It was time to go to the French and Swiss Jura again for some cavediving. This area is not that popular as the Lot/Dordogne. The reason is the more instabel weather, shorter and smaller caves (sometimes extremely narrow), colder water, no filling logistics and for almost every cave you need to get a permit. Sometimes call the police before and after diving, sometimes ask the permit from the owner, sometimes you have to ask permit by the authorities. And of course they only speak French. A lot of caves are only doable with sidemount or no mount and some require climbing.
We start with the Gouron cave, that is free accessible. It goes to 54m. It is a sump cave, but the first sump is quite long. We only dove a part of the first sump. It is one of the widest caves in this region.
The second cave is not a big cave, but beautifull, the Source Bleue de Montperreux. It can be done with a twinset, butis narrow. The way back is zero viz due to siltouts you make in the restrictions. The entrance needs some moving of gravel.
Then we visited a castle and a place where they make the 'Absinth' licor.
Then it was time to visit the Source d'Orbe in Swiss. It is part of a showcave. If you ask, you can dive, but are not allowed to surface in the dry parts where people pay to visit the showcave. The waterlevel is low, so almost no current and the viz is good. In that parc is also a free accessible dry cave. We only dove this time. For the showcave you have to pay an entrancefee.
Time for the Source Du Planey. I got the key for the gate, so this means only a 100m walk instead of a 650 m walk. Much better with divestuff. Before and after the dive you have to call the police. So we do.
The pool has clay and more clay and more clay. It is impossible to get in the water without making silt. But if you do it carefull you can see the entrance of the cave. The first part is 'wide', the second part are only restrictions. And as it is clay, the viz the way back will be zero. 1 diver did not fit in on of the last restrictions, so we had to turn around before the end of the cave. The 'wide' part of the cave has still good viz, nice for the second dive. But sadly, there is some slight current and when we enter the water again, all the silt we made in the first dive is coming out of the cave. The bottom of the lake near the entrance of the cave is 30ft/10m. There is a line from the entrance so we see each other at the entrance. I cannot find the entrance at first, but then yes, water clears up and I see the cave and the others. I take some pictures, but the viz is not what it was. Pity. But a nice second dive. We don't do the restrictions this dive.
We call the police again that we are finished diving, and drive to the last place of diving this week. It is 2.5 hours from the Jura region in the Cote d'Or. It is the best cave to make pictures. So I take on some dives my camera and on others I enjoy diving and just looking around.
As we cannot fill here, we dive everything of the gases we have left. So I do 2 extra dives on my sidemount ccr and others take backmount twins or sidemounts. This cave is best in oc. Not deep, not too long, but with backmount ccr narrow.
And the 12 dives of the week are done. Time to go home. Cylinders empty. We had low water levels, so not all caves were divable. But the ones we did were crystal clear. It was a mix of backmount twins, backmount ccr, and for some divers also sidemount.
We start with the Gouron cave, that is free accessible. It goes to 54m. It is a sump cave, but the first sump is quite long. We only dove a part of the first sump. It is one of the widest caves in this region.
The second cave is not a big cave, but beautifull, the Source Bleue de Montperreux. It can be done with a twinset, butis narrow. The way back is zero viz due to siltouts you make in the restrictions. The entrance needs some moving of gravel.
Then we visited a castle and a place where they make the 'Absinth' licor.
Then it was time to visit the Source d'Orbe in Swiss. It is part of a showcave. If you ask, you can dive, but are not allowed to surface in the dry parts where people pay to visit the showcave. The waterlevel is low, so almost no current and the viz is good. In that parc is also a free accessible dry cave. We only dove this time. For the showcave you have to pay an entrancefee.
Time for the Source Du Planey. I got the key for the gate, so this means only a 100m walk instead of a 650 m walk. Much better with divestuff. Before and after the dive you have to call the police. So we do.
The pool has clay and more clay and more clay. It is impossible to get in the water without making silt. But if you do it carefull you can see the entrance of the cave. The first part is 'wide', the second part are only restrictions. And as it is clay, the viz the way back will be zero. 1 diver did not fit in on of the last restrictions, so we had to turn around before the end of the cave. The 'wide' part of the cave has still good viz, nice for the second dive. But sadly, there is some slight current and when we enter the water again, all the silt we made in the first dive is coming out of the cave. The bottom of the lake near the entrance of the cave is 30ft/10m. There is a line from the entrance so we see each other at the entrance. I cannot find the entrance at first, but then yes, water clears up and I see the cave and the others. I take some pictures, but the viz is not what it was. Pity. But a nice second dive. We don't do the restrictions this dive.
We call the police again that we are finished diving, and drive to the last place of diving this week. It is 2.5 hours from the Jura region in the Cote d'Or. It is the best cave to make pictures. So I take on some dives my camera and on others I enjoy diving and just looking around.
As we cannot fill here, we dive everything of the gases we have left. So I do 2 extra dives on my sidemount ccr and others take backmount twins or sidemounts. This cave is best in oc. Not deep, not too long, but with backmount ccr narrow.
And the 12 dives of the week are done. Time to go home. Cylinders empty. We had low water levels, so not all caves were divable. But the ones we did were crystal clear. It was a mix of backmount twins, backmount ccr, and for some divers also sidemount.
