DECEMBER 2001
Chawresse: 30 meters of "première",
after a crazy dig by Paul and Patrice Dumoulin (GRSC). And
the re-survey of the complete cavesystem is still progressing.
The end is near. The total length will likeley be
+/- 5 km!
We are selling wine again
Just as last year, we are again selling nice red or
white wine at the democratic price of 150 BEF/bottle. If
you want to support our club, then contact us.
Long time no hear..
Indeed, but the long silence is caused by me being terribly
busy the latest months. The club is still going strong,
working and exploring about everywhere.
SEPTEMBER 2001
Adios Fritz...
Very sad news: our friend Fritz Kunzel drowned
last weekend when diving a deep sump in a cave in the Pyrenees,
on Sept. 9th.
Fritz participated in our Anialarra Interclub 2001.
I will never forget the three days that we stayed together
in the underground camp at -650m. Everybody must have
been impressed by Fritz' incredible caving experience and
power, by his joy in life, his openness and energy.
Fritz was only 32 years old. He spoke fluently 5 languages.
He was a legend in the Spanish caving scene, having done
unbelievable solo-trips in very deep and diffucult caves
such as BU56 (-1400).
Farewell Fritz, and thanks so much.
.
Paul De Bie
AUGUST 2001
Anialarra 2001: yep... we are back!
Click here to read all
about the results of the 5th Anialarra Expedition.
MAY-JUNE 2001
Website: there are two new picture
galleries; one with pictures friom caves in the French
Ard?he (St-Marcel d'Ard?he, Aven de Noel enz.), and one
with pictures of beautiful cave pearls. Really worth a visit!
Click here!
Also, we have done quite some work in Chantoir
Le Pressoir, at Profondeville. But since we are in
fact making a cave there, we have decided to stop
this disappointing dig. But, luckily, we have other
digs and one of them has led to the discovery of important
and beautiful new galleries (no, sorry, can't tell you where...).
In the Waerimont, work goes on as usual, the surveying project
in the Chawresse progresses as planned, and in a couple
of weeks we are off to the Anialarra!
APRIL 2001
We have just had a fantastic week in the
French Ard?he and Gard departments. A whole week
of sunny weather, and beatiful caves: St-Marcel (Réseau
4), Aven de Noel, Aven du Marteau, Aven Nouvelle, Aven des
P?res, CocaLiège, Orgnac. We didn't have eyes
and photos enough to enjoy everything.
MARCH 2001
Today 15/3 we did a second attempt to remove
the boulder choke that is blocking the Chawresse-Veronika
through-trip for several months now. Patrice Dumoulin
of the GRSC and Paul De Bie - Avalon entered the cave
via Chawresse, and worked about 4 hours in difficult and
dangerous circumstances (a lot of water seeping through,
and very unstable). Finally we got through and we
left the cave via Veronika. The passage remains dangerous,
so it is best avoided time being. We will stabilize
it some more this summer; right now it is nearly impossible
to work because of the water. The dangerous passge is situated
at the end of Veronika, in Salle de la Cascatelle.
At 4/3 we did an artificial climb in the
Reso B of the Chawresse. This climb lead us
12 m higher (a nice, wide, bell-shaped pitch) where we discovered
a fossil level. We have followed it for about 40 meters,
where it finally connects to a known part of the cave. gekende
stuk...
JANUARY 2001
Deepest /Longest caves:
the tables on our website have been reviewed and changed
a lot. They now show more information. They will soon
be published in the National caving reviews (Passage, Regards)
and I ask everyone, who has better or more precize figures
about the caves in these tables, to send them ASAP to me,
so I can update the tables before publishing them.
But please motivate your figures, with survey data,
not estimations!
Double Cave rescue! Last Sunday
14th of January we experienced one of the most hectic days
since long. A double rescue-operation. First we had to "save"
one of our own clubmembers, Frank, who broke his own record
by doing the Weron-Dellieux throughtrip in just over 32
hours! By the time we had found the victims and had
arrived in the pub, a second rescue of a much more severe
nature began.
Read all about
it here! (in Dutch)!
Socotra Karst Project: Clubmember
Jos Beyens participated in a 3 week long Flemish expedition
at Socotra. Here are some results:
- Over 8 km of surveyed passages in only
3 different caves. In one of them a giant room was discovered
(300x200x100 metres!!). The progresion was difficult:
big boulders, temperature 29?C, 98% humidity. The
exploration and survey stopped at the entrance of a new,
possible equal sized room.
- ALL objectives were met: archeological
findings, biological findings (bats with 10 cm long TAILS
have been filmed for the very first time!), underground
waterreserves were found and promising contacts with the
local authorities have been established.
-All this was only possible thanks to a
great caving team.