Iran
In 1977 I was fortunate enough to travel as
medical officer on a caving expedition to the Zagros Mountains
of Iran. These lie in the north west and the same range extends
into Iraq, then and, now as I write, a dangerous place to
visit. As an aside it's interesting to note that whenever
a limestone region in the world becomes politically accessible
it is not long before you will find British cavers looking
for caves there. The expedition was over hyped as an expedition
to find the deepest cave in the world. At the time the omens
were good in that a previous expedition had located a cave
in the same area about 700 metres deep, the then deepest cave
being around 1300 metres deep. The important factor here is
'sink to rising' depth i.e. the depth from the highest known
cave in an area into which water flows to the point at which
the water emerges. In the area we were exploring there was
an altitude difference of 2000 metres.
We drove out in an old refurbished omnibus.
One day I will transcribe my record of the trip on line but
for the present the best account is by Martyn Farr in a chapter
of his book The Great Caving Adventure (ISBN 0 946608 10 1).
If you want to know more about Martyn try his web site at
Farrworld which
contains some interesting images as well. At some later stage
in the caving section I will place some of the underground
images.
|
The approach trackk
from the metalled road from kermanshah |
Kurdish homesteads
|
Making tea (note the sugar loaves) |
Village children (redheads seem the same
the world over) |
Spinning |
Another homestead |
Carpet making |
Carpet making |
Carpet making |
Watching the foreigners (behind a boundary
drawn around the camp site)
|
Flowers |
Dry gorge down valley from the base camp
(floods in the wet season). |
Walking the gorge |
Village at the base of the gorge where
the water from the mountain emerges
|
Inhabitants of a summer village part way
up the mountain |
Collecting water from the village well
in goat skins. |
The summit of the mountain (Kuh e Shahu).We
explored the area between here and the ridge in the
distance! |
Striking speleogical gold at nearly 3000
metres. This ridge contained at least 6 cave systems. |
Western Australia
Egypt
Our trips to Egypt have always been primarily
to dive in the Red Sea but the stark desert landscapes and
the antiquities are also not to be missed! The coastal plain
of the southern Egyptian coast is backed by low mountains
riven by deep wadis and a stark stony desert stretches to
the sea. Along the shoreline and behind the current beaches
can be found the fossil remains of ancient coral reefs. Here
the sky on a moonless night is a wonder to behold and the
sun rises as a glowing orange ball from the sea.
 |
Mangrove roots |
 |
 |
Egret in the evening |
Mangrove clump, at sunrise |
Accommodation on a starry night |
Fiddler Crab |
 |
Sunset beyond the mountains |
Early morning |
Walking in the dunes |
Mangroves - low tide and midday |
Desert Landscape |
Osprey
|
Unloading the RIB |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
