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Between the 17th and 25th May 2025, YDG directors Mike & Steph headed out to the wonderful Doubs/Comte region of France for a bit of caving CPD! A cave called the Reseau de Verneau had been on Mike’s list for a very long time and so was the main objective of the trip, although with a week there was plenty of scope to visit some other excellent caves from our base in the quaint village of Ornans, just south of Besancon.
Everyone arrived at the campsite (Le Chanet) on the Saturday afternoon and got settled in before catching up to make a plan for the first days caving. The plan was to get the entrance and exit of the Verneau rigged ready for the through trip – around 9km of world-class caving in one of the best caves in Europe! And so on the Sunday morning, Mike & Callum headed to the Gouffre du Bief Bousset (top entrance) while Martin & Dave headed to the Grotte Baudin (exit). One of the perks of this cave is the proximity of the entrances to the road – we had caves the quality of Yorkshire with the approach of Mendip….heaven!!
Within 5mins of changing and leaving the cars, I was starting the rigging down the stunning, albeit a little muddy, entrance shaft of the Bief Boussett. The presence of fixed resin anchors made the job easy and we were soon stomping off down towards the second pitch. Mud quickly disappears to leave a wonderful clean-washed passage in bright white rock and it wasn’t long before the first set of pitches were rigged and we were into along horizontal section to the second set of pitches, which we hoped would have fixed rigging on them, but we had the ropes with us just in case. I’d heard mixed reports of the meander which links the two sets of pitches, but found it to be great fun…..a real mix of walking, crawling, easy squeezes, traversing on generally excellent though at times slippy ledges, and generally fun involved caving! After around 40mins or so we arrived at the fixed ropes which lead down to the Collecteur – the main river passage of the Verneau. Callum was in front at this point so quickly dropped down these pitches to make sure all the ropes were okay, before we headed back out reaching the surface after a very pleasant 3hr or so trip. Martin and Dave arrived back at the campsite later in the afternoon after a successful trip checking the fixed rigging in the Baudin. It was all in place and in good condition, so we were all set for the trip. They had enjoyed visiting a ~2km section of the excellent Verneau river passage.
Unfortunately, as Monday dawned bright, the forecast didn’t and we decided to postpone the through trip until later in the week due to the thunderstorm risk which had been brought about my a weather front easing its way into France off the Atlantic. And so on the Monday we decided on a shorter trip down the Gouffre Baume des Cretes – one of the higher entrances into the Verneau system which was mostly dry caving until the river is reached at a depth of just under 200m. This was an excellent trip, with a very impressive 40m entrance shaft dropping into a huge chamber full of beautiful stal. A long, steep slope leads down between towering formations, which was akin to caving in China, until the start of a more varied descent with short pitches, boulder chokes, crawls and climbs interspersed with decorated chambers. An easy duck was passed to gain a tall narrow streamway which suddenly arrived at a huge black space with the sound of the river below – the collecteur. We decided given it was still early in the day to have a ~30mins explore of the passage below before heading out. Downstream quickly reached large mud banks and generally filthy going. Upstream led to a marvellous streamway with stunning cascades of clear blue-tinted water, deep pools and a tall clean-washed passage. We followed it for several hundred metres before arriving at a chamber and further pitch into the ongoing streamway. It was time to head out though, so we turned around and started making our ascent back to the surface. This had been a very enjoyable caving trip and one to do again for sure to explore further upstream, but with a more settled forecast.
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On the Tuesday we headed to the Grotte de Covettes, a cave ideal for a poor weather forecast. Again, the entrance was right beside the road, and even had a small purpose-built parking area and information sign about the cave. The Covettes was popular with guided groups and there was a group in there when we arrived. Another fairly large entrance quickly led into a smaller rift passage and couple of junctions before rising into a large chamber complete with zip-wire which the group of young kids were enjoying as we arrived. The zip-wire crossed the chamber but can be bypassed via a narrow rift with short fixed ladder part way along. Arriving at the other side we soon reached the awkward and slippy ‘Faux-pas’ traverse which Dave soon had rigged off a series of fixed resin anchors. We felt a couple more would have been sensible given the distance between anchors and slippy nature of the sloping ledges. We then explored a series of large, dry but impressive passages and chambers generally with a dry mud floor and bright walls. A cave well worth visiting we thought. Just before the end of the big stuff, the way on was down a short, awkward little pitch and through a short muddy crawl into a big chamber. The description promised wonderful formations, but it was a bit disappointing on that front, although we did find a large array of mud sculptures that previous cavers had spent a bit of time creating. Of note – the short awkward little pitch would have been easier with a couple of hangers, but has a lovely natural to tie the rope round at the start. Again, we left the cave with more to visit next time, as there were some impressive looking 20m pitches heading down into a lower level, which we decided not to do this time.
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On the Wednesday, the forecast had improved a bit but not enough for a 12-20hr trip in the Verneau river and so we headed to a cave called the Borne aux Cassots, which caught my eye after seeing some of the photos a friend had taken in there on a recent trip. This cave required a permit which I had organized before leaving the UK. It was a pleasant 1hr15mins drive from Ornans down to the parking, and after changing, an arduous and extremely unpleasant 5mins walk led to the entrance. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit here! 😊 Yep, another entrance very close to the road….am getting to like this area!! The entrance was a massive opening into the cliff, and at the back a small door with padlock led into the system. We were quickly underground and off into what felt very much like a Northern Dales cave system. Easy going led down into a passage which sumps in very wet weather, and then up into the start of a much larger section of passage. We noted the Speleo Secours telephone system which was in place in case a group was trapped by flooding beyond the entrance passage. What followed was km’s of very impressive caving in a huge passage, sometimes with the river, and sometimes above in a massive boulder filled borehole (Grand Eboulis) disappearing into the mountain. Sometimes, the boulder slope could be bypassed by a lower passage running underneath, but with amazing walls revealing the thin limestone beds. We stopped to take numerous photos, and admire tiny gypsum flowers on the walls. At one point, we arrived at a pitch into the river and the way on was a traverse (fixed rope here) along the wall to bypass this and gain the upstream river passage. Eventually we reached a junction in the river, and decided to head right and follow the main river passage (Reseau Alain) to the final boulder choke. A stunning splash up the river ensued….always several metres wide and 20-30m of more tall – an excellent bit of streamway! A brief misunderstanding of the description led to a side trip into the Galerie de la Neige, which was appropriately named with walls covered in white gypsum dust which made for good photos. Some excellent formations were passed before the choke was reached and we started heading out, taking photos along the way. On the way out, we also found the fossilised tree branch in the roof, dated to the carboniferous some 300 million years ago or so. We arrived back on the surface mid-afternoon after an excellent trip traversing easily 4km+ of large cave! On the way back to the campsite we visited the spectacular Source du Lison, with a major river emanating from the base of a Malham Cove esque cliff, albeit a tad higher! Very impressive!
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The weather deteriorated on the Thursday and so a leisurely day was spent visiting a local cheese museum and also the equally impressive Source de la Loue. Martin and Dave had to leave for home today which was a shame as the weather was looking to improve for the weekend. Friday was also spent in the local area, doing a very pleasant circular walk from Ornans as the via ferrata above the town we had hoped to do was closed for maintenance. This also gave a chance for water levels to drop ready for the Verneau traverse on the Saturday, not that they had really gone up much at all from looking at the water levels for the Verneau (height and flow rate, measured at the resurgence below the Baudin cave) which are available online.
And so bright and early on Saturday morning, we headed to the delightful hamlet of Nans-sous-Saint-Anne to drop a car off at the exit before Gemma gave us all a lift to the Bief Bousset. Soon underground steady progress was made, with heavier bags of food, drink and neoprene, down through the cave. It was a bit sweaty with the bags and relatively warm air temperatures (compared to Yorkshire) in the cave. A chamber before the second set of pitches (Salle Machin) was a good spot to change into neoprene, and so this was donned before continuing the descent. At the base of the pitches, an entertaining short wet section in clean-washed limestone and calcite led us down into the main river passage – the collecteur. The next 1.5km is like Lost Johns Master Cave, only bigger and more impressive. Its mostly easy walking, bar a couple of wetter sections necessitating a brief swim while holding onto a rope, plus a few small boulder piles to clamber over. An increase of mud banks heralded our arrival at the sump – a short freedive normally around 2-3m in length. I applied my final bits of neoprene and mask and dived through. It was indeed only a couple of metres long at most, spacious and shallow – a very pleasant freedive. I did note some very small flakes in the roof at the start which I thought might catch bags, but as we planned to have a rope attached to both ends of the bags (so that either side could pull on the bags if they got caught to free them) I didn’t think it would be a problem. Steph followed with an end of the rope, and then with Callum on the other side we got the bags through easily before Callum dived through to join us. One of the crux’s of the trip sorted!
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A very short duck followed before we arrived in a very muddy and gloomy section of passage with huge mud banks. We noted the way in from the sump bypass on the left before continuing down to what looked like a sump. Hmmm…..not expecting this! We had a quick look round, checked the survey, but it looked like it was definitely the way on. It was gurgling….a sign that it was draining very slowly, but on closer inspection we could see there was an airspace and sign of enlargement after 2-3m. I popped through on my back and arrived at the base of a steep slope into blackness above. We wondered if this section was normally dry, but had sumped off (filled up with water) a couple of days ago with the rain?
We were soon stomping off down more large, dry passage with frequent boulder obstacles to clamber over and plenty of reflectors to guide the way. At one point we arrived in a big chamber and could see the reflectors beckoning us on. We ignored the description here and followed the reflectors, but soon realized the error of our ways as we were starting to head towards one of the other entrances to the Verneau (Grotte dela Vieille Folle). We retracted our steps, followed the description, and heading to the sound of water found the fixed rigging down into the river again. We probably lost around 30-40mins here, but some interesting passages were explored and it was the only navigational blunder of the trip.
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Heading downstream in the river we soon arrived at the choke and then the climb up fixed rigging into the Galerie de la Cote Jamey. This was an excellent section of dry, high-level passage with some lovely flowstone and stal. A pitch was soon reached with fixed rigging, after which a hole in the floor led into the dry, parallel collecteur. This was once the main river passage but now abandoned, but with the size and scale of a major river passage. Before long, the main river was intersected again, and another km or so of superb river passage followed, with some longer swims and quite slippy rock requiring a bit of care. The floor was also very jagged and sculpted in places, meaning a bit of care with ankles and shins, especially where the water had been disturbed by the people in front of you. It was still great, sporting caving with the roar of the river accompanying you!
The water crashes down a deep cascade at Salle de la Corniche, and a fixed traverse led us across and then up into another high level passage. This had some amazing flowstone, and wading across large crystal clear pools before another descent down to the river. Passing beneath the Salle Belauce, the river was followed down to the base of the Puits Legionnaire – our first up-pitch up the in-situ ropes. This was the spot reached by Martin and Dave on their recce trip nearly a week ago. The Galerie des Plaquettes followed– a walking/stooping height tunnel in brilliant white rock – before dropping into the river for a short distance to the second up-pitch, Puit de Balot. Shortly after this, the going got big again after an entertaining squelch across the muddy Salle des Momies. Huge passages were followed, mostly dry and well above the river, until the river was eventually re-gained and excellent progress made towards the start of the steel cables and the Baudin exit. At one point, a large flat floored sandy chamber was crossed known as La Plage (the beach). Route finding had been pretty straightforward really, so this section passed quickly with just the odd photo-stop.
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The steel cables were passed without incident….not too bad in the end, with just a couple of short foothold-less sections. Its an atmospheric place, with the sound of the river crashing deep beneath you! Having the Petzl adjustable lanyards was useful, as at an anchor point you could easily take in on the long cowstail, clip the short cowstail across, and then let out on the long cowstail until your weight was on the short cowstail before transferring the long one across. A useful bit of kit for anyone doing the traverse who is worried they might struggle on the more strenuous bits. Steph and I use them for instructing work. At the end of the traverse, a 15m up-pitch led to a short, flat-out crawl along a tube. Beyond this, a series of dry crawls, chambers and the odd bit of ropework soon had us emerging from an innocuous cave entrance beneath tree roots part way up a forested slope. We could see the village of Nans-sous-Saint-Anne through the trees and so headed down the ‘part-via-ferrata’ trail to the car. It had taken us 10hrs to traverse the cave, and what an excellent day-out it had been. There was a bit of everything – pitches, crawls, easy squeezes, river passage, swims, a free-dive, lots of formations, huge chambers – a really excellent and varied caving journey! After changing we headed back to the campsite, finding a restaurant for burgers and chips on the way.
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The next day, Callum and Gemma headed south towards Italy and Steph and I headed north after I quickly popped down the Bief Bousset to de-rig the ropes we had left in for the traverse. I enjoyed the brief solo descent of the first set of pitches, knowing that, all being well, I’d hopefully be back to do the trip again sometime in the future!! Some ropes had appeared, meaning another group were likely setting up for the through trip. Its quite an accessible caving area really, only 6-7hrs drive from Calais, and there’s plenty to go at. A cave called the Grotte Chauveroche is high on the list for next time, with its 6km of passages, including a river with >200 pools to swim across!!
An excellent week of caving, great CPD and great introduction to this wonderful part of France! It would be a fine area to bring clients too for some European sport caving….
Useful tips/links for experienced cavers:
1. For obtaining a permit for the Verneau Traverse - https://www.speleo-doubs.com/traversee-verneau/. Permit is valid for a year, and you can visit as many times as you want within this time. No specific dates are given, so you may be sharing the cave with others. Obviously need to be a member of a caving club and have insurance!
2. All we had to rig for the Verneau traverse were the first set of pitches in the Bief Bousset from the entrance down to the start of the long meander (around 120-130m or so of rope). Its still a good idea for the rigging team to carry on and check the next set of pitches down to the start of the wet bit before the collecteur where there is a Speleo Secours sign warning not to proceed unless weather forecast is settled! Likewise, a team should head in the exit (Grotte Baudin) and check as far as the Puits Legionnaire, unless you have reliable up-to-date info on the condition of the rigging – you can email the person who issues the permit to you to check on this before arriving if you want. We still carried a couple of 20m 8mm ropes in case fixed rigging was damaged, and also for pulling bags through the free-dive able sump.
3. What to wear? We all deliberated over this before the trip, as quite a lot of the cave is dry, or only ankle deep streamway. Plus doing the Bief Bousset in neoprene would be very unpleasant. We opted for dry caving gear to a chamber before the second set of pitches in the Bief Bousset (Salle Machin). Here, I changed into a 3mm wetsuit with oversuit on top. In my bag, I had an additional 1mm long sleeved neoprene shirt which I could add for the free-dive/short swims, plus neoprene hood and gloves. This combo worked well, and after Salle Beluce I removed the 1mm t-shirt and was comfortable enough caving out in my 3mm wetsuit and oversuit. A layered approach is definitely the way forward, having neoprene you can add or remove as required. Petzl Dual Connect Adjust lanyards are a 'nice to have' for the steel cables, and also steel karabiners for your cowstails, although this is the only section of steel cables and they're not that long really.
4. Drinking water. The river in the cave is likely polluted so you need to take drinking water with you. We had around 1.5litres each which seemed to work okay for our trip length.
5. Water levels in the Verneau - https://hydro.eaufrance.fr/stationhydro/U261641001/fiche
Very useful resource for checking the current height and flow rate of the river coming out of the cave. Apparently, above 2 m3/s flow rate progression in the cave is impossible and very dangerous. This isn’t hard to believe given the size of the river passage, evidence of flooding and what was a healthy looking river even at a flow rate of 0.1 m3/s when we did it. If in doubt, seek advice from the Speleo Secours (Doubs region), which will likely just involve emailing the person who issued your permit.
6. Route finding in the cave is pretty straightforward – there is a very good description floating around. Let me know if need it! Only spot we went wrong was ignoring the description and following reflectors towards another entrance to the system! So......follow the description!!! :-)
7. Access to the Borne Aux Cassots - email Sylvain.collin@ac-besancon.fr. Info correct as of 2025. You’ll need to be a member of a caving club, fill in a form, and get the president of your caving club to sign too. You’ll need to provide evidence of your caving club membership (just log in to the BCA portal and download your membership card). You need to select dates for accessing the cave, but this can likely be re-arranged closer to the time if needs be (e.g. if weather poor). Only enter this cave if weather good though….it floods from the entrance in!
8. Camping – we stayed at Le Chanet campsite in Ornans. Pleasant campsite, with good facilities. Was quiet when we were there at end of May. Only ~25min drive from Bief Boussett entrance. I believe there are also some good gites around to stay in (one in Nans-sous-Saint-Anne).
9. Dont forget to always leave a callout. Here is a useful link for more information on the French cave rescue, and specific info and contacts by region too!
Happy caving!! :-)
