The team's archaeologists will record any archaeological or paleontological finds in the caves. We will also collect cave-dwelling sandflies for ongoing biological research into Leishmaniasis, which affects the southern part of the country. Potential problems - No special permits are needed. The 2007 expedition reported high CO2 levels in one cave in another part of the country; we hope to obtain a hand-held CO2 detector from sponsorship so this can be monitored. One previous expedition had access problems in the Kundudo area. Our local contact Marco Vigano, who is one of the main cavers in the country, will be our guide and interpreter for the entire expedition. We hope to avoid access problems by showing strict respect for local customs and taboos and by working closely with local people.

Previous work in this area:

Give details of any previous work in this area by your own and other teams. Include references to reports and articles published on the area, and the names of any local cavers or academics with whom you have discussed the Expedition.

The Tula region, 30 kms to the west of Kundudo Mountain, was explored by the 1972 BSEE expedition. They found three potholes of depth 64m, 30m, and 25m (Catlin 1973). Gursum Pearl Cave on Kundudo Mountain was discovered by our local contact M. Vigano. It was partially explored in 2008 by members of the Italian caving federation, but only an incomplete sketch survey was done and the continuation was blocked by high water levels. We hope to avoid this risk by running the expedition in December, which is the driest month. Several other unexplored cave entrances on Kundudo Mountain were identified by M. Vigano. The previous published caving expeditions to Ethiopia have focused on other regions. Mechara was first explored in 1995-1996 by the Brown/Gunn expeditions and again between 2003 and 2009 by Asrat, Gunn and Baker. The Italian CIRS Ragusa team also discovered smaller active systems in Mechara in 2003 and 2005. Southern Ethiopia was explored by team member Patrick Deriaz in the region of Sof Omar, which is the longest cave in Ethiopia.