Diving: Dordogne, France (Sep-01)

Gallery

Cave Diving Expedition

  • Greg Diving Image Greg Diving
  • Mike in the Trou Madame Image Mike in the Trou Madame
  • Greg laden with cylinders in the Doux de Coly Image Greg laden with cylinders in the Doux de Coly
  • Greg surfacing in an airbell in the Trou Madame Image Greg surfacing in an airbell in the Trou Madame
  • Mike carrying kit out the Trou Madame Image Mike carrying kit out the Trou Madame
  • The entrance pool to the Doux de Coly Image The entrance pool to the Doux de Coly
  • Mike disappearing into the darkness Image Mike disappearing into the darkness
  • Greg Diving Image Greg Diving
  • Our Luxurious accomodation. A caravan near Gramat Image Our Luxurious accomodation. A caravan near Gramat
  • Greg in the entrance pool of Fontainne du Truffe Image Greg in the entrance pool of Fontainne du Truffe
  • Mike in the Trou Madame Image Mike in the Trou Madame
  • Mike in the entrance Pool to the Doux de Coly Image Mike in the entrance Pool to the Doux de Coly

Caving Logbook

Caving: Fontainne Du Truffe (23-Sep-01)

  • Fontainne Du Truffe

  • 00:30 hours
  • 846:45 cumulative hours

Cave dive through Sump 1

Caving: Emergence Du Ressel (24-Sep-01)

  • Emergence Du Ressel

  • 01:00 hours
  • 847:45 cumulative hours

Cave dive to top of shaft. Looked at airbell en-route.

Caving: Trou Madame (25-Sep-01)

  • Trou Madame

  • 01:15 hours
  • 849:00 cumulative hours

Cave dive to Sump 5. Carry between caves was easy as passages were still half filled with water. Hardest part was 50m carry to water from entrance.

Caving: Fontainne St George (26-Sep-01)

  • Fontainne St. George

  • 01:00 hours
  • 850:00 cumulative hours

Cave dive to end of sump 1. Airbell very large and impressive. Phill scootered further in.

Caving: Source Du Finou (26-Sep-01)

  • Source Du Finou

  • 00:45 hours
  • 850:45 cumulative hours

Scary cave dive to end of sump 1. Waited in airbell before returning.

Caving: Emergence Du Ressel (27-Sep-01)

  • Emergence Du Ressel

  • 00:45 hours
  • 851:30 cumulative hours

Excellent, very impressive cave dive to 450m corner. Again Phill scootered further in.

Caving: Oeil Da Le Doue (28-Sep-01)

  • Oeil Da Le Doue

  • 01:15 hours
  • 852:45 cumulative hours

Cave Dive to part way through sump 3. Srteamway was excellent between sumps 2&3 but did involve getting out the water.

Caving: Doux Du Coly (29-Sep-01)

  • Doux Du Coly

  • 00:45 hours
  • 853:30 cumulative hours

After Paying ?30 to access this site we did an excellent dive to bottom of shaft.

Diving Logbook

Diving: Fontainne Du Truffe (23-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton

  • Fontainne Du Truffe, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 10.3m Depth

Entrance viz absolutely zero until pass entrance squeeze. Loose line everywhere in entrance. On way out took pics and tied up line. Good start to holiday.

Diving: Emergence Du Ressel (24-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton

  • Emergence Du Ressel, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 28.2m Depth

Entrance viz again was crap. Had stage tank but didnt use it as Mike had 1st stage leak on his stage cylinder so left it at entrance. Went in deep route, looked at airbell then onto shaft and back out deep route.

Diving: Trou Madame (25-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton

  • Trou Madame, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 6.8m Depth

Had to carry cylinders 50m then swim 100m across lake. Surfaced in a few airbells. Excellent dive. Need more lead. Took some good photos on way out.

Diving: Fontainne St. George (26-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton, Phill Short

  • Fontainne St. George, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 28.9m Depth

Went deep quickly then gradually came to surface after 350m. A few jump lines en-route. Big impressive chamber at end of sump 1. Met Phill Short on his Zepp as we were heading in.

Diving: Source du Finou (26-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton

  • Source du Finou, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 32.6m Depth

Scary, Scary Dive. Inwards dive was o.k. Squeezes was not that bad but viz was quite patchy. Surfaced and waited for Mike (who had exited after various kit problems). As I entered the sump to head back out I was confronted with zero viz. Following the line there were a few places where i could see the line. The first eye-hole type squeeze was passed in zero viz and i eventually made it down to the 30m level. The viz cleared to a couple of meteres in a few places. Upon inflating my drysuit slightly it decided to jam on making me rather quickly inflate. I immediately pulled off the direct feed and emptied the air out my stab all while not trying to loose the line. The next problem was in the gravel squeeze just on the way out of the 30m deep section. After passing the constriction i then found i was entangled slightly in the line where i had to reverse through the squeeze to untangle myself. A short burst of free flowing regs was also experienced here. After my deco stop i was very glad to be on the surface.

Diving: Emergence Du Ressel (27-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton, Phill Short

  • Emergence Du Ressel, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 47m Depth

Excellent dive to 450m corner. Dived in deep route leaving stage tank at top of shaft. Then headed down the impressive shaft and then the short swim to the 450m corner. Once here I checked Guages, computer, line e.t.c before realising the pure scale of the passage i was in. You were limited by the brightness of the light. Unfortuanately a long time couldnt be speant admiring the view as deco was racking up, air was decreasing and i was getting increasingly knarked. We headed out the shallow route where all my deco was cleared.

Diving: Oeil Da Le Doue (28-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton, Phill Short

  • Oeil Da Le Doue, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 15.7m Depth

Long carry to get to the entrance but thouroughly worth it. Excellent bit of streamway between sumps 2 and 3. Viz stirred easily but settled straight away. Lots of lines in a big mess. Passage very big in places.

Diving: Doux Du Coly (29-Sep-01)

  • Mike Alderton

  • Doux Du Coly, Lot & Dordogne

  • 01:00 dive time hours
  • 47.8m Depth

After getting access to this classic cave diving site for a price of ?30 we kitted up on the luxury platform and in true resurgence plopping style just floated into the water. The entrance was crystal clear with lots of wildlife and fish. After the initial entrance swim at about 6m depth we soon arrived at the shaft where we dropped a stage cylinder. The line then stopped and we left the line and continued down the shaft whereupon at the bottom we rejoined the line. Deco was again racking up so we started heading back up the shaft. The impressively big shaft seemed to take ages to ascend but we were soon greated by the entrance series line. An exit was made through excellent underwater passage in fantastic viz. Dive was worth every penny.

Related Blogs

Diving: Dordogne, France (May-01)

Diving: Dordogne, France (May-01)

  • May 27, 2001

Strava Stats

Recent Last 4 weeks

3 nr
14 mi
02:04:14
826 ft
0 nr
0 mi
00:00:00
0 ft
1 nr
1 mi
00:44:39

Year-to-date

31 nr
113 mi
16:22:42
9,011 ft
2 nr
47 mi
03:29:01
2,184 ft
32 nr
40 mi
25:24:57

All-Time Stats

1,498 nr
10,346 mi
1432:03:58
809,530 ft
907 nr
5,916 mi
505:55:16
441,165 ft
85 nr
102 mi
69:44:12

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