Lot & Dordogne May 2007
Team: Roland, Robin, Arne, Marc, Michi R., Günther
On this tour we wanted to take it easy and just do a little sightseeing. The familiarization dive on the next day of arrival should take place at the Truffe. Unfortunately the clutch of Robin's T 4 decided to give up the ghost directly at the cave pool in the pampa. We discarded this plan very quickly and drove the car in 2 gear to a workshop -which of course was still closed- and reloaded the needed equipment into Arne's car. We made the best of it and then drove to the Source St. Sauveur to check the visibility conditions for a continuing rebreather TG, since we had turned in the previous month with perfect conditions and 30 m visibility at 85 m depth only because of the MOD of the Bottommixes carried along, but that's the way it is. This time we were armed with an appropriate trimix that would allow us a MOD of 120m.
So off to the next workshop in Figeac, after all a VW workshop. Here on the right in the picture Paul our dear Freisinger who manages the Domaine Gayfie together with Lilo. Without his and Lilo's help, diving would not have been possible on this tour. Many thanks to both of them! In the evening Michael Reffgen and Günther came for a few beers and Arne was busy tinkering again.
The plan to dive the final shaft in St.Sauveur the next day, which is currently explored up to 185m, we threw away due to the clutch damage, because the car should be ready only on Saturday and we would have gotten the whole equipment impossible in Arne's car.
So Arne and Marc planned a scooter Tg in the deep part of the Ressel and Roland and I went to the Truffe with the borrowed car from Paul. We set a good example and helped Arne and Marc with the bottle hauling for the time being.
They planned to do this with 2 trimixstages and 2 deco gases, the backgas in the double 20 is only for emergencies and will not be used during the TG - except for inflating the wing. Since the penetration was limited to a maximum of m, they only used one backupscooter in the 2 man team. How useful and necessary the use of backupscooters is will unfortunately become clear during the TG.
Here Marc has exceptionally clipped Three Stages in front, because the full O2 stage would otherwise dangle behind him like an anchor, if this would be transported in the Stageleash, in addition, the stage is clipped to the line right at the beginning of the TG at 6 m depth at the cave entrance.
The two of them reached a penetration of about m (about halfway between 600 m panel and passage branch at 830 m )and pretty much exactly at the point of maximum penetration, Marc's Magnumscooter then said goodbye with strange engine noises and had irrevocably failed. No Big Deal: Stowed the failed scooter, clipped on the back-up scooter, started the orderly retreat without hectic and scooted out.
When disassembling the failed scooter, it later turned out that the motor had overheated badly and had desoldered, chunks of solder were falling around everywhere in the motor compartment. It was an original Gavin.
Roland and I then drove to the Truffe and met Günther and Michi who had just finished the TG. The visibility was excellent, the water crystal clear.
After we had canceled the TG in the St.Sauveur, we all decided together to dive the next day in the Source de Landenouse, because according to reports of Günther and Michi this had very good visibility conditions around 20-25 m. Roland and I planned to dive here with the divers. Roland and I planned to tackle the end of the line here with the rebreathers and 2 scooters each.
We had previously asked permission from the "landlord", with a bottle of red wine ;-)
A bit of equipment at the pool , right in the picture the pulley for rappelling the equipment. The water level was unfortunately about 5 m below the wall edge.
The dive in the Landenouse was very nice after we put down 40 cf O2 Stage in the pool, we scooted comfortably to the end of the line. This cave constantly changes its face and presents itself differently every few hundred meters, passing larger rooms with sand dunes and a few meters further filigree washed out rock in different colorings.
We decided to dive the shallow part of the cave up to about 850 m with the 35/35 at the known pro of the cave, dropped the stage at 36 m to the line, to then change to the "shallow" trimix stage with the 15/55, since the line end in the existing map ended at about 87 m, we carried a third 80 cf stage with a trimix 12/75, which we use from a depth of 65 m and dropped the stage with the 15/55.
The end of the line was then tethered to a rock outcrop at 80 m depth at about 1200 m and the cave profile continued to drop over a 45° gravel slope to greater depth and the passage gradually narrowed. We connected one of our spools to the rock outcrop and after a short okay we dove deeper. At 90 m depth the passage was so narrow that we scratched with the D 20 tanks at the cave ceiling and the gravel pile slid with the slightest touch not
so that we had to dig ourselves free a bit. Here it made no sense with the equipment we carried, at 95m depth the cave was over, plus the spool was completely unwound. We fixed the spool, left a cookie and started our retreat. On the way back we took it easy, enjoying once again the constantly changing face of this very beautiful cave. After 15 min of O2 deco in the pool we finally emerged after 175 min.
After a nice Tg in the Landenouse, no the ladder we climbed of course not with the RB's on the back. Note the knotted towel on the ladder, someone doesn't want to forget anything ;-)
Arne and Marc helped us to carry all the stuff back to the cars. Thanks guys!
In this sense,
Your Cavebase
Gallery
