An intrepid couple are set to be among the first people to conquer a huge fissure in the Earth's surface.

Steve and Kath Jones will be part of a 15-strong expedition team which will attempt to descend 8,500ft into notorious Low's Gully in the remote jungles of northern Borneo. The gully is in one of the world's great remaining unexplored territories.

Steve and Kath, of Wedding Fold, Lothers-dale, are experienced cavers. They plan to take one day to climb the 4,101m-high Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South East Asia, and then two weeks to descend it into Low's Gully.

Borneo, at 290,000 square miles, is the third-largest island in the world, behind Australia (2,968,071 sq mi) and Greenland (840,050).

Low's Gully gained world notoriety when in 1994 the British Army lost five soldiers in it for 30 days on what should have been a ten-day exercise. This ill-fated mission spurred Steve and Kath to try to succeed where the army had failed, and the couple have been swatting up on tips in a book written by one of the survivors of the failed army attempt.

Kath, a dietician at Airedale Hospital, says: "That army mission was badly planned and badly organised which caused a split between the men and the officers. The men weren't experienced enough to undertake this kind of expedition and some weren't even fit enough."

Steve, managing director of the Broughton Hall French firm Entreprises, says: "Our target is to complete the first-ever descent of Low's Gully in three weeks. Although we don't know exactly what we will come up against, we are aware that we will have to battle through atrocious weather conditions, massive waterfalls and cut a swathe through thick vegetation.

"Moreover, Low's Gully is known by local villagers as The Place of the Dead and is home to some of the worst 'biting and sucking' creatures on earth. It's hard in this world to do something that's unique and to be the first to go to such a wild place that nobody has ever been to before. It'll be an adventure!"

Indeed it will. Kath says Bob Mann, one of the soldiers on the Army expedition, said he saw something in the gully 'resembling a very large ape, but not an ape - a bit like a yeti or bigfoot'.

She says: "Low's Gully is such a huge test of human endeavour and the thought of just looking around the corner at something no one has ever seen before is fantastic."

The couple hope to discover numerous species of flora and fauna which have, up to now, remained hidden from the world. Leading the expedition is Pat Gunson, a veteran of mountain expeditions who has twice attempted to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The team, made up of experienced cavers, canyon climbers and rock climbers, will also include a zoologist and botanist.

A film crew from Cicada Films will be going along too, to film the expedition for a Channel 4 documentary.

The expedition leaves on March 1. Sponsoring it is Manchester-based company Coverplus (Proofings) which makes the Ventflex fabric being used by the team.

Opinion, page 10

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