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| Posted by Fred Grandjean on 15/07/05, updated on 25/08/05 |
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| Trip to Savonnière-en-Perthois |
CAVING |
| A caving week-end in the caves found during the excavation of the underground quarry in Savonnière-en-Perthois |
| Text by Antoine Lejeune |
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| Photo by Medy Majerus |
| Entrance pit of the Sonnette cave |
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A fine caving week-end.
On Saturday april 30th, at about 2 pm, we (that’s Medy, Laurent, Claude, Philippe and Antoine) drove away, with full gear and enough food for a 24 hour trip underground. We were going to pay a visit to the underground quarry of Savonnières-en-Perthois.
Metz, Nancy, Toul and Bar-le-Duc passed, we arrived in Savonnières where Marie-Thérèse was happy to welcome us in her small café.
After a pint we went and entered the underground quarry, our new “home†for the next 24 hours.
The camp site was as the same place as usual, as this wasn’t the first time we came to “savonnièresâ€.
Gouffre de la Sonnette
After installing our bivouac camp, we headed to the “Sonnette†Cave. It's entrance is a beautiful pit of about 30 meters (see link for photo gallery below). It’s not too difficult and was a good start for our caving week-end. Laurent equiped and Medy went second to help and check. After a few hours, back to our camp, we started some really important work: we prepared a delicious cheese fondue with morels accompanied by a good Pinot noir & Côte du Jura. Like in the Asterix comic books, anybody loosing a piece of bread in the cheese got a forfeit…
Gouffre de la Besace
The next day, after a copious breakfast, we went down the “Gouffre de la Besaceâ€, this time without Claude, who felt a bit unwell. Again, Laurent equipped. This is also an easy cave, but it's quite wet with a lot of water dripping down the ceiling. Several small pits, took us down to - 60m. After a couple of hour, we were back out of the cave. After these several tiring hours of caving, we had to have something to eat. The ravioli and other pasta were welcome.
After cleaning the place we drove off at about a quarter past five. We went to say goodbye to Marie-Thérèse. This time no motorways, we drove along Bar-le-Duc, Verdun and Esch/Alzette and reached home in Luxembourg at about 8 pm. |
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