Thursday 27th
August 2015
We’re on the road
again with the usual overladen van, to head down to the Herault for just under
3 weeks of caving and diving.
This year is a
little different, in that we have been overtaken by the Dutch. Anton Van Rosmalen
somehow managed to persuade me to give up a week of our trip to support him in
his plans to dive a cave called Coudouliere.
This cave (if you
have been following us!) is next door to the Perdreau and hydrologically, they
connect. Like most sumps in the Buéges valley, it also connects with the Source
de Buéges so careful negotiations with the mayor of Pegairolles de Buéges and
the local caving clubs mean that we are ‘go’ for plans to survey the sump.
It is reported as
1650 metres long and at least 600m of that is at 100m depth. In addition to
this, the entrance to the cave is a 50m long, just off vertical boulder choke
with some awkward squeezes. The biggest challenge is likely to be getting
scooters and rebreathers into the cave in the first instance rather than the
dive itself.
The ultimate goal
is to radio-locate and survey the reported huge dry chamber at the end of the
sump. A diver called Patrick Bolagno, from Marseille, passed the sump and
discovered the chamber but there is no published survey of it beyond crude
distance and depths. Further more, the radio-location attempt was not
successful. This is not surprising as it is imperative to have a good survey to
at least ensure you are in the right ball park.
Anton took upon
himself a challenge to build a ‘lazy boy sump mapper’ which is based on the
John Volanthen design, used for Pozo Azul.
With help from
John and various intellectuals in electronics and engineering, Anton has built
a device which is so far, producing reasonable results.
It is not known if
the sump is lined with knotted or tagged survey line and without being able to
make contact with Bolagno, we have to assume that distance will be difficult
without re-lining the whole sump.
The hope is that
the sump mapper will eliminate this obstacle.
 |
| Dr Graham Naylor introduces us to the Nicola 3 |
We’ll also have
the use of cave link, a communications system. This is less useful for
radio-location but essential for communications with the underground team.
I’m a pessimist
and the glass is always half empty. From experience, ambitious plans often only
go half right. Anton is also aware that this is several weeks worth of work. We
also plan to survey the shallow passages of the cave so there is an awful lot
of work left to do in the cave.
It is a great
opportunity for many of the divers to put their skills to use, such as
surveying, photography and videography and for the GUE divers, working with
diving gear in dry cave.
I haven’t had the
best preparation, badly injuring my ankle whilst at work. In the last 5 weeks
I’ve been hopping about on crutches with a moon boot. My ankle is still
swelling at random and although the pain has decreased, is still feeling
unstable.
It is somewhat
fortunate that my duties in the first week are limited to safety diver, medic,
project manager and general bossy boots. Working for the NHS means I cannot
afford a rebreather and to be honest, I’m not overly bothered about getting
one. So my ankle will get another week to recover and my ‘big’ dive will be
later in the trip where I’m super keen to get further into the Gourneyras.
The journey is
the usual format. Ferry, drive until exhaustion, Formula One hotel, drive the
last bit and arrive at Val d’Herault in a daze.
