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| 2006-05-01..12 France |
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People: M&M Trybulec
Place: France
In the first two weeks of May we decided to visit Tony and Denise Knibbs
(Mendip Caving Group members who live now near Toulouse)
and see if there's anything to do and see in France.
In the first week we visited the South-Eastern part of the country (Verdon, Ardeche),
and for the second week we moved to the Pyrenees (Haute-Garonne, Ariege).
We would like to thank Tony and Denise for surveys, books, and magazines
as well as for their hospitality and advice. Without their help we would have been just like all the others
that journey through that beautiful country without getting out of their cars.
Trips:
- Grand Canyon du Verdon
- Canyon de l'Ardeche
- Coume Ouarnede, Arbas, Haute Garonne
- Goueil-di-Her, Arbas, Haute Garonne
- Trou des Heretiques, Arbas, Haute Garonne
- Grotte de Siech, Saurat, Ariege
- Gouffre de Cadarcet, Cadarcet, Ariege
- Trou du Vent du Pedrou, Belesta, Ariege
- Aven Jean-Bernard, Belesta, Ariege
Details:
The first place that we visited was the canyon of the Verdon river.
We enjoyed excellent views and the squeezed and folded layers of rock that made up the canyon's rim
as well as the surrounding hills gave us a good lesson of geology.
We could clearly see that even a thin layer of limestone that was pushed into a vertical position
can give good conditions for forming the deepest caves in the world.
And the vertical walls several hundred meters high... - I begin to regret that I didn't invest
more time into climbing. :)
A campsite at the start of the canyon
Shy beginnings of the canyon
Roads must be cut in the surrounding walls
A hundred+ meters of rock hangs over Martha...
Exceptionally clear (and cold!) water
A lesson in geology - I didn't know that rock can be so folded and squeezed...
Closer and closer to the true canyon
A cave by the roadside
So we had to go in and have a look
The walls of the canyon are starting to get higher
And then - a beautiful view of the rocks and the canyon (the picture was taken correctly - the rocks are so crooked)
These are vertical walls several hundred meters high (you can even see climbers small as ants not far from the top)
Some more climbers here...
The end of the canyon where the river falls into a reservoir
The last parking lot at the end of the canyon; nice color of the river
The exit of the canyon into the lake - these are true colors!
On the way to Ardeche we saw these rocks...
Another lesson in geology...
There's a castle at the top!
Rocks even more folded and squeezed than before
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The next two days we spent in Ardeche - we wanted to see what's there.
The canyon is pretty nice, but a lot smaller than Verdon.
And in general, the French have a whole bunch of these mountains and canyons.
And caves, too... For instance in the side of the Ardeche Canyon there's the Grotte de Saint-Marcel - this one
we visited with a guide.
One thing: one flash bulb doesn't compare at all with good light from several lamps.
Since you can take pictures in this cave I could compare the two types of illumination.
This almost convinced me to stop playing photographer...
And another thing: the cave is quite nice (but they show you maybe several hundred meters
of a caves that has over 45 km of passages) with pretty formations, etc.
But the main passage, colorful and sculptured by water is phenomenal.
The calcite bowls were also very nice. This cave is really worth a visit, even with a guide. :)
The Ardeche Canyon
Smaller, but still beautiful
The St-Marcel Grotto
The Throne
Further up the canyon
The famous start of the canyon - le Pont d'Arc
Some caves near the road
A narrow bridge that leads to the town where we camped
Peculiar to France sense of beauty...
We slept not far from here...
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A trip with the Knibbs into the Arbas massif with one of the longest caves
in the world - Reseau Felix Trombe / Henne-Morte (at the time of this writing
it occupied the 13th place with a length of almost 106 km, 46 entrances, and almost a kilometer deep).
We looked at several entrances, so that we would have no problems finding them in the future. :)
Trou du Vent
Trou des Heretiques
Trou Mile
A rest with a view on Tuc de Haurades
Beer, wine, whiskey, vodka (and maybe some others - I don't rightly remember) with speleo-friends from South Wales
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At last, a serious trip to a serious cave!
This is the lowest entrance to the system that can be found in a beautiful gorge,
surrounded by a humid and very green forest.
The entrance is several minutes from the parking lot. This was our first cave on this trip,
so we treated it as a warm-up. Thus, we didn't prepare for a trip as we should have - I didn't read
through the description very carefully and I missed the part about the rope by the first sump.
Since water filled the whole passage and we had no gear, we ended this short trip staring at water...
The cave is quite similar to the Polish cave Kasprowa Niznia, but you could hear falling water just behind the sump.
Besides that, nothing new or very interesting...
Looking for the cave
At the entrance (a dry at this time of year resurgence)
Sponge a la Kasprowa Niznia
And that's it - no gear, no play
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One of the numerous entrances to the system - a half-hour walk from the main parking lot
near the Fontaine de l'Ours (Bear Fountain).
It starts with pitches R4, P12, R4, P15, and P30... rigging mainly from spits,
but there were a couple of fixed bolts. Pitches... like pitches. Next, some passages,
a chamber and a large passage that leads to the big chamber Trou du Vent.
On the way down to the TDV chamber, the underground rain got louder and louder.
At first we though that we're just getting nearer the waterfall, but it turned out
that the rain is getting heavier. And next to the first waterfall another one appeared.
Yeah, it was raining outside...
So, instead of climbing out through dry pitches, we had to struggle now in cold water.
Luckily, the entrance is above the gorge's bottom in the side of a rock so we didn't get
as much water as we could have. So the exit was wet, but not that much.
Food at the bottom
The Trou du Vent chamber
The passage in the direction of Trou des Heretiques
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A very nice and relaxing horizontal cave. A traverse is possible and / or a circle.
The West part of the cave consists of two largish chambers (with assorted formations,
even with pretty big helictites). Next the cave changes into a long, very wide and not very tight crawl.
It's hard to describe the feeling, but it was a bit eerie to see these lonely, thick calcite columns
in a tomb like passage...
The crawl exits into a small chamber (a very nice stalagmite with helictites).
Here you can turn left in the direction of the second entrance or go right.
More crawling until you reach the active part of the cave with a stream carving a very deep ravine.
By following the stream you can make a round trip to the first entrance.
Where are we...?
Something nice on the way
There were some shiny crystals in that bowl...
A cauliflower
Martha found some helictites
Stalactites and spaghetti were pretty nice, too
Another cauliflower
A calcitefall - column
Above the meander and the active passage of the cave
White spaghetti alley
Three columns
Exit/entrance - 10 seconds from the road :)
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The description of the approach seemed pretty clear (although in French), but without the help
of a person from the nearby village we probably wouldn't find the whole - the forest is very tangled and prickly.
But this very nice gentleman dropped off his grandchild and went with us; still, it took us almost an hour to find the cave.
So, if it took so long for a local to find it, what would have we done without any help?
The first part of the cave is a series of pitches that, unfortunately, are filled with rubble.
A moved stone falls to the very bottom. Thus, we decided to go down (and later up) singly.
Even then, when I was waiting at the bottom hidden from falling rocks, one managed to hit me in the leg...
At the bottom, after another short pitch, you enter an underground river.
It can be followed upstream or downstream for several hundred meters (over a kilometer in total).
Nicely formed passage, small lakes, waterfalls, etc. - a very nice trip.
There were deep cracks only several centimeters wide that still managed to swallow up the whole stream.
Some of the lakes looked pretty deep, too. We found rocks sculptured in very intricate ways,
a lot of them were very sharp. And in one of the side passages we even found some stalactites and helictites.
A cave worth visiting!
Cascades (or a waterfall rather - some 1.5 meters high)
More waterfalls
And the exit...
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There are two entrances to this cave - both pitches - one at one of the ends (Trou du Vent, P17),
and one in the middle (P25). The map showed the approach to the first pitch so we went down into the cave through that.
Again rigging was from spits (and natural points), and the approach itself was easy.
The cave is very nice and easy (except for the pitches). From the very beginning and through its whole length
you can see numerous formations (such as the Snow Chamber), so a trip that theoretically should take about an hour or two
took us something like four (sightseeing, pictures)... :)
The first of the entrance pitches
And that's how it was through the whole cave - beautiful
Organs at the end of the cave
And some pictures of formations...
The same place, but in a different light
One of the prettiest chambers
Rosebuds
And a whole bunch of mushrooms
This is near the Snow Chamber (I think)
There were lots of such straight, thin stalagmites and columns
The second entrance (P25)
Fantastic forms of the many formations...
Another one of those pretty chambers
The thing that is wider at the top - that's not a column, but a stalagmite!
A splashed brain on rocks
And the exit...
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(Easy to get to, easy to find - in the side of a largish doline. After a short passage there are two small pitches
((P9 and P8), next an easy climb down (R2) - not much space, but not too tight, either.
(Next, a pitch (P15) leads down into the main, and pretty big, chamber. As usual, rigging is from spits.
(The first chamber is mildly interesting, with a lot of rubble, a small lake and some formations.
(The second chamber looked pretty much the same and we were on the way out when I decided to go up the calcitefall
(and see what's on top of it. Well, it got interesting then! - the next hour, maybe even more,
(we spent on looking and shooting (pictures, that is).
(This cave and the previous one (Trou du Vent du Pedrou) can be easily visited on a single day
((if you don't start in the afternoon!)...
The first pitch
The third pitch
Down into the main chamber
Some drunken stalactites there
And a lake...
Calcitefall on the rubble
R.I.P.
The main chamber
The calcitefall
At the top of the calcitefall
One of the rocks under the calcitefall
The underside of the calcitefall
The second pitch
The entrance in the doline
As far away as possible from these stinkers
The Pyrenees (the lower ones) on the way
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