I entered the system around round 12.30 pm. I expected to have some hard time with carrying all my gear (harness with weights, 3l and 2l cylinders, 80cm crowbar, 50m tape, fins and a dry box) through the chokes and squeezes of that section but actually it was grand, even better, I enjoyed it! I guess I was already running on the wings of anticipated discoveries… I passed the Madeleine’s sump in 3min which included some ridiculous entanglement when the tape snagged the main line. Oh well…
The first thing when I surfaced was opening the dry box and checking how badly it leaked (the sump is -8m deep). The Suunto tandem , extra secured in a condom (safety above all) was fine and so was my Stenlight and its battery pack. I mounted the light on my helmet, dropped the cylinders and headed off, quickly regaining my previous limit of exploration – The Muddy Towers. Those mud formations covering an area of two square metres looked like a miniature model of the volcanic landscape of Cappadocia with its conical shape fairy chimneys. I found another way to avoid damaging those unique formations and continued over a pile of shattered boulders. The stream was emerging from a tight rift which seemed to be closing further ahead but I’ve noticed a possible way on through some equally tight section, however with large cavern visible behind. Excited I crawled through this again delicate area, emerging in a breathtaking, 20m long and 6m wide chamber. The ceiling was heavy with calcite straws and stalactites while the walls and the sections of the floor were covered with flowstone and gour pools, all of them shining magically in the beam of my torch. And though I tried not to be distracted too much from my quest of reaching the Cascades I just couldn’t not to think at that moment about my favourite part (5:40) of Rick Wakeman’s suite Journey to the Centre of the Earth:
Crystals of opaque quartz, studded limpid tears,
Forming magic chandeliers, lighting blistered galleries…
I checked the north end of the chamber in search for the way on but there seemed to be none. Then, remembering a similar chamber that we found a week before while exploring from Cascades and into which we broke through the boulders from the stream level underneath, I thoroughly examined the floor of the cavern and there it was: a small gap among the boulders dropping to the water level 2m below. It was one of those holes you need to breathe out to squeeze through. Estimating my chances of managing to get back a solid 80% I wriggled through, landing noisily in the waist deep pool of water. Wading through those crystal clear water canals with a crowbar in one hand and a torch (Q40 on a Goodman handle) in the other I felt like a thief who just broke into some ancient tomb. But I was there to explore, not to plunder, and the ongoing passage was my only reward. I checked the compass: NE – good, each metre of progress was closing the gap between two systems.
I passed a low duck after which I became very vigilant of any sign of rising water – if entrapped in such confined space my chances would be slim. After 20m of clear water canal I arrived to a chamber occupied by a pool of muddy water. There seemed to be no way on above the surface level, but another investigation, with a diving gear and maybe during some less stressful weather conditions should hopefully yield a continuation of the passage. On the other hand the suitable, unsurveyed lead from Cascades that we visited on 17.11.2009 (marked at the map as a dotted red line ) could be only metres away - its final section that could be seen through a tight slot looked very alike the end of Swann’s Way.
Due to unstable weather I decided to leave surveying for another visit and I made only rough sketches on the way out. There must be at least 100m of a dry passage behind the sump. I packed my Stenlight back to the dry box, dived back through Madeleine’s Sump, packed all the gear and started my exit.
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