Here you can read about the 22 th expedition from Irkutsk “ Arabica” club cavers in the cave Botovskaya, which can be found in East Siberia, close to the Lake Baikal. The expedition was organized with the support of the East Siberian Branch of Russian Geographical Society and the administration Zhigalovskii area. Five days spent working by groups in the camps underground, and the cave was surveyed further in 2332m length . And at this point the length of the cave Botovskaya reached 64 435m. The new area is with numerous lakes. At the same time there were three self-contained underground camp. Communication between them was carried out by telephone.

In the period from 16 August to 12 October the research expedition “Arabica 2009″ in Sarma cave (-1543m) and surrounding areas (Abkhazia ,Western Caucasus, Gagra Range, R-OH triangle) took place.  The expedition was organized by Siberian Federal University, and caving clubs from Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk. Also, it was attended by cavers from Tomsk, Ufa and Khabarovsk. The expedition was devoted to the 50 th anniversary of the Krasnoyarsk Speleology. The expedition was attended by about  fifty cavers. There was dye tracing in the cave, and water sample collection. About the discoveries: a 500m long meander at the depth of around -1300m, and some other few hundred meter long meanders in the upper parts of the cave. Also deep underground camps were prepared for next years expedition (the cave has a large potential as Krubera). Exploration of several smaller objects was also conducted.

original letter by Paul Rudky