Underwater rambling Lot 2008

[cgrosart]

I've got much better ones on my other camera and I know clive has some outstanding ones which we will have to wait patiently for. I'll upload them with his permission when he sends them, as he always does.
The heavy rain prior to the trip (I was there for a month) put paid to the usual tourist sites such as Ressel, Saint Georges etc. The Landenouse was ok, Truffe etc and Saint Savaeur was ok ish down to -50m.
A lot of us were on to plan B. My project in the Dordogne was washed out - being a small, Mendip style system it was very flood prone and water levels were too high. A flood pulse would have been lethal, so I abandonned that. a total of (I think) 25, mostly Cave Diving Group, were out there over the month and it was great fun. Rick got some line laid out in a 'new' site which hopefully won't see much traffic due to being sidemount only and a long, mildly intimidating underwater crawl until it gets big, gin clear (20m + viz) and bloody impressive !! Bad air between sumps spoilt it though and I had a right epic getting a pair of 15s, an 11 of Rick's, zonking great line reel and my scooter back out. All' was fine until I had a freeflow in the squeeze - with a scooter blocking my exit (couldn't tow it behind as it would get snagged as it's a zepp and there is no room to turn around in there). Amongst other epics, my new apex regs both failed and I also had an interesting moment in the Dragonniere where I found myself alone in an airbell with only one reg giving me air. I had to do some second stage repairs in the airbell - i.e tipping all the stones out of the second stage and one small boulder from under the diaphragm which had gathered in the gravel squeeze along the way. Yes, I usually put stocking over the mouthpiece....but I don't wear stockings on holiday.........anyway..... Hopefully we will have some great pics from the dry stuff beyond. Possibly the best formations beyond a sump I have ever seen ?
Lots and lots of great moments, funny stories and I'll update you with them when I get some more pics.
Malcolm, the Cabouy was good when we left and other sites should be ok by now. Very little rain while we were there. Sites still recovering.
I had a total of 26 dives and about 4 caving escapades, plus a day's canoeing. So no time wasted !!
Enjoy the photos
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Me, kitting up at Saint Savauer

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Marcus (SheffDiver)

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They let Colin out of Guantanamo Bay for the day..................

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Clockwise from top : Colin, Me, Andy and Marcus

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AMW (Andy)

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Marcus and Clive

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Sharing pic-nic with the mozzies and flies

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In no order : Trisha, Steve McCabe, Me, Clive Westlake, Aiden and partner, Martyn Farr, Helen Rider, Rick Stanton, Cedric Verdier

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I think Rick farted.......................

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And decided to disguise it by doing a little dance all of his own........

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Martyn was holding forth whilst others listened intently. Rick clearly wasn't taking it seriously.......................

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Cedric, clearly impressed with Rick's state of the art rebreather...........

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And to the more serious business of helping Rick in the 'secret' cave.

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Me taking the zepp for a day out......

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Then John Maneely showed up and promptly made the place look like a bombsite......

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CDG expedition planning......Throw all your stuff out of the tent into one great big pile and start fettling with it !!

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Great BBQ thanks to Steve and Trisha. In no order : Rick Stanton, John Volanthen, Steve, Trisha, Martyn farr, Helen Rider, Nadir Lasson, Pete Mulholland, Alban and Partner, Urs and partner, Clive Westlake, John Maneely, Pete and Liz, Andre Grimal.......

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John V, Rick, Me and Martyn

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Extra points if you can guess who grabbed my arse !

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Rick, broken after a particularly tough trip. You can just feel the sympathy oozing from his sherpas who were in a bit less of a battered state.

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Giving up on the sympathy vote, he went kite flying. And that didn't work either !!

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I can assure you that the previous two pictures are in no way connected !!

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And goodbye to the lovely Rocamadour for another year.........

[David]

I put this without quoates "["IMG]http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh214/cgrosart/Lot2008/IMAG0070.jpg[/IMG]

now if somone will tell me how to show small images instaed of the large one :-)

[cgrosart]

Ermmmmmmm...it's too late, I'll sort it tomorrow.

[peterdevlin]

Chris:

Great photos ... ur brief notes are even better ... sounds an action packed month

Ciao,
Peter

[Letz]

Great pics and even better .............. narrated

Thanks for sharing those and nice to see some familiar faces and put names to some others (probably the wrong wrongs but no-one will be able to tell in the dark)

Looks like a wonderful trip and I can't wait until I can go there

[AMW]

Those pics are far too tame, far too civilized.

I know it was tough at the house some times the beer in the fridge was a little warm, although with two fridges we had a beer fridge and a food fridge For Colin and Marcus it was even tougher than it was for me as my room was on-suite they had to share a shower room(not at the same time so they tell me )



Clive


More Igue hunting this proves a good way of finding prospects to look at.Although on the day of this photograph it was 32C.


Also the area is superb for cycling this my self and Colin took advantage of after the days other activity's.

AMW

[David]

post=17

very confused now my other post in this thread was post 2( might of been 3) last night. how come its post 12 today ?

[cgrosart]

And here are some more.....

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Me, in a slightly more stable kayak than the one I am used to......

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Tim and I surfacing from a Cabouy - Poumayssen 'through' dive. We made the distance with scooters but had to ditch them as there were serious and numerous line breaks at the Poumayssen end. We patched up a lot of line but could not find the main junction is such foul viz so canned it and had to go all the way back, accumulating a bit more deco than we bargained for !

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Me in the Saint-Georges

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Took myself and zepp out for a solo dive at the Trou Madame.

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Found some DIR diver sat on the banks of the Cele, whilst I was canoeing, who no longer had any buddies. As he's not 'allowed' to dive solo, he asked if i would go diving with him. Had a couple of good swims in Saint Georges and Saint Saveaur.

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What IS it about the back of Landrovers ???

[Duncan Price]

We patched up a lot of line but could not find the main junction is such foul viz so canned it and had to go all the way back, accumulating a bit more deco than we bargained for !

...and a lot less gas than you would have liked....

"Some = enough but not plenty"

[cgrosart]

You live and learn. I see chinese whispers are abounding already. We're both still here, despite each making seperate errors, because we had our heads screwed on even when it went a bit pear shaped and we didn't panic. I always pride myself in never coming out of anywhere with much less than 100 bar in each cylinder and Tim is the same. Doesn't matter how much you think you know what you're doing, it can still go tits up. We were both out on a limb and had a couple of 'moments'. Finding the line from the 'wrong' end was always going to be a tall order and not realising this sooner was a fundamental mistake. Tim went back into the Poumayssen to try and relocate the downstream line a couple of days later and despite using up the rest of his reel, still didn't find it. The place is an absolute mess and there are loose lines everywhere, some of which we tidied up. It was a good call to turn back when we did but would have been an even better call to turn back sooner. The job can wait another day.