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I had a great week in the company of Phill Short doing my IANTD Full Cave course in France a little while back. Here’s a report on how things unfolded during the week. It worked out that we did the course 1 to 1, so we had plenty of time for all the necessary work and some great diving.
It started with me getting on a plane to Toulouse (with ridiculously weighted hand luggage, regs ss backplate etc) and Phill picking me up on arrival. He had driven down the previous day and evening with a couple of twinsets and other gear.
After a bit of get to friendly chat in the car (I’d never met him before) we arrived at Lynne’s Chalets in Pont de Rhodes. After getting settled into the pleasant surroundings and the basic but comfortable accommodation it was time to start the course. We started with some line work practise in the trees round the chalets, all the necessary line procedures were very well explained. I lay line, set up jumps, placed markers, and went through simulated circuits and traverses. It finished with a black out (shut your eyes) lost line search and exit, must have looked a right tit stumbling around the woods tripping over bushes and fumbling around at the belays points. A well worthwhile exercise and a hell of lot easier to explain and practise out of the water. The day was finished with some theory, communications and reel work.
The following day saw us off to Emergence de Ressell for our first dive, after kitting up we entered the river and made our way up stream to the cave entrance, after ducking underwater into the couple of feet of viz I followed the line slowly. I was soon greeted by better viz near the entrance and once inside it was probably 20 to 30 metres, fantastic! We practised gas shutdowns (as we were open circuit) and air shares for about 25mins before we made our way further into the cave. We got to the end of the shallow route at 300m and turned the dive. A great dive to start the week. We made another dive after lunch, practising shutdowns, lost line drills, and line laying. More theory back at base and Pizza in Gourdon to finish the day.
Day 3 saw another dive in Ressell to the top of the shaft at 24m depth and 360m in, then set up a traverse line up to the shallow route for a line jump practise later in the week. In the afternoon we moved to Truffe, at first it just looks like a muddy pool of water in the forest.. Phill went down first to check the entrance was clear enough for entry with the back mounted twins. He came up saying its ok, I dropped down followed the line phill had layed and wriggled through the pretty tight squeeze in crap viz to enter the cave. I was rewarded with crystal clear water and a beautiful cave to explore, more shutdowns then off into the cave. We saw a goldfish a little way in, someone must have put it in the headpool, but my weirdometer was maxxed out so I thought little of it at the time.
The cave twisted and turned, with amazing limestone formations everywhere before we surfaced at the end of sump 1, we climbed out of the water in dry cave and walked the short distance to sump 2. The limestone got whiter and the formations even more impressive, with a helter skelter of turns we arrived at the end of sump 2. Time to turn and make our way out, we passed the whole of sump one in a blacked out exit drill, I did have plenty of gas left didn’t I? After squeezing back out which gladly was very easy. I surfaced saying f**king hell to myself. The strangest place I dived or seen, ever.
The next day saw a 2 dives at Saint George with lovely surroundings, the cave was flowing a fair bit as we had had some heavy rain in the last couple of days. The viz not as good 6-7m but fair for this site I believe, we got to about 450m , nearing the start of sump 2, it was a reasonable effort to swim against the flow. We turned and were just drifting out easily, we went back down to 30m to exit (from the 10m we had been at) The flow got stronger at the elbow and was seemingly trying to spit you out of the cave. Bouyancy control a must at this point.
The afternoon dive saw us down to the 30m elbow and a hundred or so metres further before the turning and practising a lights out, gas share exit in the current back to surface. It was a bit tricky keeping everything in check during this skill, but once we neared the headpool we were rewarded with the beautiful green glow of sunlight illuminating the cave entrance in less flow.
Day 5 saw 2 dives at Cabouy the first to 650m where we placed a marker because we were hoping to later do a through dive from Pouymassen to Cabouy. I opted to visit another site instead of this dive, I got to miss out the 900m walk with twinsets to Pouymassen which I wasn’t to gutted about (Phill could probably run a few miles with his on). And got to see another great cave. During the first dive in Cabouy my pee valve sheath came off and I became pretty wet during the 2 hour dive. This caused much amusement for Phill and a damp second dive for me!
Running low on gas we did a short second dive in the cave entrance, practised emergency breath hold swims to your buddy and some line laying. We covered Physiology and mind control in theory, and had yet another excellent pizza.
Landanouse was next on the menu, the water was fairly low and we opted to climb down the ladder in the cistern that starts the dive, rather than make the big leap. We continued in for 650m passed the corkscrew before turning, I was sprung with a gas shutdown at the top of the corkscrew before we made a back up light only exit, with a lost diver search for good measure. We completed deco in the cistern tank with all the creatures that seem to live there and got out the water after 112min. In the afternoon we drove and had a look at the entrances to lantouy and trou madame, and enjoyed some of the great views this part of France has to offer.
The last day we had a final visit to Ressell, we arrived early as it had been busy there all week and were in before any one else. We swam to the 450m corner (at 46m depth) via the shallow route, dropped a stage, jumped down the traverse line we had set up previously to the deep route then off down the 2 shafts to the main passage. The cave is enormous at this point (big enough for a couple of double deckers), with a bit of narcosis thrown in this was truly an amazing experience, we made our way out retrieving markers, jump reels and stage, swimming the last 100m or so in darkness to enjoy the onset of natural light progressing towards as it illuminates the entrance. I carried out my remaining deco on 02 (phill stayed on air) in the river then surfaced. A great end to the weeks diving.
Phill is an excellent instructor, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him to anyone who wants first class training. I also very much enjoyed his company out of the water, with his knowledge of Monty Python (including many re-enactments), film and kids programs (anyone remember Trapdoor? fantastic) along with tales from his caving, diving, bushcraft and rescue history there was never a dull moment. If you want quality tech training, or just want someone to take the piss, then he’s your man..
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The drive is, er, entertaining.
Nice one John. Really enjoyed the read. Suppose old phil draggedyou out on the beer every night 
