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.