Cantabria Trip: -
August 2019
At around
the same time as the Red Rose contingent were heading over to Annecy we got the
ferry to Santander to join the Wessex on their expedition to Cantabria. Our intention was to take advantage of them rigging
Cueto-Coventosa for the through trip and then explore a few caves in Matienzo.
While I had been reading up on Cueto-Coventosa I had found out that the
connection had been made in 1979, which at the time made it the deepest through
trip in the world at 815m, and with me also celebrating my 40th it seemed like
a very appropriate year to complete the trip.
The Wessex
were staying at Bar Tomás in Ogarrio but we had decided to base ourselves in
Matienzo instead. After a long and very
choppy ferry crossing we were glad to arrive at Bar German for food and a
restorative beer or two before heading to our apartment.
On Sunday
morning we headed over the hill to meet up with the Wessex crew for a walk to
suss out the route to Cueto entrance and to take up the ropes for the rigging
team heading in the next day. We drove
over to Bustablado in convoy with only one wrong turn where the locals looked
baffled at the sight of a convoy of Brits driving through the tiny hamlet! Without further incident we found the parking
spot and, marking the way with tape, began our walk. It was a very warm but wet day where you
weren’t sure whether you were dryer with or without waterproofs.
The walk
was lovely, beginning in the woods then climbing along the limestone ridges where
we enjoyed the views during brief breaks in the cloud. Although a couple of people ended up with
bloody shins after slipping on the sharp rocks.
It was a large group so the walk was very steady giving me a good
opportunity to chat and get to know a few people. Eventually we reached the small entrance,
dropped the bags off and had a peak down the seemingly bottomless entrance
pitch before making our way back down the hill.
Phase one was completed, the rigging bags were in place and
we knew
the way to the entrance, so we made our way back to Bar Tomás for a beer or two
to rehydrate.
The mission for Monday was
to take an armada of blow up boats in to make the crossing of the lakes in
Coventosa safer and easier. Bill also
wanted to take some photographs in the Fantasmas. Again we headed over to Ogarrio and piled
into Noel’s car for the journey to the Coventosa parking spot where we changed
and made the short walk to the entrance.
With the huge amount of kit to be taken to the lakes there were lots of folks
in the cave making progress slow. We
decided to turn back just before the lakes to ensure we still had the time and
enthusiasm to take photos. We met
another group on the way out and Frank Tully, also of the Red Rose, joined us
to have a look at the Fantasmas and got roped into helping with the
photographs. We were all very impressed
at the spectacular formations which were so close to the entrance and Bill got
some nice photographs. With the boats in
place we retired to Bar Tomás for beers (seems to be becoming a habit!).
As a “rest day” before the
big through trip we decided to visit Torca del Dron (site 4669) in the Matienzo
valley with Andy Morse, Cookie & Frank Tully. In 2018 Bill had been part of a team which
first explored the new cave and as their rope had not been long enough to get
to the bottom of the big pitch he wanted to return. This time we made sure we had enough rope so
Bill was finally able to descend the pitch and take a few nice snaps.
While they were doing this I wriggled along the low
bedding to check out what Si Cornhill and Di Arthurs had told us looked like a
potential way on. After dinner at Bar
Tomás that evening with the Wessex we came up with a plan for our through trip. The early slots in the day were already “booked
up” so we decided on a more leisurely start to avoid any congestion.
The next morning we headed
over to Bar Tomás for about 11.30 and met Andy Morse, Cookie, Rob Harper &
Frank Tully. With the help of Rob’s wife
we shuttled a couple of cars over to Coventosa then headed up to Cueto where
Cookie realised he had left his wellies behind, so had to return to Bar Tomás
to collect them. In the blazing sunshine
we started slowly walking in (what’s that saying about Mad Dogs and
Englishmen?) stopping for a breather in any small bits of shade we could
find. At the entrance we had a rest and
a butty before kitting up. Cookie had
caught us up by then after being
reunited with his wellies and we
decided Andy,
Rob and Cookie would give us a head
start then follow us into the cave.
Frank set off down the
entrance pitches followed by Bill so I had plenty of time to get nervous while
watching their lights get smaller and smaller as the call of rope free
regularly floated up from the darkness.
I was very glad it was hard rigged and we didn’t have to pull
through! The rigging team had
thoughtfully provided a cord loop at each re-belay which made the free hanging
ones far less of a faff pass. Soon I was
at the ledge at -196m and glad to momentarily have my feet on solid
ground. After another couple of
re-belays the bottom of Pozo Juhué was reached but the pitches kept coming and
coming, I felt like we must be well on our way to the centre of the earth
before we finally dropped into Galería de Juhue at -581m.
We had a quick snack,
checked the survey and were off stomping along the huge passageway up and down
over boulders and slopes; eventually we gratefully reached the landmark of El
Oasis and made a brief stop to refill water bottles. We continued along the passage to the Pozo de
la Navidad and smaller but no less impressive passageways. Many of these were decorated with
fantastically varied gypsum formations of claws, flowers and crystals which continued
for a long way making us regularly stop and gaze at them in amazement.
Along the way we also
descended a number of short pitches which were equipped with what we nicknamed
“pie rope” as it was so thick and stiff you needed to have eaten a lot of pies
to get it to go through your stop!!
There was also a rather exciting traverse around the Pozo de la Unión
where we couldn’t help thinking how entertaining it must have been to cross it
originally.
The galleries grew smaller
forcing us to crawl and the draft stronger as we got closer to the Agujero
Soplador, we had our breath taken away literally and metaphorically at how
windy it was there. Frank disappeared
first and shouted up a warning at how narrow it was. Bill attached his stop to his cows tail and
descended with a bit of grunting and udging, I followed as the call of rope
free blew up the pitch.
By this point it was getting quite late and we were
starting to feel hungry and tired as we had been on the move since the bottom
of the big pitches without a proper break.
There was still a fairly
strong draft in this bit of the cave so we decided to press on toward the lakes
and find somewhere a bit less chilly to stop.
We descended to the Lago de la Tirolina finding a nice picnic spot on the
beach afterwards where we broke out the sandwiches and had a sit down for a
short while. Feeling a bit more
refreshed we set out to face the crossing of the lakes.
Dropping down the slope we
were please to see that at least the first of the small flotilla of boats which
had been placed at each lake were still inflated and waiting for us to
embark. Bill and I donned the inflatable
life jackets we had bought as an extra precaution as the lakes are long and
cold. We loaded Frank and the bags into
one boat and Bill and I got into the other and we quickly pulled ourselves
across the first lake. I volunteered to
return with boats to ensure they were in place for the team following us. As I rounded the corner and lost sight of the
others it began to feel a little bit spooky crossing the lake on my own. It also seemed to coincide with a bit of a
sugar crash, the sandwiches didn’t seem to have kicked in yet, so by the time I
rejoined Bill and Frank I was feeling a bit shaky! A handful of Jelly Babies soon sorted me out
and we were on our way across the second lake.
This was bit trickier with sharp rocks lurking just below the
surface. One of the boats didn’t seem to
be quite as inflated as it should have been so had probably had a brush with
them on previous voyages. I returned
again with the boats, feeling a bit more confident this time as it wasn’t such
a long voyage and I was fortified with Jelly Babies.
Just
the last lake to cross and again we had to navigate the rocks laying in wait
under the water, we reached terra firma with no incidents and again I shuttled
the boats back. Bill and I took off our
life jackets and packed them away feeling very glad we hadn’t had to test them
out in the cold water. After a few minutes
splashing down the streamway we soon reached the point where we had turned
around on our recce trip a few days earlier so knew we only had around an hour
of caving to reach the entrance. Despite
the late (early?) hour this spurred us on and we made steady progress out of
the cave not too tired to again admire the splendid
formations
we passed. Soon we reached the pitch
near the entrance and knew we were nearly there, we could feel the air getting
warmer (despite it being the early hours of the morning) and suddenly, seeing
trees and plants, realised we were out of the cave.
As we walked along the
path in the rain a enormous toad hopped into the path and I wondered for a
second if I was more tired than I thought and was imagining it! Back at the parking spot it felt good to get
out of caving gear and know it wasn’t long before we could have a hot shower
and get into bed. Unfortunately for
Frank, as we set off he realised that although he had the key to his hotel room
he didn’t have a key to the front door of the hotel. We didn’t think they would appreciate an
early morning wakeup call so Bill and I offered him the sofa bed in our
apartment and we all headed back to Matienzo to get some sleep. The next day we
had a well deserved rest and a wander around Ramales de La Victoria attempting
to get some shopping but all the shops had shut early due to a festival the
following day.
The next day we had a well deserved rest and a wander
around Ramales de La Victoria attempting to get some shopping but all the shops
had shut early due to a festival the following day. In the last two days of the trip we visited Llanío via the new SubPhone Entrance (site
4536) to and Simas del Picón (site 0075) in the Matienzo area for Bill to take
photographs. Although a “technical
hitch” means we will have to return to Picón for those photos. Then it was time for us to head for home and
the long, but thankfully less choppy, ferry journey back to the UK.
I had heard
tales of how fantastic the Cueto-Coventosa through trip was for many years so
was worried that it wouldn’t live up to the hype but it definitely didn’t
disappoint. The entrance pitches were
absolutely spectacular and the rest of the caving so varied with the character
changing just as you were beginning to have too much of a good thing. There was everything you could want in a trip
– massive passages and pitches, beautiful formations, lakes to cross and a fun
stream way to splash along. It kept up
the interest from beginning to end.
Thanks to
Frank and Bill for being great company on the through trip (it ended up being an
unofficial Red Rose trip in the end!) and to the members of the Wessex who
worked so hard to organise it.
Emma Key
