Expeditions – Kendal Caving Club

9 May 2026

By Ray McGarry In Expeditions

Fermanagh ’26

Mon 4th – Sat 9th May 2026

Scott, Maz, Damian, Chris H, John, Miranda, Vikki & Ray, with guest appearances by local caver Ray Bell

The 2nd triennial KCC trip to Ireland took place in May 2026. Our destination this time was Fermanagh, having visited the Burren back in 2023. As in ’23, we were blessed with glorious weather once again. I don’t know what the chances of that are, but I suspect we’re guaranteed biblical flooding on our next trip.

Accommodation options in the area appear to be somewhat limited, so I’d booked us into the Cladagh Glen Scout Centre. The centre sleeps 28, but we were only 8 (and 2 of those were sleeping in their vans). Would we have to share with a load of scouts? Thankfully not! We had sole use of the place. This did mean we rattled about a bit, but it was very comfortable and well-equipped for cavers, i.e. there was a hose and a drying room. Actually, there was a lot more than that, including a well-equipped kitchen, spacious lounge and outdoor seating. Sleeping was in 4 bunk rooms. 2 of these were smaller (3 or 4 beds) and en suite, so Vikki and I quickly grabbed one, while Miranda and John pounced on the other. That left a 10ish-bed bunk room each for Scott and Damian. Not sure if they tried a different bed every night as I would have done.

I think we all travelled over by ferry (Cairnryan-Belfast), but at wildly different times. Chris, John & Miranda travelled in Chris’s van a couple of days early and took in some of the north coast on the way. Damian travelled alone and went straight to the scout centre, although Elaine came over to meet him after for a week touring around N Ireland. Vikki and I spent a few days with my family near Belfast at the start and the end of the trip.

Maz & Scott were just there for the caving, travelling over on the midnight ferry and heading straight for Polticoghlan in South Leitrim for some reason – no I’d never heard of it either. As it turns out, this was a futile excursion as they had infinitely less tackle than required (it needing some, whereas they had none). Undeterred, they decamped to the eminently more suitable White Fathers cave for a bit of a wade and a short swim.

Meanwhile, the rest of us had started arriving at the entrance to Cladagh Glen, where our accommodation was situated. John, Miranda and Chris were first to arrive, only to find the gate to the glen firmly padlocked. That wasn’t in the script! Not to worry, we had the combination to a key safe up at the centre. Luckily that gave access to the scout centre building, in which they located a further bunch of keys. Fortunately one of these fitted the lock on the gate and we were back in business.

Everyone else arrived in quick succession, almost like it was planned. We had 2 visitors on the first evening. First, Robin (the scout centre warden) arrived to talk us over some admin stuff and generally offer helpful advice. Next, our local caving expert, Ray Bell, popped over to introduce himself, offer the loan of some equipment (the buoyancy aids were particularly useful) and say that he should be free to cave with us on the Wednesday and Friday. Cheers both!

Cavingwise, the week panned out as follows (see some specific trip reports later):

Mon – White Fathers (Scott & Maz)
Tue – Marble Arch (All KCC)
Wed – Noon’s (Scott, KCC Ray & local Ray), White Fathers (Vikki, Maz, Damian, Chris, Miranda & John)
Thurs – Boho Cave & Lower Ravine Cave (Chris, Damian, Scott, Maz, Vikki & KCC Ray)
Fri – Pollnagollum of the Boats (Vikki, Maz, Damian, Scott & local Ray)
Sat – Upper Cradle & Pollasumera (Maz & Scott)

This is the area where I first started caving, back in the early 1980s, so I’d done most of the caves before, although not since leaving N Ireland almost 40 years ago. To say that my memories are vague would be a considerable understatement. Many things I have absolutely no memory of whatsoever. In some cases, I had very vivid memories of particular cave sections, but they turned out to be fiction. Crab Passage in Marble Arch is one example. I remembered it well, having passed through it many, many times (including a practice ICRO rescue where we tried to get a stretcher through it). My memory is of something akin to the Crabwalk in Giants Hole, albeit a bit shorter and not quite so high. In reality it’s no longer than a couple of body lengths and not much taller than me. And where did that spiral climb down immediately after it come from??

One thing I did remember well enough was how wet many of the caves are. It’s definitely wetsuit territory, so all but me had come suitably equipped. Not owning a wetsuit, I took the opportunity to miss the wettest trips. As mentioned earlier, local Ray had lent us some buoyancy aids. They certainly came in handy in Pollnagollum of the Boats.

A slight disappointment re caving on this particular trip was that some of the caves were temporarily inaccessible. Cascades was blocked by a landslip, Shannon was off the cards due to lambing and Pollaraftra (my first ever cave) is off-limits due to a breakdown in relations with the landowner. We still had plenty to go at though.

In terms of nightlife, the area doesn’t really compare to our Doolin trip 3 years ago. We had heard that local cavers drink in Frank Eddie Maguire’s in Blacklion, so we popped along there one evening, only to find it closed. We ended up in some grim pub back along the road a bit. I can’t remember what it was called, but we didn’t hurry back. To be honest, we couldn’t go back there anyway due to embarrassment over Maz, Miranda and John’s pool playing. Later in the week we went to Maguire’s just over the bridge in Belcoo for a meal and a few beers. That was a very pleasant evening. Apart from that, we mostly drank wine and sloe gin back at the scout centre.

This was a great few days. If we do go back to the same area, I would certainly book the scout centre again. I would also be tempted to explore more widely, into Leitrim and Sligo. Thanks again to Robin and, particularly, to local Ray for all his help with the caving side of things.

Polticoghlan, Co Leitrim (4th May) – Scott & Maz

Report by Maz

Our Ireland caving trip began early in the morning on the shores of Loch Neagh. We’d travelled late in the evening and need to get some sleep before finding a cave to explore. So, after spending the night together in the back of my van, Scott and I decided we would go exploring.

We’d looked at various possibilities on the Caves of Ireland website and narrowed it down to somewhat out of the way “Polticoughlan.” “Access is restricted” our information warned, but we figured we’d have a recce and see the lie of the land. Parking up, Scott used a combination of map reading and educated guesswork to sight the location of the cave; about half a kilometre downhill through a felled plantation.

On with the gear and soon we had enough contours behind us to drop into fold in the ground away from prying eyes. After navigating a series of barbed wire fences and undergrowth, we found the gulley that led into the first pitch. Scott duly scrambled down to check out the anchors. A few minutes later he came back with the somewhat disappointing news that the anchors were old, the rock friable and the naturals non existent. Not ideal and this is led to a retreat and a plan B.

White Fathers’ Cave (4th May) – Scott & Maz

Report by Maz

Between texting Ray to cancel our call out time, and his response, we settled on another cave to explore; White Fathers. Having duly parked up, Ray’s acknowledgement of the change of plan came through and he suggested White Fathers. I took this opportunity to inform him of our location. The cave is but a few yards from the car park and soon we were in the streamway. We headed up briefly to investigate 30 or so yards of tunnel only to turn around and follow the path to the obvious entrance to the second cave. This was more like it. It was an attractive large twisting stream through decorated passage. Sometimes ankle deep, sometimes waist deep, there were impressive formations, especially considering its proximity to the road. Soon the roof opened and we were in daylight for a few seconds before entering cave three. Again, more of the same, albeit in slightly wetter conditions. As we rounded another meander, we noticed a light coming towards us. This it turned out was not just any other caver, it was Tim Fogg, author of the guidebook we were using and a legend in these parts. I’d read about the zombie spiders recently discovered in the region and he was able to confirm this was the said location of them. He gave us a description of what to look out for. It didn’t help me much, spiders fall into 2 categories, small or F$%$^%$G HUGE. After saying our goodbyes we continued along the deepening stream. With the exit in sight the floor dropped away and we were resigned to swimming a few metres to the end. Tim had informed up to climb out of the right bank and follow the prison fence home. White Fathers’ cave goes under an old priory. With the exit of the monks in the 1970s, the site was converted and now houses a prison for low risk inmates. The obvious observations about the guards not having watched Shawshank Redemption rang in our heads and we walked along the outside of the very tall and heavily razor wired fence. It was an unusual end to the day!

Marble Arch (5th May) – Chris, John, Miranda, Damian, Scott, Maz, Vikki & KCC Ray

Report by Ray

This is a must do trip, so obviously we did it. As most will be aware, it’s a show cave – and a pretty good one too. John & Miranda can attest to this as they did the tourist trip later in the week. But no tourism for us today. Our goal was well beyond the show cave. As such, there was a certain amount of admin to be done before we were allowed in. So we arrived bright and early at 9am to begin form filling. We had previously been told that there is a limit of 6 people on each non-tourist trip. In reality, there turned out to be no such restriction and they didn’t care that there were 8 of us.

Forms filled and caving kit donned, we were given a master key to the various gates we were likely to encounter. As it turned out, we only actually encountered 1 gate where the key could be used, so I’m not quite sure what was masterful about it. I did, however, feel very powerful with it in my pocket!

We were also very kindly escorted to a suitable entrance by Sean, one of the staff and an active caver himself. It turned out to be just as well that we had such a guide as the path to our entrance was particularly overgrown, such that we would have struggled to find it ourselves. This does raise the question of who actually uses said entrance. Is it reserved for visiting parties from across the water, while local cavers simply go in via the show cave entrance?

Either way, I believe it was the ICC entrance we used. It looked vaguely familiar, so I think it’s the entrance I used to take back in the day. It’s essentially a slot at the top of a boulder choke, followed by a long climb down through the choke, via various constrictions and larger sections. Nothing too awkward. Route finding on the climb down was easy enough, but we took a wrong turn at the bottom. Turning left, we were first forced to crawl and then dumped in a particularly unpleasant wet passage, terminating in what looked suspiciously like a sump. Not what we were expecting.

Retracing our steps to the bottom of the climb and heading the other direction very quickly led to a gate. Aha – a use for my all-powerful key. Sure enough, it unlocked the way to the show cave and the treasures beyond. A quick stop to allow a tourist party to pass and we were stomping along the very pleasant show cave. I particularly like the “Moses Walk”, where a dry trench has been constructed through a lake. Why can’t this be done in all caves?

Sadly, just after the Moses Walk, the show cave came to an end. Ducking through the fence, we were soon faced with having to cross the chest-deep river without the aid of a dry trench. No problem to most of the party, but a real pain for me, particularly with such an uneven bottom (the passage, that is).

Once across the river, a muddy passage led to a climb up though boulders into Organ Chamber, followed by the fun of Crab Passage, a narrow sideways slither. Somewhere along this section, various members of the party fell by the wayside, leaving Vikki, Scott, Maz and I to forge on. And it sure was worth forging on. A corkscrew climb down and a short bit of passage led to the humungous Skreen Hill 2. Very impressive indeed. A quick romp upstream brought us, all too quickly, to a sump.

Turning back downstream, we passed our point of entry and headed up Legnabrocky Way. This started modestly enough and passed some low sections, including the “Wet Wiggle”, but eventually opened up into fine proportions once again. Alas, as with all good things, the fine proportions eventually dwindled. We crawled for some distance, but eventually gave up at a well-decorated grotto up on the left. A good place for a chat and some breath catching.

Satisfied, we turned around and made our way back towards the show cave. There were some fun and games getting me back across the deep water, mostly involving the use of Maz as a flotation aid, but otherwise it all seemed to go smoothly enough.

In the show cave, we tried the first set of steps leading up as a means of rapid exit. This led through a couple of unlocked gates (no need for superkey here), emerging into daylight, only to be stopped by a very large wooden gate and fence just short of the visitor centre. Alas, there was nowhere to stick superkey on this side of the gate. So, back down we went. Being keen to find an easier way out, we followed the show cave to the point where a boat was necessary, but no way out. In the end there was nothing for it but to retrace our steps back up through the ICC entrance, which was pretty easy. We then celebrated a very enjoyable trip by visiting the on-site cafe, where Scott treated us all to tea/coffee and cake.

Noon’s Hole, (6th of May)

Present: Ray M, Ray B, Scott

Report by Scott

I’d read a bit about Noon’s Hole in one of Martin Farr’s books, so I was quite keen to join the two Rays for a look up close. It turned out initially to be a Yorkshire – style open pot, with the first pitch of about 35m descending alongside a waterfall. At a big ledge the pitch bifurcates and the water sods off elsewhere. Ray M (Original Local Ray?) rigged this and the next pitch under the watchful eye of Ray B (New Fangled Local Ray?), plus the next one for good measure. When I arrived with the rope for the following pitch the familiar solid resin anchors seemed to evaporate, to be replaced by an invigorating mixture of spits, stealth black expansion bolts that were virtually invisible, resin anchors that actually moved in and out of the hole when pulled, and a lovely solid drilled thread that was unfortunately completely blocked with a rotten, mouldering piece of tat. Despite this, I quite enjoyed rigging the next couple of pitches, and soon we were standing at the foot of a parallel shaft with some tight – looking rifty passages leading off to who-knows-where?

Well, Ray B obviously knew, and soon we were making awkward, strenuous progress into the Earth’s crust. After a while the message came through that Ray M was withdrawing to sunnier climes, and Ray B and I continued through a maze of sharp limestone passages, eventually coming to ‘Crucifixion Crawl’.
This was a bit of a misnomer, as at no point did we have to assume that particular position made iconic by, er, Jim Morrison. Instead it was a half-Superman pose in a confined rifty tube for a few meters.
This completed, the cave opened up a bit and formations were enjoyed in a kind of hading muddy rift with water in the bottom. Soon it was necessary to crawl through this water, which was actually a welcome bit of temperature regulation at the time. The passage became walking height, a kind of torpid streamway which eventually ended at a sump.

After a quick roll-up, Ray B suggested that we head up Inlet 5 for an explore, which was in the general direction of the dry connection with Arch Cave. We climbed an impressive flowstone cascade in only our wetsocks to avoid muddying the calcite, then waded through a couple of pools before meeting a boulder choke. This had apparently defeated Ray in the past, but this time he spotted the correct exit and wormed through to emerge in the large, muddy breakdown chamber / passage known as Chamber Passage.

A bit of slithering and poking around yielded a way on, and Ray disappeared for a look while I waited in the big stuff, trying not to look at the distressingly unstable ceiling. By the sound of it, Ray can’t have been far off from the dry connection to Arch when he returned!
We retraced our steps, eventually climbing out of the big hole into bright sunshine. I had ample time on the ascent to consider Ray B’s anecdote about ascending this pitch in a flood, passing out under the waterfall because he hadn’t been able to breathe enough on the way up, then coming to on the rope and jugging the rest of the way up in a bit of a panic with a thumping headache… Our trip was a bit more relaxed.

Ray M treated us to a pint in the very local, local pub on the way back. Thanks again to both Rays for an excellent day out!

Boho Cave (7th May) – Chris, Damian, Scott, Maz, Vikki & KCC Ray

Report by Ray

Boho Cave is somewhere you definitely don’t want to be in wet weather as it floods “rapidly and almost completely”. Ouch. As we had glorious weather, however, we decided to go for it. Now, it turns out there’s a rather large gap between deciding to do it and actually doing it. For us, that gap was largely filled with the not insignificant task of finding it.

We parked up outside the Linnet Inn, got changed and walked towards the rather large wooded area pointed out by local Ray the day before on our return trip from Noon’s. Said wooded area is unfortunately rather large and overgrown. Chris headed in, followed by Vikki and then me. I think the others headed further along the road. Eventually we found the dry river bed, near an old bridge. This is where it went wrong as we headed downstream. We climbed down a waterfall. At the bottom, I carried on downstream, passing a few cave entrances, but nothing that looked like what we were looking for.

By the time I’d returned to near the bottom of the waterfall, the party had reassembled and were looking at a likely entrance. Again, it didn’t really look like what we were after, but we set off in anyway. Progress was initially easy, but a climb up to the left led into endless crawling over particularly knee-wrecking chert. Eventually sense prevailed and we turned around. A much more rigorous reading of the area description revealed this to actually be Lower Ravine Cave. Aha! From this we were able to deduce that we needed to head back upstream. First we passed Upper Ravine Cave (do not enter as this is a major bat roost… at least it was in 1997), then we climbed the dry waterfall and passed Waterfall Cave. Passing under the bridge spotted earlier by Chris, the very obvious Quarry Entrance to Boho Cave was difficult to miss!

Maz left his keys here and in we went. Some very pleasant walking passage brought us to the Main Sink entrance before long. We popped our heads out here and spotted that the road was very close indeed, with no dense undergrowth to negotiate. This was clearly the way to exit later. Sorry Maz!

Popping back in, we headed north in search of Formation Passage and Coleraine Chamber. Somehow, we ended up in Calcite Crawls instead, necessitating (as the name would suggest) crawling, sometimes over a smooth calcite floor. What the name doesn’t suggest is that this section is a bit on the snug side. Pressing on regardless, things eased at an enlargement, before another smaller section broke into the relative vastness of Henry’s Hall. Beyond this, the going was relatively easy. Eventually we entered the Maze, a very complex area of maze cave.

Thinking that we had come along Formation Passage, we couldn’t understand where the Pilaster and Coleraine Chamber were and why the Maze seemed to be taking us right, instead of left. Our mistake only dawned on us later after detailed study of the survey back at the scout centre and was confirmed in discussion with local Ray.

We pushed the Maze as far as we dared, basically until we reached the limit of our ability to remember the various junctions. It turns out that, if we had carried on a bit further, we probably would have come across the Pilaster and realised our mistake. This would have given us a much easier route back to the surface. As it was, however, we had to retrace our steps back to the Main Sink, where Damian, Scott and Chris took the easy route back to the cars. As Vikki and I had come with Maz, it seemed only fair to accompany him back to the Quarry Entrance to retrieve his keys. Here we made another mistake. Instead of returning back through the cave to Main Sink for the easy route to the cars, we decided to head back through the undergrowth. We’re not very bright.

Boho Cave was a big hit with all and the great news is that we have a reason to go back as there’s lots more to see in there.

Pollnagollum of the Boats (8th May) – Vikki, Maz, Scott, Damian & local Ray

Report by Vikki

Equipment – wetsuits advised, buoyancy aid if required. 10 metres handline to leave in situ in the entrance choke, a second short rope 8 metres to set up a sitting belay with a couple of handholds on the return leg to surmount smoother flow when climbing to avoid the water around lake 3.

A long-standing ambition for Damian saw us all descend once again after our initial thwarted attempt on 6^th May, this time following our local caving expert Ray which avoided any route finding issues.

Walk over the stile in the fence down and enter to the left at the bottom of the shake hole. Leaving daylight behind initially drop through a boulder choke and then descend with the help of a handline down over a block keeping the smoother wall on your right. The lower 2 blocks each undercut the top one above affording good footholds and is straightforward with the handline. Then descend through a series of blocks to the main cave which opens up before you – spectacular.

The first lake comes into view which is protected by a hand traverse for those not wanting to swim the 30m. On exit to a sandy beach look behind and now to your left to see a sump which is currently being explored by divers. Into the main chamber pass a rope in situ (no re-belay) which leads to the higher level windows chamber if desired. Above you in the main chamber are some impressive stalactites. Continue along the passage to view some fine flowstone formations and enter the short second lake which can be waded through.

The 3^rd lake begins with lower water along a shelf, beyond which is deep and requires swimming. Continue in the passage where the roof descends and leads eventually to a duck at the far end. In the low water conditions, we experienced the duck was about a foot long. Ray went through then reached back and grabbed the shoulder of my buoyancy aid pulling me first followed by Scott. The duck maybe avoided by climbing steeply over boulders and descending the other side. There is a sump to the right-hand side.

Onwards to the 4^th lake which is long and thin. It eventually closes down and is divided by a thin flake. Keep to the left side of the flake to avoid getting your head stuck between the passage walls on the right. Eventually the way on is blocked by boulders and the final sump passage can be seen on the left.

It is then possible to return taking higher ground around lakes 4, 3 and 2. The water can drain from your wetsuits allowing you to warm up as you now negotiate the boulders and climb around and above lakes 4, 3 and 2 before finally returning the same way as you entered via lake 1. The climb around the 3^rd lake make require someone to ascend the flowstone which looks slippery but actually affords good grip, nevertheless the leader in the party may want to ascend and set up a short sitting belay to assist the remainder of the party. Eventually you emerge climbing back the same way you entered through the choke to the foot of the handline and back out to day light.

Photos by Maz

Pollasumera (9th May) – Scott & Maz

Report by Maz

Saturday saw the exodus for 5 out of 8 cavers. I’d booked a late night ferry leaving Scott and I twelve or so hours to go caving. After Google searching and guidebook reading we settled on Pollasumera. The description wasn’t good, our map wasn’t good and the map in the car park didn’t resemble anything we had. A quick walk up the hill and we spied the obvious shake hole. It didn’t fit one of our three sources of navigation but as Meatloaf said….

After kitting up, we headed off to the hole. Sadly it proved a non starter so we were left scouring the hillside making the land fit the map and vice versa. After an hour and numerous possibles we were on the verge of giving up. Luckily Scott had one final hunch and it proved correct. “Pollasumera” is a stream cave and the guidebook warned against flooding. Inside it had that eerie rotten smell and feel of something that has a regular soaking. Sandbars, cobbles and vegetation in the roof led to a stoop which had the feel of a sump about it. “Lakes” in the description were little more than muddy pools and soon we got to the beginning of a crawl. I wasn’t keen, but Mr Motivated said he’d have a look but his didn’t expect much. Sure enough, his predication came true a short way in and Scott reported a blockage that he wasn’t prepared to excavate. To get an idea of this of this cave, think Tub Holes in Dentdale but shorter. On the return we found a stranded frog. Not wanting to squish the panicked amphibian we relocated him/her into my dry box and a free return to the surface. A job well done I’d say.

Upper and Lower Cradle Holes (9th May) – Scott & Maz

Report by Maz

After the success of “Pollasumera” we still had time to squeeze in another cave. We headed off towards Marble Arch in the optimistic hope of finding Upper and Lower Cradle. Armed with a similar amount of navigational aids, we found a pull in, roughly halfway along the show cave track. Downhill into the valley, we had a peer into a very likely looking hole. It was, however, not to be, and we both felt that we might be unsuccessful on this one. Upstream or downstream? We rolled the dice and went downstream only to find another potential hole a short distance away. Into the shakehole and we followed the cavers track to a large looking entrance. On a boulder beside the track was a memorial to 3 young cavers who’d been killed in an accident here in the 1990s. Scrambling down we were stopped when we found a locked gate. The guidebook had said nothing about this and it was only later we realised it had been published before the accident. We scrambled over a boulder to find another locked gate and chain link fencing covering all possible entry holes. One cave down and one to go. We slithered back up the path and down towards the second entrance we’d seen. This time there was no locked gate and we dropped into a nice stream passage complete with formations. Soon alas, the stream disappeared into a choke and in front of us lay what we took to be a lake. NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE!!! The description and what we could see just didn’t tally, as it hadn’t for the first entrance. Back we went to our entry point and followed it upstream. This was more like it. Wet passage up to chest deep in places, formations and a nice streamway. The rock was grippy and angular with chert like protrusions and suit ripping qualities. Over a couple of rock bridges and then a sump. That’s as far as this game went and we headed back. It transpired later we had found a sump in the downstream passage and there was more to see in the upstream. It didn’t matter, it was a good explore. Afterwards over a tea in the cafe Scott vocalised a theory about the names, location and reason for our confusion with the caves. A Google search confirmed him to be correct. Two caves in a day, I must be enjoying this hobby now!

5 October 2025

By Tom C In Expeditions

Ogof Ffynnon Ddu 1

James, Scott, Tom

After an excellent weekend in Mendip, the three of us were lucky enough to book Monday off work and migrated to the South Wales on Sunday night. After luckily bumping into the warden he hooked us up with an OFD key, and the plans up in the air crystallised into an OFD 1 round trip with some side missions.

With aching muscles on this third day of caving, we made our way down to the bottom entrance, James in his dazzling new orange suit was handed the survey, with it being his first time in the system, and pointed towards the streamway. After figuring out a route into the water we enjoyed the stomp up the cracking streamway, rapidly reaching the upstream sump and heading off into Flood Passage.

We’d passed the traverse up to the Waterfall Series before but never been up for a look, and with the round trip being tame after the weekend we’d done, we diverted up for a good look around. After half an hour or so we were deep in this mini-labyrinth and surprised at how much stuff there was up here. Making a round trip through a more Dales-esque tight crawly streamway, we popped back out and were ready to hunt for something else that had caught our attention, Starlight Chamber – the largest chamber in the system.

After getting up Low’s Chain and Chamber, we spotted Don’s Crawl and headed along a ledge high above where we’d been looking up from minutes before. The slippery muddy boulders up here led us on a merry dance and we couldn’t find the route on – ah well, something to leave for the next generation. We headed on into the Rawl Series to continue the round trip, enjoying the fantastic formations and quiet eery atmosphere in these monster tunnels.

Eventually reaching Pi Chamber, I recognised the route down into Helter Skelter that I’d dragged an unhappy Rubee down a few years ago, and we slithered our way down to emerge above the streamway and straight onto the bolt traverse. Next stop was Airy Fairy – last time we were here we’d sacked this off and gone round some mildly unpleasant bypasses, but this time we clipped in for a good straddle, and it lived up to its name with some grand airy leg stretching. We descended back down to stream level, wandered round some of the lower bits we’d missed with some frightening foam lines, before inching round Pluto’s Bath and on to the exit route.

Every time we come here the mystery and obsession only deepens! See you again soon sweet OFD

28 March 2025

By Will Burnett In Expeditions

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

27 March 2025

By Will Burnett In Expeditions

Grotte de Midroi

Day 6, Ardèche Trip – Midroi/Rochas/Guigonne

Team: Will, Kate, Damian, Maz, Jasmine & Scott

You may have noticed from the Ardèche reports that we are missing days 4 & 5. Kate and myself have been road tripping this holiday in our van and splintered off from the rest of the group for a couple of days to take a very slow and scenic drive through the Gorges de l’Ardeche and to take Lenny for his ‘return to the UK’ appointment with a French vet. The others caved on both days, trying a couple of different routes into Foussoubie on one day and Champclos on another -you’ll have to await the reports and images from someone else I’m afraid!

Whilst travelling through the gorges, Kate and I saw that we were going to pass the area of Midroi-Rochas-Guigonne, the fifth largest system at 7700m of passageway and the deepest trip around 175m. Rochas is the vertical side of the cave, where you can do the through trip, however it is essential (as you’ll see further in this report!) to ensure that water levels are low enough for the connection to be made as it is a crawl that can become flooded. Midroi is the more common horizontal entrance and Guigonne is another along with vers les Aments, however I’m not sure if either of these last 2 are passable for cavers at all, potentially Guigonne gets wet towards the exit from looking at the survey. With what is described in many reports as an interesting and challenging hike in/out, Kate and I loaded up and head out with Lenny on a recce mission. After some serious descent down a single track that we knew would be brutal to hike back up (not too brutal though as we ended up doing it two days in a row!), it wasn’t long before we were passing through Refuge de Gournier in the bottom of the valley and onwards to the Great Gour. This is a limestone pavement carved into the bottom of the cliff that gives you a nice walk above river level, before becoming steeper and iron handrails introduced to help the scramble across at the end. Just before the end of the scramble, the way on slants off to river level, and we were unable to continue due to not having wellies and the river levels being pretty high – at this point, you must step into the violently flowing Ardèche river with not many holds at all and hope the water doesn’t carry you off! As we had Lenny, and neither of us had wellies, this was were we turned around although unknowingly we were only a couple of hundred metres or so from the Midroi entrance. We regathered Lenny, he was tethered to a small shrub on the Grand Gour whilst we looked at the traverse, and then began our hike back out up the valley. We planned to return on the next day with the rest of the team to try again.

We were a little kit heavy as we had a tackle bag with ropes and crabs, and another with the emergency kit and an additional bit of rope just in case (we were learning from our previous outings!). Due to the hike in and out, all but Jasmine opted to hike in clothing and change into cave kit river side. Kate was feeling brave enough to join us for her first KCC trip, and she instantly proved her worth carrying her own kit and the rescue kit all the way, and juggling 2 bags along the traverse – I had the other 2 bags. We’d discussed bringing the S.S.Gournier also, but as we’d already packed the ropes to traverse le Grand Lac, we opted to leave it as a) it was additional kit to carry in and out, and negotiate across the traverse, and b) it may be required again before the end of the holiday! Hint, hint! (Where was it last used?) A wise decision definitely, as the hike back out is not the most pleasant, but this is where I proved my worth and loaded up with my bag, kit bag, and rescue bag to give the others a bit of relief on the way up! Kate often refers to me as her ‘mountain Yak’! Damian had volunteered to be our call out and not cave, but joined us on our hike in and then he continued along the river bank whilst we were entertaining ourselves.

The weather was lovely, and the walk in was quickly accomplished, finding ourselves on the Grand Gour in no time gearing up for the traverse that turned Kate and I away the day prior. It was immediately obvious that, overnight, river levels had dropped some what and the crossing wasn’t looking anywhere near as treacherous as the day before! The team all made light work of the crossing, and quickly scrambled between the boulders to gain the shore on the other side. Following the various descriptions we had, it wasn’t long before we found a large entrance that we thought to be Midroi, only one issue, totally flooded waist to chest deep from the get go. Jasmine was super keen and donning a wetsuit, so she was nominated/volunteered and took off into the flooded entrance, fully swimming from 10/15 metres in. It wasn’t long before she returned to inform us that the ceiling becomes very low and sump’s not far in. Surely this can’t be Midroi?! Where is the the Grand Lac?! Where are the ridiculous number of bolt/anchors along the right wall to traverse the Grand Lac?! Surely this can’t really be that flooded?! As we quickly revised the descriptions again, looking for any key detail we may have missed, we were certain this must be the place. Some previous trips from other clubs reported that they found the cave to be sumped and had to retreat, but all had spoke of finding the Grand Lac not far inside the entrance, its supposedly some 30m across and can be crossed by swimming, by boat, or by rigging a ridiculously long traverse along the right hand side – which being the rope geek I am I opted for! A few descriptions had said it can be difficult to spot the entrance to Midroi (which we hadn’t experienced) and that it was 250m from the end of the iron handrails at the boulder, and at an elevation of 85m. Scott, Maz and I set off back retracing our steps to pace out the distance, and scour the side of the cliff for any other possibilities. Luckily, I had my Garmin watch on so could very accurately walk 250m then climb to exactly 85m in that location, although it did take me about an hour before realising! After almost 2 hours, we’d found nothing at all and had searched from the start of the boulder, right along the shore to around 350/400m and up to an elevation of 95m. There was only the one entrance, it had to be this. As I returned, I’d found the others already back together, and whilst we were away Jasmine and tried to dig out around the large boulders at the entrance that were causing a dam. Actually, she’d made some really good progress and looking along the walls inside the cave you could see it had dropped around a foot whilst we’d been out searching. After some further digging with the aid of Scott and Maz, Jasmine again set off inside to see if we could make more progress. Keen to wash my oversuit from the previous trips and being teased by Kate with the “if you will I will” phrase, I followed, and then the others followed me. We all made it roughly around 100m, getting fully drenched, before the passageway splits with a high level branching off to the left that quickly becomes a crawl and didn’t look like it went very far, with the lower level leading onwards into a smaller passageway. Before now it was possible to avoid swimming, but the floor of the cave was so slippy with mud/silt that it was impossible to hold your footing and you may as well swim! From here on, the water temperature changed and you could tell it was much deeper, and unable to touch the bottom. On Jasmine’s first swim in, this way on was almost flooded to the ceiling, leaving only a couple of inches air space at the top, and as she was already fully swimming with no knowledge of the bottom Jasmine opted to retreat to us and no push into the space – a wise choice as only a couple of metres inside and it was fully sumped. When we all returned together, the water here had dropped around a foot and a half and again Jasmine swam over this time into the opening, whilst I’d scrambled around the edge in an attempt to remain somewhat dry to support her onward attempts with words of wisdom. Again, still sumped. We retreated a little and explored what we could before exiting for another change riverside followed by the hike back out. Damian was ahead of us making it back to the vehicles first and kindly waited to ensure we all got back safely. It must have been some sight for him on his return down the river to where he’d left us, as the Midroi entrance was promptly spewing out cave water that’s been trapped for who knows how long, down and along the river bank into the stunningly coloured Ardèche river!

As we were walking back through the Refuge de Gournier, Maz took some time to explore and reminisce on his years here with groups as a teacher. He found some information boards, and wooden markers to indicate the previous flood levels, some very recently. Everything suddenly made sense! It’s no secret that the Ardèche floods through winter, in fact on this exact trip at the end of March we’d experienced some horrific rain when travelling over and in the first few days, so knew the water levels were up. Where Maz was now stood, holding his hand above his head saying “this is where it flooded in 19** and here in 18**” we were probably about 10 metres ish above the Grand Gour and in turn also above the level of the entrance to Midroi. So when this area floods, and it doesn’t need to be catastrophic, the traverse on the Grand Gour (and probably the Gour itself!) completely disappears. The entrance to Midroi will flood and sump to the ceiling, washing in a load of sand, silt, and flood debris carried down the river. When the levels drop, the Midroi remains completely flooded until the entrance has had a good old digging out to make it somewhat friendly again before normal service can resume in the active months, maybe by a local speleology club or guides that use the cave? Perhaps they’ll be relieved this year to see that, thanks to Jasmine and other KCC helpers, the works already been started! We certainly need to visit again in peak season to see if our theories are correct.

Write up and pics by Will

25 March 2025

By Tom C In Expeditions

Event de Foussoubie & Rieussec

Chris, Damian, Jasmine, Maz, Scott, Tom

Day 4 and our initial plan of Midroi was thwarted after reading in a French guidebook that the sump just inside the entrance is closed October to June and we realised all the trip reports we’d read were from the blazing summertime. Not fancying travelling too far, we decided on a trip to the bottom entrance of Foussoubie and a play around the area, especially as Chris and Damian were keen on a gorge hike and seeing the Pont d’Arc.

A short 15 minute drive got us to the Blachas campsite entrance, right at the start of the gorge, and we parked below some nauseating overhanging cliffs and donned our neoprene for an aquatic day. The rock is Swiss-cheesey here with little entrances everywhere. We wandered through the campsite along the river, with the gorge’s walls reaching up, and Maz told us about the huge ‘post office rock’ in the middle of the river – in his paddling guide seasons over here he used to tell the kids it was the Ardeche’s sorting office.

The path continued past the campsite and before long we were at a series of entrances in the cliff face. The first was a shelter, and the lower one a gloopy walking height arch where we bumped into Chris and Damian who’d had a quick scout already before heading onwards with their hike.

We first headed into the obvious main continuation heading down to the water, where an atmospheric little swim got us to a sump – and at first thought this would be the end of our adventure. But on the way back out we spotted another obvious passage heading up through some mud which headed to a chamber. From here a branch spat us out at the top of a 10m scramble down – Jasmine and Scott headed down to a watery chamber with no real way on. Back up the scramble and we tried the other branch, which led via a series of waist-deep wades through different chambers and eventually to the aven at the bottom of the Foussoubie through-trip – good to know for the future. onwards from here a series of wades brought us to a nice low-roofed swim that was good easy ceiling-sucking to get us through to the end of this branch.

We headed back out, taking a tiny oxbow full of sulphorous mud to stink everything up, before a dip back in the main passage to clean off. After returning to sunlight, we headed a bit further along the path to where it turned into via along a rock wall. With the ropes incomplete we turned back, Jasmine and Scott having a few quick leaps into the fast-flowing Ardeche and having a mess around in the eddies. We clambered back and headed back to the campsite to begin hiking up for the Rieussec, a supposedly easygoing bit of canyoning fun. We began following a path up but quickly realised it was continuing up the mountain rather than up into the valley, and turned back taking a different branch down to the Rieussec stream.

This was rugged progress before we finally started to reach the odd pool where we had a bit of a jump and drifted in the flow. A little higher up and the grassy banks turned into high solid walls and it seemed we’d reached the bottom of the canyoning section. A line of pools and short pitches stretched above us, with sporting amounts of water chucking down them. The guide we’d read said ‘This canyon only flows a few days a year…but if it flows, given the size of the potholes and the violence of the water movements, it can be extremely dangerous’. Obstacles that would’ve been climbs down into still pools were now churning pitches, and Scott couldn’t spot any bolts.

Nevertheless we followed a path up the steep valley side hoping to reach the top end, but this finished at an exposed cliff scramble. At this point we’d already had a fair adventure and with the lemons stacking up we decided to just turn back and make a gorge walk of the river back down to the campsite, exploring a couple of small riverside caves along the way.

Back at the cars, sunburnt and itchy from riverwater, we dekitted and headed to Intermarche for goodies.

24 March 2025

By Will Burnett In Expeditions

Aven des Pebres

Ardèche trip, Day 3 – Aven des Pebres

Team: Damian, Chris, Tom, Maz, Scott, Jasmine & Will (write up by Will, photos by Will & Tom)

This one was a little harder to find but our convoy of 3 vehicles navigated the rocky roads of rural Ardèche without much difficulty and found where we needed to be. A quick kit up and off we went, following the description. It was evident by now that descriptions and more importantly topo’s were very vague and often distances and rope lengths were just ball park figures. It wasn’t long before we’d come to a halt at a crossroads and cavers dispersed down the off shoots around us on a hunt for the entrance. Tom was first to holla up, so we all regathered and made for the sound of his voice. Entrance found, day 3 begins.

After yesterday’s retreat, I’d come prepared and so set off leading, straight onto a couple of slides which we rigged but later realised wasn’t necessary and would have made our day a bit easier but when at the top of the slides, it’s not totally convincing that you’ll get back up – they’re that slick. After a couple of easy down climbs and short passageway, we soon came upon the 31m pitch, which worked down through a series of re-belays that required some problem solving. In total, we used resin’d anchors for the most (a nice reminder of home for the team!), spits, slinged naturals, bolts, and threads. A true continental adventure! Initially, the decent can seem a little daunting and exposed, but confidence is restored as you work down and find options a plenty for rigging and all solid. I guess this is why the route descriptions and topo’s are so vague, because people take what they take and use what they use to get down. Going from the info Tom had, we’d over packed on rope length, but still found ourselves short on occasion. One of our previous pitches had some length left over, so Tom went with his knife to shorten it and repurpose the spare on another pitch further down. After the main pitch, again, we found ourselves short at the final pitch so as we were still spread out along the many re-belays on the main pitch we passed the message up for someone to go for the rope we’d used back on the entrance slides that we didn’t necessarily need. Damian and Chris were bringing up the rear and so retreated for the rope, and after ensuring we’d got it and that we would be able to climb the slide safely, they opted to exit early. Tom and I set to conjuring our very make shift last pitch set up, and then passed back the best way to work through it. Only small, around 5-6m, but awkward if you don’t have the right length of rope! After touching down, I set off to find the way on, a short scramble up into a decorated chamber, then a low crawl to the left down and through a large gour pool that I could only just about star fish across to stay dry, a slide down some flowstone, squeeze through some stals, low crawl over a deeper gour pool through a small opening and… WOW! I stood up, headtorch on full, quick look around, and then set off back as fast as I could to the others shouting its the best one of the trip yet! Possibly an early statement to make, as in reality each of our trips so far have been equally incredible but very different. Jasmine was next to touch down and she was instantly infected with my excitement and told me to take her to what I’d found. We worked through the crawls and squeezes and into the main chamber at the bottom. There was an in situ rope to the right leading up to a ledge so I quickly jumped on it and gained the view point. By now the others had made their way to the main chamber and some began to follow up behind me, others exploring the chamber. After the first ledge, there’s more ropes leading up around and through the calcite formations to a higher balcony over looking the whole chamber. I climbed a couple more pitches to another ledge, where I could just about see Tom and Maz walking amongst the huge formations. Tom translated from the description that the climb was to not much else and the view wasn’t going to beat my current positioning. I ab’d back down to the first ledge, where Jasmine and Scott overtook me and Maz was just gaining. Maz took some time here to admire the place whilst I descended, and Tom climbed to join Maz. Scott climbed to where I had been, and Jasmine began to work her way all the way to the top balcony. I started to explore the rest of the chamber whilst Tom and Maz ab’d down to join me. Before long, Scott was with us also and we watched Jasmine work her way back down through the in situ ropes. The whole cave is roughly 90m deep, and at the bottom is just huge chamber ceiling roughly 30m high filled with massive formations, floor to ceiling columns, and then it slopes down to the left which can be scrambled some way until you come to a ledge with view to a huge pool with crystal clear water in the bottom some 15 metres below. Tom and I searched for a way down, and whilst we were certain you could jump in the pool and survive, there didn’t appear to be a way down or up. The description says there’s another pitch, which we couldn’t obviously find, but had no rope left even if we had.

Once we’d had our fill, we headed out as we’d entered, with Scott de-rigging. Soon enough we were back on the surface without too many dramas, and hiking up the hill back to the vehicles. Day 3 completed, I think we’ll all sleep tonight!

23 March 2025

By Will Burnett In Expeditions

Grotte Saint-Marcel

Ardeche trip – Day 2, Grotte Saint-Marcel

Team A: Damian, Chris

Team B: Tom, Scott, Jasmine, Maz & Will

Thanks to some pre-trip planning, Tom had negotiated with his local contact to collect the keys for various entrances into Grotte Saint-Marcel. This huge system comprises of kilometre after kilometre of huge open passageway filled with formations to stroll along. There are 5 ‘Networks’ in total, and today we worked our way through most of Network 1 with Team A focusing on the horizontal options and Team B doing the same plus a look at the series of SRT pitches that connect Network 1 to Network 4.

The trip started with spirits high, despite yesterday’s ‘warm up’ cave that would easily be granted a Grade 4 difficulty or higher back home. Break them in easy, ey Tom?! From the parking, both teams head for the natural entrance to Saint-Marcel which was a relatively easy 10-15 minute walk downhill to a large natural gated opening in the wood. Once inside, we locked the door behind and a brief 20m stoop opened up immediately to a huge open passageway. Team A quickly sped off, whilst Team B took a more leisurely approach taking in all of the surroundings and comparing the differences to yesterday’s excursion. Maz was immediately satiated as there were bats all over the ceiling and formations, at one point we had to be super careful not to head butt them off the ceiling! The next couple of hours were filled with easy romping down expansive passageways sometimes filled with formations, sometimes not. On occasion, we were guided by a cordon or had to navigate around huge formations and gour pools. We were treated with both filled, flowing and empty gour pools, and some were so deep you’d disappear if you hopped in! It wasn’t too long before things became ‘showcavey’ with concreted walkways, cabling, lights (sadly turned off as currently closed to the public), stairways, etc. We found the showcave entrance, where a huge steel staircase leads to a concreted slope and steps back to the surface. An obvious junction, here both teams made the final onward and exit plans before pressing on with adventures. So far, team A had been leading the way, with team B trailing 50 or so metres behind. We’d all regather when passing formations or obvious areas we felt we must photograph, before moving on. We carried on this them whilst we worked through more passageway, around Boas corner where the passageway takes an obvious 90 degree right hand turn, and if you put yourself in the very outer corner of the bend, you can capture both passageways leading in opposite directions – so we did, with a few cavers for scale!

After more of the same, we saw team A working their way off to the left, but I spotted a short climb up into another huge passageway leading off to the right. So team B opted to explore this first. More huge, expansive and decorated passageway to go at and so we did. We found our way to a lake indicated on the survey as such and could see that up ahead was more, and more, and more of the same. Literally, we could have spent days down there. And this was only Network 1, of 5. Scott and Jasmine were ahead exploring whilst Scott, Maz and myself quickly took a knee and a team meet. We could see from the survey that the way team A went quickly turned vertical with not much else on offer, where as the way we were heading was more of the same horizontal we’d been in for the last 3 and a half hours. We opted to pull back and rejoin team A, in a hope they would continue the exploration we had started, whilst we could have a look at the vertical stuff we’d carried 4 tackle sacks with us for. As expected, we soon found team A retreating from the chasm they had found, but had found our first pitch head for us. Clearly, they were spent and ready to make for their exit, so after we said our goodbyes they set off and Tom and I scrambled the formations in front of us to find said chasm. It certainly didn’t disappoint and the view was immense, more than once I crept to an edge and made it know we certainly had no rope long enough for that way on!

After a little bit of searching through boulders, whilst being directed by Tom, I found the first pitch head and I think it was fair to say I was nominated for rigging. I think the lack of CNCC resin’d anchors didn’t impress the others. I didn’t bring any threads, but after our Estevan-Barbette outing yesterday I did through a couple of spits in my bag, so I quickly knocked up the first ‘Y’ hang with a spit and a dyneema sling (courtesy of Maz) poked through an 8mm thread. I had no idea where I was going, Tom said an 8m ab and then a 15m climb but that was the extent of the description. So I worked my way down through the boulders on rope to where I thought I should be before coming off rope and crawling between boulders, and up a 15m climb as instructed. Convinced I’d nailed it, I came around another huge boulder to find Tom and Maz, at the top of the first pitch waiting for their turn to ab. I relayed my cock up to Scott who was following, and he relayed to Jasmine behind him. Once Jasmine (now in front of me) said off rope, I quickly whipped it back up from behind her and started ab-ing in a different direction over boulders. This time correct! We worked our way through the first pitch, followed by a short scramble to a ledge for the second pitch. This looked way bigger than it actually was, with a slope of flowstone that then dropped to who knows where. Again no anchors to suitably please my partners, so I knocked up another ‘Y’ hang this time fully natural with 2 slings and worked down the slope. I found a loop of rope tied through the flowstone and so opted for a quick re-belay before going over the edge I still couldn’t see the bottom of. Once rigged and passed, the floor was only a few metres away so before long I was down and the rest of the team in tow. We were now stood at the top of steep sloping breakdown in a large chamber with a few exposed edges. We scrambled around the top and then found some in-situ ropes. A 7metre climb to a ‘Y’ hang, pass the ‘Y’ hang onto the next rope up 8m through a deviation to another ‘Y’ hang. Normally no issue, but this one had a number of them! The rope was pretty old and caked in clay like mud, the ‘Y’ hangs didn’t look great and the only one we could see was rigged with someone’s shoe lace. Again, no one seemed keen, so off I went hoping the French use strong shoe laces. Whilst I was only a few metres off the ground, a fall here would of resulted in a 30-40m steep slide down, hitting a lot of hard things on the way. Needless to say I wasn’t moving quickly! Half way up the first rope there was a loud pop from the anchor and I dropped an inch or so, but as I was mid move it made more sense to push up to the ‘Y’ hang where I could see a ledge I could just and so stand on and inspect the anchor further. It didn’t look good, and one of the bolts had moved on me during the pop. It wasn’t possible from here to see the next ‘Y hang as it was obstructed by a shelf about 8 metres above me, but I could see the deviation half way up. I could also see the ridiculous drop to my left that had now come into view, or rather I could see the bottom of it at all. I stuck the next rope in my chest ascender and took in some slack and quickly learned the way on was a swing over this drop and up to the rebelay. The question in my mind now was do I want to do that, on a sh*t rope, on ascenders, with doubt in the anchors and this time no vision at all. Even if I did get up this rope, there was a further 3 pitches ahead before we even entered Network 4, and I wasn’t being followed so that would all have been on me. No chance! I very slowly ab’d down the clay rope back to Tom and Maz, before shouting over the discoveries to Jasmine and Scott. Whilst they worked their way back il the ropes and through the boulder pile, I scrambled down the sloped breakdown to find the huge hole I saw from that ledge above. Another little peek over from the other side and still I couldn’t see the bottom at all and I was now 30-40m lower than my previous viewpoint!

Once we’d all made it back up and Tom had de-rigged, we had a quick snack and kit sort before heading back through everything we’d already come through. Again, head torches were flashing low on battery, and we were all pretty low on battery also – a good job we hadn’t made it through the pitches to Network 4 as we’d still be in there now! Refuelled, we were soon climbing the steel staircase at the bottom to the showcase entrance before hiking up the ramp to the door, which we were praying team A had left open as planned. Keys located, door open, sun in the sky when we surfaced. What a fantastic way to finish day 2! Surely we must return in future years to explore more of these networks?

Write up by Will, photos by Will and Chris (Chris did the better more professional looking ones!)

22 March 2025

By Will Burnett In Expeditions

Grotte Estevan – Barbette

Ardeche trip 2025 – first trip

Estevan – Barbette through trip

Team: Tom, Scott, Jasmine, Damian, Maz & Will

After a few days of various travel plans, we all arrived at the correct place for the first adventure of the trip. Initially Tom had sold this to us as a nice easy warm up, a single entrance pitch followed by much walking amongst formations with the odd crawl in between – perhaps a statement that may come back to haunt him!

A short walk in found us quickly at an entrance, where we eagerly dived in, clearly showing we’d all spent far too long in cars, planes or both to get here! The problem was that we’d actually found the exit of the through trip (Barbette cave), not the entrance. A brief down climb through some narrow passageway finds you in a beautifully decorated chamber with many off shoots, which would be the theme for the rest of the trip also. After a quick recce about and some photos, we headed back out to find the actual entrance, which was only a further few minutes up the track.

Estevan had one of the tightest entrances I think I’ve seen, one which almost turned some team members away from the get go! Warm up cave was it?! Tom lead the way and quickly had the pitch rigged – there isn’t the luxury of CNCC resin’d anchor bolts over here, in fact the topo/description also isn’t what we’re used to, so there was definitely a lot of ‘have a go and see’ going on. Once inside and down the 8m ab, we were in possibly the largest chamber of the day. When I say beautifully decorated, there are so many formations that you struggle to navigate your way through them in places. Columns easily of 2-5m diameter everywhere, millions of stal’s, huge heli’s, it really had everything and everywhere. We were breezing past formations as if they weren’t there, but had we been back in the Dales they would have been the focal point and probably named. I can’t stress enough, from start to finish, they were everywhere, and the colour/variations of colour were incredible.

Having completed most of the main area, we found the ‘Jonction Barbette’ sign which indicates the start of the crawl and onward travel for the through trip. Remember though, this is a warm up trip and nothing too serious… Well, this was where I really thought something was off, because normally the room doesn’t go silent waiting for me to lead the crawls but here I was out front having a go. Route finding was relatively straight forward, the squeezes and flat out crawls were self explanatory, and the decorated chambers in between were well cordoned to keep cavers away from the formations showing the onward direction nicely. Occasionally we were thrown a choice of directions, I followed my nose, sometimes to a dead end or a viewing platform outlined with more cordon – someone’s certainly been very busy at some point, as the signage was also quite impressive! After a few more squeezes to navigate as a team to get everyone through, we were in another huge decorated chamber and quickly found the final onward crawl section that linked back to the first chamber we visited going in the exit right at the start, literally 25-30m away max. Just one problem, it was tight, proper tight, and clear why the route description we had called this the crux of the trip. Tom had a look and didn’t seem keen, I thought I’d found a sneaky bypass but sadly it quickly choked. Our only other option was to work our way back through the series of squeezes and crawls we’d navigated so far and we were about 3 hours in and all getting pretty tired. It was noticeably hotter in this cave, I had a tshirt and long sleeved tshirt on under my oversuit and was dripping. Some of the team had an undersuit on under theirs and they all regretted it! I followed Scott into the crux crawl as I could see that where he was 3 or so metres in it was ever so slightly wider, maybe by an inch or 2. From there, I watched Scott fight his way forward through some gnarly looking stuff including some flooded pools and a bit where he only just made it with fully exhaling. Once we established that there was the ability to turn around, in the worst case, I let Jasmine pass by me as she was chomping at my heels and I knew this was way more her territory than mine! What a pair of legends, truly awesome to watch them take it to that next level! Behind me, I think Tom and Maz had already made the decision that they weren’t coming and to make for the entrance pitch again. Scott’s final words echoed through the crawl that he thought I’d make it, and that Tom and Maz wouldn’t enjoy it, but should give it a try and I’ll be honest I wasn’t keen! I also had 2 team mates that had just given everything to get to the final 25/30 metres to find out they had to go back, de-rig and at the bottom of the entrance pitch was all of our SRT kits we’d stripped after the ab. So I retreated from the crawl and rejoined Tom and Maz. After yelling our intentions through the crawl, we then realised that Tom’s headtorch was really low as was mine, and neither of our backups were working, and we had all of those squeezes and crawls to navigate. We all understood the assignment and after about 30 mins and all losing a third of our body weight in sweat, we were at the bottom of the entrance pitch donning harnesses for the climb out. Up the chaps went while I bagged up the other SRT kits and then de-rigged on my way out.

We surfaced to a full on thunderstorm and torrential rain that had started almost immediately after we went in, which we clearly hadn’t had any effects of inside thankfully! The short walk in meant we were back at the vehicles in less than 10 minutes and it certainly wasn’t more than that again before we were all changed and inside out of the wet. Whilst we were on this trip, our final team member Chris had arrived so tomorrow we will be at full capacity.

Although by no means was this a warm up, it certainly was an incredible cave. If the formations on display were anything to go by, we’re really in for a treat or two this trip, and if that means the helmet has to come off a couple of times then so be it. Our campaign has well and truly begun, stay tuned for the next one!

(Write up and pics by Will)

27 July 2024

By Tom C In Expeditions

Vercors Week: Day 7 – Grotte de Bournillon

Connor, Scott, Tom

The rest had been up at the crack of dawn to get their hire car back before their flight, but with most of the cleaning done last night there wasn’t too much for the three of us to do – mostly bagging up leftovers (must plan better next time).

We checked out and headed down to the Bourne Gorge once again to park up next to the EDF station and the start of the steep walk up into the picturesque Jurassic Park combe, complete with its 360m waterfall ab dominating the valley. We were glad of the shade of the humongous porch of the cave, and all felt dizzy trying to look up, or even in front of us to figure out the scale of the footbridge and bystanders in the entrance up ahead.

We leapt over the barrier at the end of the bridge, and made the traverse around a very deep lake. There are decent bolts here in case it were ever used for a novice trip in future. Through the eyehole network we went to emerge into the huge proportions of the entrance area. This was a knackering scramble up huge boulders, and we were already sweating profusely from the 36 degree temperatures outside. The roof closed down a little as we got to the top of the rubble pile, and the cave continued as rock-hopping at a high level for most of the rest of the way.

Some nice stals and bosses in the Village Negre broke up what was a bit of a monotonous trip. At the end, the siphon temporaire seemed to be closed, leaving us not much in the way of options but to make our way back out. Maybe we’d been spoiled by the other caves this week, but the entrance area is certainly worth seeing alone.

After getting back down to the car and changing, it was down to the plains for a supermarket stock-up – it was non-stop through to Staveley from here. With only really a petrol stop on the way up France, we once again made good time up France through the power of energy drinks and some minor medication, and managed to get on an earlier train. Other than part of the M25 being closed, Scott chugged us back through the endless average speed zones and back to the familiarity of our tiny part of the caving world.

26 July 2024

By Tom C In Expeditions

Vercors Week: Day 6 – Canyon des Ecouges II

Connor, John, Miranda, Scott, Steve, Tom, Yolanda

A leisurely lunchtime start saw us heading off around the Vercors to the Ecouges – a lovely canyoning run. The weather was baking hot and the canyon throwing up misty rainbows everywhere, the stuff of dreams. We split off, with John and Miranda fancying a walk following us down instead.

Once we’d found an actual get-in point which involved slithering under a boulder just upstream of the road bridge, we began the easy flattering abseils down the first few pitches. These were beautiful and friendly, with occasional glimpses of J&M perched on a ledge to the side.

After a while the river narrowed a little and we had a few cracking jumps, as the river headed into more of a gorge. All too soon we were at the final pitch which was a fun little corkscrew, with the waterfall turning a corner partway down this was refreshing when under the full force of the washing machine.

A sign pointed us up the slope warning of dangers ahead, and we made our way up the steep and knackering escape route. Back at the car, we realised John and Miranda were nowhere to be seen. We’d made the mistake of giving them our car key, and with Connor’s phone dead and Tom’s stashed safely inside the locked car, we weren’t able to get in touch with them. After about an hour we began worrying a bit more, and were in a sorry state sweltering in our neoprene in the afternoon sun – taking it off meant getting bitten by the hoard of horse-flies.

As time passed we hatched a plan, borrowing the phone of a friendly French couple who were the last ones remaining in the car park, to call Rubee to get her to message Sophie to get her to call Miranda and tell her to phone the French phone to let us know they were okay. This of course was too complex to have actually worked, and instead we spread out hiking up any nearby forest tracks shouting ‘FORDERS! FORDERS!’. Not long after, they showed up having had a nap in the forest, which sounded very romantic, but we were all glad to be able to get changed and head back!

Category: Expeditions