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Team

Fototeam at Lot

Actually, we were supposed to go to the project in Greece in mid-June. Unfortunately, Covid-19 threw a spanner in the works and the airlines cancelled our flight. Therefore, the team was looking for alternatives. We quickly decided to visit some caves in Slovenia. After consulting with our local contact and observing the weather forecast, we had to discard this idea as well, since the caves were not diveable. So a part of the team decided to take only the weekend for a trip to the Felicitas mine and Nuttlar.

The photo team around Mats, Schüssi and Heinke, as well as Aline as surface support, was however further on the search the planned vacation to let take place.

So we watched the weather and the border openings of the surrounding countries closely. For France it was certain that the borders should open again on 15.06. and the weather looked also so far ok. After consultation with the filling stations in the lot we decided to dare the trip.

So we met on Monday to four at Schüssi, loaded the cars and went on the way to the beautiful Lot.

When we arrived at 23:30 in Cajarc we found out that our short term booking via Booking.com didn't work out and so we were standing in Cajarc without a place to stay. Fortunately, we have Lilo from the Domain de Gayfie but still reached and could get a cottage with her.

After a restful night, we first unloaded the cars on the first morning and set up our gyros. A photo dive in the Ressel was on the plan for the day. So we started at our house around 12 o'clock. When we arrived at the Ressel we could hardly believe our eyes. The whole parking lot was empty, the Célé without current. We prepared our equipment and jumped into the river. Crystal clear water awaited us at the cave pool. In the cave itself we had about 8-10m visibility and it was only very slightly milky. We drove with the scooters to the agreed places and tried to realize the discussed photo shootings. Again and again one of us found a spot and an idea for a few pictures and so we snapped for almost 2 hours in the cave. We also tested different light possibilities. We finished the evening with delicious wine and cheese.

The next day the St. George was on the plan. We also wanted to pay a visit to the St. Saveur and see what the conditions were like. Also at the St. George we were the only divers. Our plan was to scooter to about 1km into the cave at 75m. Of course we took the camera with us again and clamped an action camera on a scooter. The St. George showed itself from your "usual" side, always a little milky, and so it was not really to think of making pictures. Only at the cave pool could still be made a few snapshots of the pike. Now we went on to the St. Saveur. Arrived at the pool we quickly set up the small equipment for a check dive. From the outside the cave still looked promising, but unfortunately we were caught up by reality from 5m depth and it had only 2-3m visibility. We dived to about 35m depth into the cave, hoping that it would get better after all. But unfortunately it didn't work out. On the way back we stopped briefly at Olivier (The Cave To Be) and filled up a few bottles. In the evening we again enjoyed delicious wine and homemade tarte flambée.

For day 3 we planned the Deep Loop at the Ressel. When we arrived at the cave there was another team. We transported the needed bottles to the entrance. Unfortunately, however, Mat's back made us a small stroke through the bill and so we decided at short notice but again a photo dive with small cutlery to make. Again we tested different exposure possibilities and attachments of the video lights on the JJ-CCR. Afterwards we drove to the Trou Madame. At our last dive it had unfortunately too little water but today the water stood up to the entrance. So we transport again our bailout-stages to the entrance and then walked through the river to the entrance. Here we tried again to put each other in scene.

For the last day the Landenouse was on the plan. The goal was to scooter to the former End-Of-Line at 1300m and -70m depth. We wanted to use this dive for filming and attached video lights on 2 scooters and a camera on the third scooter. Unfortunately, however, the camera went on strike during the descent and so we enjoyed the brightly lit cave for ourselves. After the dive we relaxed a little at the pool before we considered another cave to climb. Quickly Marcel thought of Emergence de Bons, in which he had already climbed a bit 2 years ago. Of course, our cave guide was in the apartment and so we first had to search the Internet for the coordinates. We finally found what we were looking for in a Wikipedia entry. In the cave itself, we climbed to the descent point, took a few more photos and philosophized how one could dive here once.