Intermediate Caving Wee Jasper 2023

LET’S GO CAVING!!!!!

This trip has places for some peeps to come to caving at the Wee Jasper caves, on Ngunnawal country, not far from Canberra. About a 6 hour drive...Yay!

When: 19th May, leaving about 4pm on Friday, camping Friday and Saturday night and driving back to Newcastle Sunday evening. There are toilets and hot showers on Saturday night. 

What: Now this is the fun part. First, we make our way to the caves which will be a short walk or drive to the cave entrance. Second, we put on our helmets, switch on our torches and dive into the underground world of rock, darkness and awesomeness. Once inside we walk, crawl, slide, and swear our way through the tunnels, trying to see what we can find and where we can get. It’s the ultimate in terms of exploration, the only thing stopping you finding out what’s around the corner or in that tunnel is you. If you are claustrophobic, this is not the trip for you. We're aiming to get a whopping 2 caves done, one on saturday and another on Sunday, as well as a few smaller caves if were lucky. 

Skills: These caves are not for the faint of heart, there will be squeezing, there will be squirming! Preferably you have caved before, but as the minimum you are comfortable climbing any Pulse top rope medium and are comfortable in tight spaces. If you are claustrophobic this is NOT the trip for you. There will be vertical caves, so abseiling/rapelling skills are necessary if you want to do these caves. Ascending skills will be taught in situ.

What to bring:

- Food for two days meaning 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and snacks (you will get hungry). Dinner on Saturday night will be provided as a group camp meal. Friday and Sunday night will be dinner on the road which you can sort out with your driver. You must bring your own breakfast, lunch and snacks.

- Water for one day (at least one litre in a sturdy or plastic bottle, each car will have a 10 or 20 litre water container for refills, but you NEED a bottle)

- Clean clothes for the car ride home

- Camping gear (can be borrowed from the NUMC gear store or BYO)

- Torches (can be borrowed or BYO) ***Head torch ESSENTIAL***

- Overalls (optional, limited number and sizes for hire, otherwise old clothes will do)

- Spare batteries (Club torches take 4 AAA or 4 AA batteries, you MUST have a complete spare set.) ***ESSENTIAL***

- Backup torch (phones are not allowed in the cave, a $5 hand torch is fine) ***ESSENTIAL***

- Helmets (Gear store)

- Sturdy and/or cheap shoes. Following the “they gon’ get dirty” theme. (You get the point by now, there is dirt. Everywhere. Like, EVERYWHERE. And also water. Water and dirt make mud. You get the picture.)

- Wet wipes/baby wipes recommended, but there will be a hot shower at camp :) 

- Cheap gardening gloves (Also highly recommended)

For additional information, send either of us an email or Facebook message.

That's all the info you need, so once you've got your ticket, make sure to be at the gear store by 3:30 pm AT THE LATEST on Friday the 19th of May for our departure at 4:00. More details to be released once tickets sold.

Camping gear can be borrowed prior, it's a first-in-first-served system. 

That's all from us, get keen, sign up, you know the drill.

Cheers,

Matt M and Chris B