Expedition Name (& Club): Kaokoland 2018 (Gloucester Speleological Society)

Destination country: Namibia
Region: Kunene Province

Lat: -18.6878 Long: 13.7424 Elevation: 1514 m
MEF funding: none

Leader: Dr Mark Tringham

Brief Expedition objectives:

List a short summary of the main Expedition objectives.

To explore, survey, photograph and study new caves in the Kunene Province, NW of Namibia.

How can the GPF support your Expedition?:

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

Grant aid is wanted from GPF to assist with equipment purchase and travel costs to Namibia for UK participants. GPF support would help publicise the caving activities and potentially help attract future visitors to this very undeveloped area. A successful expedition would likely help provide inward investment to native Himba and Herero village communities and encourage them into eco-tourism instead of goat and cattle farming that is presently harming the environment.

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.

Since the previous expedition in 2015 nearby areas of interest have been identified that were not reached before. Local village conservancies have been recording new unexplored cave entrances for evaluation. Additionally Google earth image data and geological publications are being used to search for further promising areas. The purpose of the 2018 expedition will be to evaluate these caves, survey, photograph, study them and publish the results. Local Conservancies will be advised of the conservation requirements to protect the caves and advised if there is any potential cave tourism resource.
Of particular interest will be to determine the speleogenesis in this arid area. The caves are found in very ancient Neoproterozoic dolomites and limestones and the ones explored in 2015 are mostly interpreted to be of hypogenic origin formed by hydrothermal waters migrating upwards mostly on faults. Some of the caves found in 2015 contained mummified antelope remains and there is potential in this region for archeological finds including early hominid remains.

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.

A small team of South African and Namibian cavers visited this area twice in the 1990's and using aerial photos identified larger cave entrances and explored them. No other explorations are known to have occurred until 2015 when a small UK/French expedition took place that GPF supported. Key to success in this area is good local liaison to help find often quite small entrances that expand out downwards and which bear little or no relationship to present day surface topography and drainage. The 2015 and 2018 teams have liaised with local village Conservancies through the Namibian NGO 'IRDNC' (Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation) to help locate cave entrances. The findings from 1990's are listed below. The 2015 expedition results were published on GPF website and presented at the Yorkshire Eurospeleo Meeting in 2016. The full report of the 2015 Expedition is presently in final preparation for publication by GSS.
References:
Martini, J.E.J, Marais, J.C.E, and Irish, J., (1990) Kaokoveld Karst, Namibia, The 1990 SWAKNO Kaokoveld Speleological Expedition. Bull. S. African Speleologial Association, Vol. 31, p.25-41.
J.E.J. Martini et J.C.E. Marais (1996) Grottes hydrothermales dans le Nord-Ouest de la Namibie. Karstologia No. 28-2, p. 13-18.
J.E.J. Martini, J.C.E. Marais, et J. Irish, (1999) Contribution à l’étude du karst et des grottes du Kaokoland (Namibie), Karstologia No. 34-2, p. 1-8.
Tringham M.E.(Ed.) Kunene Region Namibia 2015, Kaokoland Speleological Expedition Report. Gloucester Speleological Society Spec. Publ. (In Press)