SKP8 debriefing

The debriefing took place on the 23th. Processing of our results and data is subdivided into the sub units and hopefully we can provide them to you soon.

A spectacular SKP8, longer, deeper, more interesting!

January the 15th, back on European soil. The results are just spectacular:
The terminal siphon in the longest cave got passed, with another 3km explored ending on... nothing, just lack of time and already surpassing 10km!!!
The deepest cave is now -220m and exploration is also here ongoing (>4km of development). 14 new caves could be added to our database (>1,5km) and some know caves revealed more than 3km new passage ways!!!
Not to speak about the discovery of more than 150 new epigraphs, probably dating from the 1st-3rd century, a fossil bat and a magnificent hiking tour of a few days through the Haggeher Mountains... A detailed report will be added on-line.

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.