Recent trip to E France

[Bob Cooper]

Just returned from a 2 week trip to E France and getting to grips with the new style YD forum!

For anybody who's interested (and to provide a bit of light relief from the "DIR versus everybody else" kind of stuff I've seen on here lately) I'll put together some kind of trip report as soon as I have time.

Me and two buddies journeyed down to France for a couple of weeks. This wasn't the usual Dordogne/Lot trip. We were looking at some of the seldom dived/explored caves in Doubs and Jura on the Swiss border.

This was a "proper" DIR trip (correct gasses, procedures etc.) some of the caves down there are deep and cold and there is no infrastrucure to support it so we had to be fully self-sufficient. We took our own O2 and He and our own compressor. Some dives were at altitude and involved a great deal of walking, climbing and clambering just to get to the water.

To be honest, we only managed a few dives. The weather and various beurocratic stuff conspired against us with access to sites being a major problem and the rain making many sites very difficult. Nevertheless, we learnt a great deal about various sites and plan to revisit some of them next year.

Sites we visited were:

Emergence de Bezerne
Source de Sombreuil
Source de Planey
Font de Champdamoy
Doye Gabet
Source de Doubs
Source de Lison

If anybody knows of any of these sites, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences there.

Some of these sites couldn't be dived due to access restrictions, lack of water! too much rain etc.

For example, we made two attempts to dive Source de Doubs and were beaten by the flow, caused by recent rainfall.

At Source de Lison, we had a very scary moment in zero vis after getting in a situation which led us to believe we had lost a team member! This is where DIR really matters. Due to our training, we all kept a cool head where many others would have run for the door. We found our "lost" team member, regrouped and exited safely in near zero vis. Some would say we shouldn't have been there in the first place, but it was a good experience. Over the next couple of days, we spent hours and hours discussing a 5 minute section of that dive to try to analyse what we did right and what we did wrong and how we managed to get out safely.

I'll try to write it all down soon, but meanwhile I'm just happy that we all got back after a very enjoyable trip.

[And]

Hey Bob

Welcome back mate

Glad you came back safe.

Andy

[Davey Willo]

Nice one mate, I'm really looking forward to your report bud, take your time and make it a good one, filled with all of the details..

Hope to see you soon mucka

Dave

[wreckweasel]

Nice one bob... even if you are a bearded git who didnt invite me

[Fraser]

Hi Bob,

Good to see you back, looking forward to the trip report!

All the best,

Fraser.

[Rick Huggins]

Hey bob,

Glad you all got back, can't wait to read your report

ATB

[NotDeadYet]

Originally Posted by Bob Cooper

Sites we visited were:

Emergence de Bezerne
Source de Sombreuil
Source de Planey
Font de Champdamoy
Doye Gabet
Source de Doubs
Source de Lison

If anybody knows of any of these sites, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences there.

Hi Bob,

what do you want to know?

Source du Doubs resurges like a bastard in wet weather. Great dive, short, shallow sump to an impressive 2nd sump, shaft to -54m into breakdown passage with a squeeze over rubble (exciting on air!!!) to continue to -70m. It's about 900m above sea level too and cooooold (5degC last summer, 30degC air temp!). Best vis I've ever had was there. Lison is a very impressive cave but the vis can be highly variable and the lines are often lost due to the floods. Walk round to the Grotte Sarrazine (good dive too) and look at the flood marks outside the cave for an idea of what it's like. Doye Gabet is very nice but a slog. Bezerne is amazing but a sidemount dive for most of the first 4-500m, I would imagine nearly impossible in backmount DIR stylie. The vis is also zero on the way out, not for the faint-hearted. Are you sure you were at Bezerne? It's not in Doubs but much further north in Haute Marne, good few hours drive away. The Font Champdamoy as I recall is connected to another nearby cave, Frais Puits, it's the resurgence for it. Vis isn't great I would imagine. Something like 350-400m long, -55m at its deepest and ends at a low bedding, about -21m or something like that. Planey drops into a large passage for about 150m and then a pot at the end dropping to about 30-34m'ish. Sombreuil, I've never heard of but if you have any info, you could e-mail it to me and I'll include it in the new guide. Or is it known as something else? IIRC Olbospol? A good no-mount squeeze from the looks of it.

Rarely visited? Pah!!! I haven't been to the Lot in about three years!!! The East is the new south-west!!! I've been twice in the last 6 weeks. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately as it keeps the muppets away) cave diving here can take considerable effort, often sidemount, lots of walking and carrying (visit Cul-du-Cerf next time you are there) but you are often rewarded by amazing diving. And due to the hassles of finding a new printing company to do the book, the next version of the eastern sump index will be on CD (maybe).

If I get a chance I'll write up my last couple of trips too.

Cheers,

Stuart
Cave Diving Guide to Eastern France
www.lizardland.co.uk

[Bob Cooper]

Stuart

I'll send you an e-mail rather than take up space on an open forum. I have loads of notes on the sites we visited and some that aren't in the book.

Bob

[Bob Cooper]

Stuart

Was going to send this privately, but I'll be away from my e-mail now 'till next week.

Very few Brits (except you it seems!) tend to
go to E France. My buddies were there the last two years and I think
sent you some updates for the book last year?

Anyway, as far as I can remember because I don't have my notes with
me..............

Emergence de Bezerne - We went here on the way down, stayed in Joinville. I
know it's in Haute Marne, near the village of Bar de Luc. We found out the
hard way that it isn't a DIR
stylee backmount cave! It's at the end of a corrugated steel sewer pipe
arrangement which runs under the road. Entrance is tight with some
horrendous line traps (which makes the trip out in zero vis. very
interesting!)

Source de Sombreuil - not diveable. This is also known as "Ruisseau de la
Peute Fosse" and is situated close to Chaumont. After a long walk across
fields we came
across the cave entrance which was completely dry. Climbing down and taking
a look I would guess that it might be possible in side-mount (not my scene)
after a bit of digging. I've got some photos if you want them.

Source de Planey - After getting permission from the Gendarmerie in
Vauvilliers, we were
supposed to stop by the Mayors house in Anjeux (Mme Tofu) and pick up the
key to the barrier
there. She wasn't in so we made the long walk instead. The entrance pool
quickly silts out from deep mud banks you have to walk through to et to the water, and the silt sinks to around the cave entrance, making
finding the entrance a bit tricky. Once in its a nice little cave with a
narrow vertical slot type of profile with silty walls. The cave drops to
15m then comes up to about 7m before a a shaft that drops to about 15m after
300m, we turned the dive there as there did not seem to be any way forward
backmounting.

Font de Champdamoy - not diveable. In the village of Quincy, just outside
Vesoul. The local water company uses it for
abstraction and all diving has been banned since mammoth remains were
discovered there. We spent an interesting couple of hours in the office of
the water company manager (M. Sassy) discussing the cave and he took us to see Frais Puits (?) Again, I have pics. of this.

Doye Gabet - Also known locally as Emergence de Trou Bleu. Like you say, a
bit of a slog - we took 18's in there and
planned to do a rece. first to the top of the shaft, then drop down the
shaft to the 77m section. We changed our minds after being in there an
hour - too cold! There was no line in there (there is now!).

Source de Doubs - Made two attempts at passing S1. First attempt, I got
across but we had to turn soon after. 2nd attempt next day we had too much
flow and couldn't get accross. We found that when the water level indicator
at the top of the waterfall reads 46cm you can get across into S2. When it
reads 52cm you can't! Vis was excellent - I have video and pics. Water was
5deg. Again, there was no line in there.

Lison - We made quite an impact there with about 100 people watching us. Vis
was terrible, there was no line (there is now) and we exited in touch
contact due to vis.

All in all, not a great deal to show for a 12 day trip, but we learnt a
great deal and we are keen to go back and give it another go. I have photos
of all the sites we visited and if you want them you are welcome to them
(best to send me an address and I'll put them on a CD).

I'd be really interested to read an account of your recent trip there. I'll
try to get mine written and I'll send you a copy.

Cheers for now

Bob

[NotDeadYet]

"to read an account of your recent trip there"

I've got some new pics and done a report of our expedition to the NE in May and then our Port Miou push in June.

www.lizardland.co.uk and go to the expedition reports

Cheers,

Stuart