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Summery

I've honestly never seen a Landover so full. Jam packed. There was jam in there, but to be honest it was mainly tents, ropes, food, karabiners, slings, SRT kits and other necessary devices to allow us to safely and successfully search, find and explore the land of Durmitor, Montenegro for new and unexplored caves. Oh, and live there right up in the mountains for three weeks too.

On the 9th August, a long car journey and 8 people on a plane later, followed by a day and a half on buses, 10 of us arrived in the Montenegrin small town of Zabljak. Our camp was an initial 30 minute drive away, followed by an hours walk covering 3k and over 200m upwards. It was absolutely stunning, the whole area over 2000m high and filled with peaks and crags of white limestone.

The first day was spent loading ourselves with as much as we could possibly carry, and transporting it from the Landover to our camp. The trek takes about an hour and a half up when laden, and certainly was going to get us fit over the three weeks. The scenery, however, just grew better and better as we climbed, and the promise of a cup of tea at camp was always a good spur on!

For the first few weeks our camp was shared by a group of 5 Polish and 3 Serbians. It was brilliant to be camping with them, and they were invaluable when discussing areas and ideas.

Most days were spent prospecting. It was tiring, but the continual beautiful scenery kept us all in good spirits. Splitting into teams, and deciding on an area on the map, we armed ourselves with a GPS, food, water, and a spattering of caving gear and equipment just in case anything was found. W explored any holes or rifts or ditches that looked at all potential. Although hoping for a massive hole in the ground leading to a the biggest cave in the world ever, we realistically realised that small holes, digging and removing boulders would probably be more productive than searching for a cave mirage. Slings, crowbars and rubber gloves were all priceless when trying to move boulders, and we became well practised in the art of resourceful rigging.

Another area, known as Mark's Playground, was completely different, and much more exciting. It was a few hundred metres long of limestone pavement, and consisted of many rifts, most of which descended between 3 and 20 metres before meeting a snow plug. These were all explored by rigging ropes and abseiling down, and then time was spent exploring along the edges of the snow. We did dig a little, however were cautious about going underneath the snow plug for stability reasons. Some small chambers were found, but nothing expansive.

The cave inspiringly named as X3 was found on the previous 2004 expedition, however was yet to be surveyed properly. The entrance descends through a tight squeeze between a huge snow plug and rock, a much different experience compared to that found in Britain. A few days were spent rigging it, making sure there were no further ways on, and then measuring the chambers and passageways using a tape-measure, compass and clinometer in order to produce a complete and accurate survey.

The biggest find of the trip was T34. The cave entrance was high up on the side of a ridge, on top of a steep scree slope which made changing interesting! This appeared no more promising than many other entrances also looked at, yet when descended between the snow and rock, opened up into a chamber approx. 3m high. The obvious way on was fruitless, however luck was to be found by moving a few boulders, and a tight squeeze led us to another small chamber. After putting in bolts and rigging a traverse line, we were led to a roughly circular chamber 16m wide and 5m tall, which was incredibly impressive. It was stunning to think we were the first people ever to set foot in such a place.

Not every day was spent on caving related days. A week in and a few of us decided to take a day out to go to the town for food, and extend the trip to Crno Jezero, "The Black Lake". Unfortunately, the law of always having your lights on was new to us, and we forgot to turn the lights off whilst shopping, resulting in a dead battery. Through broken English, miming jump leads, and pushing the car repeatedly down the road, we eventually got it started, and arrival at the lake was very much appreciated. It really was a haven with stunning unspoilt scenery, and we relaxed, swam and drank in the utopia. The surrounding tree lined hills reflected on the lake making it seem dark, hence the name, however once in the water, it was unbelievably clear. This peaceful bliss was not to last however, as whilst heading home the battery problem became a lot more serious, and a bust alternator meant we cut out, couldn't restart no matter how much effort we put in pushing it up hills, and we all felt a bit frantic. Finally, after the help of a friendly Montenegro man for an hour, and a bus driver and some passers by, we chugged along just enough to reach the parking space for camp.

Another day was spent climbing Bobotov Kuk, the highest peak in Montenegro at 2523m. The view from the top was fantastic and well worth the climb. Also, a random outing was spent with some people from La Patchanka, a European summer camp, and we spent the evening down in the valley with them, filled with fabulous activities such as fire juggling, poi, stripping the caber and a feast of delicious spit roasting lamb. It was brilliant how friendly and hospitable everyone we met was.

The three weeks I spent were some of the best in my entire life. The days were tiring and parts were hard work, but it was 100% rewarding and so so much fun. It was such a privilege to be able to be in such a stunning part of the world with such brilliant people doing amazing things. I don't think we will ever return to the exact campsite, yet the area is still largely unexplored, however it has all opened my eyes to the world, the caving potential and the beauty of the unspoilt landscape. Fantastic!

I would like to thank our sponsors for making this possible: PremierLight for lighting our path with wonderful head torches; Morning Foods Ltd for generously feeding us at every breakfast, providing us with enough energy to get out there; AMG Group Ltd for their fantastic products at wonderful prices, where we would be in a camping trip without tents and sleeping bags?! And finally, the university for funding us and making the trip financially realizable.

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