Grotte de Gournier

Ardèche trip, Day 7 – Grotte de Gournier (Vercors)

Team: Maz, Scott, Jasmine, Kate & Will

Scott suggested for our final trip together of the holiday that we should dart over to the Vercors region and visit Grotte de Gournier that he previously visited last year with the club. With promise of plenty of pretties, huge strolling passageway, a fun traverse, and more importantly a voyage on the club dinghy the S.S.Gournier (named after this grotte that it was purchased for), the rest of the team were quick to agree including Kate despite the lengthy drive over.

We all met in the car park for Grotte de Choranche (the neighbouring showcave to Gournier) and after a quick team photo with the S.S.Gournier, more obligatory than a sump photo, we set off on our way. A quick skirmish around the admission booth (not necessary to pay for Gournier) and a friendly wave to the staff – who gave the look you’d expect to see from a French local watching 5 Yorkshire cavers bumble through with an inflatable dinghy and oar! A brief walk with some well signposted footpaths brings you to the entrance to the Gournier, where you’re quickly met with water and the journey commences.

From here you either swim, or boat to the small ledge 40m in along the left hand wall. Jasmine and Scott pioneered the first voyage with ease and set the bar for the rest of us. After they’d both sprung from the dinghy, Scott quickly made his way up the 5/6m climb aided by some iron steps, before rigging the traverse along the wall, around the corner and off onto the first of many enormous flowstone formations. Jasmine gave us the call that the boat was free, and we retrieved it with the extra 40m rope we’d brought with us. Kate and Maz were next to load up in the dinghy, and off they went in pursuit of the others. Again once clear, I got the call, retrieved the dinghy and made my crossing hoping my seamanship was up to par as I now had the rope with me and no one able to retrieve me! Winging it well, I moored the vessel, making sure to tie it on well and avoid a swim back later on. As I said earlier, it is perfectly achievable to swim this distance if you don’t have a dinghy, but it is quite a distance and the bottom cannot be touched after 5m or so from the shore, so commitment is essential and your trip ahead will be a wet one. Some of our team had donned wetsuits, and others the usual attire, so we had mixed opinions on getting fully saturated!

Now on the ledge, I watched Kate and Maz navigate the climb up to the traverse, whilst Scott was trailblazing across the traverse with Jasmine in tow, just about rounding the corner to the last bolt – or our last bolt. We brought a 40m for the traverse, where it would have been better with a 45/50m as we were short for the last couple of bolts meaning we shuffled over the top of a Gour pool at the edge of a drop where we could have had a cows tail attached. Perhaps it was the adventurous nature of the KCC team that didn’t deter us here, or maybe the stunningly blue deep pool at the bottom of the ‘fairly high but not treacherous – perhaps almost fun to try’ drop was more inviting than scary, either way we pushed on and it wasn’t long before we’d all navigated the travers and were now free strolling through huge open passageway. Initially, we navigated huge boulders and piles of breakdown, with the odd formation here and there. A few bats dotted about again, before a big group of 30-40 were found, like in Saint-Marcel. A great send off for Maz! Some more strolling through huge gour pools and formations, scrambles up slopes and down the other side to reveal more passageway – it really was colossal. A section walking through huge 10-15m columns with mushroom tops or perhaps resembling something else if Scott is describing! The most incredible gigantic penis’s I’ve ever seen. A small 5m in situ handline got us up a climb over some boulders, and before long Scott was eagerly scouting in between boulders looking for the way down to the stream way. Maz, Kate and I took the opportunity for a quick drink and snack break and promptly finished in time for Scott’s call that he found the way down. Unsure as to whether we would even be able to explore further due to current conditions with us being a few months early for the proper caving season, Scott headed down the boulder scramble towards the noisy stream way before shortly returning, giving it the all clear. Maz followed, and Jasmine too, Kate and I had a little look at the scramble down and decided that Kate wanted to quit whilst she was ahead and having a fantastic caving experience (for a change!). We told the others we’d head back here, but we wouldn’t leave the car park until we knew they were out and safe. We had a gentle stroll back through the colossal passageway to the entrance traverse, often Kate asking “are you sure you know the way?!” Perhaps it’s just me she doesn’t trust in a cave?! Maybe the silence of two of us compared to five of us is a little more daunting?! Either way, we passed a few landmarks along the way that restored her confidence in me, and it wasn’t too long before I told her to turn her torch off as we could see the light beaming in the entrance. As we approached, we could hear another team working their way across the traverse, so hung around to marvel at the formations for a little longer allowing them to clear before continuing on. Before long we were boarding our vessel, whilst admiring the French team’s boat, docked next to ours that was clearly the dinghy you would want for exploring these sort of places! After making sure we’d attached the dinghy rope in a fashion so that the others could retrieve it, we said a little prayer hoping we’d make it the 40m to shore, and pushed off the dock. With Kate gazing straight down through the incredibly clear blue water at the floor who knows how many metres below, it wasn’t long until we could see that distance reducing and Kate was reaching in to bump us off rocks to ensure the vessel remained sea worthy for the others! We hopped out, put the boat back in the boat, and then spent half an hour or so cleaning off our kit before the long haul back home. As the cold started to creep in, we opted to head back to the vehicles to get dry and changed, before walking back to the entrance with empty hands and Lenny. As we arrived, we could see the dinghy had been pulled back to the dock and Maz was just boarding. He had a couple of bags on board with him, so Jasmine and Scott opted for the bomb and swim back to shore. Arriving in succession, we unburdened them off the rope bags, and head back to the vehicles whilst they deflated the dinghy.

Another incredible outing for the team, and a fantastic choice from Scott to end what has been an incredible first trip away with club for myself and Kate! That’s 2 trips in the bag now, do we think maybe the women that hates caving will possibly end up with a membership?! Perhaps she will only have a crave for the more continental outings! Massive thank you to Tom for the pre trip planning, the riggers, photographers, cavers, and volunteers for call outs and ground support. Holiday blues have now officially set in!

Write up and pic by Will