Biggest SKP-team ever is off for a new adventure!

On December 28th our biggest SKP-team ever (19 persons) leave for Soqotra. THis edition 2 English geologist/cavers will join, together with a German linguistic expert in ancient Indian languages. After the high speed train to Frankfurt (GER), we fly with Qatar Airlines for a night in luxurious Doha, to arrive the day afterwards in Sana'a (Yemen) and after a very short night finally at our island!

SKP8 is fully booked!

The 8th edition of our project is fully booked again. Preparations at high speed are necessary!

Preparation SKP8 in sub units!

On October the 20th we had our SKP8 preparation meeting in the pub “Rotonde” in Ghent. There is a lot to be arranged again and this edition we will focus on sub unit training as the team has become too big and therefore to clumsy to function as one unit. In this way our multidisciplinary approach can be fine tuned from the start!

“SKP2000-2004”-report at the National Caving Days

We will present our first publication during the bi-annual National Caving Days (Heure). The limited Dutch edition of our “SKP2000-2004”-report will be sold at a sharp price. More information is only available in Dutch, but no panic because the translation into English is started! On this occasion the final list of SKP8 participants will be made public.

14th International Union of Speleology congres in Kalamos, Greece

The main topic of this month was the 14th International Union of Speleology congres in Kalamos, Greece. Although the organization was quite chaotic, it was still worth visiting. Three lectures about Soqotra where given, one relating to exploration and two regarding our scientific research on the island. The first practical issues for the organization of SKP8 are taken.

International interest in SKP8 is started again!

Most people are on holiday, so also cavers do it more often underground in this period. Reports are being corrected and finalised. There is already scientific interest from abroad to join SKP8. Next month I'll try to assemble the next team.

SKP7 a dream coming true!

Our 7th SKP-expedition was another dream coming true: 5 new discovered caves, of which 3 continue. 3km of topo and a new potentially longest (already 3km) and certainly deepest cave (approx. -150m) of Soqotra. We are currently working on the report, published on-line soon.
This year my wife and I choose La Palma (Canary Islands) to rest between the dragonsblood trees again!