Anakao in South-western Madagascar is home to two world renowned surfing waves known as Jelly Babies and Flameballs. What better way to plan an expedition that if the cave discoveries prove to be dead ends, then the fall back is some incredible surfing.

After many weeks of exploring sinkholes and caves along the coastline there was little evidence of any going cave. After a break to sample the surfing the team moved to Aven, a large sinkhole previously explored by Ryan and a rich depository of fossils, subsequently proving to be Madagascars most significant fossil concentration.

Moving to Mitoho the team finally found a going cave, leading in Philip laid several thousand feet of line, eventually following a boulder slope, shallowing up in the cave until surfacing in the ‘bat cave’ a room with unusual and unique decorations.

At this point the fossil discoveries and identification of Madagascar’s forst cave ‘system’ would have been a great start and although the team enjoyed surfing a few more waves an aptly named Malazamanga (Famous Blue) found itself calling them with three days left to go.

Entering the cave required the agility of the locals in tree and boulder climbing or the more technical rappelling skills the team wisely chose to employ. Arrival at dive base at the end of a huge collapse was somewhat underwhelming as a small 1m diameter muddy puddle awaited. In reality this turned into an Alic in Wonderland style rabbit hole. Day one, the team emptied one reel and whilst having pushed further than in any previous cave, it did not look promising. On day 2 a wonderland revealed itself as pushing on through a small hole the team found themselves in a stunningly beautiful and enormous room. Laying 2 full exploration reels worth of line in less than 40 minutes the team had discovered one of the biggest caves in the world, Malazamanga.