Cango Cave Again... Tourists Rescued Again

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Re: Cango Cave Again... Tourists Rescued Again

Postby NZcaver » Jan 15, 2007 6:23 pm

The four were separated from their group and were told by their guide to follow the lights to the exit, a Cape Town resident told the SABC.

When the cave lights went out, the group was unable to find its way out.

A Cape Town woman was able to call the police using her cellphone. They were rescued by cave staff about an hour-and-a-half after the phone call.

Sorry to interrupt this "cellphones working in caves" discussion, but there seems to be a media discrepancy here (how unusual). :big grin:

I tend to find the following version slightly more credible...

Tourists locked in Cango Caves

By Derrick Spies, Safety and Security Reporter, The Herald (South Africa)

8 January 2007

Four tourists were locked in the Cango Caves for two hours on Saturday evening, and had to phone the police to come and let them out.

A police spokesman confirmed that the four, South African Amanda Claasen, Italian Angelo del Parigi, and Argentines Carolina Ciranja and Damian Pertile, had been locked in and had used a landline telephone inside the caves to call the police.

Claasen said: “We had fallen behind the rest of the group. The guide told us to follow the lights, while she went to help some of the others,” she said.

Claasen said they had then followed the lights but soon came upon a part that they had already completed, and turned round to go in the opposite direction. Five minutes later, the lights went off.

“We shouted for help, but soon realised no-one could here us. It was pitch black and we used our cellphones to light the area,” she said.

Shortly after this, Claasen said, they had found the landline phone nearby, but some of the buttons stuck, so it took her over half an hour before she could dial 10111 to get the police.


“At first they didn‘t want to believe me, but eventually I convinced them that we were really locked in the caves, and they started phoning people at the caves to help us,” she said.

It took another hour-and-a-half before the four were rescued.

1001 uses and counting. Is there anything cellphones can't do? :tonguecheek:
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Re: Cango Cave Again... Tourists Rescued Again

Postby Squirrel Girl » Jan 15, 2007 7:11 pm

NZcaver wrote:1001 uses and counting. Is there anything cellphones can't do? :tonguecheek:

Thanks for the credibility check! I agree, you found what sounds more sensical!

However, I guess you just showed what cellphones can't do--work in most places underground. :tonguecheek:
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Re: Cango Cave Again... Tourists Rescued Again

Postby NZcaver » Jan 15, 2007 7:40 pm

Squirrel Girl wrote:However, I guess you just showed what cellphones can't do--work in most places underground. :tonguecheek:

Not to prolong this off-topicness, but...

There's a trend in cellular network engineering these days that involves saturating some higher usage and/or difficult reception areas with a large number of low-power cells. I'm not saying this does - or should - apply in tourist caves, but there are plenty of examples where buildings (including sub-ground basements) have been decked out this way. One cell per 2-3 floors, with a dozen small ceiling mounted antennas per floor in an even spread. This method is especially popular in hospitals, considering all the staff and visitors that rely on communicating by cellphone. The high saturation of cells/antennas cause individual cellphones to auto-select their lowest power setting, thereby maximizing battery life and minimizing possible detrimental effects of radio frequency interference.

Theoretically, such a system could be installed in a tourist cave and work quite efficiently. But other than for talking to lost tourists - why would you? :laughing:
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Postby Cheryl Jones » Jan 15, 2007 9:51 pm

they had found the landline phone nearby, but some of the buttons stuck, so it took her over half an hour before she could dial 10111 to get the police.

I hate it when that happens. :rofl: I wish cavers would take off their muddy gloves when they use the in-cave phones (which are best used to order pizza to be waiting at the cave entrance).

And I wish the locations of the phones were more clearly marked on cave maps. I seem to always cave right by them.

George D, what's the cave cartography symbol for "telephone"? :chicken:

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Postby Stridergdm » Jan 16, 2007 1:54 am

Geesh, non of my phones in caves have button to dial (now there's a strange combination of words.. dialing buttons.)

I've had to crank the handle and wait for someone on the other end to pick up and then push to talk.

This was when push to talk meant you could talk to as many people at once as you wanted... as long as they were all on the same circuit. :-)
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Postby NZcaver » Jan 16, 2007 3:17 am

Cheryl Jones wrote:I wish cavers would take off their muddy gloves when they use the in-cave phones.


Image

And I wish the locations of the phones were more clearly marked on cave maps. I seem to always cave right by them.


Image

And for your third wish... :question:
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Postby Cheryl Jones » Jan 16, 2007 3:16 pm

:rofl: :kewl: :laughing:

We used crank military field phones in Simmons-Mingo in the 70s. Laid miles of wire through the cave. It was pretty bizarre to be going through a passage and hear a phone ring! And from the cave to be able to call up survey notes to the surface for someone to plot on the growing map.

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