Studying trip number 4.

Hello ....here we are again...😉

Today we woke up - I woke up earlier because something was rumbling on the roof.. - and the sky was covered again...well, but the last few days went well, why should today be any different. So we go to breakfast in a good mood and eat a few French bites. Then as usual, pack our backpack 🎒 BUT with the difference that today we finally have cave equipment with us - yes! 🤩🤩🤩 ...we get in and I'm sooooo excited....Jörg asks: '... where to! Left or?!' and I confidently say: '... to the right!' We start driving and chatting, and I'm so excited about my first French cave 😉 after 10 minutes of driving, I think ....hmmmm....we should almost be at the campsite where we wanted to meet, and suddenly I read the sign 'Pougnadoires'...what now...we were supposed to go to Prades aaannddd....with a small voice I say '... ummmmmhhhh Jööööörg....I think we were actually supposed to go in the other direction' 🙈🙈🙈 luckily we left early and despite the wrong turn, we arrived in Prades on time - but I was just so excited that I confidently said...to the right...ashamed....

Well - but we're on time! After a short discussion about the start time for the paddle tour in the afternoon, which we will kindly accompany so the group doesn't have only one supervisor, we head to the cave tour. The cave is only 5 minutes drive from Prades in Castelbouc. We park the car and I grab the caving equipment that I was kindly lent - because to my even greater joy, my first French cave is a vertical cave. Normally, you enter from the top and descend....you basically enter, rappel down, and can exit the cave from below. But since it has rained so much lately and the level of the Tarn River is so high, we can't do that, so we will have to rappel back up.

We start walking and Jörg accompanies us to the cave entrance. After a starting photo, we begin. I dive into my second home....which the caves have become by now, because I'm so fascinated by them. A handrail rope leads down. After a short time, we stand in front of the first hole....the first rappelling point and I'm happy...10 meters down and in the distance, I hear the roar of the water. Once we reach the bottom, we move a bit further along the handrail rope and come to the second hole....gaping darkness and deafening noise! I hook myself in and start rappelling...4, 5 meters and suddenly a huge hall opens up beneath me....with a mighty dome ceiling...the water below me....I rappel down another 20 meters and then stand at the bottom of this fantastic cave....the exit is illuminated by daylight and resembles a keyhole....I'm overwhelmed 😊😃...simply amazing.....we stay for a moment, check the time, and have to go again....because we also have to climb back up the 35-40 meters and off we go. I hook myself in and start...and suddenly I realize how long it's been since I've been in a vertical cave, because I'm really struggling. It takes me almost 20 minutes to climb the 25 meters, and by the time I reach the top, water is pouring out of every pore - the next 10 meters are a piece of cake in comparison! After 2 hours, we get closer to the exit again and.....could you remember that I said earlier that the weather has been the same every day....forget my nonsense, because it's pouring outside - we just couldn't hear it because of the water in the cave...jackpot 🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧

We walk to the car in pouring rain and when we arrive, I'm wet inside and out....yummy....we drive back to the campsite. Jörg is already waiting and has inflated the boats-THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOOOUUU....I'm glad I can change clothes....no, I'm not, because I have to go from wet cave gear to a wet, cold wetsuit and swim trunks....brrrrrrr....we quickly discuss the division and get started....as all the rain showers that the sky has open up and pours the water behind them onto us...that's also the reason why there aren't many photos in the blog today....the weather was really bad and the camera doesn't take good pictures with droplets on the lens....sorry for that!!!

The tour is great - but Jörg and I would never do such a tour alone with 11 boats and we actually expect some swimmers....but the participants are very lucky and only one crew capsizes. Jörg retrieves the paddle and I retrieve the boat with the participant. The boats forgive a lot today but it could have been different. Shortly before the end of the group's tour, we say goodbye and disembark near our hotel. We store our boats behind the rental container of a commercial provider, as we will start from here early tomorrow. We grab our dry bags / barrels and walk to the road - the hotel is only 200 meters away. To not shock our landlord, we change clothes in a shed, because we have dry clothes with us 😉 changed, we go to the hotel and want to go to our room. Our landlord sees us and our dripping wetsuits and takes pity on us and offers us the garage to hang up our stuff....super super nice!

We hang up our stuff, go to the room, and....we take a nice warm to hot shower - yeaaah....showering, how awesome is that....😋 I think about how long it's been since I had a tour with so much rain and the only thing that comes to mind is the tour on the Main River where we were dripping wet in a strawberry field in the cargo area of a van....do you remember too?? 😆😆😆 After showering, we walk to Ste. Enimie, because our car is still in Prades and we won't see it again until tomorrow....😢 today we go to 'La Bel Ete' for dinner and we are amazed by the food we order even though we can't read anything on the menu.....but hey, it's a study trip after all and you're supposed to learn something 😂😂😂 anyway, what we order is something we like, it tastes really good, and it makes us very full, happy, and satisfied after this day!!! For digestion, there is...no, not a quadruple cognac, just a double...but maybe someone else will enjoy the cognac 😋🤪😂 for me, there's ice-cold pear schnapps, which is so cold that it forms a layer of ice on the glass where the schnapps is....and it's delicious delicious delicious....and after 30 seconds, it starts to do its job and tidy up 🤣

This day ends with an evening walk to the hotel and we send you a hug and say 'Good night!' 😉