              
 NEWS
OF THE AVALON-TEAM
MOST OF OUR HOTNEWS HAS MOVED
TO OUR BLOG. MORE NEWS DAN EVER BEFORE...
CLICK HERE!
MARCH 2009
SpeleoBase 2.8.5 is available!
Here you can download a new
version of SpeleoBase. It introduces Export to Google KML,
some improvements and bugfixes
MAY 2008
SpeleoBase 2.8.4 is available!
Here you can download a new
version of SpeleoBase. It introduces a third language, Spanish, and
a new and more modern look. Of course, there are other improvements and
bug fixes.
OCTOBER 2007
Mega-discovery in Fagnoules!
Indeed, we have been very busy in the Chantoir des Fagnoules the
past months. The S5 (Siphon Moche) can now be passed without diving or
pumping, and the following sump (S6) can now also be pumped. The
exploration behind this S6 has yielded a very important network of
galleries. We estimate it to measure at least 500 m, and it is only the
beginning. More news in our Blog, or in the
pages that relate the story (or is it Saga) of Fagnoules.
AUGUST 2007
Well well well! Those Avalon-people must have had some
exciting moments, the past few months? So where is the Hot News?
Well, yes, we can't complain. Exciting it was. But, as
we already have announced, there is now a BLOG. There the news is
brought quicker, and by different people. But, to our regret, (and
yours), only in Dutch
http://scavalon.blogspot.com/.
JULY 2007
The Avalon Blog
Indeed, since everybody is doing it these days, we could not
stay behind. So, we now also have a BLOG. Very soon, you will be able to
read there the latest caving news. The adres:
http://scavalon.blogspot.com/
And here you can read the
latest Avalon-Flash , with news about the Fagnoules, and about a
small (time being!) but nice discovery in Nettinne, the Grotte Mautin.
JUNE 2007
Fagnoules: the saga goes on!
10 June 2007: for most Belgians an important day: national
elections. For us, also an important day because today we would try to
empty the Siphon Moche (S5). The whole day long we were busy with two
heavy pumps, hoses and electricity cables. It was a difficult
undertaking: the sump is located far from the entrance, and the river is
quite powerful. But we did it! An improvised dam held the water just
long enough (15 minutes) to pump the sump and pass it. Risky business...
but we could finally see the splendid "Galerie du Temps qui Passe",
discovered and only seen by the two divers, (Jacques & Michel). We are
already dreaming of pumping the next sump, that gives access to a 15m
long room with several interesting possibilities. To be continued!
MAY 2007
We are very active again in the Lembrée valley, were we
have started digging in several sinkholes, such nr 144 in which we are
already 7 m deep and 15 m far. In Nr 147, we have already progressed for
5m, guided by a strong, cold draught.
APRIL 2007
New: the Avalon-Flash Online
Avalon has a publication called Avalon Flash, that appears +/- every
6 weeks. It is nothing spectacular, just a modest collection of
texts and e-mail reports about our activities and trips. The redaction
is very compact: Dagobert and Paul.
This publication is strictly internal, because it is filled with
top-secret information about our latest discoveries, our possibly
illegal activities and it is the perfect place to gossip about other
clubs or caving personalities. :-)))
But, the fact that the Flash is not published externally is a bit of
a shame too, because sometimes it does contain articles that might be of
interest for others too! So, we have decided to make a slightly modified
version "for the public". Of course, the Avalon Flash is only
available in Dutch language. Click here
for the one and only Avalon-Flash.
H?ault speleocamp
We have just returned from a one week caving holiday in the H?ault
(Tarassac). Just a in 2006, we were welcomed by the Spéléoclub de
B?iers and more exactly Michel Renda and his wife Marie. Because of the
fact that for Michel, no effort is too much to make our caving holiday a
success, because of his profound respect for caves and his positive
attitude towards cave conservation (the club manages several beautiful
caves that are exceptionally well conserved), and because he is such a
pleasant person, a true friend, we have made him honorary member
of SC Avalon!
Picture at the right: Paul De
Bie & Michel Renda
Again we visited some splendid, decorated caves, but we
also did a spectacular river cave, and a sporting trip in Vent d'Anges
(-340). And we saw thousand of cave pearls in all possible sizes and
colours.
Very soon you will find here a new picture gallery and a
trip report of our caving camp!
MARCH 2007
How is it going underground...?
Fine, thank you!
-
We discovered two small caves, with an underground
river: Welva 1 en 2. To be continued. See picture at the right,
after the first exploration (Paul, Annette, Dagobert).
-
We did a possibly important discovery, somewhere
else.
Wait and see.
-
Icing on the cake: we helped our friends of
ESB a few times, in
Trou de la Chaise in Yvoir. Together we have opened the access to a
second river, in which we explored +/- 200 m of nice and spectacular
streamway, with some waterfalls. At another place, we continued a
meander that led to a room and an unstable zone. But we can see a
well decorated continuation!
-
Finally we have revitalized an old project, the
Lembrée valley, and we hope to finish the inventory and topography
of all caves in the valley by the end of 2007.
New Speleobase version 2.7.1
Yes, finally another version that includes a few important changes +
some
bugfixes. First of all you can now export to a (tab delimited) textfile
that is compatible with Google Earth! Simply use File, Open in Google
Earth to import the textfile with your cave
locations. Remark: Google Earth Free does NOT allow import of text
files. You need to buy Google Earth Plus (20 USD) that allows 100
locations to be imported per file.
Look
here for a screenshot.
The second change is this: you can now install and run
SpeleoBase from a USB Flash Drive!
SpeleoBase has been made totally independent of the Windows directory.
No INI files, no dll's etc. will be used from within Windows
directories. So if you put SpeleoBase on a Flash drive, you can use the
drive anywhere (any PC) and run SpeleoBase from there.
Of course, USB Flash drives are less performant than hard drives, and
you risk corrupting the data if you unplug the USB-key before you have
closed SpeleoBase. So take care! But is is very handy when you are on a
caving expedition.
JANUARY 2007
Busy, busy..
 Yes
terribly busy, I haven't much time anymore to get on with this website.
But we are still alive and kicking. A lot of work has been done in two
small caves in Hamoir (Norbert and Danielle) and we even discovered a
third (even smaller) cave there: Michelle. But none of these 3 caves
have revealed their secrets yet. Very slowly we are progressing to what
we hope to be a major cave.
We are also still working in the Chantoir the Fagnoules.
At 3 different places we are trying to shunt the Siphon Moche; the 5th
downstream sump that has already been passed by the divers but not by
us... Thanks to the fact that we can now pass the Siphon Extermin?
(S2) without pumping, we can now visit the entire cave in flood
conditions. Passing the sump with only 10 cm of air space is a bit
frightening, but after the sump, the raging river is just beautiful and
exciting. The 9 m waterfall is impressive. You can hardly believe that
you are in a Belgian cave.
See this picture of Annette in the Fagnoules river.
Activity report 2006 now online
It has once again been a very busy year for us.
You can read about it here, but time being, the report is still in
Dutch.
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