What Could So Hold the Interest of my Caving Friends?
August 5, 2007 by rockwatching
Dirty woman!
IMG_6954, originally uploaded by Mic2006.
From left to right - Marc (SQS), Greg (TCG) and Corneilie (SQS) all crouched around an area of flowstone on the floor. This is in the cave that we visited last weekend - a place of great natural beauty along the northern reaches of Ontario’s dolostone rim. Dolostone is not all that well known for its cave formations but this tunnel system is an exception top other known Ontario passages.
Of particular importance are the growing connections between Ontario and Quebec-based cavers. My regular caving friend (sadly nursing a severe injury at this time) is making some great French-Canadian caving contacts and so are several other cavers. I suppose the initial contact came through Corneilie who is a member of both the TCG and SQS - we can only benefit from that alliance - they are great people and very experienced.
Marc who is the head guide at Le Fleche has invited us up and also mentioned new tunnel that he, Corneilie and Donald have found. The way ahead seems to be through “Sump digging” - with plenty of speculation about some really long underwater connections.
An amusing story from Marc during lunch in the forest above - Apparently there is a bridge over a chasm in the Le Fleche Caves. While digging below Corneilie was spotted by several tourists. All hunched over and splattered in mud from head to toe - Corneilie looked every bit the Niebelungen (cave dwarf) for which their caving club is named. Proudly Marc explained to the perplexed visitors “Yes there is indeed someone down there - a dirty woman - she’s my wife” I wonder if they understood the excitement of a cave dig?
Good relationships and friendships between all Canadian caver can only be a good thing.!! Indeed Cornelie was one of the first to bridge the gap along with Greg/Marcus/Brad through time.
Since the survey trip that Christian Chenier taught there are quite a few dual TCG / SQS members now!
Cavers must stay connected as we are a small community and so few share our interests. By sharing with each other our worlds are greatly enlarged. And yes, the SQS are a fine group of people. Mick