Projects > Source de Vis 2007 (September)

Setup Day

Latest update: October 6, 2007

By Jutta Arens

Jörg and I left home at around 2 pm to pick up Torsten Schnitter for his first EKPP project. After a 13 hours drive from Aachen and meeting with Reinhard and Hoffi somewhere near Paris, we arrived at 3:30 am at the Vis "camp site". Only half an hour later even Reinhard finished hammering tent pegs into the ground ;-) and everybody fell into a quick-recharge-sleep.

After a big hello with the other team members and a nice camping breakfast, we agreed in the briefing to first transport all the push divers´ equipment to the cave, then bring it into the cave. That way Reinhard and Markus could start assembling their gear while the rest of the team would transport the support divers gear then. We also agreed to have guards sleep at the cave to protect the gear during the night.

Around 9:30 we started carrying Markus and Reinhards gear to the cave. With max. three walks each, we managed to place everything in front of the cave. Another 45 minutes later all stuff was placed in the cave and we had a quick lunch at the cars, before hauling the support divers equipment from the cars to the cave. This was finished quickly, because we decided to carry only the stage tanks we needed for the set up dives and bring the tanks needed for the support dives the next day in the morning.

Getting the support gear into the cave was also done efficiently followed by another break. While some had a little nap to compensate for the short night before, the others listened to the music some french folks made on the other side of the valley and talked about diving - what else...

Soon the set up divers got ready for diving while the rest of the team started placing Reinhards and Markus stage tanks in front of the opening to the water. Next task was to place all the gear in the water so Jörg and JP could transport it to the right places where the push divers would need them the next day.

It was Torsten Sommerlatt's job to receive the gear in the water while Jörg and JP brought the stages through the restriction deeper into the cave. At last the scooters and heating tubes where carried towards and into water and then the waiting started for the set up divers to finish.

At 17:30 o´clock we could start to transport the first three of Jörg and JP's emptied stages back to the cars and get everything ready for Jörg, Hoffi and me for sleeping in the cave. The team decided to have the evening barbeque with us at the cave so we didn´t have to sit there alone. But this meant that the charcoal, the food and the sleeping gear needed transportation too. So we started one last walk for the day... The food and the barbeque was prepared and all shared what they had brought for diner.

I was quite happy to sleep at the cave - this meant I didn´t have to walk back to the car before sleep. The first moment in my sleeping bag in the cave felt a bit weird, but Jörg and Hoffi were there next to me. The cave turned out to be even warmer than the night before in the tent. There must have been a reason why our ancestors decided to live in caves, before they started building houses... Except of some animal waking us up early in the morning, nothing happened during the night and we got knocked up by Torsten Schnitter who arrived before the rest of the team with some breakfast for us.

So the push dive day could start!

Jutta