Lot in April

What is the best way to relax and unwind? No, not in a deck chair at the booth, but while cave diving in France. Between an exhausting written exam and an also not easy oral exam of Manu we wanted to go to France and put our head into the caves of the Lot for a few days instead of into the books. This time we tried a new accommodation and stayed with André Grimal in Gramat. In good conditions we wanted to go again to the Cabouy and continue the survey, so we chose an accommodation in the near Gramat / Rocamadour. On the way there was as always a large purchase with baguette, wine and cheese. Since the accommodation is closer to the highway, our arrival was not so late.

We had roughly planned our diving days: Cabouy, Ressel, St. Saveur, St. George or scouting new locations.

First day: Cabouy with surprises

For the next day (Wednesday), the Cabouy was first on the agenda. We wanted to continue the surveys we had started at the Cavebase project in March. That meant scootering to the Pou Meyssen junction, putting the scooters down there, and continuing to survey on foot. Armed with a tape measure, compass, writing tablet and enough sharpened pencils for the survey work, as well as a photo camera for the documentation, we went into the water. Visibility in the front part was only 3 - 4m, not good starting conditions for surveying. But based on previous experience that in the back part beyond the Pou Meyssen the visibility gets much better, we continued the dive. We were taught better, the visibility dimmed to 1 - 2m behind the junction to Pou Meyssen. After 15 minutes we turned around, swam back to the scooters and chugged to the exit. Photos were unfortunately also not to think with the bad visibility.
Back on land we packed our things and drove the usual route in the direction of Chez Gabi. Suddenly the road ended and flowed into a large ditch. Well, a little indecisive we took the other less paved way at the Cabouy in the direction of Rocamadour, over the little confidence-inspiring bridge, because in the Fuhrt was unfortunately too much water. At André's we hooked up the batteries to the chargers and prepared the car for the next day of diving.

Second day: Photo session in the deep part of Ressel

For Thursday we had planned the deep loop in the Ressel as photo location. In memory, we associated with it twisted, jagged and partly low passages and eroded rock, quite different from the smooth washed-out walls and the big boulders from the front part of the Ressel. So far there are only a few pictures from the deep part of the loop and from the snail. Well, apparently bad luck followed us. On one of our scooters, we noticed a water intrusion just before descending. So this scooter came back ashore and we dived with 3 scooters in a 2's team. With this the dive plan to dive / scooter the loop completely was invalid. At the first deep T, we clipped the scooters into the line and headed into the deep passage on foot to do some photography. We moved along slowly taking pictures, diving through the slug and scooting some more. After another 5 minutes we turned around. The way home went then quite briskly, since the camera was unpacked only on Deko again. After a total dive time of 290 minutes with a bottom time of 100 minutes we put our heads out of the Celé again. Thankfully Jan Reimann and Rouven Kloppmann were already waiting at the exit to help us with the "clean up". We had already sorted out this support in Germany. Without these guys it would have been a long evening. Many thanks again at this point!

Third day: Excursion day

Manu woke up the next morning with an earache, so we took a day off from diving this Friday and used the day for mundane things like shopping, drinking coffee at the marketplace, internet and driving around a bit for scouting. Thereby a small owl came in front of our lens.

Some impressions of our trip on the dive-free day:

A must for every tourist: Rocamadour. On the way there we discovered a small gorge, where there are worn out washouts. In addition, at the entrance to this gorge lives a watchful eagle owl. Fortunately, he let us pass.

Fourth day: St. Saveur

Saturday was our last day of diving, we were supposed to go to St. Saveur. We had never been to this cave before, but had heard a lot. The conditions are rarely optimal. Often the flow is so strong that the entrance restriction acts as a nozzle and spits pebbles. The restriction is said to be difficult to pass with scooters, stages and photos. Well, let's see what's up to the stories. The pool is picturesquely located in the forest, calm water, little flow visible. And no other divers. We calmly set up our equipment right at the pool, launched our stages and scooters, slipped into our suits and could hardly wait to dive. The cave entrance is easy to find, all you had to do was follow the sloping funnel. The restriction was quite easy to pass without any appendages, scooter and camera we passed that way. And then we were off. The visibility was not bad at all and with 7 - 10m in the deep part quite passable. The line situation was partly somewhat chaotic, well laid a line, unwound unfortunately several. We had not planned a long bottom time and turned around after 30 minutes on the BS. It was a fun dive that will definitely have us coming back. The only thing that sucks is the static deco in the funnel. At least there were a few fish to play with.

Back out of the water, the sun was already laughing, so we first took a break and then dragged our stuff through the forest. In the meantime, the guide from André's filling station arrived with two other divers. Fortunately, we were already done, so Manu could help out with her headgear.
We hurried to stow the equipment and drive back to André Grimal. The usual departure preparations were waiting for us, like last shopping at Gramat and packing the car.

Sunday morning we picked up some freshly baked, still warm baguettes at the boulangerie around the corner and wistfully started our journey home. The accommodation at André Grimal was good and cheap, the proximity of Gramat to the highway is another advantage. Unfortunately, at our time, the Internet had not worked in the filling station, so we had to go to the city library to internet.

In this sense,

Your Cavebase