Unplanned Lyon visit

I ended up staying in Lyon for two nights, and although unplanned it turned out to be a very nice weekend. I actually realized that I missed being by myself, and got reminded about how much I love exploring new places and cultures.

Lyon is a very romantic and cozy city, and its size is just perfect for a weekend getaway. The city is known for its historical and architectural landmarks and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The municipality of Lyon has a population of half a million and is France’s third largest city after Paris and Marseille. It is located approximately 470 km from Paris, 320 km from Marseille and 160 km from Geneva It also has an airport of its own, making it very easy to get to.

Lyon by night

I stayed at one of the youth hostels in old town, around 10 minutes walk from the Cathedral of Saint Jean. It had a very nice view over the whole city, and for 30 euros a night it was a perfect choice for me this time around.

View from the youth hostel

I assume this will not be my last time in Lyon, since I completely fell in love with both France and French caves. I therefore did not rush to explore the whole city, but focused on old town and the area around. The city is full of life, as more than 100 000 students live here during the year. I could definitely feel the student vibe, since many students arrive early in order to search for a place to stay and learn to get to know the city. I went running twice along the river, which for me is the best way of exploring a new place. Lyon is actually made for running, with two rivers (the Rhône and the Saône), many parks, churches and great outlooks spread around the whole city which you can enjoy at the same time as getting in shape.

River side in Lyon

Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste

Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste by night

Lyon is also great for walking, relaxing and having fun with friends as it is full of restaurants, cafes, ice creams shops and bars. It actually has more than twenty of the best restaurants in France according to the Michelin Guide (guess where my dive buddies and I will be going next time?).

One of many street restaurants in Lyon

Cozy streets of Lyon

A great meditation spot in one of the parks in Lyon

French caves and villages and Dutch buddies

I have been wanting to go cave diving in France since 2005 when a few of my dive buddies took their GUE cave 1 course there. That was actually what started my whole desire for caves, which to this day still highly exists. They told me the most amazing stories about the course, the caves and Danny (which is why I wanted him to be my cave instructor).

Blars, Frankrike til Saint-Marcel-d’Ardèche, Frankrike – Google Maps

When Bas and Berry asked if I wanted to join them for a week of cave diving in July, I did not need much time to say YES OF COURSE. I was very excited to finally see this region, and also to meet up with divers again. It had been a while since Mexico and my Cave 2 course, and although backpacking is a lot of fun, I have missed diving and spending some quality time with my dive buddies. Bas and Ilya were already in France doing their GUE Cave 2 with Andrea Marassich the week before Berry and I arrived. Berry picked me up at Paris airport on his way down from Amsterdam, and from there we drove to Blars together. It took us a bit longer than planned, as the traffic in Paris on a Friday afternoon in mid July is mildy put terrible. It actually took us almost three hours to get from the airport to the other side of town. Luckily from there it all went smooth and we were at Haralds place just in time for dinner and some highly needed wine and beer.

The Dordogne and Lot area is one of the greatest cave diving areas in the world. The three rivers, Dordogne, Lot and Céle in the central, southern region of France offer over a dozen classic cave dives. The closest bigger sized town is Gramat, but we stayed in the village of Blars (www.lotcavediving.eu). Harald and his wife offer a filling station, three meals a day and accommodation all in one place. They are also based close to most of the caves in the region.

Our house in Blars

On this trip we also decided to spend a few days diving in the Rhône-Alpes region/Ardèche department of France, which is around 5 hours drive away from Blars (400 km). There we stayed at a cute little bed and breakfast called La Michelonne (http://www.lamichelonne.com) based in town of Saint Marcel d’Ardèche (2500 inhabitants).

La Michelonne – our bed and breakfast in Ardeche

The best time for cave diving in France is between May and September when there is not much rain and the water levels are fairly low. The water temperature averages 14 degrees and the visibility normally varies between 5 and 30 meters.The guidelines in most caves start in open water, and are relatively well laid. But further inside in most systems unmarked t-junctions and double or even multiple parallel lines are often encountered. Care should therefore be taken, and adequate amounts of line arrows and cookies reserved. For anyone planning to visit the area, the Underwater Guide to the Lot & Dordogne by Andrew Ward provides useful information about the access and the layout of several of the caves.

One aspect of this area that I was not aware of is the amazing scenery above the water. It literally took my breath away! The mountains, the cute little villages and towns, the river valleys – everything is truly beautiful. Not to mention the food and the wine, and at last but not least the company. Nobody in the team was in any rush. We took our time and enjoyed our days fully. In addition to diving, we went out for dinner, had good conversations, gazed at the stars, enjoyed the nature and went running a few times as well.

The best buddies a girl could ask for!

One of the days we drove past Rocamadour (40 km from Blars), a sacred town and important pilgrimage site perched on the side of a limestone cliff and towering over the Alzou canyon. It is worth a stop, although we did not have time as we were headed to one of the caves close by (Fontaine du Truffe) and it was already getting late.

Rocamadour

We also stopped in Gramat twice, once for drinks and once for dinner. Gramat is around 40 km away from Blars and it has around 4000 inhabitants. The town centre is a pleasant place to explore with several interesting buildings, medieval houses and monuments of interest. Around town there are several lovely French villages to explore, but again we only drove pass them this time as most cave divers probably do (http://www.france-voyage.com/travel-guide/lot-departement.htm).

A lovely moment in one of Gramats churches

My favorite place on the trip (above water) was Aiguèze, a little medieval village overlooking the gorges of Ardeche, around 10 km away from Saint Marcel d’Ardèche. It has around 200 inhabitants and is classified to be one of the most beautiful villages in France. We had dinner there twice during our stay, and loved both the food and the views of the surrounding area. On the way to Aiguèze you will pass a slightly bigger village (1000 inhabitants) called Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche, which has a very nice suspension bridge from 1905 – gorgeous in the moon light on a clear summer night. The village also has some nice beaches and restaurants along the river. If you ever get sick of diving the caves (yea right!), or you have your family with you, there is plenty of kayaking, canoeing, hiking, cycling, mountain biking and horseback riding opportunities in the area.

View from Aiguèze

Walking in Aiguèze

A suspension bridge from 1905 in Saint-Martin-d’Ardèche

We dove the following caves during our week in France:

Le Gouffre de Cabouy

Le Gouffre de Cabouy

Le Gouffre de Cabouy is located next to the Cabouy pumping station that takes water to service the local region. There is a car park on the right of the pumping station. Take you kit down to the water edge and leave it on the little beach. Once kitted up enter the water, swim to the pipe on the far side of the lake and you’ll see the mainline attached there. Initially the cave drops to 30 meters then starts to rise again, follows a straight path and rises up to shallower depths again. This was my first cave dive since April in Mexico. Needless to say, it was good being back!

Fontaine du Truffe

Fontaine du Truffe

Fontaine du Truffe is a very pretty cave system, with a tight entrance. We had to dig and push our way in through the rocks (a small shovel would have been nice). After the entrance the cave opens up and it actually looks a bit like some of the caves in Mexico with its white walls. The water in La Truffe in summer comes from percolation through the limestone, which means crystal clear visibility. An amazing dive!

Fontain de St George

Fontain de St George is in the Dordogne Valley, near to Montvalent. The sump pool is large and picturesque, some 30m in diameter, and only a short distance from the car parking. The cave starts in the bottom of the resurgence pool at about 10m depth and descends at a steep 45 degree angle over a gravel slope with a low ceiling that hangs-down in a series of ridges giving the impression of gummy, mouth-like gaps. This passage can be a little awkward at times averaging about 2m high and 5m wide, but once you get through it at near to 30m depth, the passages are wide and open. We did not have the best visibility, but I still enjoyed diving here. In good vis it must be really great!

Emergence du Ressel

Emergence du Ressel

Emergence du Ressel is a very large impressive cave that starts in the bed of the river Céle near the small village of Marcilhac. In the beginning it is a clean washed passage of about 150m in length and with a cross-section at least the size of a double garage door. It then splits into two passages: one tunnel stays shallower at about 10m depth whilst the other runs broadly in the same direction dropping repeatedly until it reaches around 18m. The two passages rejoin (making a nice round-trip for those new to cave diving) and, 300m from the entrance, the cave takes the first of two dramatic plunges, eventually descending in a spectacular cavernous rift to about 45m. From this point the entrance is getting towards half a kilometer away and the dive is increasingly technical, descending first to about 50+ meters fairly soon, then, after some time to as much as 77m before beginning to ascend and eventually entering into another rift that towers to a dry section of cave nearly two kilometers from the start. I guess I do not need to say that this was for sure the best dive of the week. I loved every second of it, and cannot wait to get back!

Source de la Marnade

Source de la Marnade lies in the forest, making it a bit tricky to find if it is your first time. We spent, well around four hours looking for it, mainly because we had taken the wrong road. It was 40 degrees outside, so exploring the French forest was not high up on our lists of things to do that day, but we did not give up at any point, and finally we managed to find the right way. After finding the cave, we had to carry our gear for around 150 m each way. Since we were diving with stages it took us 4-5 trips there and back to get all the gear in place. It was around 5 pm by the time we got in the water, but the cave was worth it. The vis was nice and the walls very pretty. By the time we got out of the water, got all the gear back to and into the car it was already close to 10 pm. Luckily we found a restaurant that was open in Aiguèze – pizza and ice cream never tasted as good. We were pretty d… tired by the time we got back to our bed and breakfast – it felt like a true exploration day!

Goul de la Tanneri and Goul du Pont

Goul de la Tanneri

Goul du Pont

Goul de la Tanneri and Goul du Pont are two caves fueled by the water from same plateau in town of Bourg-Saint-Andéol. Although only 100 meter apart they are very much different. Goul de la Tanneri is a wider, bigger and shallower than Goul de Pont. Because of low levels of water we could not dive it extensively as wanted this time around, but we still managed to have fun in there. We took a few short jumps to explore some of the side passages, where the visibility drops very quickly by the way. All in all we stayed in there for almost an hour. For the first 100 m Goul de Pont is around 10-15 m deep. After that it drops deep pretty fast, through a huge spectacular shaft. Totally around 600 m of the cave is explored, down to the depths of 180 m. Since we were diving 32 % nitrox we barely touched the 30 meter mark before we turned the dive. Although short, this part was truly magnificent and worth all the effort. We are hoping for higher water levels next time!

The boys dropped me of in Lyon on their way back home to Amsterdam, so that I could catch my flight back to Split. It had truly been a great week, and France did not disappoint me at all. I cannot wait to be back and explore more next time. Luckily Paris and Lyon are not a long flight away from Oslo, so I will be back sooner rather than later!

(Parts of the text about the caves are copied from http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/cave/, http://www.ocean-discovery.org/cavedivingfrance.htm, http://deepinthedark.com )

Surpriseeeee!

It started after my friends left Mexico and went back to Norway. I am not sure what happened, but I felt more restless and started feeling a need to slow down. As I have written before, that is what I did. It definitely helped, and I enjoyed both Guatemala and Honduras fully. The consequence was that I would not get to see Nicaragua and Costa Rica this time around, but considering the amount of wanderlust this heart of mine has, I knew I would see them one day. 

After I caught chikungunya, I felt it again. This lack of peace in my mind. Not so strange you might think, since I was bed bound for almost a week. And all of those who know me or have been around me for a few days, know I am not a big fan of doing nothing. Even now with meditation slowing down my internal desire to constantly do something, I do like to move and be active. As soon as I was feeling a bit better, I decided to discover every street and path I could on my way. For two weeks I was extremely active. Lots of walking, lots of running, lots of hiking, lots of swimming and lots of kayaking. It was amazing! I also decided another thing though. It was time to head home. It has been on my mind on and off for the last month. I was about to change my ticket several times. I did not know for sure though. Where to go? How long to stay? I literately did not know what I was going to do more than a day ahead. I would wake up in the morning thinking «hmmm where to go to tomorrow?». Most often I would not have an answer before the evening before. But I trusted the process. I knew I was going to get where I was suppose to be, in time. So it happened. One day I was ready and I changed my tickets to Europe from 9th of July to 30th of June. I was «done» with sightseeing, humidity and tortillas this time around. Understand me correctly, I love this lifestyle, I really do, but 10 days were not going to change my life profoundly, and I really really wanted 1) to surprise my mum 2) to get to the gym (yea I know two somewhat different reasons). 

I always miss Croatia when summer is around the corner. Every year ever since I was a little girl the same thing happens. I start missing the smell of the ocean, the smell of the pine trees and the smell of grilled fish. It is funny, but there has not been a year in my life where I have not felt this. No matter where I am, no matter who I am with, I always miss it and want it. I have been to quite a few places in my life, but nothing can replace the view of Dalmatia and the Adriatic sea in summer…nothing!!!

It is part of the story that Neos who I was flying with from Cancun to Italy, managed to change my tickets to the wrong date. They of course did this while I was in the area with the worst internet reception in the whole of Guatemala, but again I trusted the process. I could not do much else, and it would for sure not help me in any way to stress around. Luckily at the end, they got the dates and destination right. I had two weeks left of my trip as backpacker this time around! A bit weird, but it felt right. 

I decided to head to Tikal and from there to Belize for a few days of diving in San Pedro, before heading for Tulum for a few days of cave diving and then flying to Milan from Cancun. This is probably the first time in two months that I had made specific plans about where to be and when, and of course none of the plans worked out. I got stuck in El Remate and Bacalar with a huge food poisoning, for the first time on my whole trip (except for a few minor cases before in Cambodia and Mexico). I spent my last three days in Tulum recovering, going to the beach, running and going to the gym. 

So although I did not get to dive in Belize nor Tulum, I did get to Cancun in time for my flight at least. It is also part of the story that I did not manage to get there with all my stuff. I managed to leave my wing at Zero Gravity! Even after going there twice in one day to get my gear, I still left something behind. The first time around I forgot my (steel) back plate, three regs and fins. I only discovered it after getting back to Tulum and opening my bag, luckily in time to go back before leaving for the airport. I still have no clue how this is even possible to do – those things way 10 kg all together and not once did it occur to me that my bag might be a bit too light (well I was actually happy with it being so light, but never suspicious enough to actually open it up and check its content while at Zero Gravity). Hopefully the wing can make its way to Europe and me this summer! 

Anyway, I am back in Europe after 10 months, actually I am on my way to Ancona where I will be taking a ferry over to Split tonight. There my uncle will be waiting for me and drive me to Vodice. I cannot post this before I actually get there, since I do not want to ruin the surprise. This post will be up tomorrow morning, by which time I should be having breakfast with my family infront of my house in Vodice. I am very much excited, although it did feel somewhat sad to leave the hostel in Milan this morning knowing it was my last one in a while. Seminormal life here I come!