Here's another link:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3127282.htm
I think I quoted something about the true story some months ago. Here
it is again, from Martyn Farr's The Darkness Beckons:
The expedition was a major success, but undoubtedly the most exciting
event took place during the final retreat from the cave. It was 4:30
pm in the afternoon when virtually the full team assembled on the
subterranean lakeside and started unloading the equipment which had
just arrived from the depths of the system. On the surface a freak
cyclone hit the area, destroying the camp and, within a period of
twenty-five minutes, depositing more than twice the area's annual
rainfall. Before those underground became aware of the event a torrent
of water poured into the vertical shaft, causing a massive landslide
and collapse. Miraculously, despite a hail of boulders crasing into
the chamber at the bottom, no one was injured. The exit route was
completely blocked and thirteen of the team were effecively entombed.
With an air of quiet resignation, they set about organizing themselves
for survival for an unknown length of time. [Doesn't sound much like
that awful new movie, does it?]
Fortunately radio communication was established within hours of
the disaster. An escape route through the chaos of boulders was
pioneered the next day, and all arrived safely on the sufrace bu 8 pm
on Saturday. Their equipment, valued at over Australian $200,000, had
to be left where it lay, to await retrieval after a suitable period of
natural stabilization.
I know I've got something more about this, including some article that
shows the approaching storm, but I can't turn it up right now. There
was a documentary film made of the expedition, for which the late Wes
Skiles was a cinematographer (trivia: "megachiropteran,"" an old-world
fruit bat, is an anagram of "cinematographer"). The film is called
"Nullarbor Dreaming." Somebody who is hooked up on one of the
"torrent" outfits can probably download it. Don't know how much of the
film concerns the final incident of the long project.
The NYT review of Sanctum is at
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/movies/04sanctum.html
Reviewers bottom line: The director Alister Grierson, not grasping
that bad dialogue is sometimes best delivered quietly, encourages his
actors to shout and thrash about, and so they do, like fish out of
water and performers out of their depth.
--Mixon
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A fearless man cannot be brave.
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