Grotte de la Vipère
Participants: Marc, Andreas, Tobias und Wilke
It is already almost a tradition that Cavebase goes cave diving in France in March.
This year Andreas, Marc. Tobias and Wilke made their way - but this time not only the usual fun diving "Ressel" - "Landenouse" and "St. George" was on the program. This year we had made a special plan. A dive in the Vipere cave, if possible to the 3rd sump with a penetration distance of about 2.2km.
We got into conversation on the boat with the weDIR about this cave, the guys reported a really beautiful and hardly dived cave. Tobias took the information excitedly and discussed with Sebastian Kuster how a possible advance with our diving gear would be possible. We quickly realized that we were certainly not talking about some "fun dive" here. The reports about the access, the dragging, the silt-outs and the rock formations instilled respect and curiosity in us in equal measure. The reports about the crystal clear water and the bizarre passage formations made us so curious that we made the decision to dive this cave in this week of March.
The challenges of this cave are really considerable, the access exists actually only over the river or over an approx. 400m long dirt road. The way over the river is the shorter one, but in our case it was no alternative, because the water level of the river was clearly too high and the rushing current made a crossing impossible. Thus only the "land way" remained over a narrow, badly accessible field way. We packed up all our things and carried everything we needed to the entrance, a small climbing passage rounded off the arduous hauling.
All 4 Cavebase members decided to dive to the 3rd sump, so our equipment consisted of per diver:
- 1x D12 RB80 Frame incl. Rebreather with 18/45
- 1x Suex XK1 Scooter
- 1x Team Backup XK1 Scooter
- 1x 35 nitrox as bottom gas
We could completely do without decompression gases, the course of the cave already indicated that we would certainly not perform a decompression dive. The depths were only between 2 and 28m, nevertheless we deposited a 40uft oxygen as "Safety" in the entrance area.
The hauling was really not to be underestimated, first we had to explore the entrance of the cave, that alone cost us several hours. Now all the diving material had to be carried by four "double 12 rebreather/scooter divers" into the first dry section, and immediately after that we had to overcome a very shallow, almost completely flooded passage. When this was done, we really got down to business; another extremely shallow and at the same time steep, completely muddy, transverse shaft had to be overcome again with all the junk. Only now we reached a place where a descent was possible - but at this point the water was again so deep that the equipment had to be put on in the water - also very nice.
Despite the difficult access we were really lucky! Normally, the water is much shallower in the cave, so that there are actually two more dry spots in the cave - and if that is the case, the dragging immediately becomes factors larger, more elaborate and dimensions muddier. We were overjoyed to find such a high water level on this trip. We could almost comfortably dive over all the sumps.
We actually wanted to carry the equipment into the cave on the first day to dive in the afternoon. Well, that was a good plan, but unfortunately much too ambitious. The first Vipere day ended with a complete dragging and assembling of the equipment. We decided to place the equipment in the cave overnight to be able to complete the dive the following day rested. In retrospect, a very good and stress-free plan that we can only recommend to everyone.
The cave shows its "teeth" in every respect at the beginning. Difficult access, extremely much mud and very strong silt-out situations - but, as so often with cave diving, the mud evaporates with increasing penetration depth. From about 100m, there was virtually no silt to be seen at all. The water became crystal clear and offered visibility beyond 20 meters. The corridors went up and down, changed direction again and again and were washed out in an unbelievable way. Here scooters had a lot of fun!
Tobias and Wilke looked at the third surfacing point after a little more than 2km scooter distance, the air was extremely bad, already after a few minutes on the surface dizziness and nausea set in. The two decided to forgo an exit and started the way back after a few minutes. Marc and Andreas dove as the second team and completed the same dive.
Our XK1 scooters reliably pulled us in and out, we did have a backup scooter with us, however we each rode the distance of just over 4km on one scooter.
After the dive we were all happy about the successful trip, we used our 2 hour surface lunch break to talk - and we had a lot to talk about, but we had to keep it short, after all, all the equipment had to be transported out again - a bone job after such a long dive. But in the meantime something like routine had set in and the transport of the materials worked much better than the day before.
A big thank you goes to the weDIR, who informed us without reservation about this great cave and gave us a really nice and unforgettable two days.
Of course we also enjoyed some fun dives during this week. Marc and Andreas dived the Landenouse to the end and did the deep loop in the Ressel. Wilke and Tobias had to cancel a dive at the Cabouy because of bad visibility, but at the end of the week they could do a nice dive in the Ressel to the waterfall.
All in all a great week, with a lot of fun, joy and a little bit of positive sweat :-). A great trip!
In this sense,
Your Cavebase
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