Projects > Gourneyras 2004 (July)

Newbie's point of view

Latest update: July 25, 2004

By Marcel Meyer

One of the best cave diving activities I was involved in was the EKPP project at the Gourneyras cave in July 2004.

After an eleven hours drive across Germany and France we reached the finish: the Gourneyras. I knew this cave and its surrounding area only from videos and photos but in real, the cave and the nature around was much more beautiful than I expected.

After we arrived at 2:40 a.m. we slept some hours before the big "workout" began. At 7 o'clock in the morning Ralph, Brus, Ward and I started to build up the rope station for bringing down all the equipment. Since that point I realized that I was a part of a really good team.

It was hard, but also fun to bring all the stuff down. After the biggest part of the stuff was down at the source pool area, I got into the water with Brus and Ralph to bring some stages and scooters in the cave for Viktor and Silvia. I took two scooters and two stages, like Brus. Ralph was ready to take some pictures with his Nikonos.

As we started the dive my first impression in the cavern zone was, that this wasn't a cave, because it took me quite long to see the roof and the walls. The tunnel is so big that you can drive through with four trains side by side. We placed two 80m stages at 21m, two 35/35 stages at 36m with a heating tube and two Gavin scooters at 45m.

We then surfaced and Brus and I picked up two 36m deco stages and two 100m drive stages from Michael and Reinhard to place them at 21m and 36m. While placing a stage you have to pressurize the regulator again and have a look for bubbles leaving the regulator or the valve.
Because this is a standard procedure I realized a leakage on Michaels' 100m stage. So we brought it up again for changing the regulator.

After the regulator was changed Jiles and Gertjan placed the stage again. They also brought the remaining stages, scooters and heating tubes down to 45m.

After this dive Brus, Ralph, Ward and I installed the habitat. The first time I worked with a habitat showed me that this was really difficult. We flooded the habitat and tried to inflate it so that it was neutrally buoyant. After some tries, Ward had the solution: installing four big lead weights on each corner of the habitat. So, the habitat was stabilized and could be easily inflated and installed under the ceiling at 9m. Then we clipped on it some oxygen and break gas stages for Reinhard and Michael.

All support dives were done with a trimix 21/35 breathed from stages only. The backgas was bailout.

After everything was prepared for the next day, we made a barbecue. But better than the barbecue was to go to bed because I was too tired to get my fork to my mouth.

The next morning I waked up at 6:00 a.m., had breakfast and both explorers started for the push dive. Now, everything went a bit more seriously. The push dive started around 8 o'clock in the morning.

After this, the empty tanks and stuff that was not needed anymore was brought up to the road. As Michael and Reinhard came back from their dive and started deco, everything they didn't need anymore was also brought up. As meal for the time in the habitat, lamb chops "Austrian style" was made. As Michael and Reinhard were ready to get in the habitat, Ralph and Chaled and Brus and I went down to help them to get out of the double rebreather setup and enter the habitat safely. Ralph and Chaled helped Reinhard and Brus and I helped Michael. Brus took the double rebreather and I held my long hose ready for Michael. After the two entered the habitat, the setups were brought out and up. Now, only the habitat with the deco gas and heating tube and some support stuff was down. All the other stuff was at the top of the rope station or at the pool.

Brus and I brought down the lamb chops and pasta. After they both finished their deco at 9m, they ascended under the watchful eye of the support divers Jiles, Gertjan, Brus and Ward. With a big smile, they raised their heads above the water.

The habitat was brought out and together with the other stuff up to the road. After everything was up at the mountain station, it was barbecue time. Reinhard and Michael summarized the push dive and the team discussed the project and some other topics. So the push dive day took his "happy" end.

Everything and everybody was perfectly organized and the complete weekend went over without problems. I think that's one of the reasons for the big success of the EKPP.
By the way I would like to thank all involved guys for showing me good teamwork, a great cave and some nice days with nice guys in nice nature. If I have the chance to join another project in the future it will be a pleasure for me.