Journeys Beneath the Earth

Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction

1 In a Cardboard Box
2 Getting Hooked
3 Gouffre Berger expedition and a new depth record
4 The Caving Scene
5 Gouffre de la Pierre-Saint-Martin expedition, 1969
6 A Few Cave Rescues
7 Gouffre de la Pierre-Saint-Martin, 1971
8 The Deepest Hole in the World, 1972
9 Gouffre de la Pierre-Saint-Martin, 1973
10 Tatra Mountains Expedition, Poland 1974
11 Felix Trombe, France, 1975 and 1976
12 Sima GESM, Spain, 1981
13 Chiapas, Mexico, 1982 to 1983
14 V3 Tunnels, Hitler’s Terror Weapon, 1983
15 The Untamed River Expedition, New Britain, 1984-1985
16 Tulakan Karst, Java, British Combined Forces Expedition, 1986
17 Operation Paddington Bear, Peru Expedition, 1987
18 Guangxi Province, The China Caves Project, 1987-1988
19 Three Counties Expedition to China, 1989
20 Gunung Mulu Expedition, 1988
21 China Caves Project, Yunnan Province, 1990
22 Yunnan, China, 1991
23 High Trikora Expedition, Irian Jaya, Indonesia, 1990
24 To Russia with Love, 1990
25 Gunung Mulu Expedition, 1991
26 Bac Son Massif Vietnam, 1992
27 Caves of Thunder, Irian Jaya, Indonesia, 1992
28 10 years in the Borneo Rain Forest

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Journeys Beneath the Earth

David William Gill

Self-published. 2020. Revised edn, viii+288pp, 32 b&w and colour photographs, 5 maps and surveys. Softback, 150mm × 226mm. £34.93

ISBN 979-8-6175-4974-6

IT’S now becoming clear that the past fifty or sixty years have been a golden age of cave exploration in many parts of the globe. Some of that has been down to technology: the shift from carbide ‘stinkies’ to long-life, high-power LEDs; much better clothing; the move from ladders to ever-more-sophisticated techniques based on ever-lighter single ropes. Dave Gill has lived and caved though all these changes, and this account of his remarkable life makes clear another reason for the success cavers have enjoyed in this era – the determination and boundless ambition of explorers of his ilk.

The early chapters, describing Dave’s pushes into some of the more desperate bits of Derbyshire, are extraordinary. I had no idea how gnarly Giant’s Hole once was, before its entrance series was blasted out: just to reach Garlands Pot – now a few minutes’ stroll – was a struggle requiring total immersion. Yet Dave and his mates not only dealt with it, but pushed into new passage far beyond. Similar frolics were to be had in Lathkill Dale, and in the connection of Giant’s to Oxlow Caverns.

Gill thrived on the baptism such adventures provided and soon moved on to bigger challenges abroad – such as a diving trip to the bottom of the Gouffre Berger in 1967 under the tutelage of the infamous Dr Ken Pearce. ‘The sight of Big Black Pearce, as he was affectionately known,’ Dave writes, ‘was enough to strike terror into the heart of any budding caver. He was a huge, powerfully built man with an equally powerful personality, not a man to be trifled with.’ Yet Pearce emerges from these pages as oddly vulnerable – initially, as others have said, an authoritarian but, once challenged, a much milder character who realised he’d gone too far. He remained as keen as ever to achieve his objectives – which, by diving the Berger’s Sump 2, he did.

Of course, the Berger trip was on ladders, as were later forays in the seventies into the unexplored depths beyond the Salle de la Verna of what was then the world’s deepest cave – the réseau de la Pierre Saint-Martin in the Pyrenees. Soon enough, SRT beckoned, heralded by a few hair-raising near-death experiences – such as descending big pitches on hawser-laid polypropylene.

Arguably, Dave Gill’s biggest adventures have been in Asia and accounts of these trips provide the most gripping sections of this book – in Mulu, China and, above all, New Britain. There, over five months in 1984-5, he led the incredible Untamed River expedition to the Nare, a vast torrent that lies at the bottom of a vertical doline more than 300m deep. Just reaching the entrance was an epic that lasted six weeks: this was an expedition of the old school, involving flights, boats, porters and stone age people habitually clad, according to gender, only in penis gourds and grass skirts. The difficulty and danger were enormous, requiring a series of perilous river crossings and exposed traverses in a tunnel which, though mostly very big, was so filled with noise and spray that communication was almost impossible. Yet the team had to sleep inside the cave as well as explore it: when they tried to camp at the bottom of the doline, they discovered they were liable to be hit at any time by falling rocks. Progressing beyond the previous limit – dubbed by its French explorers Apocalypse Now – was a major achievement, and this section of the book alone is well worth the price of admission. After reaching Nare’s end, the expedition explored a series of further, major systems, which were almost as challenging.

Gill is also fascinating on the social history of his caving era: working class to his marrow, he made a living as an electrician, although nowadays he lives near his Mulu hunting ground with his partner and has made a huge contribution to the Mulu national park’s management, as well as successfully lobbying for its extension to include the northern Gunung Buda massif.

Special mention must be made of the efforts of Graham Mullan and Linda Wilson. Dave’s book was first issued in February, but it hadn’t been properly proof read. The pair very kindly did the job and improved the layout, which also contains a selection of superb photos. I know it was a lot of work and, in this revised format, all I can say is it was well worth it.

David Rose

This review was first published in Descent (275), August 2020