國(guó)家地理:加里曼丹島的地底洞天(1)
Late on a sweltering morning in April, two slim British cavers named Frank and Cookie lowered themselves into a slick, humid pit deep below Borneo's rainforest.
2017年4月的某一天，在酷熱難耐的近午時(shí)分，兩名身材纖瘦的英國(guó)洞穴探險(xiǎn)家弗蘭克和庫奇下探進(jìn)入加里曼丹島雨林地底深處一個(gè)濕滑的坑洞里。
Climbing down past an ancient heap of bird guano and pushing through a gallery of gleaming pillars the color of old bone, the pair were hoping to make history. They had crawled into Cave of the Winds, deep inside a cave system known as Clearwater, where they would search for a passage to Racer Cave, part of the Racer-Easter system.
他倆往下爬，經(jīng)過長(zhǎng)年沉積的鳥糞堆，擠過骨白色石柱閃爍的洞廊，一心想創(chuàng)造歷史。他們匍匐爬進(jìn)位于知名的“清水洞”洞穴系統(tǒng)深處的“風(fēng)洞”，要從那里尋找通往“黑蛇洞”的通道，而黑蛇洞則是“黑蛇—復(fù)活節(jié)洞穴系統(tǒng)”的一部分。
Connecting the two would create a "super system," one of the longest subterranean labyrinths on the planet. As the men wormed down, drilling and hammering bolts into the slick rock to hold their climbing ropes, their odds of success seemed good.
若是將這兩處洞穴系統(tǒng)接通，將會(huì)形成一個(gè)“超級(jí)洞穴系統(tǒng)”，成為地球上最長(zhǎng)的地底迷宮之一。他們不斷往下鉆，在滑溜的巖石上鉆孔、釘螺栓來固定登山繩，成功似乎在望。
