We postpone SKP2, but what does the rest?

Two weeks before departure I made the very harsh decision to postpone the entire expedition!
We didn’t had all our official papers, necessary to conduct research on the island, some sponsors redraw their commitment because of the 11th September event and the financial risk to strand for one week in Sana’a was simply to big. The entire team had put all their free time into the preparation of this expedition and the fact of postponing it was very hard to all of us.
The filming team, Prof. Dr. Christian Robin and John Farrar; all initially part of our team did go the Soqotra without us. This again had major consequences for the financial part of our expedition.
Hopefully I can proof the team I made the correct decision!

Science and politics

Normally we decided to take the new cave radio, made by Herman Jorens and Erwin Lockhorst with us, but because of the unstable political situation we don’t.
I also gave a lecture at the Scientific Caving Day (Han-sur-Lesse) in French, titled: “Soqotra Karst Project, Recherches Karstologiques sur l’île de Soqotra (Yémen)” (=karstological research at the island Soqotra).

Friends of Socotra

Rik and I went back to Edinburgh (Scotland) to assemble at the general meeting of the Friends of Soqotra (FoS). This was also the perfect opportunity to meet John Farrar again. Saturday we had a marathon meeting and Rik got his change to show the English version of his new film. Sunday we enjoyed the Royal Botanical Gardens, surrounded by playful squirrels. I also loved the live-music of “The Roots” in a small local pub!

SKP2 plans take shape

At the National Caving Congress in Heure (Belgium) we made some publicity for our second SKP-benefit-evening. At this meeting Erik Claes gave a splendid slide show, Rik Martens presented officially his film “Soqotra, pearl in the Arabian Sea” and I talked a little bit about our next ambitious trip to the island. More than 300 people enjoyed the adventure with us and all support goes straight into SKP2. Thanks for all your support!
“America under attack”, hopefully this will not make things to difficult to go back to Yemen this year?
29th: SKP-benefit-evening. Rik presents his Film, Erik his dia's. It was a success. 300 people wanted to live the adventure with us. We thank our friends and relatives for their support.

National Geographic and FoS initiation

A small summary of our first expedition is published in National Geographic Nederland-België. Many thanks for the interest and respect for our work, we will probably bring more exciting news in next years edition. Sorry for our foreign friends, we will try to publish worldwide in the future?
On Saturday 25th I will give a brief lecture about the importance of our work at the inaugural meeting of the Friends Of Soqotra at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh.

SKP: the movie?

We made our first contacts with the well known cineast (in the cavers and recently archaeological society) Philippe Axell, from Axell Communication. During our next expedition a documentary will be made about the island and its secret underground treasures.
If you want to know more about this film, or if you feel like this is the change to immortalise your commercial name/logo, then you can be our SPONSOR!

Intreaging archaeological remains...

Some archaeological finds look more interesting than we thought. The results will be published soon. We will inform you on this website when everything is studied and published. We will make sure that, in cooperation with the concerned official bodies and the Yemeni Government, all artefacts and surroundings will be protected.