The following text is taken from the site of The Polish Mountaineering Association.
On 20-28. August 2022, the 19th Medúza Cave Expedition took place on the Đalovica Plateau in Montenegro. The goals of this year’s expedition, organized by Czech cavers together with Polish and Serbian colleagues, in addition to continuing the research conducted systematically in the Đalovica Pecina Cave, was diving in the Juriško Vrelo Cave and completing the cartographic and photographic documentation of the Gornji Ponor Cave. The base of the expedition was traditionally located at the village of Đalovica, i.e. about 200m above the bottom of the Đalovića canyon, where there are openings to the caves of interest to us. We have fulfilled all our plans and, as usual, we have achieved a bit more!
Past expeditions were mainly devoted to a very detailed study of the Cave of Đalović Pećina – the longest cave in Montenegro. The result of the cartographic work was the publication of a complete 1:200 scale plan of the cave in 2021. Our systematic exploration has doubled the length of known stretches from about 10km in 2003 to 19,559km, with a 241m denivelation.
The local authorities decided to show the beauty of this cave to a wider public, starting a few years ago a project to make it available as a tourist attraction. The chances of creating a tourist gem of Montenegro were lost forever as a result of completely ill-considered construction works, which led to the devastation of the cave, and the local budget to bankruptcy. We will tell you how the unique ecosystem was destroyed and why cavers’ arguments were not listened, during another presentation, but here we would like to mention only photographically why it is so important to protect caves from accidental “tourists”.
Diving exploration in the Juriško Vrelo Cave is a continuation of the study of the siphon system of the spring of the same name, which we started in 2006 with the exploration of the dry parts of the cave. In 2007 J. Čermák discovered 150m of underwater tunnel reaching a depth of 50m. The following year, the exploration was advanced by a further 200m. in 2012 R. Husák and J. Sirotek dived through the entire 1st siphon, discovering a room with a chimney and a 2nd siphon.
This year’s expedition gathered an international team of divers equipped with rebreathers, formed by P. Chmel, M. Petković and L. Obradović. The equipment necessary for diving was packed “only” into 17 sacks, which were transported by all participants of the expedition.
The first dive was reconnaissance and preparatory, new lines were installed in the 1st siphon. During the second dive, the 1st siphon was mapped and the 2nd siphon was explored (50m long, maximum depth 13.5m), beyond which a further 200m of the corridor was discovered, 6-18m high and 6-12m wide, as well as another, 3rd siphon. During the final dive, 165m of the new line was stretched in the 3rd siphon, reaching a depth of 67m (637m above sea level). The siphon continues but begins to rise. The dives took place with the use of rebreathers and a scooter.
All newly explored parts were measured, which gave 675 meters, thus the total length of the cave reached 781m, with a height difference of 93m. The newly discovered string of the Juriško Vrelo cave is definitely interesting in the context of its location in the Đalovića canyon relative to other known caves. It seems that the underground river (Boroštica) has “less connection” with the caves of Đalovića Pećina and Gornji Ponor and that it will “pass” under the canyon floor towards its ponor on the Pešter Plateau. This opens quite a large potential for further exploration in the area north of the well-known caves in the Đalovića Canyon.
Parallel to the diving exploration, we conducted documentation work in the Gornji Ponor Cave. This cave was discovered in 1976 and first described in detail by Đurović and Lješević in 1994 as one of three caves, slightly above the opening of Đalović Pećin Cave. The entrance hole is located at an altitude of 819m above sea level, and the cave begins with a ramp covered with large boulders. At that time, only 35 m of corridors was explored, to a depth of 12.5 m. In the documentation, the cave was labeled as Upper Ponor, which designation was later adopted as the name of the cave, even though the cave is not actually a Ponor. It is obvious that the cave was also visited by Serbian cavers from the SOPSB (Speleološki Odsek Planinarskog Saveza Beograda) in the 1980s during their intensive expeditions to the Cave of Đalović Pećina, but there are no documents available showing how deep the cave was explored at that time. In 2004, we located the entrance, but did not continue the exploration.
Another (re)exploration of the cave was carried out by Polish cavers from Speleoklub Olkusz during their accidental visit to the Đalovića Canyon in 2011. The cave was probably further explored during the next four expeditions in 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2022. The names of the cave were named “Zavet ćtanja” and “Above the spring 3” respectively. Unfortunately, no detailed information about these explorations can be found anywhere, apart from a mention in the form of a film presented at Speleokonfrontacje in 2017 by A. Ciołkiewicz. We have contacted explorers several times, e.g. submitting proposals for cooperation on our long-term, systematic research project in this area, unfortunately, we did not receive any responses. Hence, we decided to document the cave ourselves and carry out mapping.
The first part of mapping took place during the “Covid”, four-person expedition last year, when we measured and made basic photo documentation of about 1 km of corridors with 2 km of estimated total length. We started to use a different name – “Secret Cave” (Tajna pećina), firstly because of the underground exploration, and secondly because the cave is not an actual ponor and its original name is a bit misleading. This year, thanks to a strong team, from which we completed three parallel cartographic teams, we measured over 2.7 km of corridors in the four main passages of the cave within three days. We used DistoX instruments and (almost) reliable of the Qave software – many thanks to Paulina Piechowiak for the “expedition” corrections! We used PocketTopo only for the daily calibration of instruments – our team attaches great importance to the quality of measurements and, at the same time, the precision of the final plan. The result of the work was the creation of a detailed 1:200 scale plan of the cave in Therion.
Photographic documentation was carried out by two teams, which for two days dealt exclusively with this task. We have obtained hundreds of photos, currently they are being processed, but we can present some of them now.
The morphology of the cave is very similar to the lower and middle parts of the Đalović Pećin Cave. The entrance hole is located at an altitude of 819m above sea level, the cave begins with a ramp covered with large boulders. Further on, it continues with a system of very small narrow corrosive corridors, and then after 300m it opens into a large corridor. The system of cave corridors is formed in four main directions, however, the most important exploration branch of the cave (Southern Corridor) leads at the level of 860-865 m above sea level and 300 m to the south, towards the Cave of Đalović Pećina. This corridor, decorated with beautiful dripstones, is similar in character to the corridors of Kristalni, Ružin and Blatni Kanal of the Đalović Pećin Cave, which are located about 30–50 m higher. The corridor ends in a very muddy stile with fine clay, with clear air circulation. The minimum horizontal distance of the reached end point in relation to the Cave of Đalović Pećina is approx. 300m.
The total length of the Gornji Ponor Cave we explored is 2933m with a height difference of 78m. There are still many places of possible continuation, whether in narrow, muddy stiles or chimneys that have not yet been climbed. In order to plan further exploration, it will be necessary to perform at least a basic geological and geomorphological analysis of the explored cave.
Each trip has its end, but already during the return, plans for the future scroll through the minds of each of us. We would like to complete the mapping work in progress in all remaining known caves in both the canyon and the plateau, along with basic geological mapping to better understand the hydrological and geological conditions of this region. The underground course of the Juriško Vrelo Cave suggests that there is another large cave system to the north of the previously explored caves. We would also like to continue diving exploration at the end of Juriško Vrelo Cave, but it will be a big challenge. We certainly want to return to the Gornji Ponor Cave to check all the question marks indicated on our plan.
As the leader of the Medúza 2022 expedition, I would like to thank all participants for the enormous work done in the caves during 5 intense days of activities. We would also like to thank Izudin Gušmirović and Mito Đalović and his family for their local support.
The expedition was co-created by: Petr Celý, Aleksandra Fryń, Maciej Fryń, Petr Šimon Janíček, Vít Kaman, Martin Ondrouch, Tomáš Ondrouch, Ludmila Ondrouchová, Ema Otevřelová, Adam Pyka, Barbora Sirotková, Jan Sirotek (head) – ZO ČSS 6-25 Pustý žleb ; Petr Chmel – ZO ČSS 1-10 Speleoaquanaut; Lazar Obradović, Matija Petkovic – Estavela Valjevo, Serbia; Tomasz Pawłowski – STJ KW Kraków, PZA; Przemysław Hudy, Piotr Naumowicz – not affiliated.
We encourage you to read the article, which will soon be published in the “Jaskinie” magazine, containing detailed information about this year’s expedition, plans and descriptions of the explored caves, and a list of literature. There will also be beautiful photos taken by our club photographers!
Jan Sirotek, Adam Pyka