tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39025205481531704202024-03-21T02:15:48.298-07:00Herault Cave Diving Expedition Adventures of a team of cavers and cave divers in the Herault region of Francecgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-5592005560414855032015-11-03T15:02:00.005-08:002015-11-03T15:03:37.529-08:00Episode Cevanol<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vis gorge by Tim Chapman</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The rains which had thwarted the Coudouliere project - and had also killed two people in Montpellier the week before we arrived - were not done with us yet.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Overnight, during Rassemblement Caussenard, the heavens opened and a serious storm caused rivers to burst their banks. Drive ways simply slid into rivers, caves were in flood and landslides were everywhere. Roads began closing and the rain showed no sign of stopping.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We decided to head home a day early. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gourneyrou by Tim Chapman</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gourneyras by Tim Chapman</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rodel by Tim Chapman</td></tr>
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-31836309793181722552015-09-13T16:08:00.000-07:002015-11-03T14:13:04.901-08:00Rassemblement Caussenard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The weather which had thwarted most of our trip, took a turn for the worst last night. A huge lightening storm hit the Herault and we had rainfall like we had never seen before. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We woke in the morning and heard it threatening in the low, grey clouds. Caving and diving was most definitely 'off' and our final plan to try and dive the Gourneyras was abandoned.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was only one thing for it. To go to the Herault's answer to 'Hidden Earth' and buy lots of toys and get drunk in the company of our friends from the CLPA and GERSAM.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch menu!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ludo's puppy</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-49712290002453213802015-09-12T12:22:00.000-07:002015-11-03T12:22:31.260-08:00Not every doughnut has a hole in the middle...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We had long had an invitation from the French caving club to dive a new sump which was very close to the Foux de la Vis. The group, as ever, helped carry our kit in the heat and set about the entrance of the dry cave with explosives to make passing the gear a little easier.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We had a little information on the sump and in our usual plan of attack, added a little helium to our larger bottles and took some oxygen along too, so that we had all angles covered. In exploration, you never know what the cave will do – if it will go deeper, if it will surface, if it will close down or open up in to caverns measureless to man. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We knew that someone had been in there before but had very little information on how it ended.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We lowered the cylinders through a boulder choke and kitted up in a narrow rift.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I set off surveying the existing line in very poor, milky visibility (barely 2 metres) and Rich went ahead to try and find the way on.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We came across all sorts of different lines, one of which had broken and was heading back towards the entrance. We spent some time cleaning this up and very shortly came to the end of the line. It was only at a depth of 21m and some 36 metres surveyed distance. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We had a good poke about in rifts below and above but they were too tight and definitely not worth pursuing. I stuffed Rich into one with the line reel and he laid about 8 metres before climbing back towards me, shaking his head.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The team got the gear out in good time, in between eating lunch and drinking red wine, which had clearly been smuggled past their wives that morning in coca cola bottles……</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The walk up hill was hot and my ankle didn’t like it, but we were soon at the café in St Maurice de Navacelles drinking cold beers while I entered the survey data and produced a stick map.</span><br />
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-23636366570537101792015-09-11T14:44:00.000-07:002015-11-02T14:47:36.977-08:00Banquier<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyx1yrHk6loLp4EF_yIO9HyS4R_D-Z9B23A39kHOYRmVbtWC2vQyUf2K8dOzFF4Mq18BcYawKfnF1Qez1_a4rMhEXa1_V578-_azXErCG6cI5Ml8612jtsSdb88Q9ZfKZg6kFszKyIrP4/s1600/IMG_1585.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyx1yrHk6loLp4EF_yIO9HyS4R_D-Z9B23A39kHOYRmVbtWC2vQyUf2K8dOzFF4Mq18BcYawKfnF1Qez1_a4rMhEXa1_V578-_azXErCG6cI5Ml8612jtsSdb88Q9ZfKZg6kFszKyIrP4/s400/IMG_1585.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in Banquier. Photo: Christine Grosart</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rich and I had the opportunity to have an early morning 60m deep dive yesterday, at a discreet location. We did lunch and chilled out the rest of the day, whilst sorting out directions for the Grotte Banquier.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in Grotte Banquier. Photo: Christine Grosart</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks to Elaine Hill and Clive Westlake, we got it together and after driving up some lengthy forestry track, we parked up and did a bit of casting around before finding the right path to the entrance.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A short fixed ladder leads to some well travelled and well decorated passage, which heads down to the lake and then the sump. This would be an easy half an hour carry with dive gear, but quite hot! The sump then leads to 1,600m of apparently quite fine passage beyond.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Definitely one to come back to with dive kit.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVORmoxGIqHbncGPVIa-Z0xfKoJ6kbupk97DkR57RFfeG803kJoUDOdoaRis3_N7hqjMldeniscOzKzJAkJVfKOw5Abpo3BJWIB3OF3B-U9IPe6o4V2VfGASftqBgl3I_ndFryTIjOvM/s1600/IMG_1576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFVORmoxGIqHbncGPVIa-Z0xfKoJ6kbupk97DkR57RFfeG803kJoUDOdoaRis3_N7hqjMldeniscOzKzJAkJVfKOw5Abpo3BJWIB3OF3B-U9IPe6o4V2VfGASftqBgl3I_ndFryTIjOvM/s640/IMG_1576.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in Grotte Banquier. Photo: Christine Grosart</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-30897043697380628142015-09-10T14:26:00.000-07:002015-11-03T14:26:48.744-08:00Pool and wine<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRgWFgRNfWhQPC2qxBw8OJ5ehKQPU4_3oRU7AQKry4pO9T6QXPwz5cAs7efVDQoBr08ACJQMOJClFUvPjZYPADb9hSW3isqmUEu09ekhlUPnZd9ftMz1BSL2mXnA42Uke-YoyOmOnuajA/s1600/P1000072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRgWFgRNfWhQPC2qxBw8OJ5ehKQPU4_3oRU7AQKry4pO9T6QXPwz5cAs7efVDQoBr08ACJQMOJClFUvPjZYPADb9hSW3isqmUEu09ekhlUPnZd9ftMz1BSL2mXnA42Uke-YoyOmOnuajA/s320/P1000072.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St Saturnin vineyard</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Having worked our arses off all year, Rich and I try and get some holiday time. As well as caving, diving and exploring, we try to grab some quality time together.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This normally entails Rich snoring on the sunbed while I read, swim, sunbathe and repeat.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I often have to save up annual leave from work to get a decent amount of time in the Herault, as it's a two day journey each way.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Relaxing isn't something we do very much of, but we do try.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Camping val d'Herault is fairly quiet this time of year. The pool is cold but the river is still warm and the vineyards are still open.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUAsGW1GWfs0fMCpkmoUc-N0gTAKaiPA14F-ZldR3EY8i8DwPTlnxUVVny8bcO5_AVPeEyirKtt2OH9CYTdCbWD8tMTsSjp6Gl6KETLk1eoc6GiZygWvvOxCJqZQomWpnVzVcYDjNytU/s1600/P1000071.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUAsGW1GWfs0fMCpkmoUc-N0gTAKaiPA14F-ZldR3EY8i8DwPTlnxUVVny8bcO5_AVPeEyirKtt2OH9CYTdCbWD8tMTsSjp6Gl6KETLk1eoc6GiZygWvvOxCJqZQomWpnVzVcYDjNytU/s400/P1000071.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St Saturnin vineyard</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw9xZXV50sH9ds_oTkPLcuvb7TQ6_95qOK9mEszLxeNwF0gMboDR7NEXeAzy8dMC1vgwLZ48hjJQntMc1PUA3fnAQFiYxmLrwWOsKy7TWnaYEi8jsN2Sf-_hgzkOz_Wy80S5VFPAGcrGQ/s1600/IMG_2534.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw9xZXV50sH9ds_oTkPLcuvb7TQ6_95qOK9mEszLxeNwF0gMboDR7NEXeAzy8dMC1vgwLZ48hjJQntMc1PUA3fnAQFiYxmLrwWOsKy7TWnaYEi8jsN2Sf-_hgzkOz_Wy80S5VFPAGcrGQ/s400/IMG_2534.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our new favourite restaurant</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our new favourite wine!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQMpQh63kNNoMF7kiNWclEgz5OiGLNvFbFDj9gqjNNk7H7Q5o5r5FIAlA0nGfuL_uUngc8iI31wID-5bmzXmjuU2ca9R6JnsG985PXpe70K7RpOxsALzMk-L2eJIYJXDwIet7g10BgmJc/s1600/IMG_2540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQMpQh63kNNoMF7kiNWclEgz5OiGLNvFbFDj9gqjNNk7H7Q5o5r5FIAlA0nGfuL_uUngc8iI31wID-5bmzXmjuU2ca9R6JnsG985PXpe70K7RpOxsALzMk-L2eJIYJXDwIet7g10BgmJc/s320/IMG_2540.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fab menu with fantastic food</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The restaurant is in the Bueges valley, with a view of the entrance of Garrel, the cave we pushed<br />
over the last few years...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campsite pool</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNTLTeTQyvj1cHcLAdML4zCeW1CKjSsw32lXNrtLtoPuO9Bn2q8BOdyiTcvP8AuchdaIF-JteWxbJdvmsTsK0Vg_Y0y-ayZtf779dCGs8-PZ8n3TY8Rm8Jf-PBIyllbEP_5cPnGXw1tMA/s1600/IMG_2512.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNTLTeTQyvj1cHcLAdML4zCeW1CKjSsw32lXNrtLtoPuO9Bn2q8BOdyiTcvP8AuchdaIF-JteWxbJdvmsTsK0Vg_Y0y-ayZtf779dCGs8-PZ8n3TY8Rm8Jf-PBIyllbEP_5cPnGXw1tMA/s400/IMG_2512.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JDd8ZVEDHfjsWK_S901g1HHvaUg5tcU-SR8iuMOZ_T8CYg4e4LG_OzbMyy8nbQmdcHandsCqNt3i75KJlNYcouDwVFXzpnKyp36Pmv4Fz0Wb1_qXiAhGRhCxOxAYH_-s1PD4m1sfhRg/s1600/IMG_2510.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JDd8ZVEDHfjsWK_S901g1HHvaUg5tcU-SR8iuMOZ_T8CYg4e4LG_OzbMyy8nbQmdcHandsCqNt3i75KJlNYcouDwVFXzpnKyp36Pmv4Fz0Wb1_qXiAhGRhCxOxAYH_-s1PD4m1sfhRg/s400/IMG_2510.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in action</td></tr>
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<br />cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-43417488044931495992015-09-10T13:31:00.000-07:002015-11-02T14:47:20.685-08:00L'Esquirol<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6am6U4ShMHm1A91NqKHJ3DZPluIc_DkWrVCFt9r7b6wuqJ59PdDRfxv58KTpx07IkpV3qHh-2zgAFKQukbB_CpEyj13HomfmFX_Uw8Ih827PgoPEDEt9If3GcAc53ppf1EsBoPTVEzfU/s1600/IMG_6358.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6am6U4ShMHm1A91NqKHJ3DZPluIc_DkWrVCFt9r7b6wuqJ59PdDRfxv58KTpx07IkpV3qHh-2zgAFKQukbB_CpEyj13HomfmFX_Uw8Ih827PgoPEDEt9If3GcAc53ppf1EsBoPTVEzfU/s320/IMG_6358.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christine rigging</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had heard about the cave but had never got around to actually going there. This is not surprising as it really isn’t easy to find. Jean Tarrit met us at St Maurice de Navacelles and we followed him through some winding lanes and through an obscure farm fence and down a track to a clearing. The cave was a short walk up from the parking spot. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With only 4 hangers between us, rigging it was inventive and I set about it carefully. Ashley followed me down and we set up the radio location aerial on a flat bit of floor on the other side of some big decorations.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ash then buggered off for half an hour into some wretched, muddy crawl while I set up my camera and tripod to take photos of the pitch.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Rich and Jean set about doing the location on the surface and, true to form, they got a good 'null' with the help of dive spools in a prickly bush.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm3tItE7DtWdGqOH6hO97rY8MwepmoTBDachR7MdNertVgyBrkuj0NdNljfGcGjv4S3eckSj_xLVv5JTmBimc7rJHQ0k7vJF6dRSFLSNDFNi34VRQptwKOC3k78OtdgGivr5GPFO5QSdQ/s1600/IMG_1570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm3tItE7DtWdGqOH6hO97rY8MwepmoTBDachR7MdNertVgyBrkuj0NdNljfGcGjv4S3eckSj_xLVv5JTmBimc7rJHQ0k7vJF6dRSFLSNDFNi34VRQptwKOC3k78OtdgGivr5GPFO5QSdQ/s320/IMG_1570.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ash on the ascent</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ash came back absolutely plastered in red mud having found the most horrid passage in the cave. I photographed him as he headed up the pitch and followed shortly.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rich then kitted up and headed down the pitch to have a look around the chamber and retrieve the underground aerial.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pleased with the job, we were heading back to the camp site when we found Jean searching the car for his lost phone. We searched everywhere but could not find it either at the cave or in the road. Fortunately he eventually found it - in pieces in the road a little further up from where we had stopped.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not a great ending to an otherwise pleasant day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwXPQ256oZH995PH9-v0P8ioNbIo8mQUxrY2SVvk41vjEgPHvtLwg1SyeVQRYElkplP12db1JUjnvqVpBpP04jdOGE2SOLijGWowK1-Bf_-ZeVul6yYbHRSuxqpMpUM8A3T-K_3qWfBY/s1600/IMG_6362.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwXPQ256oZH995PH9-v0P8ioNbIo8mQUxrY2SVvk41vjEgPHvtLwg1SyeVQRYElkplP12db1JUjnvqVpBpP04jdOGE2SOLijGWowK1-Bf_-ZeVul6yYbHRSuxqpMpUM8A3T-K_3qWfBY/s640/IMG_6362.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ash heading down L'esquirol</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich radio locating</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in his favourite position!</td></tr>
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-78774385483678959912015-09-09T06:59:00.000-07:002015-09-26T07:00:01.311-07:00Coudouliere<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpovqH-VOaLQS10GmRQR8Xmh9w01HjYK72EJ8LpY-nn2WNL-TsiMfPdrCI-XuKj5Btv7sHIDiKAOV2wd-IP7HAf2q77zfSca02bucvGErVofp8DL7WHrB4_1bROulDq1NmcH0dYsxLzo/s1600/11984362_10153006536026561_304625391_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYpovqH-VOaLQS10GmRQR8Xmh9w01HjYK72EJ8LpY-nn2WNL-TsiMfPdrCI-XuKj5Btv7sHIDiKAOV2wd-IP7HAf2q77zfSca02bucvGErVofp8DL7WHrB4_1bROulDq1NmcH0dYsxLzo/s320/11984362_10153006536026561_304625391_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pedro pretty much sums it up. Photo: Rick Van Dijk</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dutch were eager to head over to Coudouliere and make a few parts of the entrance boulder choke more Suex friendly.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This seemed like a good opportunity for me to deploy my Disto X and PDA combination and get some survey data of the dry passage leading to the sumps.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the last 6 months or so I’ve been trying to build up a paperless system and with help from various people, I now have a working upgraded Disto X which measures distance, compass and clinometer readings. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This talks to a basic PDA via Bluetooth and stores the data in a neat free program called Pocket Topo. This also enables the user to sketch and draw cross sections as they go.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even better, the data can be transferred via another neat program called Top Parser (Andrew Atkinson’s genius) to Therion survey program. Therion makes my head hurt and we were fortunate to have Jan Mulder (NL) along who was far more confident with it than me.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrMUoTUz8Yw27bLPdiUgYcOc-1Rxo8t3kvp9x5MJS_POrixz5lZ2Hp0HVzsaby9IiEq5BZJ02lAsgDMWyhZBqqKctnZhK2r6VQJZd9Ti_iUfbV2NY3WiIWFYeMrp_WcxHXDg7ZIhWh7dk/s1600/11973956_10153006552346561_926284399_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrMUoTUz8Yw27bLPdiUgYcOc-1Rxo8t3kvp9x5MJS_POrixz5lZ2Hp0HVzsaby9IiEq5BZJ02lAsgDMWyhZBqqKctnZhK2r6VQJZd9Ti_iUfbV2NY3WiIWFYeMrp_WcxHXDg7ZIhWh7dk/s320/11973956_10153006552346561_926284399_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gour pools in Coudouliere. Photo Rick van Dijk</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One advantage of Therion of other programs is the ability to tie in additional data without having to re-draw – it simply adjusts the drawing as you go. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But even so, it is not easy to learn and earlier this year I organised a weekend of all things Disto and Therion. It was oversubscribed so I should think we’ll be doing another one over the winter.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had left my tippex in the car, which I was going to use to mark the survey stations. But we were saved by Pedro Ballordi’s pink nail varnish which Anton took a shine to…</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We surveyed the boulder choke down to a junction and took the right hand branch, which led to a different sump, via a steep slope which needed a rope. Pedro set about putting some bolts in and rigged up a rope. The rock was similar to the Perdreau, with poor rock for bolts and we ended up tying into a huge boulder instead.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2TBrxAbeceObBNXKfy0qlphR1yCnP70Zif3j2utWlq3JWLz7qULlaZHoKGvmcwz8sCOQNp5d-xMFLngPs3lTzy1OuHyU9eZ_4yZ3ebX2dLEKqwmJ9i0EV0sANzuCOYypZ1tlWYgOrAxI/s1600/11973932_10153006535991561_2056635377_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2TBrxAbeceObBNXKfy0qlphR1yCnP70Zif3j2utWlq3JWLz7qULlaZHoKGvmcwz8sCOQNp5d-xMFLngPs3lTzy1OuHyU9eZ_4yZ3ebX2dLEKqwmJ9i0EV0sANzuCOYypZ1tlWYgOrAxI/s320/11973932_10153006535991561_2056635377_o.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anton takes a shine to Pedro's pink nail po</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With this part of the survey done, we headed out and were met by a scooter making it’s way up through the boulders. Now that scooters fitted, the next trip would be less problematic.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We retired to the pub in St Jean de Bueges for cold pressions all round.</span><br />
<br />cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-85036794585378454132015-09-08T06:50:00.000-07:002015-09-26T06:51:12.391-07:00Aven de Rocas<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJNnwUuSXkxDV16xMvWG6-x0xrRd0RPNeyqqjPKlp6HYr6LO_d9rq76DMcQ3YU6p9GouiV0p-yfyShL1YO-JTdHeSqboHOnKhkk1v3NnYy3zR3wToLi0Jn__bzWnncHfaOg7LU-oduuWk/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJNnwUuSXkxDV16xMvWG6-x0xrRd0RPNeyqqjPKlp6HYr6LO_d9rq76DMcQ3YU6p9GouiV0p-yfyShL1YO-JTdHeSqboHOnKhkk1v3NnYy3zR3wToLi0Jn__bzWnncHfaOg7LU-oduuWk/s400/photo.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of Aven de Rocas on the front cover of <br />the 2015 CLPA inventaire</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2012, the CLPA discovered several holes in a rough field, very close to Jean’s house in Le Besses.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a few years I had joked that he had a cave in his garden.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The digging efforts of ‘Academie de Rocas’ had discovered several pitches, some with waterfalls and two of impressive dimensions. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The front cover of the most recent journal of the CLPA was adorned with the biggest pitch.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phillipe Vernant kindly offered to take us down Rocas and show us around. As part of the digging team, he knew the place extremely well.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rick Van Dijk was up for his 3rd SRT trip here and Ashley and Rich stayed on the surface to sort out the radio location equipment, trying to get an accurate fix on a known chamber with a known survey.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graham Naylor had built us a Nicola 3 prototype and two aerials to try to radio locate the large chamber a the end of the big sump in Coudouliere.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that the trip was off, we went to get a bit more practice and get a few more people trained in its use.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The entrance was a typical, muddy dig, with red slime everywhere. The ropes were bit quick too, covered in a layer of thick mud.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still with a wobbly ankle and a newly damaged shoulder (from getting the boulder choke wrong in Coudouliere), I took my time. Some easy meandres later and the impressive pitches were met. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXhwI97V8hNJKJPeA65Yf-J6jfTB1AT9SGpiqYm0O2KI1V8NeFgpbrAwn1vhEtyLoqiM4V1cmvESv5dL-Sj3JRq-4SOdBGawlKyMHPqCOTE9sPMq6bB_RwqHZa1AYVZtocY26RXzFh2hI/s1600/rocs+%25288+of+8%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXhwI97V8hNJKJPeA65Yf-J6jfTB1AT9SGpiqYm0O2KI1V8NeFgpbrAwn1vhEtyLoqiM4V1cmvESv5dL-Sj3JRq-4SOdBGawlKyMHPqCOTE9sPMq6bB_RwqHZa1AYVZtocY26RXzFh2hI/s320/rocs+%25288+of+8%2529.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christine in the entrance</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the bottom of the final major pitch, we unpacked the radio location aerial and switched it on. The surface team began laying spools of line among bushes and, despite a fluctuating signal, thought they had got a fix.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phillipe and I sat around for an hour putting the caving world to rights, while Rick sat in a higher chamber sorting out his camera for the return trip.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was somewhat unfortunate that he had left his ‘pains au chocolate’ in our daren drum!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the hour was up, we switched it off, packed it up and made our way steadily out of the cave. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My right shoulder was becoming fairly useless at this stage and I took quite a while to get off pitch heads, but this seemed to please Rick who was happily snapping away with his camera and achieving nice results. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once back in daylight, the surface team looked a bit sheepish.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They thought they had got a fix, but the numbers and signal had been fluctuating wildly and they couldn’t work out why.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This rang a bell.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I looked up and to my horror, the cave entrance was completely surrounded by overhead powerlines.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, three of them created a perfect triangle and the cave was right in the middle of it!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graham had warned us that overhead lines would cause big fluctuations in the signal and he wasn’t wrong!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaxY0prwajX0OXJ0SD7OihxObQ8GZf39gFCdVfMoun-IEsVmT7NCtGcCiKh7L18tXsZmXsOwHiXLWMCPlfWHRHGwxWqRlEZVLABSlpcGR8MXjsiohV8czrtRuXpZCc_cwM3DHQqMAC1U/s1600/12006610_10153639082213103_3443149027539721055_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaxY0prwajX0OXJ0SD7OihxObQ8GZf39gFCdVfMoun-IEsVmT7NCtGcCiKh7L18tXsZmXsOwHiXLWMCPlfWHRHGwxWqRlEZVLABSlpcGR8MXjsiohV8czrtRuXpZCc_cwM3DHQqMAC1U/s400/12006610_10153639082213103_3443149027539721055_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris at one of the pitch heads. Photo: Rick Van Dijk</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would not have been an issue over Coudouliere – but here, the village was infested with them…</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In any case, the fix point was GPS tagged and the co-ordinates given to Phillipe. He took them home and put an overlay if the cave survey onto Google Earth and …voila!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fix was smack bang on top of the chamber we had been in.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This seemed far too good to be true…so we made plans to visit another cave – L’Esquirol – where I had never been before, to try again and make sure it was not a fluke. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We retired to the café in St Maurice de Navacelles which is always a welcome refuge after caving and diving trips. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris ascending</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOwMtir69IQZTf1HMEFIirOBCRVoQIPtRr4AEqh-9CHWwkhGucJLFCaBobAeUam8_o_JDR5XVqOP6iH7ifBfAs3GgZNcalJsUk_HnHz91vRLiU6ECjlQSfud0mBF7ScDfHkSOb8llL6w/s1600/11244491_10153037719901561_6339361405269774824_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglOwMtir69IQZTf1HMEFIirOBCRVoQIPtRr4AEqh-9CHWwkhGucJLFCaBobAeUam8_o_JDR5XVqOP6iH7ifBfAs3GgZNcalJsUk_HnHz91vRLiU6ECjlQSfud0mBF7ScDfHkSOb8llL6w/s400/11244491_10153037719901561_6339361405269774824_o.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main pitch in Aven de Rocas</td></tr>
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-72508265283964077382015-09-07T13:57:00.000-07:002015-11-03T14:19:19.426-08:00Not our cat!<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We appear to have a visitor.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not our Cat has been sniffing around for the last few nights and today, he decided to make himself at home.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Luckily Rich and I are cat lovers but we are too busy and away too much to get our own.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So we adopted him!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjrhJJj84udkan_c-QRbW2IdUX6J2M3APFRiGprw46wWUzSuG3M0FmlT_Xz9Gh0MjRqNHnzSS5iku9Bl_muxU01SsZvMCXvy_qKIprSFf-iDJpBdYCnxZD8ohOz03Di-zqLw-m1vGMb0/s1600/IMG_2481.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjrhJJj84udkan_c-QRbW2IdUX6J2M3APFRiGprw46wWUzSuG3M0FmlT_Xz9Gh0MjRqNHnzSS5iku9Bl_muxU01SsZvMCXvy_qKIprSFf-iDJpBdYCnxZD8ohOz03Di-zqLw-m1vGMb0/s400/IMG_2481.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking out the spare room</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRbRqbrDDLTL6Qsl5RBROYepZjMrSsphDuRuMfebXxnGD0Ot0ES7rpa8j8iGoaOVcIZUkWOpq3ogLzOnWVyZAzLDfCmZuz6iA8ME_S-mbTGJcYWur12GMI0Vkts0r6JShLH5gOTpB7SA/s1600/IMG_2482+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRbRqbrDDLTL6Qsl5RBROYepZjMrSsphDuRuMfebXxnGD0Ot0ES7rpa8j8iGoaOVcIZUkWOpq3ogLzOnWVyZAzLDfCmZuz6iA8ME_S-mbTGJcYWur12GMI0Vkts0r6JShLH5gOTpB7SA/s400/IMG_2482+copy.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking out the spare bed</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzO63f-JsKiE87TFKhkJ_tGZNDbMbpJ_qFdRzn8iUMLRuolJXRsFBB_-zNxzcJioenFBGaXGpYUtaLrrFEHzMLEhmyPUfc1W9inslFdHWnf0RcgsycPVHWoZAqwRTZsFaGdMfGpttZYDk/s1600/cat+%25281+of+1%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzO63f-JsKiE87TFKhkJ_tGZNDbMbpJ_qFdRzn8iUMLRuolJXRsFBB_-zNxzcJioenFBGaXGpYUtaLrrFEHzMLEhmyPUfc1W9inslFdHWnf0RcgsycPVHWoZAqwRTZsFaGdMfGpttZYDk/s400/cat+%25281+of+1%2529.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quite happy on the spare bed...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Butter wouldn't melt</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Found a perfect spot behind the explo box...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chilling on the patio</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now he considers this his home...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6loqBLY7xMxKxMjvKxrs3c4qDOIPjn3CO6KQ_8Vso54PzSNUr5-vd4RM8BJnmjkWH2q19larK-Dk_4RkL0g7dKLU3uU2xVMI-sctE2NfzANmSnHFuGkzQgzqX-hX_RelaWJcKRB8qBaw/s1600/IMG_2495.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6loqBLY7xMxKxMjvKxrs3c4qDOIPjn3CO6KQ_8Vso54PzSNUr5-vd4RM8BJnmjkWH2q19larK-Dk_4RkL0g7dKLU3uU2xVMI-sctE2NfzANmSnHFuGkzQgzqX-hX_RelaWJcKRB8qBaw/s400/IMG_2495.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spoilt by Rich</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATB_HMW1hn2bVB0cAByD6SvBa2sU7uU5o3pZ4TDJl35AXdwJWCFAB8RHzV-PrhyavEXU07-rSO8kuYyWIBE886aotQIH1lGgbU9yB_cLyiy9UpiuiyL3Ek2HO2a-MJa_AVN1tE_3bjew/s1600/IMG_2496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATB_HMW1hn2bVB0cAByD6SvBa2sU7uU5o3pZ4TDJl35AXdwJWCFAB8RHzV-PrhyavEXU07-rSO8kuYyWIBE886aotQIH1lGgbU9yB_cLyiy9UpiuiyL3Ek2HO2a-MJa_AVN1tE_3bjew/s400/IMG_2496.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweaty moggy</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKiirOEHZ_eaBibvz1zDDgc-8eIlNEF9OgGEGv4Nv-LBZxke9rLT-MRFZYlVUwz1xvBuS-2q5otOs1L_FOFx_mqZrujwx3yYqN0PGEakdQI_RjsAEsjQeYXGcXYLAPMLoTKLY9OjX4yH8/s1600/IMG_2498.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKiirOEHZ_eaBibvz1zDDgc-8eIlNEF9OgGEGv4Nv-LBZxke9rLT-MRFZYlVUwz1xvBuS-2q5otOs1L_FOFx_mqZrujwx3yYqN0PGEakdQI_RjsAEsjQeYXGcXYLAPMLoTKLY9OjX4yH8/s400/IMG_2498.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweaty cat</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiITTFLMe2kELUy6PbVTIyI9XlY83XtOCTz-17JVBzJfceR3Y5GSOWW8kLRRGIxBVp_U3P3RjNEoT5ZcFJuVfPAuEW6qSMLWj39Qu6gXm7igzLYZvKWB6mIgKnZQoASnvQUZzQPFEcXA/s1600/IMG_2501.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiITTFLMe2kELUy6PbVTIyI9XlY83XtOCTz-17JVBzJfceR3Y5GSOWW8kLRRGIxBVp_U3P3RjNEoT5ZcFJuVfPAuEW6qSMLWj39Qu6gXm7igzLYZvKWB6mIgKnZQoASnvQUZzQPFEcXA/s400/IMG_2501.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No boundaries...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwwhmvCqwlsCJYat-8S4izfOl6i6tvcePqMdHZCDXMJ_IL7qVOtJOasKYAy0mbY1TjXjseH5FqfSRZK80MD9SBtdZGWn9RjYi-_tgwiTYZcOKWapSOY6Qo8wM_zq3uhQ8lBe_L2FJfRM/s1600/IMG_2503.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZwwhmvCqwlsCJYat-8S4izfOl6i6tvcePqMdHZCDXMJ_IL7qVOtJOasKYAy0mbY1TjXjseH5FqfSRZK80MD9SBtdZGWn9RjYi-_tgwiTYZcOKWapSOY6Qo8wM_zq3uhQ8lBe_L2FJfRM/s400/IMG_2503.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is my bacon ready?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoiqAqXhb4B8KSnGOIWo24LtEQOHZCpq7niec42ynE7tHnk2FIp58az-kTX5AYeZL7aiKzOxEfJfnhSE24VV_zGcJDUtELf0rbVWqLg7AGnazqzh5zB2W9P_b2JXihsPH-yNTGn5kq3fk/s1600/IMG_2518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoiqAqXhb4B8KSnGOIWo24LtEQOHZCpq7niec42ynE7tHnk2FIp58az-kTX5AYeZL7aiKzOxEfJfnhSE24VV_zGcJDUtELf0rbVWqLg7AGnazqzh5zB2W9P_b2JXihsPH-yNTGn5kq3fk/s400/IMG_2518.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I thought he might want a blanket. He did.</td></tr>
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<br />cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-3235932496117723412015-09-07T12:54:00.003-07:002015-09-07T12:55:18.224-07:00Rodel<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiqZ-Oe82D6-bmwhLx86-OUUqMUuDREyMIUrH0BuXmlz7R1n5G1Rm9qEWUepZ3H00ALRLbqp2ao0_7T1Ql44SWMynVflFYHh92NTperPELE9cWmMLKMifDbs68fTuP1ZZkXqxAh-VYls/s1600/P1000012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijiqZ-Oe82D6-bmwhLx86-OUUqMUuDREyMIUrH0BuXmlz7R1n5G1Rm9qEWUepZ3H00ALRLbqp2ao0_7T1Ql44SWMynVflFYHh92NTperPELE9cWmMLKMifDbs68fTuP1ZZkXqxAh-VYls/s320/P1000012.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rick Van Dijk in Rodel dry passages</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There seems to be a bit of a fad about sidemount at the moment. I'm not sure why, as most 'gurus' have rarely dived caves such as the Rodel, where sidemount is absolutely necessary.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is not just necessary for the awkward carry (walk up a riverbed for 100 metres or so and then crawl on your belly for another 70 metres or so and then crawl/stoop the rest of the way) but underwater too. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is actually one of the easiest to access sites in the Herault, but if you don't like Trou Madame at low water, forget this one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love the place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is easiest to chain gear to make rapid progress to the sump and knee pads are essential.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The visibility is normally very good but a second thunder storm ruined it for this trip.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a milky 4 metres or so, but a good experience for Ash and Rick who hadn't dived it before.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdJl7YzXSiRvDQAH9HuMTgJXMaJ_xKT7N9DFMxLe3sI9G2tJKhynajcBbIB1Hjr-crIun2Zsxd_PzPkljvIv3g7vlRo7GxLM83LC5ivoU7uQpYx_wk1_MTbEfSI8uMBAqwUE0PHHtukU/s1600/IMG_1539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFdJl7YzXSiRvDQAH9HuMTgJXMaJ_xKT7N9DFMxLe3sI9G2tJKhynajcBbIB1Hjr-crIun2Zsxd_PzPkljvIv3g7vlRo7GxLM83LC5ivoU7uQpYx_wk1_MTbEfSI8uMBAqwUE0PHHtukU/s640/IMG_1539.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in Rodel</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I took the opportunity to try some photos and more video but </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the visibility was nowhere near as good as 2012. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But it was fun in any case...</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBvk6h2S2nM-jiu9qP7lHEzF5DH8KJkbrZ4gp8GhnC8QMb63wZbFoLqQYMSK4PvYAfWdsn46dcP8ZD_52SXVhzL5dOOYIa-OG0k9SJTM82kN0c9WisnF_anE1pAIctgNjEWR9g6YayM_M/s1600/IMG_1556.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBvk6h2S2nM-jiu9qP7lHEzF5DH8KJkbrZ4gp8GhnC8QMb63wZbFoLqQYMSK4PvYAfWdsn46dcP8ZD_52SXVhzL5dOOYIa-OG0k9SJTM82kN0c9WisnF_anE1pAIctgNjEWR9g6YayM_M/s640/IMG_1556.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rick Van Dijk in Rodel cobble squeeze (advisable to dig it open first and keep away from the line which goes through the smallest part...)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrUdCIDPKTTcFMG3OqYWMrkWoxF2jY3FIwSpEa5kdx9YLB4gxPxSIxRuKidTHQyldZ785c9fqIWPrATT0tVnEw4z5_fng8ikp8p6FzaEkywb8HdvlL1a0teCoq0VI_HeS5RHVaZuYIgA/s1600/IMG_1554.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjrUdCIDPKTTcFMG3OqYWMrkWoxF2jY3FIwSpEa5kdx9YLB4gxPxSIxRuKidTHQyldZ785c9fqIWPrATT0tVnEw4z5_fng8ikp8p6FzaEkywb8HdvlL1a0teCoq0VI_HeS5RHVaZuYIgA/s640/IMG_1554.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marker close to the end of the line<br />
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-48674487653484391132015-08-31T11:11:00.000-07:002015-11-03T15:34:01.896-08:00Abime de Mas Raynal<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKb2sUR99Mo7X1BRiD3vJZtPjIAbgFNETtvnqzIySkSgtNOimclHWLflkQ5HZRX_HC5IIXy21wRzWd_jTJVG_Z_HrHYHiJ2SOdANhkiE4P6wiPdBZbNsuw7uUh3soXPxlFNNG1pUDEm-8/s1600/025_22.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKb2sUR99Mo7X1BRiD3vJZtPjIAbgFNETtvnqzIySkSgtNOimclHWLflkQ5HZRX_HC5IIXy21wRzWd_jTJVG_Z_HrHYHiJ2SOdANhkiE4P6wiPdBZbNsuw7uUh3soXPxlFNNG1pUDEm-8/s320/025_22.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christine descending Mas Raynal<br />
Super Direct in 2002</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It occurred to me that I hadn't been to this wonderful cave since about 2003. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was very much looking forward to rigging it this time, rather than being pushed back behind 'some bloke' who always assumed that it was a man's job. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bollocks to that, I say. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2002, on only my 3rd SRT trip, I went 'over the edge' and did the main hang or 'super direct' route which is 106 clean metres straight off a rusty iron bar in broad daylight on a single rope.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The only interruption is a re-belay some 30m from the crashing river below. The water heads North West to Source du Sorgues and is typically blue and cold.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdzDtZfBR9f9bQ4lOxF8gBW0EJY7Fnl58blC4mvPhdAn6KJg3EjXImFOwwBWywmttGnMq550cXzeGsVqdVcYqLv4yqiqTUpkCmgdDDSkjZSP_o_d5Yksb_4Sr7QIAjq0NvEHjhieI0d2U/s1600/P1000030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdzDtZfBR9f9bQ4lOxF8gBW0EJY7Fnl58blC4mvPhdAn6KJg3EjXImFOwwBWywmttGnMq550cXzeGsVqdVcYqLv4yqiqTUpkCmgdDDSkjZSP_o_d5Yksb_4Sr7QIAjq0NvEHjhieI0d2U/s320/P1000030.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rick Van Dijk on his 2nd SRT trip...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The multi-pitch route is friendlier and has some snaggy, slimy green slopes on route to the final hang.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is partially P-hung and partially requires spits and hangers - so it's advisable to take some hangers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ashley, my CDG trainee, wanted to do the main hang on 8mm. He rigged it but only ascended it and used our ropes on the way down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The cave is like Alum Pot on speed. I think it is a little bigger in dimensions but the main hang is about the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sunlight pours down the main shaft and the chilly gloom of the massive side inlet makes for some great silhouette photos. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_MrRqNZkBPpSuBnZ_2LJ92OEm-ClRzxVjkCY3hYspzi23B9JIgGSGYW0SgHB6c0ICUU8_xwP5Pguh8dKKBxfepP4FaYFwGQoSFVrJ5eYSRCci0RVuh_pX4FtYA0KlyyQ8V-qXEYmcf9w/s1600/P1000047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_MrRqNZkBPpSuBnZ_2LJ92OEm-ClRzxVjkCY3hYspzi23B9JIgGSGYW0SgHB6c0ICUU8_xwP5Pguh8dKKBxfepP4FaYFwGQoSFVrJ5eYSRCci0RVuh_pX4FtYA0KlyyQ8V-qXEYmcf9w/s640/P1000047.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich at the bottom of Mas Raynal</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm very proud of Rich who, from a climbing background, is not a fan of hanging over big holes on a single rope, never mind in daylight. He managed to de-rig most of it mostly without complaint.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfL-885nAOq7yn3PFzU0epRJxzc65tkeym70qiahQtIyfhTCKgsjzedEwMYEtkU2iQhtp9_PqBkD9ht-FKQbmxivKcs5u6VvxRtjKbvEqOYgfA-n_rJ9oOamosjdJ3YdB8r7YmE_2no9o/s1600/P1000041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfL-885nAOq7yn3PFzU0epRJxzc65tkeym70qiahQtIyfhTCKgsjzedEwMYEtkU2iQhtp9_PqBkD9ht-FKQbmxivKcs5u6VvxRtjKbvEqOYgfA-n_rJ9oOamosjdJ3YdB8r7YmE_2no9o/s640/P1000041.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me rigging</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGbgiV7KDTNJ5AVArhb31W6-sHA2mfhAQS2yfH66YGPKFodBzG7-b8svAI7DvKCrT67SXxYUy9fJfP441wKsWc5WadM-dBqEGj1XyEHujl0dwzjekj4I7BU3CYMQBwp_PK7qCoObor2I/s1600/P1000049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGbgiV7KDTNJ5AVArhb31W6-sHA2mfhAQS2yfH66YGPKFodBzG7-b8svAI7DvKCrT67SXxYUy9fJfP441wKsWc5WadM-dBqEGj1XyEHujl0dwzjekj4I7BU3CYMQBwp_PK7qCoObor2I/s640/P1000049.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from the bottom</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe_7ADr1OSsFPkPBUYVdBFkC4uNFH3t51-5yLEw8Rj4D9aU9Ge5cL6wT3B_syxXfQ6v08QYV_0bqeV3i-xzLcz7V9aXGOmpBO3eO1ER4GH8IA6o31XWraWpNmdlPaljVXloDF4GaXbdk/s1600/P1000056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe_7ADr1OSsFPkPBUYVdBFkC4uNFH3t51-5yLEw8Rj4D9aU9Ge5cL6wT3B_syxXfQ6v08QYV_0bqeV3i-xzLcz7V9aXGOmpBO3eO1ER4GH8IA6o31XWraWpNmdlPaljVXloDF4GaXbdk/s640/P1000056.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ash on his way up the main hang</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIUYR05nouqJLiChLDanE-HlsEXnt6iqGyaUHdIupRXaDYIVcFbuPWMyIO-Aa8QtINsRszbXHlv43rx1bSlpKsYXTl8JZ735U6MamK53X0VhFTv9sa0aeHfOClKIei5nqRBMdS8W9e80/s1600/P1000059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIUYR05nouqJLiChLDanE-HlsEXnt6iqGyaUHdIupRXaDYIVcFbuPWMyIO-Aa8QtINsRszbXHlv43rx1bSlpKsYXTl8JZ735U6MamK53X0VhFTv9sa0aeHfOClKIei5nqRBMdS8W9e80/s640/P1000059.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ash ascending</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzEItpALWnS9T5fN7oxSXRDrcoVMKXoYrIb4UIQdqseMq-2jRJ_2RewKAffqKDeyC8M2lcEbikghJL90hzcK0tkUj7P90dT9KnsL5xsZoaWq-ct7XBkL-GwKKwhTZIEmvoLfPttmg_xQ/s1600/P1000067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzEItpALWnS9T5fN7oxSXRDrcoVMKXoYrIb4UIQdqseMq-2jRJ_2RewKAffqKDeyC8M2lcEbikghJL90hzcK0tkUj7P90dT9KnsL5xsZoaWq-ct7XBkL-GwKKwhTZIEmvoLfPttmg_xQ/s640/P1000067.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich and Rick on the multi pitch route while Ash ascends in the background</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-47593545281518271502015-08-30T11:00:00.000-07:002015-09-03T11:01:15.494-07:00Source du Sorgues....<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6__70wCym8rgPv7aWrZuv2MSBq2mIIp5vrxddxIa4b8MdLI9K2kZMlcF5X8CDcdPW82wBJFCIl9m1cOAfxMS3K3R5YTkpVaaWfFcoaEivKpMmSNUp9FgrPIK84bzlqSKmzg1LtBCkRRQ/s1600/P1000010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6__70wCym8rgPv7aWrZuv2MSBq2mIIp5vrxddxIa4b8MdLI9K2kZMlcF5X8CDcdPW82wBJFCIl9m1cOAfxMS3K3R5YTkpVaaWfFcoaEivKpMmSNUp9FgrPIK84bzlqSKmzg1LtBCkRRQ/s320/P1000010.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorgues</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the weather ruining most of the local sites, we headed up to Aveyron to dive a cave which is usually in very good condition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sorgues is the resurgence for the Mas Raynal cave some 4km away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It usually has inviting, blue water and today was no exception.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually, it was a little milkier than normal...but Rick, Rich, Ash and myself had a pleasant dive nonetheless. Such a shame this cave is so short at only 200 or so metres long.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On our way home, we stuck our heads into the Rodel to inspect the water for a future dive. It looked pretty undamaged by the recent flooding and we kept it in our pocket for another day.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPmQJuA-CG6XE5n5Er-jSGJlQNwyPQLXFkVhC7vXWwiWBQLBi0ursNy7Ais8Z8y6Vb8stipVI8yoLlVvSWL3fJ9vawe0BXXQxP5NT4tGRjVC74HXY6r5eKXJ1kwrdtPdGV6XHRCP5OGvI/s1600/P1000011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPmQJuA-CG6XE5n5Er-jSGJlQNwyPQLXFkVhC7vXWwiWBQLBi0ursNy7Ais8Z8y6Vb8stipVI8yoLlVvSWL3fJ9vawe0BXXQxP5NT4tGRjVC74HXY6r5eKXJ1kwrdtPdGV6XHRCP5OGvI/s200/P1000011.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Butterfly at Sorgues</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMN7VG_zNjzP_zQWadrqtg9xF6F_yGIeJvOOfIVDA0LsXKARkatDR3c35fedhTBd2TV-hvEarrY68odR4KnlZqnPUgCcs8-8BVQ1cTHIkbdLfxx4Coway8dQdQIOlP2Elq-m0HkX2DQio/s1600/france-35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMN7VG_zNjzP_zQWadrqtg9xF6F_yGIeJvOOfIVDA0LsXKARkatDR3c35fedhTBd2TV-hvEarrY68odR4KnlZqnPUgCcs8-8BVQ1cTHIkbdLfxx4Coway8dQdQIOlP2Elq-m0HkX2DQio/s640/france-35.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another day, another dive... Christine in the Sorgues, by Richard Walker</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqZmmdywVZkusTYjt7Q4EgfpTOkBmXLrTgoENjsDxLXy-NGPFhi-tPGTUAJCej6sR15XvH999H_mFgO4pkockt1MSTJGpXktzr2ZqS4HZXQXItUx5YMNwxy1I4awIsxmToC9XO7UrzH0/s1600/P1000012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaqZmmdywVZkusTYjt7Q4EgfpTOkBmXLrTgoENjsDxLXy-NGPFhi-tPGTUAJCej6sR15XvH999H_mFgO4pkockt1MSTJGpXktzr2ZqS4HZXQXItUx5YMNwxy1I4awIsxmToC9XO7UrzH0/s320/P1000012.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rick van Dijk in Rodel dry passages. It is necessary to carry diving gear through here to dive the stunning, sidemount sump.</td></tr>
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-14637696848373534082015-08-29T14:17:00.000-07:002015-09-03T11:08:16.581-07:00Not the Avencas...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The storm in Montpellier last Sunday not only killed several people, but really messed up the sumps in the region.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://floodlist.com/europe/france-montpellier-floods" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Montpellier Floods</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We learned from Jean Tarrit, our good friend from CLPA and also the lady at the campsite that only 15mm was forecast.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact, about 1.6 metres fell and the result was a shock for this time of year and devastating for the people in Montpellier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was sobering to realise that the meteo office could get it so wrong - and had we arrived several days earlier, I have no doubt there would have been a fatality.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCilFCkhLEbTzUpAnaZY4Giz0jv9Axo_gXK_vc9SkROIn9p4eQiYmT-pc_aVrrce48HQIDQ0rWupwqmVx9kuLxJ1meF1DHRt9az1yMDBOBDwLRDKtvrNnnISellNg7JBx94yDBN42qG0A/s1600/11903713_10152999799201561_9140122150748984381_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCilFCkhLEbTzUpAnaZY4Giz0jv9Axo_gXK_vc9SkROIn9p4eQiYmT-pc_aVrrce48HQIDQ0rWupwqmVx9kuLxJ1meF1DHRt9az1yMDBOBDwLRDKtvrNnnISellNg7JBx94yDBN42qG0A/s320/11903713_10152999799201561_9140122150748984381_n.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the morning, we were greeted by GERSAM, a local caving club and also Jean Tarrit and we had lots of coffee and conversation. We cursed the weather, but also made plans for the times ahead. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were very pleased to meet Pierre from GERSAM who had been sorting out access with the local mayor and the group were excited to see the radio-location equipment.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuhMRkcuNexR6X2YEdkC_8tS7hnX8ZgXL99cumLhXJNXb1QyxXKxiQ3H1d2bDEGF25gs9LXi6QKmRFwuhbUw8FI64BaqAnyrrWIdYMQ3PjK0N7QlxmFOcVwWrqAdMQqmMoPMLke2Tqn34/s1600/IMG_2478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuhMRkcuNexR6X2YEdkC_8tS7hnX8ZgXL99cumLhXJNXb1QyxXKxiQ3H1d2bDEGF25gs9LXi6QKmRFwuhbUw8FI64BaqAnyrrWIdYMQ3PjK0N7QlxmFOcVwWrqAdMQqmMoPMLke2Tqn34/s320/IMG_2478.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Man go caving...fill can with cat litter...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We made an attempt today to go and visit Grotte Avencas, but as it was so close to the Bueges valley, I was not hopeful that it would be diveable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ashley got in first and declared it 'Fucked'. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We took our gear back to the campsite and got in the swimming pool. We wondered if that was the closest we would get to diving....</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj3fJmPRM98Ngyy8fIVI4eP3DLdjXbsbuOARP9aa_PbugTZ3xgJ4A3BA8kUTPOylN7bANpXAWgyuq_7fxmxtT3kHUdLvRGwMUtkmJL6_YMHlsOMwNSSRiNO1z08RLItppoImFK4fgFtM/s1600/IMG_2476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj3fJmPRM98Ngyy8fIVI4eP3DLdjXbsbuOARP9aa_PbugTZ3xgJ4A3BA8kUTPOylN7bANpXAWgyuq_7fxmxtT3kHUdLvRGwMUtkmJL6_YMHlsOMwNSSRiNO1z08RLItppoImFK4fgFtM/s320/IMG_2476.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dutch neighbours...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-13225703429283244062015-08-28T13:59:00.000-07:002015-09-03T10:52:29.077-07:00The French Meteo...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXA5cC80Aff3C-bRhYIpepcwxPyHTQ1kU5BCApmqZEvTX5TyoVxkTrecmix3NW994Odop26hzhSB1lLzL-uvGiJzQXrX1us09NU4JrkiPzPlnT5h7WqamEzE18AQV-barfq-h54_ldmI/s1600/P1000006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXA5cC80Aff3C-bRhYIpepcwxPyHTQ1kU5BCApmqZEvTX5TyoVxkTrecmix3NW994Odop26hzhSB1lLzL-uvGiJzQXrX1us09NU4JrkiPzPlnT5h7WqamEzE18AQV-barfq-h54_ldmI/s640/P1000006.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vallee de la Vis</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rich and I drove the last few hours to camping le Val d'Herault and the Dutch gang had already headed over to Coudouliere to check out the entrance and see if scooters would fit.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimxfi8Bn5PMS6Ak8Ptgk8ACPHs7RVAhH401ip4Xf8f11rmwRve4xGergttMoBhFdqbEUcHud90Et6YPzQS0Q_Oa59w2rgQgz3KPpimrrRV7OMaOsfA3ZWwsu3JnkNMfN71O5aOIEfk-rU/s1600/P1000004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimxfi8Bn5PMS6Ak8Ptgk8ACPHs7RVAhH401ip4Xf8f11rmwRve4xGergttMoBhFdqbEUcHud90Et6YPzQS0Q_Oa59w2rgQgz3KPpimrrRV7OMaOsfA3ZWwsu3JnkNMfN71O5aOIEfk-rU/s320/P1000004.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vis Gorge</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rich and I drove down the stunning Vis gorge. We hung our heads out of the windows, trying to see if the river was looking the right colour. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It did not look right to me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We crossed the bridge at St Bauzille de Putois and there was definitely too much water of the wrong colour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we drove to the campsite, everything looked green and there had clearly been plenty of rain - but it had not been forecast.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We did a quick supermarket shop and headed over to Coudouliere to find the guys had brought all their gear to the entrance - but on looking at the sump, this trip was clearly not going ahead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Rich and I paid a quick visit to the source de Bueges and it was high and a vile colour. We were in no doubt that the Coudouliere exped was over for 2015.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXJEK7gXCHjpOIYlLT5efE2lbSaq7ccvXOQUNFgCgeLxVdj3vjp2ESoHj8xlxu_54Deb0hPPRp2jk2IDH9ocodDRY0WTTODqx5_FBNCHOvZKGYw17LPqNcV8TPeyDHimjb8txEF4PV48/s1600/11984362_10153006536026561_304625391_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXJEK7gXCHjpOIYlLT5efE2lbSaq7ccvXOQUNFgCgeLxVdj3vjp2ESoHj8xlxu_54Deb0hPPRp2jk2IDH9ocodDRY0WTTODqx5_FBNCHOvZKGYw17LPqNcV8TPeyDHimjb8txEF4PV48/s320/11984362_10153006536026561_304625391_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pedro pretty much sums it up...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At Coudouliere, we found Pedro Balordi blowing up the boulder choke to get the suex cowlings through. They figured this needed doing in any case for a return trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The gear made it's way back to the cars and we headed into the camp site to re-adjust, unpack the exped gear and touch base with the French cavers to make plans for the next few weeks.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anton gets hold of Pedro's pink nail polish...what else is a boy to do?</td></tr>
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<br />cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-6166310395548775852015-08-27T12:53:00.000-07:002015-09-01T12:55:00.399-07:002015 - the Dutch Invasion!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Thursday 27<sup>th</sup>
August 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2Kv55RdOhRd0Lxzpkp3y3_P5Acx1MjImZLwaYDlDI9z826vvCHaeOIgnXtm4UdfY2cXmk6jcFbkOJfOznxkqS-CjECL-CXzJk24xZGSx-t5GVVz5BBUIsqW4U2V-BAWQqAqSRkkBw8U/s1600/coudouliere_coupe_2007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2Kv55RdOhRd0Lxzpkp3y3_P5Acx1MjImZLwaYDlDI9z826vvCHaeOIgnXtm4UdfY2cXmk6jcFbkOJfOznxkqS-CjECL-CXzJk24xZGSx-t5GVVz5BBUIsqW4U2V-BAWQqAqSRkkBw8U/s400/coudouliere_coupe_2007.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpmQmnJRWGD2-S98hF1DQr3bch6J_M9_2rr2xNCLqOQamvVHQnfeVa1B-cfkyhzNqGANGScL63YhOBmI8XFqz-ixrxMpSnQ0afW1dZUd0sa2BhIlsK3CwTQ6b7c8z1p5WjMprNr-1pTY/s1600/11424499_961650517192091_158581760_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpmQmnJRWGD2-S98hF1DQr3bch6J_M9_2rr2xNCLqOQamvVHQnfeVa1B-cfkyhzNqGANGScL63YhOBmI8XFqz-ixrxMpSnQ0afW1dZUd0sa2BhIlsK3CwTQ6b7c8z1p5WjMprNr-1pTY/s320/11424499_961650517192091_158581760_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">With help from
John and various intellectuals in electronics and engineering, Anton has built
a device which is so far, producing reasonable results.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The hope is that
the sump mapper will eliminate this obstacle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg90TdIRMZVmH4cV1RG-6iRn-6-0tlZOvPekwY4mKv5Ga6bdwNHsPZ1HIXAjTgz3Fu6jdEnow7Vt2BPbuV1LEA9a1pzR2sG-yL68EYvHxrSBUZOwEvlmwPEXlN7qBaEkyN2mJ9qtDt11Rg/s1600/10682375_10153512208918103_2636459215976561350_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg90TdIRMZVmH4cV1RG-6iRn-6-0tlZOvPekwY4mKv5Ga6bdwNHsPZ1HIXAjTgz3Fu6jdEnow7Vt2BPbuV1LEA9a1pzR2sG-yL68EYvHxrSBUZOwEvlmwPEXlN7qBaEkyN2mJ9qtDt11Rg/s320/10682375_10153512208918103_2636459215976561350_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Graham Naylor introduces us to the Nicola 3</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">If this is
successful, the next job will be sending in deep team 2 to set up a radio
location beacon in the dry chamber. We owe Dr Graham Naylor (inventor of the
Nicola phone, which has doubtless saved many lives already in it’s use in the
Gouffre Berger and on many cave rescues) huge gratitude for his advice,
patience and for building us a radio location system built around the prototype
Nicola 3 radio. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2HAEu0EtUOb4ijrJT6GVGBsf2EgHfYqWENkbZYQGr9JRLke_lZBW1zAoCgWnFzsKeI3NY_PSHO_8DPDemxsUqVk-Nq3crMQdqgwMvyWITZjVutAO3sPNZ6rL-4VmkOsbbGnUz3BgacFY/s1600/984315_10153515946733103_6529363146869295142_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2HAEu0EtUOb4ijrJT6GVGBsf2EgHfYqWENkbZYQGr9JRLke_lZBW1zAoCgWnFzsKeI3NY_PSHO_8DPDemxsUqVk-Nq3crMQdqgwMvyWITZjVutAO3sPNZ6rL-4VmkOsbbGnUz3BgacFY/s320/984315_10153515946733103_6529363146869295142_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The amount of
work far exceeds the amount of time we have. The primary objective is to return
with some data, get at least one team through the sump and have lots of fun
using new technology and techniques new to some members of the team.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_sU5-1OBIvGPoCpD5bc9tLzZqUm8Zc6u_mXLnEQOpHVCLvH7JhmEdC9p00HsgEvs2gzRCCs0gjz8ihAAJQC4tXGuRgTXS_x6kBn2nbSWDx94mAkM0ke5b144xO0L5IMJ6BctOcbJZn_E/s1600/11750679_10153483737643103_5907217716601318897_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_sU5-1OBIvGPoCpD5bc9tLzZqUm8Zc6u_mXLnEQOpHVCLvH7JhmEdC9p00HsgEvs2gzRCCs0gjz8ihAAJQC4tXGuRgTXS_x6kBn2nbSWDx94mAkM0ke5b144xO0L5IMJ6BctOcbJZn_E/s320/11750679_10153483737643103_5907217716601318897_n.jpg" width="240" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-14545501210379484562014-10-08T09:07:00.000-07:002014-10-09T11:02:57.130-07:00To the end of Garrel<div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The Garrel was first mentioned to us by Jean Tarrit back in 2011. He told us of a sump that was at the end of a cave that the CLPA had been exploring for over 30 years. It’s a big, complex cave system and continues to lead dry passageway even today. However, what lay beyond the sump was a mystery to them, and could be the start of another significant area of the cave so he was keen for us to dive it. In 2012, Christine and Tim dived and laid 40m of line, finishing as the visibility was deteriorating. The sump had gone to a depth of 10m, and was heading up towards the surface at a depth of 4.5m at the end, so there was a good chance it would surface.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We returned this year with thoughts of surfacing into new cave passageway, and were very excited to going back. It doesn’t seem too bad a dive, to be honest. 90m of distance, and 10m depth. How hard could it be? Well, the cave diving is the easy bit. You see the sump is 6 hours caving from the entrance. It isn’t particularly difficult caving, lots of short vertical climbs and descents, and a particularly big and confusing boulder choke in the middle of the trip. All of this needs to be done of course with the diving gear. Jean brings friends with him. They are never the same people, for some reason, so I can only assume he has a large pool of friends to draw from. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We set off early that morning, and no less than 8 cavers showed up to help us. Jean was so excited, that he left all of his equipment at home and had to go back to get it. He caught us up a couple of hours into the trip. These helpers were young, fit and keen. At the start anyway!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">I’ve been trying to find the report of the last trip here, but I can’t. I suspect that, in the way that you forget pain, the interwebs has decided that the report is too painful to be told. It just means I’ll have to recant the story here for you. (Edit: It's here: <a href="http://heraultcavediving.blogspot.fr/2013/01/a-grand-day-out-garrel.html" target="_blank">A Grand Day Out</a> Chris ;-)) </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">We climbed into the cave down a sloping, low bedding plane just steep enough for you to not have to work very hard. This is great on the way in, but I’m always mindful of how I might extract myself from such places. I slid down to the bottom, thinking about levitation techniques. From there on, it’s a mixture of short rope pitches. We used SRT equipment this time. In 2012 we neglected to bring any because it was a “short, easy trip”. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">After about an hour, or so, the large passageway stops at the base of a huge boulder choke. There are multiple ways into it. We’d become spread out over the cave due to the vertical pitches, and I found myself with a young french guy who spoke about as much English as I spoke French. You can make what you will of that, but essentially, unless we wanted to ask each other our respective names for the next few hours, and discussing whether there is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=x1sQkEfAdfY" target="_blank">a monkey in the tree</a> or not. Anyway, I digress. My new friend decided that the way on was up and to the left. Well, it was his cave so I followed him. Climbed up a squeeze little hole, and then to a vertical rope pitch. There was nobody there, and I figured that if this was the way on, then we would have caught up the other team at this point. I tried to explain that we needed to go back to the bottom of the boulders and wait. OK, he said, I went down, and he went up. Le singe est sur l’arbre. I got found by another of the party and tried to explain. I think we made some progress, and we shouted at friend 1 to come back, which he duly did. This whole escapade took us a good 45 minutes, and we headed on through the boulder choke and caught up again. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">More big rooms, vertical climbs and descents, a very precarious totter across a knife-edge of rock like something from Lord of the Rings, 6 hours and a spot of lunch later, we arrived at the sump. This was a beautiful sight. It had a gorgeous green hue to it, and we could see the line heading off into the depths. That was until I fell in kitting up. Brown soup from all of the fine silt was now covering the entrance. I just hoped it wouldn’t drift into the main cave. We were planning to survey this sump, so visibility was needed in order to do a decent job.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">After some precarious balancing while gearing up, Christine and I set off into the sump. Chris went first, patching the line and looking around for the way on. I followed behind making the survey. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrbtC0dEdn7VxrTZsWpGnmDnTJZmsBqMhBYULUovMvnuSW3xFLtIs6I-jdhbH73XZhtKnTOsv8A5VPfwMxuB4JBKIW9CBv4MAXLUp0EyPOSKomQC3_Gl6sm8eSiOWuIv-ynsnGC8AxG4/s1600/P9130027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkrbtC0dEdn7VxrTZsWpGnmDnTJZmsBqMhBYULUovMvnuSW3xFLtIs6I-jdhbH73XZhtKnTOsv8A5VPfwMxuB4JBKIW9CBv4MAXLUp0EyPOSKomQC3_Gl6sm8eSiOWuIv-ynsnGC8AxG4/s1600/P9130027.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Pretty little cave, although I didn’t get to see too much of it, focussed as I was on my compass and wet-notes. The passage went roughly North West, and I surveyed the length of the line, and having a quick discussion with Chris at the end to the effect of “it’s all boulder choked from here on” and that was sadly the end of the dive. 20 mins in, 20 out and we were back at the pool again. We had the survey, but no new cave unfortunately. This was a great shame, but to put it in perspective, we don’t have to carry 2 sets of diving gear 6 hours into the cave again. Hopefully the survey will point to a way on on the dry side of the cave. That’s where the CLPA come into their own, and they will make good use of the data, I’m sure. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">The reverse trip back to daylight (ok, it was 9pm and dark when we got out) was hard going. Bags seem to get heavier, the cave gets smaller, and the climbs more exposed. I guess it’s just the effects of concentrating for 12-13 hours. The levitation on the final slope back to fresh air worked as well as you’d expect, and I slithered my way back up, just like the “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u01REwpdJ7Q" target="_blank">worm</a>” dance move. But only with 20inches of vertical space.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXMUsJdLdkGANVNTqZ21y_dE4K5_XnFk8pVaqtP1bF_8MCXJZLnvXdyo4YwFxlYjmlHj8eidCdJKg4OTqx18_eK2vRjZypUcnSoFqdrebzrVX4voWo5h1amUKrWRg8X4upcdvCEKiMJk/s1600/P9130010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXMUsJdLdkGANVNTqZ21y_dE4K5_XnFk8pVaqtP1bF_8MCXJZLnvXdyo4YwFxlYjmlHj8eidCdJKg4OTqx18_eK2vRjZypUcnSoFqdrebzrVX4voWo5h1amUKrWRg8X4upcdvCEKiMJk/s1600/P9130010.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">It was an exhausting trip and we all suffered for it for the next 24 hours. We got beer, as always, in the local bar. Fortunately they have an outside terrace as we definitely wouldn’t have been allowed indoors. Our trip formally closed the next evening when we invited all of the team around to the campsite for a BBQ. Spare ribs, sausages, salad, beer, wine, vegetables, lamb chops and moules too was a lovely finish to the week. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Thanks to Jean Tarrit for taking the photos!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBN-ck6EN-17zC-2GvJ2I_b7KN5Olhg4764hWJhXJ5nkyrH-PiQvy-v4zOsyjHA8d8wYJG-hxii0Y4O_6MAGls3evRIAYjp7Vn2oBdphK0npE18BTRxLTlZ0habCWTgWypBS_XfmRAgkc/s1600/10615631_10154575597075282_4661567255779954527_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBN-ck6EN-17zC-2GvJ2I_b7KN5Olhg4764hWJhXJ5nkyrH-PiQvy-v4zOsyjHA8d8wYJG-hxii0Y4O_6MAGls3evRIAYjp7Vn2oBdphK0npE18BTRxLTlZ0habCWTgWypBS_XfmRAgkc/s1600/10615631_10154575597075282_4661567255779954527_n.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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Rich Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05521525968996771290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-64328582219134337792014-09-27T09:38:00.003-07:002014-10-30T08:09:01.678-07:00Stunning Sorgues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christine in the Sorgues, Aveyron. Photo: Richard Walker</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Event du Sorgues is one of my favourite resurgence flops in the area. The only problem is that it is too short!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is about 220m long and ends in an impenetrable, vertical rift which is too tight to pass in any kit configuration.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is desperately frustrating as it is the major resurgence for the mighty 'Mas Raynal', 4Km upstream.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is, however, beautiful, with no access restrictions (despite having to practically drive through somebody's living room to get to a parking spot - don't take any vehicle bigger than a Berlingo!)</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is heavily managed with dams and weirs built in to presumably control the water which flows through the fish farm.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The water is cold, about 8 degrees and is almost always blue and clear.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was intent on getting some photos here so we took the expensive camera kit, filled our cylinders, Rich gave me an impromptu lesson on his JJ CCR and just as my eyes began to glaze over, the bottles were ready and we went diving.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris in the Sorgues. Photo: Richard Walker</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sorgues is geologically beautiful, with calcite ridges protruding from the floor and almost perfectly square passages with boulder strewn floors. Rippled sand catches the light as you swim mid passage, able to see your own shadow on the floor in the video lights.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The average depth is about 26m so you have just enough time to go to the 'end' and back within decompression limits. We were taking our time over photos and carrying a heavy tripod to mount the back-lights was a little tricky, so we didn't quite reach the end but we weren't far off when we turned for home.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris in the Sorgues, Aveyron. Photo Richard Walker</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris in the Sorgues. Photo Richard Walker</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris admiring the calcite 'ridge' in the Sorgues</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-403551710287469982014-09-11T11:12:00.004-07:002014-09-11T11:12:34.246-07:00Nice easy flop in a resurgenceYesterday we went on a nice easy resurgence flop. The cave entrance is no more than 100m from the road. How hard could it be?<br />
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Trouble is, that 100m is about 20m horizontal, and 97m vertical. The cave was Gourneyras, in the Viz gorge. 20 minutes down a dirt track next to some breathtaking drop-offs where your front wheels are spitting stones off the side into oblivion, you come to a tree. Actually hundreds of trees. One of them marks the path down to the cave. You just have to know which tree. And we sort of did, and sort of didn't. The giveaway was the steel cable-run that had been set up to transport gear down to the pool. But we were too clever to look for that. An hour later we gave up the hunting and went down the right path for a quick look. The cave was right there where we left it in 2012.<br />
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There was only 2 of us, so we had travelled light. One twinset, one rebreather, 4 stages, drysuits, undersuits and some other bags of stuff. Christine went down the track and started setting up the handlines that we use to stop ourselves plummeting into the oblivion. This track has just about every type of terrain you can imagine. It starts with a steep gravel path, with some 2ft high rock steps to negotiate. Then it changes direction and traverses across the hill on a scree slope, which slips and slides under your feet. Then it goes into a gentle forest path, and you think that it isn't so bad. It's of course lulling you into a false sense of security. Next is a combination of steep mud path, brambles, eye level branches, ankle level knotweed, and some unstable pebbles. Then you break out into the sunshine again at the level of the river, and feel happy that your 100m decent is over and it must now get easier. Now the fear starts. There is a field of unstable, slippery, weed covered boulders, just right to break an ankle. You slither and slide over these and finally arrive at the pool. Which is truly delightful. It's sparkly blue, the sunshine lights it up and the entrance to the cave beckons they eye from a depth of 6m.<br />
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We chained the gear down the hill, 10m steps at a time, which was significantly easier we thought, than running up and down the hill 8 times. We got all the gear down to the pool in about 90 minutes, and were pleased with ourselves.<br />
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Gear assembled, camera checked and we were off. The 32C air temperature was oppressive, and it was great to get into the 13C water. We hung about on the surface for a few minutes just to relax and get that hot-and-bothered feeling gone, and then began our dive. The entrance is obvious at a depth of about 6m, and we dropped our decompression cylinders at 6m, and swam into the cave. It starts with a 45 degree, stepped drop into the cave. Lots of boulders and rocks are all around, and you soon come to the 21m dropoff, convenient for leaving the second decompression cylinders.<br />
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Now the cave gets interesting. There's a large circular room as you descend, almost impossible to see from one side to the other. The walls are white, but the place sucks up light. If you look back now, from a depth of about 40m, you see the blue entrance above you. More about that later. Now, you arrive on a pebble floor, and the passage turns sharply to the left, under a huge overhang.<br />
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You're now at about 50m depth, and in a passage like a railway tunnel. Bigger actually. It's probably 30m wide and 20m high. There are beautiful scalloped formations of the floor, sharp knives of rock 10m across on the floor, and air-clear visibility. Again, it's hard to see across the tunnel, and I had travel all over the cave tunnel to see it, and still didn't see it all! After about 10-15 minutes, it was time to turn, and I turned on the camera, lit the lights and started to shoot some stills. Light was getting sucked up and to get any sort of perspective was difficult. The thought of some new 4000 Lumen lights has started to hit my radar. Hope the bank manager isn't reading this...<br />
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I shot some half decent pictures of Christine, and by 30 minutes we were back at the corner to start heading back up the slope. Here is where you get your first real view of the entrance. 50m deep, looking uphill to a turquoise blue window into the fresh air. You can see the green trees around the pool, it's an amazing sight.<br />
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We worked our way up the slope, taking pictures, swapping cameras, managing the decompression for the next hour - way more time than we need, but it's a beautiful place, we had the gas, a camera and no pressing engagements that evening. After a 90 minute dive, we surfaced to some French ramblers, who informed us that they also dived there, and had we seen the view from 30m of the surface pool. They didn't offer to help us carry our gear back though, for some reason.<br />
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We got out of our gear, relaxed for half an hour and started the long haul back to the road. Only 100m away, most of it vertical, back through the ankle breakers, up the forest mud path, across the scree slope and up the stone steps. PFO test formally passed.<br />
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As the light faded, we realised we needed to make tracks if we wanted to eat that night. We headed to Laroque as they have a row of tourist trap restaurants. Takeaway pizza. But it was past 9pm when we got there. "Fini" came the reply from the chef. No discussion. We had spied a caravan that had "pizza" written on the side, a mile back down the road, so we headed back there, and to our delight, he cooked us 3, Yes 3, pizzas in about 20 minutes flat. Joy of Joy, he also sold us 2 Pelforth Blondes.<br />
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Life is good on a day like that!<br />
<br />Rich Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05521525968996771290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-90497644209122132512014-09-09T05:37:00.001-07:002014-09-09T05:37:16.979-07:00The Bloody French Cave<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parking by the river Vis</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The CLPA had been keen for the last few years for us to go and visit the Event de Cambon.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frank Vasseur had dived the short, shallow sump about 20 years ago and to their knowledge, nobody had ever been back.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, even in his 20s Frank was no slouch. In fact, he was probably considerably fitter and harder than he is now.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8uORGPmOIMrODKFWbiJxQ89Kb1Mh9313GxWQ_U2iMiao3ToCfrMtfTuQP5FSXVBN_-FxdGUP5KCeYVmMuBQoC3TJN2GSMfaPad45mpggdJl5FQx7vXPoKF2wN1bXxa2thA5XlzuQVXsE/s1600/P1040250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"> </span></a><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did make a feeble protest that I couldn’t see what we would achieve that Frank could not, but it was information that the cavers wanted rather than caverns measureless. They were intent on digging down from the top of the gorge and this cave was important to them to know if it connected or not.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We said we would take a look.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to the description, Frank had surfaced and immediately encountered several climbs which got higher and higher. As he was alone, he made a retreat.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nobody knows what happened after that and Frank could not remember much about the cave at all.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The CLPA wanted us to survey the sump, the dry passage beyond and get a compass direction. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihlPl4LdnToM5G3mynG-Nh2QN_GVevwt_6T5oqJBE5ZnmYSSeOAH2yLyZR2wF0bUDiVGSJ4mcpf42dquzCrLF4UjFapHMVMPuRqGvozlvTvIle4-1pMOCbZpO_0om8QdQJbVMTlhYwoUg/s1600/P1040253.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihlPl4LdnToM5G3mynG-Nh2QN_GVevwt_6T5oqJBE5ZnmYSSeOAH2yLyZR2wF0bUDiVGSJ4mcpf42dquzCrLF4UjFapHMVMPuRqGvozlvTvIle4-1pMOCbZpO_0om8QdQJbVMTlhYwoUg/s1600/P1040253.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich and Chris carrying gear</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How hard could it be?</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, we met up in St Maurice de Navacelles to have coffee with our sherpas – or ‘slaves’ as Jean prefers to call them and picked up a Disto-X for surveying beyond the sump.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In convoy, we set off down the twisty hairpin bends of the Cirque de Navacelles and parked up at river level by the Vis. The walk to the cave entrance was relatively flat but about 800m.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some enthusiastic deforestation then ensued as the French began clearing the snaggy branches and cleared away a grubby little cave entrance. It had filled with stones from the winter rains but by the time Rich and I had rigged our cylinders, the entrance was dug out again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I went for a quick look inside.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hmm. This was going to be a fun kitting up spot. Nowhere to stand up, nowhere really to sit. It was what we were used to in the UK but it was a long way to go to dive something like this in France. Oh well.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We passed the gear in to the cave and Rich went ahead and kitted up first. I remained just upslope of him, regularly kicking stones down at him while he thrashed about trying to get his fins on.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frank’s old line was there but we needed to lay our own knotted line for surveying. The sump pool had gone to zero so surveying was looking less and less likely.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once ready and crammed into the tiny muddy pool, we set off downslope through a squeeze with a rubble floor and sloping roof.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sump was about 40m long as described and 7m deep. The water cleared after the squeeze and had better dimensions.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaqJTJX-yRNXbcwALI71OzUhY7i_BWdbXL7mYNrdjXFyuaorF1u4bZU30Jfhyphenhyphen7H7I1iH1yuCpwgfXS-pknYabXoE5YStdUBLBz5EpWz5E9K2qGspbaWF3qCdg4RjgLqL8U8SPY848JYo/s1600/P1040260.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIaqJTJX-yRNXbcwALI71OzUhY7i_BWdbXL7mYNrdjXFyuaorF1u4bZU30Jfhyphenhyphen7H7I1iH1yuCpwgfXS-pknYabXoE5YStdUBLBz5EpWz5E9K2qGspbaWF3qCdg4RjgLqL8U8SPY848JYo/s1600/P1040260.jpg" height="232" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CLPA dig out the entrance to the Cambon</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On surfacing, there was a near vertical rift – made of mud – and a ladder hanging down from above which was just out of reach and no means of getting to it. It looked as if Frank had dived the sump when water levels were somewhat higher.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Noses turned up, we returned to the start of the sump pool to report our findings. The viz had gone to zero and not good enough for a proper survey.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, as if our failure was not enough, then began the thunder. Torrential rain and thunder and lightening crashed all around us and the Cirque de Navacelles while we tried to pack our gear up.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3u43p6gDTSCN4dO-NjnsVLJXTN4dWwy9QX6_gmLca1st0RtJYs_iebeg55eXol1rsY3Hl5kUFj6ZJolxohvvLXx1Gk3CJ9j7ehBRUugN3tuPZ_xXjKkcE33OarEtG2hfCQ3RLurWHU7Y/s1600/P1040279.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3u43p6gDTSCN4dO-NjnsVLJXTN4dWwy9QX6_gmLca1st0RtJYs_iebeg55eXol1rsY3Hl5kUFj6ZJolxohvvLXx1Gk3CJ9j7ehBRUugN3tuPZ_xXjKkcE33OarEtG2hfCQ3RLurWHU7Y/s1600/P1040279.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris kits up</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rich and I elected to walk back in our wetsuits as our clothes were sodden.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We got back to the van and took it in turns to get into the back and change. It was miserable and getting colder.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jean invited everyone back to his house for a welcome cup of tea and to dry out a little. We made it up to ourselves by watching the video we shot of the new passage in the Perdreau.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jean was in danger of having a power cut, so we headed back to our campsite to inspect the damage.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Water had infiltrated the front porch of the tent, which was not entirely unexpected and Rich had already moved electrical items to higher ground that morning.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Water had also infiltrated Rich’s Rude Nora caving torch battery which was now no longer working. Meh.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We decided to drown our sorrows in a local pizzeria – but each and every single restaurant in the region were closed. So, back to the campsite for a tin of sausage and beans and leffe beer. We’ve had better days, but that’s the nature of cave diving. It ain’t sun and stalictites all the time.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHoNHZ4h4QhGzyT-ZjmBLbcnA47GHTMOxG2ZIuRwrfN_Wx05ANR-nCseJlh925_IESblIygCGS0LZU0bilOeIgm_8jkRmw5BNGyzPCeBUeJOD7J6Lc6dkYycDCojDH4tq0uxjq5bMwJY/s1600/P1040267.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHoNHZ4h4QhGzyT-ZjmBLbcnA47GHTMOxG2ZIuRwrfN_Wx05ANR-nCseJlh925_IESblIygCGS0LZU0bilOeIgm_8jkRmw5BNGyzPCeBUeJOD7J6Lc6dkYycDCojDH4tq0uxjq5bMwJY/s1600/P1040267.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich kitting up in the sump</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJeJs-1WFjjWfZZiKe4Yk78KfGfo_T3Pv6c3ifcncmjsKao_z21JEsGA2wQV1CnGzu8G7p57R11WRORhqSNYys_ZSO-BsSluGM6zdXdtPdH3SlGnsAfY25IvONuTESLPrDoT8mh3PaDCg/s1600/P1040270.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJeJs-1WFjjWfZZiKe4Yk78KfGfo_T3Pv6c3ifcncmjsKao_z21JEsGA2wQV1CnGzu8G7p57R11WRORhqSNYys_ZSO-BsSluGM6zdXdtPdH3SlGnsAfY25IvONuTESLPrDoT8mh3PaDCg/s1600/P1040270.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris kits up on dry land</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLGcW-CsjXsqZMAGn5_8QytTWGmoc7YWJjnXVsOfXz3cg9NWX7P4odGTo4whwbMbK2EdEIsddEfLyDgc7b0HqRziCP58zCBWHNVNl5mR9wnrO5CXp9jRAIEI_ZTJB7Tu1xRbv-EMRXDU/s1600/P1040268.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLGcW-CsjXsqZMAGn5_8QytTWGmoc7YWJjnXVsOfXz3cg9NWX7P4odGTo4whwbMbK2EdEIsddEfLyDgc7b0HqRziCP58zCBWHNVNl5mR9wnrO5CXp9jRAIEI_ZTJB7Tu1xRbv-EMRXDU/s1600/P1040268.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris hands Rich his helmet</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wHdfREzcl_fAHnikIa7WC4hN60dhBogd253l9N5bFUNJyIyWg7kx6BfodtTC8-6fVxw9xsI-_z7tMnp48kSu4ulp-d0euBLFGun7crQqzmfn48X-L1_7djKDhtJD3ccaFop-GBRRdMs/s1600/P1040265.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wHdfREzcl_fAHnikIa7WC4hN60dhBogd253l9N5bFUNJyIyWg7kx6BfodtTC8-6fVxw9xsI-_z7tMnp48kSu4ulp-d0euBLFGun7crQqzmfn48X-L1_7djKDhtJD3ccaFop-GBRRdMs/s1600/P1040265.jpg" height="263" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich sorts his reel</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKp3ECSjBKs07xbtO_ZDI-nj2Ka6DrezrY6gVK180IqIb8Hu_CIby-FCEz0RPEt4P-YOm1QRfLW4eGfeI6am6-gRdDQAgh2IW-Ff-4XZaFj_Yc9yPTxJm7xdsiD-QkPbUJtjo8-oVYg4/s1600/P1040271.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKp3ECSjBKs07xbtO_ZDI-nj2Ka6DrezrY6gVK180IqIb8Hu_CIby-FCEz0RPEt4P-YOm1QRfLW4eGfeI6am6-gRdDQAgh2IW-Ff-4XZaFj_Yc9yPTxJm7xdsiD-QkPbUJtjo8-oVYg4/s1600/P1040271.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris sets off into the sump</td></tr>
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cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-18037720052458765402014-09-06T09:42:00.000-07:002014-09-07T09:43:04.276-07:00Into the Blue...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQNT9HJIzwKWPktiMruRLoMW3KfQm6JF7xMkGzqq9HymBvLzfqLH8IwWr28cQ-yO3lLg3KmYAtmybz9LUHzzJ6huIeCUwNKftGn6bbStZpXvymfthCjSg8L7-XrfVeZ9nMiBTtm_YuiWc/s1600/IMG_0327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQNT9HJIzwKWPktiMruRLoMW3KfQm6JF7xMkGzqq9HymBvLzfqLH8IwWr28cQ-yO3lLg3KmYAtmybz9LUHzzJ6huIeCUwNKftGn6bbStZpXvymfthCjSg8L7-XrfVeZ9nMiBTtm_YuiWc/s1600/IMG_0327.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in Perdreau sump 1</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today was an excellent day - but not without a few teething troubles to get around first.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I picked up a missed call from one of my work colleagues, who was asking where I was. France, was the reply. It seems the great shift screw up had raised its ugly head again, but I doubt I have much to worry about as I am certain I booked this leave. In fact, I booked it in January. So, I tried to forget about it and concentrate on the cave diving.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We headed up to the cave and Jean had brought more friends along to help us. They were practising their SRT in the cave which seemed as good a reason as any to come along. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-tkqkVAlS1upI6DkJwWU_hT0obfPv9oTvomiX24ynhaKDBXxpRAvRyKeTlYWRjbqhteB9c-GUeUPvHYvZb9ODlHwpJHw8OtxcEfBOX5ZEb08E9Luy2vmHD_WoZ53aMTIHPfqbyWhEgBc/s1600/P1040226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-tkqkVAlS1upI6DkJwWU_hT0obfPv9oTvomiX24ynhaKDBXxpRAvRyKeTlYWRjbqhteB9c-GUeUPvHYvZb9ODlHwpJHw8OtxcEfBOX5ZEb08E9Luy2vmHD_WoZ53aMTIHPfqbyWhEgBc/s1600/P1040226.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pitch in Perdreau</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rich and I dropped the pitch and started to get our gear together. Next problem, Rich finds the team spare mask has shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. It had been in a pocket on one of the harnesses and not protected by a French Pot and had somehow got broken. Never mind. We can live without it and we have another anyway.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sump is blue and inviting. I get the camera ready and Jean and friends watch us set off into sump 1, before heading out to the sunshine to await our arrival. We tell them we will be 2 hours at most.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Surfacing in the airbell shortly after passing sump 1, Rich and I can't really get our act together and we soon notice a little panting going on. Carbon dioxide. Great.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We take things slowly and rig the ladder, before hauling the 12 litre bottles up and getting everything into sump 2.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLahWwv_PNTxYXEhFeIqsxq0njvq8DCLQNSs_DE1gASo-myk7CzBeI8bDAdAh2JTOyOK54WCZXLRshUbh37FQDdShR2SbE6KGMNNsJSye5M9VJmHEUHmIX82rfds6Frr0CouFGyiNP2sM/s1600/P1040227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLahWwv_PNTxYXEhFeIqsxq0njvq8DCLQNSs_DE1gASo-myk7CzBeI8bDAdAh2JTOyOK54WCZXLRshUbh37FQDdShR2SbE6KGMNNsJSye5M9VJmHEUHmIX82rfds6Frr0CouFGyiNP2sM/s1600/P1040227.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arianne abseiling</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kitting up in sump 2 was fairly easy this time around and I get ready with the camera. We have a plan to shoot some video of the sump, especially our discoveries from 2011 and 2012. We don't hope for much as it is a small, fiddly sump covered in powder-like silt. But we gave it a go.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We get shooting and with plenty of time and gas, get to photograph and film everything we want to.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, we had one last job to do.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was one bit of a chamber left to explore. I had always had a feeling there was more to it than just a boulder pile. So, I dispatch Rich off to take a quick look and a minute later he returned to say it was "Going".</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Woo hoo!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcWO61_xcEc0sMBYLm0K3RdLDVPTsUGRMl0qXXghxWPFyc0cdHsCrCpmkl3aV5o2jhyg4axHjFQtNt4TpYUiT46WvL7eHoxSD2HFm4io6kFNLw7HvW6G4jtQRqfjekTrrjMwmmG7lw_ls/s1600/P1040225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcWO61_xcEc0sMBYLm0K3RdLDVPTsUGRMl0qXXghxWPFyc0cdHsCrCpmkl3aV5o2jhyg4axHjFQtNt4TpYUiT46WvL7eHoxSD2HFm4io6kFNLw7HvW6G4jtQRqfjekTrrjMwmmG7lw_ls/s1600/P1040225.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sump 1 Perdreau</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2Y5MGamyZ0WUXZSACYvaWe-Ainef3L6n-cNVeMUCLYahMz_-C3AXYH_OjqcQejw_FqKtdk_mkHVe_3nGa1GE2ZV1Mw2CUwbUJiuKDHnsoKxXAT_8ATwrBT9yf2ROxZgUYqDaDrCzz38/s1600/P1040223.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV2Y5MGamyZ0WUXZSACYvaWe-Ainef3L6n-cNVeMUCLYahMz_-C3AXYH_OjqcQejw_FqKtdk_mkHVe_3nGa1GE2ZV1Mw2CUwbUJiuKDHnsoKxXAT_8ATwrBT9yf2ROxZgUYqDaDrCzz38/s1600/P1040223.jpg" height="320" width="264" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rich kitting up</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Line reel tied in and I sieze the (rare!) opportunity to film exploration in progress.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rich swam along with his reel and made some nice tie offs and the cave started to head downslope in a fractured, friable passage. It was sculptured and pretty and the water ahead was azure blue.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3F_o_1uJ8JDmOjcj8BtzSFNxzhzniIK-KUHX08VRWBXgEsEgMAJ-c_fHnpSdAIewUONIC4YHMYqO4hzPCW0QzfQrr-RHzkkxW_B-V-bPFRYj9V0aRMcm9jbWwgK658PMFa6N_6LWfvzA/s1600/P1040229.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3F_o_1uJ8JDmOjcj8BtzSFNxzhzniIK-KUHX08VRWBXgEsEgMAJ-c_fHnpSdAIewUONIC4YHMYqO4hzPCW0QzfQrr-RHzkkxW_B-V-bPFRYj9V0aRMcm9jbWwgK658PMFa6N_6LWfvzA/s1600/P1040229.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chris kitting up in sump 1</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Behind Rich it was patchy, rust red and bits and pieces rained down from the roof as the first bubbles ever disturbed the rock.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the visibility went to zero, I paused at 24m and heard Rich scratching around. I figured he wouldn't be long and steadily, hand over hand on the line, fumbled my way back to the tie off with Rich just behind me. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy, we thumbed the dive and had a pleasant swim home in patchy visibility. I stopped to photograph a worm, the type I had not seen before in a sump.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Surfacing back at the airbell, we de-kitted, pleased with the days work. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not surprisingly, after a recent chest infection and a cold, I had some trouble descending back into sump 2 to get home. Fortunately my bottle of trusty Otravine got me to depth but wasn't keen on getting my sinuses back up again.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgePKx4C-btr8p9VxNfQVrv9sVA3AMfnRL58vTTRf08DeCsj0nM09mWLDDVWvXwOvYFzAVk2nKfEX1Wv97fRugjPnLL7mP7EVMT5tilVlCKLR3NAhmrBgDrZWryQOUQ4SyMR2P7QoP3FRA/s1600/P1040230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgePKx4C-btr8p9VxNfQVrv9sVA3AMfnRL58vTTRf08DeCsj0nM09mWLDDVWvXwOvYFzAVk2nKfEX1Wv97fRugjPnLL7mP7EVMT5tilVlCKLR3NAhmrBgDrZWryQOUQ4SyMR2P7QoP3FRA/s1600/P1040230.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chris and Rich talk cameras</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a divers worst nightmare (well, one of them anyway) and despite hanging around on the way up trying to get my sinuses to let go, it was obvious I was going to get a reverse block.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did and it hurt a lot, making my eyes water and temporarily blind. Rich took my bottles off and I eventually heard the relieving squeak, followed by some blood and the pain subsided. Not pleasant.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jean was at the top of the pitch waiting for us as we surfaced. He was worried as we were half an hour overdue. This was probably due to our taking our time in the CO2 ridden airbell. We apologised for worrying him but he didn't mind and we showed him our photos to cheer him up.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A gang of cavers had showed up to help carry all the gear back in one run, including a very small child who was lugging 2 tackle bags and going better up the hill than I was!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A cold beer in St Jean de Bueges followed by pizza in Laroque seemed a fitting end to a very pleasant day, all things considered. Finally things are going our way.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-d3DBr_lVo1GE0SgpuIL0dlzbimBMxJlREKux89vhfPcTNt0oF0Eh_1bt8Kbf-vgTXYDoYw_jGq9thMd2toVlI7CQACX6vc6jHGC5IlBW86_Xk6BPEh3ZeygzdP6hWHGLIsitH04AYo/s1600/P1040232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-d3DBr_lVo1GE0SgpuIL0dlzbimBMxJlREKux89vhfPcTNt0oF0Eh_1bt8Kbf-vgTXYDoYw_jGq9thMd2toVlI7CQACX6vc6jHGC5IlBW86_Xk6BPEh3ZeygzdP6hWHGLIsitH04AYo/s1600/P1040232.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris kits up</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich at the 2011 junction</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqYAgVv2tbAJCfp8LvyqZj831-lPuvai0j-7YoKd2M1js8835prJ8ll4vZSo8lRX4RumsYcFjNOt5KxzYigGceJJ_Kw3CEHK7s0l-VjkiiygdrzOVD3eIzLUrtJDLuaT3s1gNPJrfUogs/s1600/P1040237.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqYAgVv2tbAJCfp8LvyqZj831-lPuvai0j-7YoKd2M1js8835prJ8ll4vZSo8lRX4RumsYcFjNOt5KxzYigGceJJ_Kw3CEHK7s0l-VjkiiygdrzOVD3eIzLUrtJDLuaT3s1gNPJrfUogs/s1600/P1040237.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris and Rich get ready to dive</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJO8YGXfF9BbcbESko8moX5loDNrXZ3uRa_lcAzA7vZoJ16-CClHlEJ7SeR53f4eJo5WLKmfi0EL-r-130u0m0DMH3qLitmgQJEgTZ03Qx_wjxetJjyMs2lfUC3Yd_nbcAIIKFN5gfbk/s1600/IMG_0346.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJO8YGXfF9BbcbESko8moX5loDNrXZ3uRa_lcAzA7vZoJ16-CClHlEJ7SeR53f4eJo5WLKmfi0EL-r-130u0m0DMH3qLitmgQJEgTZ03Qx_wjxetJjyMs2lfUC3Yd_nbcAIIKFN5gfbk/s1600/IMG_0346.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in the 2011 passage</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich in the 2011 passage, Perdreau</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyDzkbA9CH3NGyzgj0_DEWSpGLkMErp2gDtr_r2lFEdGDznFcsc6G813xf-sN_ZJhnb0pGqhojOWZT8rRULfRzUEqha3hTZq-Nm41Z5L-p2GO6oMwRZyh0xtjZc_3BpAmcfcuz9feYx0I/s1600/IMG_0356.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyDzkbA9CH3NGyzgj0_DEWSpGLkMErp2gDtr_r2lFEdGDznFcsc6G813xf-sN_ZJhnb0pGqhojOWZT8rRULfRzUEqha3hTZq-Nm41Z5L-p2GO6oMwRZyh0xtjZc_3BpAmcfcuz9feYx0I/s1600/IMG_0356.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich descends into the passage he and Christine found in 2012</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVnFg-SalkgYts3pCoh3GULFf2mCIJbnDXJHUjrw7ca9rXD5i_d0Fz1_Ck8iIxdVC-wyPO4YWE_gfT53ERYrpysx5IGZydrmJPsVCXi5uBsVbBxOe2NDn_oHBACR1_JdQkeXXGjIyjjE4/s1600/IMG_0360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVnFg-SalkgYts3pCoh3GULFf2mCIJbnDXJHUjrw7ca9rXD5i_d0Fz1_Ck8iIxdVC-wyPO4YWE_gfT53ERYrpysx5IGZydrmJPsVCXi5uBsVbBxOe2NDn_oHBACR1_JdQkeXXGjIyjjE4/s1600/IMG_0360.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2012 passage which descends to 34m</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlSPV3Ubs-3HG2WRae3cClMOABL-kxO8LS5xybchYEnnxnBy6L4ULBcVt61tS-IoD6jocC-yHHt0Ljfn-a4e5e410u9nAShrRXdlptduiyguKEr_KrTf1fr21hyphenhyphenzEVw6EVaPZVSyVn3w/s1600/IMG_0369.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlSPV3Ubs-3HG2WRae3cClMOABL-kxO8LS5xybchYEnnxnBy6L4ULBcVt61tS-IoD6jocC-yHHt0Ljfn-a4e5e410u9nAShrRXdlptduiyguKEr_KrTf1fr21hyphenhyphenzEVw6EVaPZVSyVn3w/s1600/IMG_0369.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Worm in sump 2 Perdreau</td></tr>
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<br />cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-56473060291780843022014-09-05T08:40:00.000-07:002014-09-07T09:42:39.756-07:00Perdreau set-up day<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided that embarking on Garrel today would be a silly move. Still with remains of a chest infection, the caving trip, though moderate, is quite long and I am still quite weak, so we decided that the Perdreau-Fourmi was a more pleasant option.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_Hcylrm9mH_Sqq_mFyX7BJ5Ow6O5Qz0eL1zXyZvRoct_G6WPMdxZMoIIqKNNmi_A2GpfgMMPQ475h6Y9cChES7wzh-HZuvfHxH57shvWPOVxCM6mw-oECAqjOR25vbHA6VPLaAWx4rw/s1600/P1040208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_Hcylrm9mH_Sqq_mFyX7BJ5Ow6O5Qz0eL1zXyZvRoct_G6WPMdxZMoIIqKNNmi_A2GpfgMMPQ475h6Y9cChES7wzh-HZuvfHxH57shvWPOVxCM6mw-oECAqjOR25vbHA6VPLaAWx4rw/s1600/P1040208.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dragon flies at the Source de Bueges</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">True to form, Jean Tarrit rallied a few friends from his club and they arrived to help us carry our gear in two journeys up the riverbed. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I headed through the entrance squeeze and into the cave to start rigging the 45 degree slope and 15m pitch to the sump pool. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeavwtDUm4esWprzAkC-SA0FYhSWPiL8pYwb9MgZob7dzUy5o_8Uegm-yjnPz_YO8Z9tLLWUd2gtoYh7_heJWJsIOxFOetOas5k0zXqCpoNBAnKNh_X8IutO66DNugKUKu2s2gskh11EA/s1600/IMG_0311.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeavwtDUm4esWprzAkC-SA0FYhSWPiL8pYwb9MgZob7dzUy5o_8Uegm-yjnPz_YO8Z9tLLWUd2gtoYh7_heJWJsIOxFOetOas5k0zXqCpoNBAnKNh_X8IutO66DNugKUKu2s2gskh11EA/s1600/IMG_0311.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fairy lights at camp centrale</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided to bring walkie talkies this time and was quite surprised that I was able to communicate from the sump pool to the surface! </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Job done in a few hours, I headed over to the Source de Bueges, which sadly cannot be dived. Some pretty dragon flies were in residence.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had some nice cold pressions at the local watering hole in St Jean-de-Bueges and headed back to the campsite to sort out cameras and have dinner.</span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-72248050183713091812014-09-04T11:34:00.001-07:002014-09-04T11:34:19.008-07:00Mr Bricolage, Bungee and Fairy lights...<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I still sound like an asthmatic donkey..improving, but not fast enough for Garrel this Saturday. It is 8 hours of honest caving with diving gear and I'm just not well enough to do it justice.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I called Jean last night and we agreed to put the trip back until the 13th. Hopefully I will be bouncing around like Tigger by then. Hopefully.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Event de Fourmi Perdreau however is a much easier trip. It is still time consuming, but it is more familiar to us and the hardest part is on the surface getting kit to the entrance. We opted for this instead on Saturday.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knotting line. My favourite.....</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, at camp centrale I have been getting complaints that 'It's just not the same without the fairy lights'.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I usually bring a string of outdoor fairy lights to drape around the pitch. It makes it look pretty and also helps us to see in the dark. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We didn't have any this year so we headed off to Mr Bricolage in search of fairy lights and some bungee for our sidemount harnesses. The bungee was getting a little old, pathetic and in one instance, missing altogether.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We found the bungee OK, reeled off 5m and cut it ourselves - only to get told off at the till.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then we asked for fairy lights. Hmm. The ones on offer were quite expensive outdoor lights a little OTT for the tent.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once at the till getting dirty looks from the cashier wench, the shop floor woman comes trotting over to us waving some lanterns on a string. They'll do!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then we tried to find some mozzy repellent as we are being eaten alive...</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We then tried to find a nice little swimming beach for lunch, but unfortunately headed the wrong way up the Herault river towards Le Vigan. The river was shallow and grubby, so we headed back nearer the campsite and went wild swimming further downstream.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I say wild swimming. We did one width of the Herault river, dodging lovely blue dragon flies and trout everywhere.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My lungs screamed in protest at being plunged into cold water and the wheezing donkey was back. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back 'home' and Rich has cooked a lovely spag bol. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our sum achievement in the last 2 days has been getting gear ready for Garrel - then undoing half of it and getting it ready for Perdreau. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's hope for better luck this weekend.....</span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-41216380570072140282014-09-02T13:07:00.000-07:002014-09-02T13:07:41.691-07:00The seven hour lunch....<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We arrived at the camp site in one piece yesterday. The tents are up (one for us, one for the gear....) and shopping done.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm still sick with some sort of chest infection off the back of a cold, so today we tried to take it easy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had a phone call from my good friend Jean Tarrit to tell us he was coming to our campsite and we were to have lunch at his house in Larzac to discuss plans for the two weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fuelled with coffee and coughing like a donkey with asthma, I was driven via some stunning scenery to Larzac - the long way round as the Gourney's are closed for repair work in the Vis gorge.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The drive took ages but we finally met up with Jean and headed to his house.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a beautiful, typically French rustic country home with big beams and huge fireplaces. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were spoiled from the outset with several courses, including crevettes (shrimp), magret de canard, sautee potatoes, salad, bread, cheese, tarte au poire and a 12 year old Bordeaux.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many hours later we went for a short wander to take a look at the view over the Larzac plateau which is cave hunting heaven.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back at the house, we discussed the geology of the caves we were pushing, fault line directions and made plans for the week. Rich let out the occasional snore as he nodded in the armchair.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The plan is to go back to Garrel on Saturday but this depends on me being well enough and we can put it back a week if we need to. </span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-21246739863691980812014-08-19T13:21:00.000-07:002014-08-19T13:25:38.873-07:00Herault 2014 here we come.....<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, almost......</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We gave last year a miss, due to a haphazard team and being fairly disorganised re not at all ready, ourselves.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're back this year to take a look at the end of the caves we pushed in 2012 and to maybe take a peek at some new ones the French cavers are promising us.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our team has disintegrated - owing mainly to half of them doing responsible things like getting jobs and going to university - and Rich and I buying a house together, which meant that I wasn't exactly forthcoming on getting the trip 'out there'. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It matters not however, as Rich and I are owed some quality time. The fact that quality time will be underwater and covered in mud, is by the by.......</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll be met by the usual French suspects and I am very much looking forward to catching up with Jean and the gang - they always greet us like long lost friends.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Preparation began yesterday when I did a 9.5 hour round trip (not even a whole ambulance shift!!) to the Peak District to collect the CDG Derbyshire Section compressor. Last years comrade Tim Webber thankfully showed up to help me carry it up the hill to my van. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3VhasuDKfHSr9efJeDea9hkrqz-9sMkYPCyNPGBLwm3CJvCcvzuHK7WAnKFqoAc6ORZcCd7dXwfR-ung9ONccRQ_jmFm-e5a5t3CIB5vLGkeMILxf36dj6SP7UwwQE7IDtpJpZZUNBk/s1600/IMG_0309.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3VhasuDKfHSr9efJeDea9hkrqz-9sMkYPCyNPGBLwm3CJvCcvzuHK7WAnKFqoAc6ORZcCd7dXwfR-ung9ONccRQ_jmFm-e5a5t3CIB5vLGkeMILxf36dj6SP7UwwQE7IDtpJpZZUNBk/s1600/IMG_0309.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rich is conveniently abroad and will not show up until the day of our departure....</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So today, I spent a lot of time in the garage trying to find things and make them work.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First off was the 'exploratory box'. This is a very important box.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It contains line reels, complete with knotted line which magically knots itself all afternoon at 3m intervals and has tags every 10m. It also has snoopy loops, line markers, compasses, wetnotes, waterproof pencils and so on.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq1TQifkdi4Vy_n8IbKfZqtou9mwIKCP5IeK97O_80yvK0sce9bRsTi5jXGuMgDYQb0wJdXVFHIvFCpUBHk2CFgur-GqLCVq5j0d9K8YmLBtoz0uYTsL3Jj1EnZ8hr5-jfC_smcpaURCU/s1600/IMG_0307.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq1TQifkdi4Vy_n8IbKfZqtou9mwIKCP5IeK97O_80yvK0sce9bRsTi5jXGuMgDYQb0wJdXVFHIvFCpUBHk2CFgur-GqLCVq5j0d9K8YmLBtoz0uYTsL3Jj1EnZ8hr5-jfC_smcpaURCU/s1600/IMG_0307.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ7mJJHYopRKF1_hVuaIDRpKefFMGjOBkfuMcetGIQAqfPEH9hEIxBQr4q5kFITPl_3mQv0pD__2xxpcP-Fhi8Be4hwqC2PjguKDTyCsK1lNZ9M77A8tkVeF7UYhbQbtSLnnUu9hMaQbc/s1600/IMG_0308.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ7mJJHYopRKF1_hVuaIDRpKefFMGjOBkfuMcetGIQAqfPEH9hEIxBQr4q5kFITPl_3mQv0pD__2xxpcP-Fhi8Be4hwqC2PjguKDTyCsK1lNZ9M77A8tkVeF7UYhbQbtSLnnUu9hMaQbc/s1600/IMG_0308.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, nobody likes a floppy helmet. Least of all Rich, who has been moaning and whining about his floppy red helmet for over a year now.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I bought him a new one. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I actually first of all tried to glue the offending part where the cradle had snapped off, but I was concerned that after a week or so of sump bashing it may go back to how it was before = more whinging.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, I took to the drill, made some holes - and some mistakes - but got there in the end.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One shiny new helmet. Anything for a quiet life.......</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4u2qxmMS36kKkJZ2dPJbHzJrTbnJxVhwThmFqxuNko1BsMXBDTxNMsaiifRvZpFQC4PqCWOTHDtcUBznD_3uOxysuIZRcN9y9YQp-WGeThlkGYBrgjxd6Qi02uyLbCs_7zqxhZ52zulc/s1600/IMG_0310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4u2qxmMS36kKkJZ2dPJbHzJrTbnJxVhwThmFqxuNko1BsMXBDTxNMsaiifRvZpFQC4PqCWOTHDtcUBznD_3uOxysuIZRcN9y9YQp-WGeThlkGYBrgjxd6Qi02uyLbCs_7zqxhZ52zulc/s1600/IMG_0310.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>cgrosarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575756391297402301noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3902520548153170420.post-54499840982190386842013-01-06T15:54:00.003-08:002013-01-07T15:03:39.989-08:00"Has anyone seen my eagle?" by Rich Walker<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gYhYTTccrUriwJc_Hc9HbZ8bnSimVZFvIYAGWnpBzytUQYlji22iIh535wxLAW5S7aLq8o_tnmFLtPRLgzi3qfxOBHGz27AFzIcE5cIkk1QqGwTgaayLKbuYAdM1_xaoSsnG-mdrKIyN/s1600/IMG_0001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gYhYTTccrUriwJc_Hc9HbZ8bnSimVZFvIYAGWnpBzytUQYlji22iIh535wxLAW5S7aLq8o_tnmFLtPRLgzi3qfxOBHGz27AFzIcE5cIkk1QqGwTgaayLKbuYAdM1_xaoSsnG-mdrKIyN/s1600/IMG_0001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gYhYTTccrUriwJc_Hc9HbZ8bnSimVZFvIYAGWnpBzytUQYlji22iIh535wxLAW5S7aLq8o_tnmFLtPRLgzi3qfxOBHGz27AFzIcE5cIkk1QqGwTgaayLKbuYAdM1_xaoSsnG-mdrKIyN/s320/IMG_0001.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Aven de Rouet looks like a goer on the survey. A straight down shaft to about 70m, and then ongoing horizontal passage. It’s right next to the road as well, so why the hell haven’t I heard of it before? Needs a look, I think to myself.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Christine and I headed over to the site on Monday night to confirm that the cave was where we expected, and to look at how we’d need to get the gear to the water. We’ve learned that nothing is easy here. Sure enough, 30m from the road, across some flat ground, we find a bloody great hole in the ground. It’s about 10m in diameter, and dropped to depth of about 20m, where the water was. There was a steel gantry jutting out over the top of it, and this looked a perfect point from which to lower the gear. Two steps away was a steel ladder down to a small gravel platform perfect to stand on while suiting up. This was looking too good to be true, so how come I’ve never heard of this place before? Weird. Needs a look.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tWRZJyP-Aav5qS_rHA-etQ7IWKxfWfrVi0Z6cfQEkF95qbIlcEGhIW_TosYMjPfHk_DU8uUGvDeUTQ_pGvAFUflRImDS3B7NDjTwSDYtvFj5J-AeItBRk6aOsDQ3TFQLsj9_ZfAgFwT9/s1600/IMG_0031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tWRZJyP-Aav5qS_rHA-etQ7IWKxfWfrVi0Z6cfQEkF95qbIlcEGhIW_TosYMjPfHk_DU8uUGvDeUTQ_pGvAFUflRImDS3B7NDjTwSDYtvFj5J-AeItBRk6aOsDQ3TFQLsj9_ZfAgFwT9/s320/IMG_0031.JPG" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">We got up almost before lunchtime on Tuesday and started blending gas. 15/55 for me, Christine and Andras, and a couple of deco gasses for good measure. Tim and Jarvist were going to have a play with some trimix too on a short dive after ours. Blending was creative, as ever, in these sorts of places but we all ended up with something useable in the end. We loaded the cars, and sent Tim and Jarvist to set up the pulleys and ropes while we ate lunch. Seemed reasonable to me. All the time I’m thinking “why haven’t I heard of this place before?”.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">We arrive at the cave to see Tim stood on the gantry with an elaborate network of slings, carabiners, stops and pulleys dangling over the edge, and Jarvist at the bottom explaining how things will bang into the wall as they descend. The fiddle around a bit, make some more complications and we have a working 3:1 pulley system, with a releasable deviation, which makes it go round a corner. It’s so easy, I still wonder why everyone doesn’t dive here, and why I haven’t heard of it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">We lowered the gear down (OK, Tim lowered the gear down) and Jarvist makes a neat pile of it in the pool, and we three head down to the water like professionals. Andras starts screaming when he sees the toad in the water. Apparently he doesn’t like them. Christine wanted to kiss it, but I reminded her that it needed to be a frog for that to work. We put on our gear and did our checks floating in the water, and remarked that the blue water had gone a bit mucky with our movements. I was sure it would clear out below us though, and said so like someone who knew what he was talking about. So far so good. I still can’t believe I’ve never heard of this place - it’s such an easy site.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwzke2GDe7mW8ZMywsZRLMV-3KuPvDuZupVINRd2_stjp9oeqbVp1ymPrBgJaRDHORzOdQ7LBC2CZQs7XWUfycrs2X6YvvmRlNCEHSC9VK1nKeHN8Com_aXPZa6FbDKExfe3YCKVBMhQs/s1600/IMG_0028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwzke2GDe7mW8ZMywsZRLMV-3KuPvDuZupVINRd2_stjp9oeqbVp1ymPrBgJaRDHORzOdQ7LBC2CZQs7XWUfycrs2X6YvvmRlNCEHSC9VK1nKeHN8Com_aXPZa6FbDKExfe3YCKVBMhQs/s1600/IMG_0028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwzke2GDe7mW8ZMywsZRLMV-3KuPvDuZupVINRd2_stjp9oeqbVp1ymPrBgJaRDHORzOdQ7LBC2CZQs7XWUfycrs2X6YvvmRlNCEHSC9VK1nKeHN8Com_aXPZa6FbDKExfe3YCKVBMhQs/s400/IMG_0028.JPG" width="300" /></span></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">We descend, Christine in front, Andras and then me. Following the line through the surface muck, and sure enough, the water clears and we are treated to pale limestone walls and a vertical passage. It’s not very big, I think. No matter, I’m going to drop these decompression cylinders pretty soon and then the clanging will stop. The Oxygen gets dropped in a small (1.5m round passage), and hangs on the line that has a convenient loop in it. Someone has clearly been here before and understands that you need to drop gear off. The line turns into 9mm climbing rope, and continues to drop vertically through the pretty, white, cave tunnel. Which is still no more than 1.5m across. We are three divers, stacked vertically. There is some difference in approach to dropping down. I prefer the head down and swim, while the others seem to prefer some sort of feet down, reverse climbing strategy. The 9mm rope gets replaced by 5mm stainless steel cable. This is an odd choice, I think. I’d hate to have to cut that if I got tangled in it. Still, visibility is good, and the line well laid. Still don’t understand why more people don’t dive here, even though it’s a bit tight. More gear gets deposited and we start to descend. 30m, still nice clear water, pretty passageway, small. 40m, same. 50m - the rope ends. Quelle horreur! There is some old thin cave line arranged into a not-so-neat birds nest, with ends trailing out of it. Christine decides that this is too deep to be arsing about laying line in a tight passage with potentially much more loose rubbish beyond, and we reverse our direction back towards the surface. Shame, it’s a nice looking cave and I’d have liked to see more of it. Can’t understand why I’ve not heard of it before.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Bubbles. Seemingly innocuous things. Children make them with soap and play with them for hours. They are in beer and champagne. They could be considered to be fun things in some quarters. In a cave, they tend to float up along the walls. If those walls are covered in a fine layer of silt, such as you might find in a cave that was not well travelled, then the bubbles dislodge the silt and rapidly reduce the visibility. If that cave is vertical, then those bubbles do that all the way to the surface, getting bigger all the time. In fact, Jarvist and Tim were watching the pool while we dived and said that it turned into a “muddy silty vortex” within minutes of our departure. They elected to not dive.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Meanwhile, back in the water, the visibility has dropped to something like tea with a splash of milk. Never mind, it’s a vertical cave, and we have a big 9mm rope to follow. We wriggle and turn our way back up the passage and soon arrive back at the 21m stop. We all managed to switch gas, not that it was really needed given the short dive, and continue out. Lots of gear plus steel wire. Nice. Fortunately only a few minor hang ups, and we’re soon at the oxygen pickup, and ready to head out. At this point, Christine decided that she didn’t like it anymore and managed to reverse the team order. Exactly how, I do not know, but she and Andras got past me in a 1m wide tunnel. Andras claims that it had something to do with Chris grabbing his testicles in a modified “touch contact signal” for “move”. He moved. Like a rat up a drainpipe. We surfaced exchanged a few “pleasantries” and decided to get out. I’m starting to understand why I haven’t heard of this place. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Then the fun started. I looked up to see 2 locals stood on the gantry waving. Cave diving is often a spectator sport, in the same way people like to watch car crashes or why Romans went to watch criminals get eaten by lions. Turned out that he was a local caver and had been in there before. Best to not do it with lots of people, he said. Visibility gets bad apparently. Well, they were nice and we chatted for a while. They left and enter local no. 2. His communication was less easy to follow. Basil Fawlty probably taught him how to talk to foreigners. Speak louder and faster when they don’t understand. Get more frustrated. Speak louder and faster. He wasn’t angry, although he did look like a farmer, and therefore liable to say “quitter ma terre” at any point. Probably loudly. He mentioned that he had a similar hole on his land. Bottomless, apparently, and if we wanted to go and dive it, we’d be very welcome. “Just like this one?” we asked - “Oui” came the reply. “Merci Messieur, mais nous partons demain”. He wandered off to shoot something. More gear came up the magical winch thing. Then two girls get out of a car and start running over towards us. They are flapping their arms and waving at us. “avez-vous vu mon aigle”, or “Have you seen my eagle?” To help with translation, they were flapping their arms and cawing as well. Seemed obvious to me. I was tempted to say that it had grabbed my pet toad and I was very upset, but my French isn’t good enough. They seemed very upset, and continued driving around, looking for their eagle. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">We stopped for Pizza in Laroque on the way home, which is a lovely way to end a days diving, eating nice food watching the river run, and wondering why nobody dives in that cave.</span></div>
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