MOTIERS CAVES- September 2008
Saturday 20 September we meet at Patrick's place: the last abundant rains have
made it impossible to dive the Source Bleu, for this we change direction towards
the cave of Motiers which seems to be the right subject, since its exploration
is only possible with high water level. We choose the proper material and meet
José who is accompanied by Beth. After this we ascend the Chasseron mountain up
to the hills of Etroits and then down the valley until we reach reach the region
of Motiers.
At the parking lot of the cave we meet
Marc and Grégoire. We distribute the more or less heavy speleo sacks equally
amongst us and depart towards the sump inside; the cave section is quite high,
which allows us to transport the equipments on the back without ever removing
them; the most annoying part is the "Lac de la Boue" (Lake of the ox), a name
which is program: we take breath before crossing it determinedly. Fortunately
the water level of the flood which has just dropped, has left the whole area
particularly wet and this condition prevents the loose mud to strap off our
boots, which surely makes our passage easier.
We have been fast in reaching the sump,
the time is abundant and therefore we are able to prepare the tanks with the
regulators and buoyancy bars with calm. In this environment it is useful to
transport the tanks with valve protections to avoid that a valve is opened when
hitting the walls; the fittings of the tanks and regulators are also protected
with the special caps to avoid that mud can enter making the connection among
the two parts impossible. Naturally the whole material is arranged carefully
inside the speleo speleo in a way that during the transport there are no pointed
parts that pinch the back. We set up everything in a safe zone and leave the
cave, just in time to drink an aperitif at the pub of the village.
Sunday 21, the only missing thing is the
preparation of my faithful dive companion, the Copis; to my surprise I find it
with two batteries of the electronics completely unloaded: fortunately I have
two of them as backup. I reassemble the radial filter, put the dry suit in the
backpack and off we go: from the house of Patrick up to the cave 90 minutes of
travel are waiting for us, including the stop to pick up José. At Motiers we
meet Grégoire who, while we are crossing the cave towards the sump, remembers
his first time in cave, around eight years before, when he was invited to pass a
different day by Kwenani, the son of Jean Jacques, and found himself
transporting our materials up to the sump inside the cave of Vall'Orbe.
Once the tanks are mounted onto the Copis
and with the last little things assembled, I am ready to greet my cave
companions Patrick, José and Grégoire. I take all the necessary tanks to manage
a possible emergency with me which are: one 10 l tank with O2, one 15 l tank
with 50/20, one 10 l tank with 36/36, one 12 l tank with 20/60 and one 20 l tank
with 13/80. Besides the oxygen tank, which I leave at -6m, all the other tanks I
transport to the second sump, in other words in this case, to the second
descent; the first part on a length of 122m softly gets deeper up to -31m for
then ascending again for a distance of 173m, reaching -8m: this is the point
that complicates life to the explorations when the level of the water is low,
because progress becomes very fatiguing. The cave then starts again going down
to a depth of -45m, where the explorer is forced to overcome a restriction,
which is a couple of meters long in ascent for then to starting to descend to
-60m, where during the preceding exploration I have tied off the line.
14 minutes have passed and because of the
quantity of material that I am transporting and the current which in some points
is quite intense I have not been fast. I connect the line of the explorer reel
and start to descent in the shaft: the line of Jean Jacques, 23 years old, is
still present in this deep section. Inside the sump, which starts to become
horizontal, all of a sudden at -95m I find a strange anchorage with the line
that turns arounds a big stone and is tied off a couple of meters above; beyond
this point no sign of exploration. I remember to have read a different depht in
the report of Jean Jacques, but this does not matter now because I will verify.
I continue almost horizontally for a while, then I let myself slip observing the
unbelievable erosions of what seems to be a freatic gallery; the bottom is
covered by gravel and the walls present themselves even but rough and sometimes,
some small spike sticks out, forgotten by the erosion. I am at -107m when 22
minutes have passed: I decide to interrupt my exploration, I have laid out about
forty meters of new exploration line; I leave the exploration reel on a stone
and begin to return. In some sections the visibility is reduced notably because
of small bubbles that detach the clay from the ceiling; it makes me think about
the earlier explorations, when using open circuit, I produced a huge quantity of
bubbles and as a conequence the visibility was reduced to zero, I think about
the great complications that I had to deal with once, and which now are part of
my baggage of experience.
The
decompression proceeds without obstacles: All I have with me is the 20 l tank
with 13% of oxygen and when at -30m I pick up the battery for the electric
heating vest everything is perfect. Minute by minute I ascend until reaching the
the top of the shaft, then I descend again and finally after the last minutes of
decompression I resurface after 95 minutes. Contrarily to what happens in some
other springs, the fatiguing part will arrive only now which means carrying the
Copis the supply tanks, the battery of the heating vest and the dry suit with
undergarments of the cave.
Finally out of the cave and seated comfortably at the restaurant, Patrick takes
the writings of Jean Jacques whith the description of his last Motiers
exploration is out of a file; attentively I read again the notes recognizing,
excited about his personality until I reach the point in which he describes
where he ties off the terminal line:
June 23 rd 1985…….. "les points pour
attacher sont rares; je déroule ancore 5 o 6m, histoire de passer les 100m.
A -102 aprés un dernier coup d'oeil vers la
suite, je remonte et coupe le fil a -98."
Considered the instrumental error of the
depht meters of once in comparison to those of today and because of the
different levels of the water in the sump, the situation now seems more
realistic to me .
Monday is a day of rest, and we take
advantage to go to the
thermale baths of Yverdon-les-Bains;
after a long stay in the warm waters of the swimming pool and a stroll in sauna,
we are off to eat.
Tuesday everything is ready: which means
Josè, Patrick and me but something is not well with me. Once arrived at Josés
place my back seems to be shattered to pieces; I have not made particular
movements, but the industrial quantity of hernias and protrusions around my
vertebral column don't seem to have appreciated some positions or some efforts.
Josè gives me a couple of anti inflammatory pills and I swallow them hoping the
best.
During the ascent to the cave we see two
deer on the edge of the road which don't want to move until we are within a
couple of meters, then they start off and with an elegant leap they disappear
among the bushes, trotting calmly into the woods.
Once reached the cave, because of the pain and of the
consequent contracture, I'm not even able to stand upright. José and Patrick
take a trip up to the sump to bring the Copis and the tanks, while I wait for
their return sitting inside the car. After a little more than one hour, upon
return, Josè succeeds in organizing a relaxing massage at the thermal center.
Having time by now, before going down to the valley, we go to see the beginning
works of the cleaning of an abyss in the highland. Another animal-surprise: a
fox in full daylight sitting with calm on a lawn as waiting for whatever only he
knows. The first indications of works in progress, then a crane, excavators and
everything that serves for recovering the quintals of garbage unloaded over the
years. At the thermal center I am attended by a wonderful young girl ready to
gently massage my back and when at the end the muscular tension is reduced, I
succeed in staying upright. What else I could do? I take horse doses of anti
inflammatory pills and wait.
On Wednesday the pain is still strong
therefore medicine, swimming pool and no cave. Patrick accompanies me and takes
advantage to do some physical exercises. Out of experience I know that I have to
keep in movement to resolve the problem and some of kilometers of swimming in
free style won't do any harm. Once returned to the house I go to my room to
perform therapeuthic exercises for the back.
On
Thursday the pain slightly decreases and since a small improvement can be
noticed, today I repeat yesterday's program increasing the swimming distance and
the exercises on the dry.
On Friday the pain is notably decreased
even if the back is not to yet in order. A phone call to José and we organize a
trip to see the excavation works at the abyss, and towards evening we meet with
Patrick at the swimming pool.
Saturday. Since inside the sump
everything is ready, and the rest of the material is waiting inside there is
almost nothing to be transported; this it is an ideal situation for me and I
have a great desire to dive. Together with Grègoire and Patrick I reach Motiers
at about 11 in the morning; each of them will transport one speleo sack, in one
of which are the provisions for not suffering too much during my absence and in
the other there is my dry suit and my undergarments; up to the Lac de Boue I can
move with my back free and unloaded. We enter chatting happily and, along the
road, we meet two speleologists that Patrick knows, who accompany some children.
We say hello and continue in direction of the
sump. I have to move very cautiously because the sharp pains in the back are
ready to make feel every wrong movement.
Before the Lac de the Boue there is a 20
l tank, which was transported there by Ludo on Tuesday evening. Patrick picks it
up, while I take the well lighter sack, fortunately the dry suit. Once reached
the point of departure for the dive, we see the water level has dropped 3-4m,
but I know that it is still possible to overcome the critical point. Since Josè
on Tuesday had already mounted the tanks onto the Copis, I just have to assemble
the stage tank and change myself.
The entry in water is different from the
other times, which means it is more comfortable; during the progression I will
have to change the position to the bailout tanks which is not a problem. I carry
two 20 l tanks and two batteries for the heating vest with me.
Finally in the water I forget about my back. I
afflict a little at departure, but once ready, I quickly pass the first part of
the sump leaving a battery at -9m and pass the part reaching almost -30m, then I
ascend again up to -3 where above of me I see the air pocket that is beginning
to form. The descent is quick, without obstacles and with only two tanks I
easily pass the parts where due to the morphology the progression is slow: the
depth is decreased and I find the explorer reel at -103m; not at all aproblem, I
tell to myself, the decompression will be a little shorter, we will see what
happens. The morphology of the tunnel in this zone is intriguing, maybe because
I am exploring, but certainly I find it beautiful; I advance by fin propulsion
in a determined way but not too fast, because I don't want to risk to jeopardize
my respiraton. The horizontal
parts are alternating, there are little jumps in the elevation, then some more
horizontal parts and some descents; I look at the depht meter, -115m, 18
minutes. Since the Copis works perfectly, I let myself be swallowed by the dark
for a little more. After 22 minutes I begin to reflect that soon I should turn
back, after 25 minutes I tell myself to stop, but in the end I am not forced at
all, some meters further it seems to me to see some good tie off points. I stop
before the tunnel which seems to ascend, I tie off the explopration line at
-125m, after 27 minutes, at 456m from the entry of the sump. Enough, return.
In a tunnel with this morphology there is no
immediate ascent but, having to follow the profile I start to return. I can
increase the rhythm of the finning to be at lesser depht more quickly and, while
I advance, I detach a writing slate from a tank which will serve for taking
notes like distance, depth and the drawing of some sections during the return.
Even if it is not a topography,
this will help anyway to make a first draft of the section. Naturally, being
only by myself in the water, I have to recover all the positioned emergency
bailout tanks. For 200m of tunnel which consists of ups and downs, restrictions,
etc. I carry two 20 l tanks, one 15 l tank, one 12 l tank one 10 l tank, the
exploration reel, the battery and a hand lamp. The visibility during the return
is reduced to a couple of meters in the whole deep section, but during ascent it
improves a little to about 4m.
Once arrived at the battery at - 9m, I
change it and increase the heat of the heating vest; at the -6m stop I pick up
another 10 l tank and get slowly out of the water after 135 minutes.
I gear off completely still inside the
water while Grègoire and Patrick are occupied putting all the material in the
most proper place. I remain with the dry suit to reduce the quantity of material
to be transported and as soon as the three valiant sherpas, inclusive Marc who
has joined us, are loading two speleo sacks per person we begin the reentry. My
forces are limited by my post-dive condition and by my sore back and I perceive
the crossing of the Lac de Boue to be more fatiguing than usually and advance
slowly for not adding some problem connected with micro bubbles.
Outside the last rays of sunlight are
touching us while we are washing the equipments in the stream.
