Caving trip to Timor

Hello All!

In typical Cindy and Zee fashion, our poor planning may benefit those of you of a similar inclination. We’ll be running a caving trip over up at Timor Caves over the long weekend. We’ll be leaving on the Friday night (it’s about a 5 hour drive north of Sydney), and then most likely bush camping, before driving back on Monday afternoon. (There may be a slight possibility that we’ll be allowed to stay in a shearer’s hut).

There will be no reception, and there are no amenities at the bush camping site (no long drops). You will need to BYO water for the entire weekend. There is a small creek crossing over a concrete causeway – whether the crossing will be wet will be dependent on the weather (forecast is looking pretty dry at the moment). You don’t need a 4WD.

You will need the following for camping:

• Tent*
• Sleeping bag*
• Sleeping mat*
• Cooking utensils + stove*
• Clothes, toiletries etc
• Toilet paper + trowel / shovel if you have one
• Breakfast for Saturday, Sunday, Monday
• Dinner for Saturday night, Sunday night
• Hand sanitiser
• Enough water for the weekend
• clean shoes to wear when not caving

You will need the following for caving:

• Helmet*
• At least 2 sources of lights + enough batteries / powerbank to last the entire weekend.
• Clothes to cave in
  • overalls preferred*
  • (can be borrowed from club)
  • Otherwise top & bottoms that can get dirty – tradie shirts & pants work pretty well and they can often be found at op shops eg Salvos, Savers)
• Thermal tops & bottoms
• Gardening gloves – you can get these from Bunnings / kmart
• Shoes that can get dirty and have good grip (sneakers are okay)
• Personal meds
• Kneepads (your knees will appreciate you) – you can get these from Bunnings
• Small backpack to drag around inside the cave
• Small water bottle for caving ( <750ml)
• Empty bottle to use as a pee bottle (i would recommend a powerade / gatorade bottle over a nalgene!).
  • 600ml or 750ml is a good size, unless you’ve got a very small bladder.
  • For the ladies, I definitely recommend the powerade / gatorade bottles as they have a wide mouth, as well as a small funnel
• Small lunch to eat in the cave on Sat / Sun. We will probably have a lunch outside on Monday before heading home

*These items can be borrowed from the gear cupboard. You may need to contact the gear officers directly to arrange a collection time as the semester hasn’t started yet

Please let me know in your comments below:

1. Your experience caving (if you haven’t been caving before, let us know what other outdoorsy things you do (eg plastic or real rock fondling, canyoning etc)
2. What cave / caving area in NSW would you like to visit besides Timor?