Tag: Abroad

By Ray McGarry In Uncategorised

Croesus Cave, Tasmania

Vikki & Ray with Northern Caverneers Cathie, David, Bob & Damian

After lunch we drove round to the parking for Croesus Cave, which it turns out is the same parking as for Lynds the day before. The 2 caves are actually very close, essentially just on opposite sides of the Mersey River. We were joined by another new face – Damian, who is an ex-pat Brit and former member of the Wessex. We were warned that Croesus is very wet and so wetsuits are essential. Vikki had brought her own from home and I borrowed one of Cathie’s, which fit like a glove. Very much appreciated Cathie!

It was a relatively short walk to the entrance, back up the road a bit and then cross country on a very vague, more or less non-existent track. It is actually quite a grand entrance, although it soon closes down, just beyond the gate, to a short hands and knees crawl. We regrouped on the other side in a nice, fairly dry, walking-sized passage. But it was short-lived as we were soon ducking through an arch and wading in increasingly deep water. There was a howling gale blowing out though this arch. Eventually the floor rose and things got very nice indeed.

The depth of the streamway varied from almost nothing to full on swimming, although, thankfully for me, it was always possible to scramble around the edges and thus avoid actual swimming. For long sections, the floor was calcite, so we had to be careful in quite a few places not to damage it. As with Lynds, the walls and ceiling were covered in almost continuous formations. The scale seemed bigger than Lynds though, so I found it harder to photograph with my very old (and cheap) phone.

At one point we had to traverse around a deep pool. This was accomplished by climbing around the right hand side on small holds and then posting oneself through a very convenient hole. The passage just got better on the other side.

Eventually we came to the Golden Stairs, where we had to climb a staircase of gour pools, being very careful not to step on the rims or in the pools (which were mostly dry, apart from some mud). As I was at the back, I had the benefit of watching the trail of cavers ascending to heaven. What an amazing sight.

The formations didn’t reduce at the top. At one point, Damian (who seemed to know the cave particularly well) suggested that I should clamber up to have a look on top of a particular boulder. Wow! It was covered with the most delicate, almost translucent, mini gour-like structures.

Shortly after this, Cathie, Bob, Viki and I turned back, while David and Damian carried on for a bit. I believe it’s possible to do a through trip – the howling gale earlier would certainly suggest so – but not on this occasion. For some of us, this was our 3rd trip in 2 days and we were getting a bit tired.

On the way out, we seemed to go a bit too high and were quite surprised to see David & Damian simply walking along the streamway far below us. Apart from that, the journey out went quickly enough. At the traverse around the deep pool, Vikki (being half fish) decided it would be easier just to plunge in and swim. I think Damian did the same. I didn’t! Cathie’s light was fading, so we ended up travelling together for the last section.

Croesus was one of the best decorated caves I’ve ever seen, probably the most. Lynds and Genghis Khan weren’t bad either. I tried to think of anything that even comes close in the UK. Otter Hole is probably the closest. Maybe the White River Series in Peak/Speedwell? There certainly aren’t many. And definitely nothing so easily accessible.

Sadly, this was the end of our Tasmanian caving adventure. We had a great time and would really like to thank all the Northern Caverneers we met, particularly Cathie, who put so much time and effort into making it all possible. Needless to say, we would love to reciprocate one day. Any Northern Caverneers can be assured of a warm KCC welcome if ever you’re up north! Thanks all so much.

Photos by Ray.

 

By Ray McGarry In Uncategorised

Genghis Khan Cave, Tasmania

Vikki & Ray with Northern Caverneers Cathie, David, Karen & Bob

Day 2 of our Tasmanian caving adventure again started with meeting at the Mole Creek Hotel, this time at 08:45 as we had 2 caves to fit in – Genghis Khan Cave before lunch and then Croesus Cave after. See separate report for Croesus.

When we arrived at the hotel, Cathie & David were already there, as were new faces (to us) Karen & Bob. A few introductions later and we were on our way in convoy to the parking for Genghis. The last part of the journey was off-road and our car wasn’t deemed fit for the track, so we jumped in with Bob. No debate about clothing this time as Genghis is totally dry.

It was a relatively short, but uphill walk to the entrance, made much easier by recent clearance of the track. I believe Bob & David were involved in that. Thanks guys! As we stood to catch our breath, a very hungry leech made a beeline straight for us. No snakes this time though.

Once at the entrance, David produced a rope. Hmmm. Should we have brought SRT kit? Thankfully it was just for use as a handline on the initial climb down on the other side of the entrance gate, which was again locked. The handline wasn’t strictly necessary as the climb was easy enough, but thanks for bringing it David. There was talk of a cave spider partway down the climb, which I kept my eyes peeled for when it was my turn to climb down. Sure enough, there he was, all big and spidery, deep in an alcove. We had a brief discussion and agreed to keep out of each other’s way. The spider seemed to take this quite seriously as he hadn’t moved by the time we came past again on our way out.

The cave continued down steeply. At one point, Cathie, who was now at the front, wasn’t sure of the way on. David took the lead and popped through a slot directly onto another climb down. This looked quite daunting from above, but there were plenty of ledges to move your feet down, so wasn’t too bad in the end. At the bottom of this climb it all got much bigger. There was a trough for washing feet, which I took as a very good sign as it must mean there were pretties ahead.

We worked our way down into the large chamber/passage, then doubled back to the left. Bob, who was behind me, questioned the left turn, suggesting instead that we should carry straight on down. Still, we carried on and soon found another foot bath. Beyond this, the formations really started to kick in. First there was a forest of straws, then the walls and ceiling were covered in formations that I can only describe as being porcupine-like. I’d never seen the like before.

We arrived at the top of a fallen slab, sloping down at an angle of 20 degrees or so. At this point, there seemed to be general agreement that we should have taken Bob’s route earlier. This whole section is actually a loop, so you could go either way round in theory, but Bob’s way was more optimal from the perspective of keeping boots clean at the relevant times. So we retraced our steps the short distance and carried on down the slope.

Like Lynds Cave, the formations were spectacular and virtually continuous, although of a very different character. Eventually we reached a climb up into a grotto which was simply amazing. There were some very unusual formations, almost like upside down trees hanging from the ceiling. Again, I’d never seen anything like it before.

It took a while, but we eventually tore ourselves away from the grotto, which was a dead-end. We climbed back down and then found the bottom of the ramp we had been at the top of earlier. It was easy enough to crawl up, but wasn’t something you would want to rush. The ceiling, which is only 2 or 3 feet above the floor is festooned with the porcupine-like formations, with the odd straw and helictite thrown in for good measure.

At the top of the slab, we simply had to retrace our steps and we were soon back at the various climbs to daylight, which didn’t pose too much of a problem for anyone. This was quite a short trip – we were probably only underground for 1.5 hours or so – but it really packs a punch. Very different from Lynds, but no less impressive.

Once changed, we all decamped to one of the show caves (I think it was King Solomon’s), where there was a very nice shelter for a spot of lunch. After lunch, Karen sadly had to leave us. Cathie, David and Bob stayed for the afternoon cave – see separate report.

Photos by Ray.

By Ray McGarry In Uncategorised

Lynds Cave, Tasmania

Vikki, Ray and Northern Caverneers Cathie, David & Peter

While travelling around Tasmania, Vikki & I thought it would be nice to have a look in some of the local caves. So, before leaving the UK, Vikki had made contact with Cathie P from the Northern Caverneers, who had promised to show us some caves around the Mole Creek area over a 2 day period. We were not to be disappointed!

So there we were outside the Mole Creek Hotel, bright and early on Sunday morning, not really sure what to expect, but very excited. Peter was first to arrive and say hello, soon followed by Cathie & David. After some introductions, we jumped in with Peter for the short drive up to the usual parking spot. There was some discussion about the best clothing to wear for Lynds. Vikki had come prepared for anything, with both dry caving suit and wetsuit. I had come only with my usual fleece undersuit and oversuit, but Cathie had very kindly brought several wetsuits for me to try on. The issue with this particular cave it seemed is that, while it is dry enough once underground, the Mersey River has to be crossed to get to the entrance. Sometimes this is a full on swim (my eyes widened considerably at this news!), but recent dry conditions meant it was more likely just to be a wade through deep water on this occasion (phew!). On balance, we all decided to dispense with wetsuits for this trip.

We set off on a rather vague path and soon reached the point at which the river had to be crossed, directly opposite the entrance. Cathie set off first, followed by Vikki, while I watched rather nervously from the bank. It didn’t seem too bad at all at first, but gradually more and more of Cathie & Vikki disappeared below water, until only their arms, shoulders and heads were visible. Thankfully, at that point they started to slowly reappear as they passed the worst and began to re-emerge on the far side. At this point I could no longer put it off, so began my own crossing. It all would have gone ok, apart from the coldness of the water, but in the deeper section the river bottom is very uneven, with lots of trip hazards – not ideal for an aquaphobe. Vikki noticed that I had almost ground to a halt in the middle so, wanting to actually get into the cave, plunged back in to hold my hand and gee me along. David and Peter must have been wondering what on earth was going on as they waited until I was across before entering the water themselves.

Once across the river, the bank has to be followed for a very short distance to the cave entrance, again through deep water, but with things to hold on to this time. The entrance itself is hidden behind a large block and, like the other caves we subsequently visited, is gated and locked. It starts as a nice walking-sized passage, but very quickly there is a deep pool to traverse around with a small (1.5m) waterfall to climb at the far side. Opinions seemed to differ on the best route to take around the pool. Either way, it involves climbing around the edge on small holds. Cathie preferred the long way round (to the right), which she thought was easier, while David recommended the more traditional and shorter route to the left. Vikki and Peter followed Cathie. I took David’s recommendation and set off to the left. To be honest, it was pretty easy, with lots of handholds, although considerably less for the feet. The waterfall was very easy indeed to climb, so no problems there.

The waterfall climb is almost like the true entrance to the cave. Above this, the passage is just festooned with stunning formations, almost wherever you look. Like us, Peter had never been into Lynds before, so he and I were stopping at almost every step to photograph some new formation, or even an old one from a different perspective. I hope his camera was better than mine as my cheap phone simply couldn’t do justice to the place.

As promised, water levels weren’t particularly high. There was also no mud, no crawling, no squeezing, no pitches… in fact, progress was very easy, with just the odd easy boulder obstacle to overcome. I can fully understand why a locked gate is necessary, given the delicate nature of the jewels behind it.

I believe we managed to get as far as the Ballroom, which isn’t very far at all. But we took a very long time to get there due to the photography and general looking around to attempt to take it all in. Along the way, we saw the full range of cave formations, including stals, very long straws, columns, curtains, stunning flowstone cascades, gour pools… you name it, we saw it… and all at a very high standard indeed. At one point we found ourselves climbing up the most stunning golden coloured flowstone cascade alongside a fabulous stepped calcite pillar. In several places, the calcite flows had been cracked in an earthquake in the 1990s (I believe?). This in itself was well worth seeing, to get a glimpse at the layering inside the cracks.

Alas, we had to turn around eventually. The pathetic distance we had covered became obvious as we reached the waterfall climb in no time at all and soon we were out in the heat of the Tasmanian afternoon. Vikki didn’t even bother to ask if I needed assistance to get back across the river – she more or less dragged me across. On the walk back, we came across a snake at the side of the path. Concensus among the experts was that it was a tiger snake, although there were some suggestions that it could also have been a copperhead. From a personal survival perspective, it made very little difference to me as they are both equally venomous.

After getting changed, we sat at a very conveniently-placed picnic table for a spot of afternoon snackage. All very civilised. Can’t imagine that on Leck Fell, at any time of year. We then bade goodbye to Cathie & David for the day and were promised a double trip the next day – see separate reports.

Peter drove us back to our car at the Mole Creel Hotel, where we obviously had to pop in for a beer. Despite my insistence that we should buy Peter a beer, he amply demonstrated Aussie hospitality by insisting even more that he should buy ours. We gave in gracefully. Cheers Peter.

We went to bed that night both stunned by what we had seen and excited about what tomorrow would bring.

Photos by Ray – apologies for the poor quality.

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

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

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.

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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!

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!)

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)

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.

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