Saturday 8th May - Sunday 9th May
It was with a certain amount of excitement that Terry and me met up with Ray, Ian, Steve and Richard just outside the ferry port in Hull. The weather was looking good as we had a last McDonalds milkshake before heading off to the boat. All aboard, we headed for the bar, and woke up in Zeebrugge. A very uneventful 2½ hour drive found us in Han - sur - Lesse, just near Rochefort in the Ardennes. This was to be our base for the week. The sun was shining, the camp site was nice and quiet, and everything looked good. After setting up the camp we decided to explore the town and have some food. After a few beers, our thoughts turned to caving. We selected one nearby, called Trou du nou Maulin. This was about a mile long, with some short pitches. We also made a visit to a gite in town from where we had arranged to pick up a UBS key (a universal access key). That sorted out left the rest of the day to organise the barbecue and some beer for dinner.
Monday 10th May
After we had tried stalling with breakfast, packing our stuff, sorting out ropes, reading the maps, it seemed inevitable we would have to go caving. We parked up by the very obvious cave entrance and made a start. After a fairly abysmal attempt on my part in the top entrance, we opted for the lower entrance. Ray and Richard set off and we eventually all caught up. We had read in the description something about a "memorable pebble filled squeeze". After a short crawl we arrived at this, although it was not particularly memorable. A short climb further on led to some nice big galleries, and the connection to the upper entrance. More simple caving led us to the Fromage du Gruyere, a horrible looking boulder choke. The description said "find a way up through the boulders". After lots of looking at the miraculously suspended boulder ceiling, we eventually found a way through into a vast chamber. Here we found the first pitch, and persuaded Ian to go down, as he had his SRT kit on. Ian ended up on the wrong side of the descent, thanks to our instructions. Ray followed to de-rig this and allow us to change the route. Ian continued finding a few more shorter pitches. According to the description you could pull through and come out through some "small" passages. We sent Ian and Ray off to look, whilst we remained at strategic points along the pitches so that if the way was found we could follow. After a lot of crawling and shouting it was declared that no way on could be found. One was there, but completely filled with flood debris and silt. We set off back up the mud encrusted rope (lovely !!) and made our way out. The evening was spent sampling the local beer, which was superb, and quite late that evening Gerrick turned up, having come over from Calais (Making 7 - see I can count).
Tuesday 11th May
For today we selected a cave called Grotte Saint-Anne. This was a short drive to the north, near Tilff. On arriving at the cave entrance, we had a new challenge to overcome - the UBS lock. This involved lots of lying in a puddle trying to undo the lock with my arm through a hole in the door. This overcome, we were into a decent sized passage with some nice although now very damaged formations. This cave was on four levels, and offered some very varied and enjoyable caving. One of the lower levels had an absolutely superb streamway. Access to the upper levels was through (or over) an easy duck and then up a calcite climb, tackled on your back pushing off the roof. This lead into more spacious passage and some nice deep pools. On the way back, we tried some holes in the floor which led to the lowest level in several places.
An excellent cave. Just for a change, the evening was spent sampling different Belgian beers. I think it was about this time we discovered the Rochefort 10, at a respectable 11.3% abv.
Wednesday 12th May
Todays outing was to Trou de l'eglise, in Mont sur Meuse. This cave was right in the centre of the village in a large shakehole opposite the church (hence the name). Another UBS access one this, so I stayed well back and let someone else have a go. Inside the locked hatch a steel ladder descended around 25 feet. From here a couple of climbs down led to the head of a very steep cascade. This went down a long way until we got into some decent passage. We could see climbs above us, but headed on and decided to tackle them on the return. The passage eventually ended when it got too tight. A climb up led us back over the streamway and to the climbs, including "Salle des Gours". Several of these led to some big formations. One in particular, a huge "organ pipe" was very impressive. Continuing upstream from where we came down the cascade led to some traversing and eventually the squeeze into "Reseau du Babydoll". This was pretty small, and once through it was necessary to lie about how good the rest of the cave looked to encourage people to follow. This quickly came to a miserable end. We returned to the main streamway, and found another climb up which according to the survey would lead us back to the entrance. There were a good number of side passages, climbs, squeezes etc but we eventually came back into a small chamber near the foot of the ladder.
This was a very sporting cave. Although there were no actual pitches other than the entrance ladder, the cave is 78 metres deep. By this time we were getting quite good at enjoying the local hospitality. Steve's amazing talents were also put to good use entertaining us and the other campers.
Thursday 13th May
Today had been nominated as a rest day. Just at the end of the camp site was a kayak hire place, so we headed there. Their longest trip was the descent of the Lesse. A 19km river journey, at the end of which you would 
be given a mountain bike for the 13km bike back. So in a 3 man and two 2 man kayaks we set off. Gerrick and Ray in one, Ian, Steve and Richard in another and Terry and myself in the third. The three man team adopted pinball techniques to start with, bouncing off alternate banks on their way vaguely downstream. To their credit though, they were the only ones to remain in the boat all the time. Ray and Gerrick took about four dunkings, and we got off with just the one. The ride back was pretty enjoyable through some lovely countryside and villages. This was an excellent way to see a bit of the surface features of Belgium, and it was well worth doing. Evening entertainment as before.
be given a mountain bike for the 13km bike back. So in a 3 man and two 2 man kayaks we set off. Gerrick and Ray in one, Ian, Steve and Richard in another and Terry and myself in the third. The three man team adopted pinball techniques to start with, bouncing off alternate banks on their way vaguely downstream. To their credit though, they were the only ones to remain in the boat all the time. Ray and Gerrick took about four dunkings, and we got off with just the one. The ride back was pretty enjoyable through some lovely countryside and villages. This was an excellent way to see a bit of the surface features of Belgium, and it was well worth doing. Evening entertainment as before.
Friday 14th May
Last day of caving. We had saved the Trou Bernard, Belgium's deepest cave, for the last day. We new it was tight, and the pitches one after the other, so we set off at intervals. Ian and Richard were first. Ray, Terry and myself were the last group, and as we arrived at the cave, could see lots of our group sat around at the entrance. Muffled, shouted conversations ensued for some time, whilst we sat in the pleasant little shakehole sunbathing. The general feeling seemed to be that it was very tight. I think Ian used another word, but it slips my mind at the minute. The eventual outcome was that after Ian, Richard and Gerrick had all had a go, Ian getting the furthest, it was a no goer. With everyone out I had a look down a crawl off the first pitch, followed by Gerrick, but that was silly as well. We rounded off the day with a bit of SRT practice in the trees, as it was too late to go to another cave. Gerrick and Ian got pretty intimate doing some mid rope rescue practice, which was entertaining.
We rounded off the day with a cracking meal and quite a large quantity of beer. In our random picking from the beer menu, I got the worst deal of the week with Tourtel at 0.4%. It even tasted foul. We had to follow with some Rochefort 10's. Steve demonstrated more of his skills outside the pub, whilst Ray and Ian had a date with one of the locals.
Saturday 15th May
After packing up, we headed for the Grotte de Han show caves. These were accessed by train, and very impressive. Some huge chambers and spectacular formations. The exit was by boat. After some chips, we set off for the ferry again to be back in England for sunday.
All in all this was an excellent trip. The caving had a good variety of allsorts. The local food and beer was superb. The weather was good when it needed to be, although we did have showers.
The Ardennes is a lovely area, even for a non caving holiday, and easily accessible. We got a lot of the caving information from the Speleoclub Avalon web site (http://users.skynet.be/sky75112/avalonuk/1stpage.htm) which is excellent.
If anyone is considering going to this area, get in touch with one of us, and we can offer advice.
A superb holiday. Thanks to everyone who helped make it.
James Brooks
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