Travel report and survey St. Saveur Lot April 2011

Team: Manu Schoch und Peter Gärtner

Actually we had a date for the project, but unfortunately the weather put a spoke in our wheel. A week of vacation and then not being able to dive? That's not possible at all - and so we decided to go to France for cave diving. Following the tradition we had to stop somewhere on the way for shopping. On a Sunday, that's not as easy as usual, so we picked out a supermarket in advance that was open on Sunday and were then able to stock up on cheese and red wine.

Since we were still in the early season, it was not difficult to get accommodation on such short notice. Our choice fell on the Moulin de Lantouy, we knew the mill already from our photo course with JP Bresser and were very satisfied. At the moment there was so little going on that we had the mill virtually to ourselves. All signs stood on diving, the weather played also still with. We had sunshine the whole week with medium temperatures, at least during the day we were spoiled with 20°C. In the morning however with rather winterly 2°C. In the mornings however with rather winterly 2°C. For this we got work gloves for Manu from the hardware store.

Day 1: St. George

We have been going to France for many years now to the Lot for cave diving, but there are still a few caves we have never dived before. One of these was St. George. This cave has the reputation of having rather poor conditions. You have to be lucky to get 10 - 20m visibility. Well, we wanted to give it a try and dive the St. George to "groove in". The last entries at www.caveconditions.com sounded promising and the pool didn't look discouraging at all. So we rigged up our gear, brought scooters, photo equipment and a few stages to the pool and dove off a little later. Unfortunately we were disappointed and found 3m visibility. We scooted up to the narrows, passed them and continued a few more meters, hoping that the visibility would "open up" after that. Apparently we are not among the lucky ones who can dive the St. Georges in good conditions. Now we can make a hook on the "never dived before" cave.

Day 2: St. Saveur

This time we wanted to add survey work to underwater photography as another task. In Mexico we had done a combined survey and scooter workshop and found that we learned a lot again despite our own years of experience. And to consolidate what we had learned, the St. Saveur represented the perfect object for us. After a short passage at 30m, the cave drops rapidly to 70-75m, which makes the survey dives a bit more challenging, since to the survey work comes also the calculation / compliance with the deco. There is a map of the cave (www.plongeesout.com ), which gives an impression of the cave (memory log). At the cave we were lucky, it was not very busy. This time we had significantly more equipment to set up, we started by setting up the pensioner tables (what an ingenious invention) and gradually brought the back equipment, stages, heating tanks, scooters, photo camera to the pool. We met Pascal Bernabe, who was giving a diving course, and chatted a bit about our diving equipment. We should meet him the next days one or the other time at the caves and could exchange some more experiences.

St. Saveur, like Cabouy and St. George, is quite reserved with good to perfect conditions. But we were lucky, visibility was 8 - 10m and flow was negligible. We passed the entrance restriction without any problems, scooted a bit until the cave drops to 50m and clipped the scooters into the line. From this point we started surveying. To do this, the first diver laid a knotted line and the second diver noted the distances between tie-offs, as well as angles and spatial dimension at the tie-off. Further notes about special features e.g. large boulders or sand piles should refine the impression of the cave and make the individual points more recognizable for repeat dives. After 70 minutes bottom time we reached our scooters again.

From there we started surveying the shallow part and did our deco next to it. In between we took the time for a few photos. We reached the 21m stop in the pool at minute 170, the remaining 2.5h of deco in the small pool was a real challenge of boredom.... We found the old habitat and could hang our scooters and tanks there. In this dive we could survey the main corridor up to about 350m and brought a lot of data out of the water. But before we could happily sit down at the PC to feed it, we had to get all the dive gear out of the water and into the car. Back at the mill, we immediately started with the data processing, because something we learned in Mexico. As long as the data / impressions are fresh everything must be typed into the PC right away.

Devices used: RB AH1, D18 and D20, gases: Bottomgas: Tx 10/80, Decogases: Tx 35/35, Tx 50/25, O2.

Max. Dive depth: 75m, max. penetration: 350m = survey length (3D), bottom time: 70min, total dive time: 320min

Day 3: Dive-free and visit dry cave in LACAVE

Still exhausted from the previous day, we decided to take a day off from diving. We also had to work on our survey data from the day before. So that the day was not completely cave-free we followed a recommendation and visited the dry show cave in Lacave.

Very worth seeing, as a highlight there were fluorescent stalactites to see. In the evening we sat again on the evaluation of our survey data, some measuring points were a bit unclear and we compared our preliminary cave plan with the already existing one from 1999. There were a few discrepancies and so we decided that we had to go back to St. Saveur the next day to remeasure a few more data and possibly survey a few more meters in the area between the end of the bypass and the beginning of the funnel (Trémie).

Day 4: St. Saveur survey

No sooner said than done. So we went first thing in the morning towards St. Saveur. On this dive we wanted to keep the total dive time as short as possible, bottom time maximum 45 minutes, a few meters remeasurement between the end of the bypass and the beginning of the funnel (Trémie) and a few control measurements in the 30m area. We left the photo camera at home, instead Peter had a GoPro HD Hero with him to test in UW use, the area of cave diving is a special challenge for UW photography and videography. We wanted to conduct a practical test with a test report for the DIVEMASTER.

It was to be a fast and target-oriented working dive, with the same gases as the first survey dive. We scootered along the main line to where the bypass meets back up with the main passage, there we clipped the scooters into the line and began the re-survey. In familiar fashion, the first diver laid the knotted line and number 2 took the data (length, angle and spatial dimension). In this way, we made the stretch from the bypass end to the bottom of the funnel (Trémie). This is where the line situation starts to become significantly more chaotic. After 50min bottom time we reached our first deco stop. On the way back during the deco we took a few more control measurements in the 30m range. After 120min dive time we passed the entry or in this case actually exit restriction and reached the 21m stop. Now we still had 100min of deco ahead of us. After 220min total dive time we stretched our heads out of the water and were happy about the work we had done. One thing was immediately clear to us: surveying is really fun and there is still a lot of work ahead of us in this cave. Let's see if we will always be so lucky with the conditions.

RB AH1, D18 and D20, gases: Bottem gas: Tx 10/80, deco gases: Tx 35/35, Tx 50/25, O2.

Max. Dive depth: 79m, max. penetration: 380m, bottom time: 50min, total dive time: 220min

Unfortunately, before we made ourselves comfortable in the mill, the car had to be rearranged for the remaining diving days. The large RB frames, as well as the empty deep Bottemstages remained the last days in the accommodation and we loaded for it the small D12 frames.

The evening was spent at the computer again, Peter was working on our survey data and Manu already started with the review and processing of the so far collected image material.

Day 5: Emergence de Ressel

On this day we wanted to make a relaxed photo dive in the Emergence de Ressel. Our goal was: Scootering up to the 3rd T (1st deep T) to take some photos in the 60m area and on the way back to try out some settings in the shaft. Although it was relatively quiet in the lot, there were already 7 buses / cars in the parking lot. But by considerate parking there was still enough space for us. With loud Eastern European metal sounds we prepared our equipment. The back equipment RB AH1 with D12 (Tx18/45) plus a few stages (Bottomstage Tx 18/45, Deko: Tx 50/25 and O2), Scooter and the camera equipment were quickly carried to the entrance of the Cele. The heating tanks stayed in the car this time. In the cave was really busy, on the way to the shaft we met some groups. From the shaft we were then alone and scooted in peace to the 1st deep T. There we put down the scooters and Peter unpacked the camera. We took pictures for about 20 minutes and then went back home. In the shaft we had a little photo session and tried a few settings to give the breathtaking impression of the shaft when you look over the rim. We also used the time at the 21m stop for a few photos.

Our stop at 6m was very entertaining, almost below us a beginner cave course completed its final dive. The party took place on the parking lot in front of the Ressel. After a small break we brought our Euqipment to the car, looked at the pictures and used the opportunity to exchange a few words with the other divers.

Back equipment RB AH1 with D12 Tx18/45, Bottomstage Tx 18/45, Dekostage: Tx 50/25, O2

Max. Dive depth 52m, bottom time:40min, total dive time: 155 min,

Day 6: Source de Landenouse

For our last diving day we had chosen a destination close to our accommodation. And so only the Landenouse came into question. So far, we had only done one dive in this cave, and that was during the photo workshop with JP Bresser. And this one unfortunately did not lead us far into the cave. This time we wanted to scoot in a few hundred meters and then take some photos. But unfortunately we had bad luck. An equipment failure realized in the pool ended this dive before it started. Well, so the Landenouse has to wait another time.

One good thing had this short diving day. The car was packed early for the trip home. This left us time to stroll around the market in Cajarc and have a coffee in the afternoon sun.

Tomorrow we left early. On the way we stopped in Gramat to buy fresh baguette and somehow made the 10h drive home.

From this trip we brought back a lot of information, work and ideas for future tours.

In this sense,

Your Cavebase

Gallery

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