|
    
CAVING IN BELGIUM: THE BELGIAN CAVE GUIDE
Chantoir Dury - Mont-sur-Meuse (No.
06)
LOCATION:
Province: Namur
Locality: Mont-sur-Meuse (Yvoir)
Coordinates: 188.140 / 115.985 / 209.03m
Map: 53/4
In Mont-sur-Meuse, coming from the river Meuse, take the second road left
past the church (One way road, Rue du Chantoir). The big sinkhole
is the first one at your left.
HISTORY:
It
is told that already in 1910 somebody tried going down the entrance pitch.
This nearly ended in disaster since he was not capable of climbing out again
(they finally got him out I suppose... we didn't meet him!). The cave
entrance was blocked by floods and finally reopened in the 40's. It
remained however only a nice pitch giving into a big room. In 1992
and 1993, after months of labour, the SC Avalon dug out several passages
and discovered an important continuation, going 77 m deep and over 300 m
in length.
ACCESS:
The sinkhole is situated on private land and in the middle of the village.
Alltough the cave is not closed, you MUST ask permission to visit it.
The owner lives in the big house besides the sinkhole.
DESCRIPTION:
 Length:
386 m, Depth: 77 m
Fine but often very wet entrance pitch (21 m.). It can be rigged
"dry" by taking 3 deviatons in the roof. Big room, leading to a low
crawl (le Bouchon Raisonnable) and squeeze (often blocked after floods).
The (very polluted) river disappears just before the crawl. Narrow
rift, 20 m., ends in a 6 m. long fossil sump (le Bouchon Interminable) that
was dug out by SC Avalon. The gallery get's wider, one arrives (after
a squeeze) in a room (Salle des Pied Nus). 30 m further, climb down a 4
m pitch. Very narrow meander leads after 30 m to a P4 and a
nice 16-m pitch. At the foot of the pitch, an extremely narrow gallery
can be followed for +/- 20 metres. This point is only 50 m away from
the Trou de l'Eglise.
RIGGING:
 Entrance
pitch (P21): 25 m of rope, 6 karabiners. Fixed hangers in place.
P16 (Puits du Couteau): 20 m of rope
COMMENT:
Unfortunately, the 6 metres long fossil sump that was dug out by us, fills
up again with sand after heavy flooding. It is very likely that this
will be the end your trip, since it takes a lot of manpower to open the
passage again (we've done it twice now...).
Warning: the top of the entrance pitch is very unstable! Take care.
This cave is flood-prone: the entrance pitch can become impassable and so
do some low passages.
MORE INFORMATION:
click here
SURVEY: Click
here to see the survey
|
