CAVING IN BELGIUM: THE BELGIAN CAVE GUIDE
Chantoir de RONSOMBEUX - Durbuy (No.
21)
LOCATION:
Province: LUXEMBOURG
Locality: Ozo, DURBUY
Coordinates: X=235,192 Y:119,03 Z=236m
Map: 49 5/6
Coming from Villers-St-Gertrude, take the road to Izier, cross the bridge
over the river Pont-le-Pretre, continue to climb in direction of Izier.
875 m. before the road joins the road Bomal-Izier, park your vehicle at
the crossing of a small hollow road. Take the left part of this small
road and continue by foot. The road traverses a forest, and then descends
into a prairie. Continue into this prairie, keeping left. You
will then meet a series of sinkholes, and a bit further at the extreme left
edge of the prairie the entrance of the cave. It is a big green steel door,
horizontal onto the bottom.
HISTORY:
The cave has been the theatre of several digs by caving clubs, such as the
Brussels club "ASUB". The original name of the cave was "Chantoir
de l'ASUB". It was however the Groupe de Recherches Spéléologique
de Comblain au Pont (GRSC) who managed to get into to cave, after heavy
works in 1992-1993.
ACCESS:
The cave is closed with a solid "UBS-door". You will need the UBS-key
to get in. Contact the Union Belge de Spéléologie.
Take care not to walk in the woods, and DO NOT visit the cave when there
is a hunt going on (the relationship with the local hunters is very precarious!).
DESCRIPTION:
Length: 488 m, Depth: -62m
The
first 4 metres of the cave have been very well stabilized with hollow concrete
bricks. A fixed ladder allows you to go down easily. After
a bit of crawling, a steep and slippery rift must be climbed down (3 m.
deep).
Then a very nice 20 metre pitch follows, with a balcony halfway down.
The rock is very black, but unfortunately the concrete that has been
abundantly used to make the foundations of the entrance, has leaked into
the pitch. The rock has been stained with concrete over the entire 20 m of the pitch...
a real pity!
At the bottom of the pitch, you arrive in a rather big volume. You
can go down a steep slope one side (South), that ends around -43 m (trace
of an important dig: steel cable, buckets etc..). At the other side
(North), you reach another balcony . A small pitch (5 metres) gives
access to the "Vestiaire". This zone is rather complex (boulder
choke), the obvious but wrong way leads dwon but in fact you must stay high
enough and search for a passage between the boulders. You then traverse
through a boulder choke until you find a descending passage between boulders,
that gives access to the "Fossil River". This is a horizontal level
of the cave, situated around -45m. The passage is low, some
flakes of water can make it pretty muddy. Warning: in case of heavy rain,
the lower parts of the cave can flood up to here!). Near the end of
this gallery, you can go down (no rope needed) a 10 metre deep rift that
leads to the terminal sump of the cave, at -62m.
RIGGING:
Entrance pitch: 35 m rope, 5 carabiners
Small pitch above Vestiaire: 8 m rope and 2 carabiners
COMMENT:
Nice and sporting cave, offering some SRT-possibilities which is rather
exceptional in Belgium!
A complete visit takes about 4 hours.
SURVEY: Click
here to see the survey
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