Guest Post by Rob Shone: Colosuss, Crete

My friend Rob Shone has guest posted here before. Rob is an excellent photographer and one of the few people shooting pictures underground who gets the difference between taking a photo of a cave and making a photo that feels like the place. He is off to Borneo next month, Canon EOS 5D Mark II in hand. Can't wait to see what he comes back with.

-SA

 

Somewhere high up in the White Mountains on the Greek island of Crete, under a barren scree slope lies a colossal 150m deep shaft that has only recently been explored to a depth of -213m and remains wide open.

            

Our team of keen cave enthusiasts from Sheffield University Speleological Society in the UK had been exploring the limestone in search of caves and potholes.

             Now in the summer of 2006 we had discovered nothing to right home about, and certainly not warrant a return trip. However, for some reason, we returned in the summer of 2008 to push further up the valley and into unknown territory.

            It was here and on the penultimate day that Colo’suss was discovered. A modest circular entrance portal dropped away into the most dramatic vertical chasm that penetrated the earth’s surface leading forever downwards slowly turning into blackness. The blisteringly hot sun illuminated almost the entire shaft, or at least it seemed. After closer examination, we realised that only 80m was lit by daylight, and that a further 70m fell away into the void below.

            As is often the case on these sorts of expeditions, it is only at the end of the trip when people are both beaten physically and mentally do you go and find your best discovery. Mustering up a ‘pushing’ team was hard enough, but to find only a couple of people to help me take a photograph was even more challenging. Generally I found, team members wanted to mill about in camp, sunbathing, washing gear and simply chill out before the big march up and over the ridge into civilization.

 

            Thankfully two of my colleagues, Katie Dent and Ben Morley offered their services and we set about making a picture of the entrance shaft in Colosuss.

            Now Katie is very experienced with big shafts and hanging around for hours whilst I setup my tripod, but Ben, on the other-hand, a caver from the south west of the country where the caves are small, horizontal and bloody awkward is not so comfortable in these large open spaces. In fact he is utterly petrified at the thought of only a bit of 9mm rope between your existence in this world and your place in the next. He was always a little bit unsure, not knowing exactly what his roll would be for this particular shot. On the walk up the limestone slopes towards the shaft I tried to play down the scale and exposure. However, the moment he leant over the edge and peered gingerly down into the huge chasm which unfortunately disturbed two nesting pigeons that flew out from one corner, flapping their wings violently as they tried to gain enough height to escape the shaft, I doubted whether he would ever leave the safety of the surface.

 

            However, Katie and I finally persuaded Ben to descend over the lip and into the terrifying space. Immediately I followed him down in search of a location on a wall to fix my tripod. With a small pendulum over to one side I secured a spot and awaited Katie’s arrival.

            It was already around 1630 and I was aware of the diminishing daylight. Keen to make full use of this wonderful warm glow that illuminated the grey walls, I tried to hurry Ben down the rope.  However, the more I encouraged him to descend faster, the slower he went, panicking and mumbling to himself. He made it very clear that he wasn’t enjoying the abseil. All I could think about in my impatient way was the deteriorating light. Sorry Ben.

            Once in position and all ready to go, we created this image of Colosuss. Both Ben and Katie used a couple of P7 LED torches to illuminate the shaft around their locations. Shortly after this was taken, we lost the sunlight altogether as it obviously disappeared over the distant ridge and brought with it a serious drop in temperature. As is always the case up in the White Mountains, the moment the sun sets you immediately loose the heat. We had to evacuate the shaft promptly and make it back down the slopes to our base camp in the secluded valley, in time for tea.

 

Mission accomplished, but not for the lack of apprehensive moments. It is through experiences like this, and was especially the case here that once you have overcome a fear like ‘heights’ do you gain an new sense of utter enthusiasm for life and the simple things it offers.

-Rob Shone

 

Comments

[robbie shone]

Hi April,

'Sexy Mediterranean Islands' I can assure you that the parts that i get to see aint so sexy :(
We leave once again on the 26th June to push even further down Colosuss, hopefully getting into a river cave that the french found last year, popping in from the upstream end where they didn't hit.
Will no doubt mail Stephen afterwards to get his opinion on photos.

Regards,

Rob

[April]

Robbie: Why is that Stephen is always going to wretchedly hot jungles or the middle of nowhere Alabama for cave pics and you get a sexy Mediterranean isle? :)