Dordogne 1989
By Vince Simmonds
3.9.89
Brian Murlis, Steve Redwood and I met at Steve's at about
5.30 pm and set off for
4.9.89
11.00 am saw us arriving in
5.9.89
We arose to a marvellous morning so we proceeded to have a
quick recce of the camp site. This site
proved to have quite excellent facilities, as with most French camp sites, hot
showers, toilets, electricity points and running water. The next task was to go to Gramat to buy the
days supplies bread, cheese and Salame and the liquid refreshment necessary in
this heat - good excuse that. 'Digger'
Hastilow had also arrived the same evening as us so four of us set off to explore
the River Dordogne planning to go swimming, however the low water levels (the
area also experiencing a drought) put paid to this idea so we went back to
Fontain St.Georges a very cold resurgence pool which proved excellent for
swimming and diving though the water was extremely cold after having been
underground for months. A small cave
above the resurgence was explored but was only about 40 feet in length if
you're caving in swimming shorts and a zoom. We spent the evening, as most evenings would be spent eating bread,
cheese and meats and drinking beer and talking with the divers who had reports
of quite stupendous 'vis' and large swimming passage, so much that they were
becoming quite blasé about it.
6.9.89
Today was to be the first day of serious caving since our
arrival so we chose two relatively close caves, Reveillon and Roque du
Cor. We had located the entrance to
Reveillon yesterday, to say it's impressive would be an understatement. The huge entrance porch which measures
approx. 150 feet by 150 feet leads down to a passage 30 x 30 feet with some
fine gour pools. There are a few pitches
which we managed to negotiate with a 50' handline or free climbable using combined
tactics. Some side passages were
explored, Steve leading us into one particularly interesting muddy one with a
rope climb that proved a little awkward to get out of. An interesting thing at the bottom was that
the sump had dried out and some passage beyond was explored, this was to prove
uninspiring being jammed with flood debris and mud. On the way out we noticed a good few large
toads in the muddy sections that were the sumps.
So then on to Roque du Cor, just a few kilometers away. This cave also had an impressive entrance, a
huge doline with a path leading to the bottom where the cave entrance was a low
but fairly wide arch leading after about 75 feet to larger passage, perhaps
about 1500 feet in total. There were
some quite nice decorations.
After the caving we stopped off in the 'Supermarche' for
supplies and the evening was spent reflecting the days adventures before
retiring to our respective pits.
7.9.89
Another lovely morning! Today's mission was to locate 3 caves, the first of them was Les
Vitcirelles which proved to be just a stream sink with no known cave - (when we
returned to
The third cave we planned to visit was Theminette's in a
village of the same name, as was Themines. The cave was very similar to the previous cave except that the entrance
was completely blocked and exploration was impossible.
8.9.89
We had decided that today's cave was to be the Igue de St.
Sol, part of the Lacave system. On the
way to the Igue we stopped and had a quick look at
The Igue de St.Sol is located at the top of a track next to
a cemetery just beyond Lacave. The walk
of about 1 km. is not difficult and the entrance is found in a fenced area just
to the right of the main track.
The entrance shaft requires about 250' of rope. We started
with a back-up to a fence post, down a slope and belayed from a tree for a drop
of about 60 to a muddy ledge with a rebelay just below the edge. This gives a further 80' drop to another
rebelay about 60' from the bottom.
The Igue intersects an old fossil passage about 40'x 40' and
about 2000' long. To the right are some
old parachute cases left over from the war. Also to the right are the best of the formations, huge bosses, columns
30' to 40' high, flows and grottoes. At
the end of this passage is an old dig face in mud which has various sculptures
littered around, these are made from mud. From the left of Igue the passage is muddier and has fewer formations
and soon closes down.
On the way back down the hill we had a quick look at the
Grotte de Combe-Culier, a small active dig that is well worth the look.
9.9.89
We deliberately left the Grottes de Saut de la Pucelle to be
our last cave because of the reports we had of it being a good fun trip, this
was proved to be the case. We took 6 x
25' ladders, 50' handline and various tapes and slings. The advice we had was to check which was a
pitch and which was not, as some were easy to go over but not quite so easy to
get back out again. On the way down we
met a couple of French caving parties who let us pass them, one party using
S.R.T. in a cave with the biggest pitch being 30' and avoiding the water. Although this active 3 km. streamway was relatively
low whilst we were there it must really be impressive with a bit more
water. At the sump there is a plaque to
the memory of Martel who was instrumental in the discovery of the cave 100
years ago (1889 - 1989). Other points of
interest were a rather smelly dead trout in one passage; a pool halfway into
the cave had a resident white fish (trout like) and the first leech we had seen
had taken up residency on one slippery climb.
All in all we had a fantastic week in an area well worth a
visit. It also has to be said that there
is enormous potential in the area for new caves. Also anyone with time on their hands might
also like to visit one of the many show caves in the area - with time being so
short we did not get around to seeing any.
We would also like to thank Rob Taviner (BEC & Wessex)
who supplied us with much information on the area visited.