Expedition 197 - 2nd August 2008
Smirisary

This was a wet day, some of the time it was fairly dry but some of the time we had real monsoon conditions and everyone got well soaked. After a whole series of lightly attended expeditions in fine weather, this one was almost a record-breaker: seventeen young explorers and ten adults, the explorers were Ann G., Benjamin, Euan H., Fern, Hannah H., Heather H., Jamie M., Laura C., Matthew, Matthew E., Robbie L., Robert H., Rowan, Sandy G., Toby, Thomas and Zack; and the adults were David H., Michael, Pamela, Phil C., Philippa, Richard L., Robert G., Sandra, Sandy H., and Sharon B. Ellie came as well, although she seemed to get lost in the crowd from time to time.

Some of the party had made their own way to the Smirisary car park, and perhaps it was lucky the weather was poor since at least there was space for all the cars. The weather cleared as we set out and there was a little breeze to keep the midges away. We made good speed along the path to Smirisary village and were soon on the grassy slope looking down at the sea and discussing the problems of that remote and beautiful place. It was a wet walk from the village along the coastal path, with some very boggy places to be negotiated. By the time we reached the turn-off for the caves, the line was very spread out and, although I managed to call back the ones too far in front, we missed the ones far behind and met up with them later.

We swished through the wet bracken down to the shore and everyone was pleased to see we had a nice dry cave to investigate. I had brought several torches and the explorers were able to go right to the end of the cave. More to the point they were all very careful and nobody got a bashed head. On the way out I found one of the hanging egg cases attached to the roof with a big spider guarding it and most of the party had a chance to look at it.

Then we emerged into the rain once more and slithered down to the beach and round the corner to the next cave, which was pretty well under a waterfall. The first section of the cave was a pool and Richard bravely volunteered to wade across and take a torch to investigate the dry inner section. Then it was time to scramble out through the waterfall and get back to the main path.

When we reached the white sands, we found several of the boys already involved in constructing dams and channels around a stream which was running across the beach. This became a major project and all the boys were involved in building a big dam which they watched until the power of the stream broke through. Meanwhile a group of the girls were over on the other beach searching for cowrie shells, but they didn’t find any this time, although there were lots of other nice shells there.

We had our wafers and one of the party watched the sea for basking sharks. He called me over and passed the binoculars and there was a basking shark swimming just off the island. I got the others over and eventually everyone saw the fins of two basking sharks about a hundred metres out.

I was also watching for a skua which had been seen in the area recently but it didn’t put in an appearance. However, the sharks more than made up for that and we all set off for home in good spirits, after a considerable delay while several explorers put sandy socks and boots back on.

Half way back to the village, the rain started coming down in sheets and we were a pretty bedraggled lot which finally reached the Pantry. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible for everyone to join us, but the explorers present did some fine drawings, I picked out Jamie M’s view of work on the great dam.

John Dye