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ANNUAL ACTIVITY REPORTS
1996 Report


JANUARY
* Even the 1st of January, we worked at the gate in the entrance of the Grotte des Emotions. The rest of the month we worked in this cave, where we discovered a lot : Galerie des Gours, Salle des Racines, Salle Sanguine. Also the recently discovered Salle du Collecteur was revisited but did not yield  a big continuation. Meanwhile, slowly but surely, we were also surveying the cave. We also continued working at the gate.
* We also visited the Grotte de Hotton, very beautiful ! (but our Emotions is also hot stuff.)
* The first official traverse Weron-Dellieux was spicy for our Walloon friends.
* Visiting the Nou-Moulin.

FEBRUARY
* Excellent "xxxing" . Unforgetable dragging of a very heavy inox tube (140 kilos) as reinforcement of the entrance of the Emotions. We found the beautifully decorated Salle des Colonnes after a climb in the Salle Prut. Discovery of the respectable Galerie Cueva. Also surveying, working at the gate and visits.
* Cueva's Musselparty.

MARCH
* Emotions : small discoveries : Salle Lapiaz, Jolie Petite Salle. Surveying. After the meeting with the forester, we decided, with pain in the hart, to stop the exploration of the Emotions 'till we got permission of the owners. Nobody then could have thought how long this would take and how much trouble this would mean...
* Great Avalon Party, already the fourth !
* And again we are working in the system of the Weron-Dellieux. A killing 13 hour-trip in the Réseau Nord was necessary to survey and re-explore the new Salle des Sales Amis. We also surveyed the complete Système D and the jonction.
* A few brave men started again digging in the Grotte Joseph 2 (not a lot of results). We also visited Grotte Strauss again.
* Co-operation at the gate of the Grotte de Warre: half a day dragging with iron bars. That day we also visited the Grotte Nys, together with Kim and Ellen.
* ? continue toujours dans la Grande Evasion (Eglise)... another 2 meters!
* 5 members went for three days to the Meuse in France and did three fine caving trips (especially the Beva was good).

APRIL
* Unbelievable : after four years we visited again the Reso B in the Chawresse. Of course we worked. We started again in the notorious "spleet" (narrow rif) and already after two weekends we broke through it : it ended above a P10.
* Guided tour of two persons in the Nou Moulin.
* Some "tough" guys of our club did so childish that a visit at the Chantoir de Kin was spoiled (the cave was very wet indeed). We did some excersises in the quarry of Aywaille to save the day.
* A lot of work in the Trou du Renard in the region of Dinant.

MAY
* We descended the P10 in the Chawresse, tricky ! It went on but was muddy and semi-active with a big sump. The next trip we doubled the distance, together 153 m.
* Ten days in the H?ault (France), together with Cueva. A very beautiful place to camp, very good weather and much variety in the caves : Aven de la Dame, Aven du Pas de Madame, Grotte duSergent, Aven des Huttes, Event de Rogn?, Grotte du Garrel, Pic Baudille ->Licorne, Aven de la Portalerie..!
* Also in France : Visit of the de Perte des Mazurettes.
* And again a duo did the Nou-Moulin.
* First trials in the Bois de Waerimont,  with the grot-o-foon (cave radio) build by Herman

JUNE
* The classic part of the Weron was surveyed again in two weekends time. This was done to check the map of the Weron-Dellieux. Also in the Dellieux, Jaak en Co climbed a chimney in the Système D. And also measurements with the cave-radio.
* A very heavy trip in the Chawresse. We surveyed and pushed the new part we found a bit further. It is now connected with the "Appendice".
* Convincing test with the caver-radio in the Weron (100 m depth), later repeated in the Sainte-Anne.
* Because of the very dry spring : the annual trough-trip of our Bretaye, very early in the year indeed. And we even found a new passage (Galerie Panique) after passing through an extreme (2 cm air over a distance of 3 m) duck.
* After an agreement with the forester we could visit the Emotions for one time : we surveyed the lowest part of the cave.

JULY
* A survey of the surface of the Weron-Dellieux enabled us to finish the map.
* Emotions: Cleaning of the muddy passage under Salle des Douze (useless as we later found out).
* Colleague Yves Dubois proudly showed us his discovery : the enormous continuation in the Chantoir de B?on-Ry. Very impressive indeed for us belgian cavers!
* Summer holiday in Spain, at Arredondo (El Capital del Mundo). Highlight was the Cueto-Coventosa through-trip, lightning fast because there was danger of flooding. But we also visited other beautiful cave-systems : Torca del Carlista (biggest chamber of Europe), Canuela etc. We won't say too much about the weather.
* The thoughest of us went to the Picos where they continued explorations in the first flemish -1000, the Pozo del Madejuno.

AUGUST
*Surveying the never ending extreme muddy lower parts of the Emotions is really depressing : L'Entonnoir, Galerie Horrible, Salle du Collecteur, nearly 1800 meter. We explored again the Labyrinth and also the dangerous zone above the Salle de l'Entonnoir. We installed an aluminium ladder in the climb to the Galerie des Gours. Between brackets: we finally got our official permission to work in the Emotions. We also put steps under the Salle des 12 and a second shunt was made in the direction of the Labyrinth.
* Annette and Jaak climbed in the Systeme D (Dellieux).
* Guy and Rik went caving to Jamaica and mapped some kilometers of new galleries of the Potoo Hole.
* We also did the Abime de Lesves and the Maye-Crev? a small but beautiful cave at Aisne.

SEPTEMBER
* Tricky caving trip in the Weron-Dellieux. Anyway, taking MARC COOLS, who was on a holiday in Belgium, in that cave is asking for trouble...
* Very high waterlevels in the Emotions : swimming !! In the valley we dug open several sinkholes. In the cave we worked in the sector of the Salle Limace.
* We helped with an exposition about caves in Mont-sur-Meuse.
* Chawresse: indescribable drudgery in the muddy sump in the Réso B (Rudi, Paul).
* A trio did the Trou de la Loutre (pleasant but wet cave). They even discovered 30 meter of new passages. The survey will be for the summer of 1997!
* Co-operation with the youth-caving-program of the VVS (Wilfried)

OKTOBER
* Emotions: 20 meter of new passages was discovered in the Galerie Cueva. The complete Labyrinth was surveyed. The Salle des Douze was cleaned and all formations protectd by means of thin red rope.
* Paul and Koen worked in the Réseau Noir (Weron).
* We helped the guys of N.T.S.. Together with Patrick they found a new part in the Grotte du Malacord.
* And again the B?on-Ry (together with NTS).
* Digging several times in the valley of the xxx.
* A big gang of cavers did the Galerie des Sources.

NOVEMBER
* We stayed a week in England together with Cueva. We had a good time and did a lot of caves despite the bad weather.
* Emotions: several days cleaning and taping off formations. Guy en Rik did a big surface-survey.
* Family De Bie and friends of Koen visited the Sainte Anne.
* On request of the SCB we did a VLF-radiolocation in Hotton.
* Wilfried and Mark did the Chawresse.
* And another two meter digging in the Eglise (Grande Evasion). And a problem, the fissure where we dump the earth, is choked. Three weeks later a trio solved this problem with 60 m of gardenhose and a lot of water.
* Wet visit at Rouge Thiers.

DECEMBER
* Some artificial climbing in the Emotions gives us again another 30 metres. Because of an official presentation more than 350 slides are taken in the cave in a period of several weekends. Paul shows the cave to two geologists (Ek and Dusar). And a day is spent cleaning en marking the cave.
* And to end the year in beauty, Paul and Annette did an artificial climb in the big aven of the Dellieux. 32 m free and so one of the biggest of Belgium. At the top it is choked up, but a week later Paul and Jaak are back to survey it. With a car-horn they also tried to locate the pit from within the entrance zone (negative).
* We also did a lot of prospection in the Ardennes (because of the extreme cold weather).

CONCLUSION
As usual a hyperactive year, with the emphasis on the fantastic exploration of the Grotte des Emotions (2000 m). It was in this cave not always big fun and there were a lot of dull days spend with surveying, marking, cleaning, putting in a gate,… And also all the paperwork about the cave (permissions, protection) of the cave was very difficult (for me) and it is not over yet. But Avalon passed this year the 6000m mark , so why should complain!

And beside the explorations, we also did a lot of "classical" caving (for the younger clubmembers). So as a last word, I hope that 1997 shall be as successful as 1996 and I hope that the Emotions gets its official rights and  will be protected for ever.

Paul De Bie , President

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