Despite the bad weather (snow) and slippery roads, 63 persons turned up. Not only members from VVS, but also people from UBS and Speleo Nederland joined.
Our long-time chairman, Paul De Bie, gave a nice speech and a short presentation about some of the more important / bigger discoveries. (which you can download here).
Exploration in Belgium is really not the same as in some other countries. People were awed by the immense amount of labour and the tons and tons of mud, pebbles and rock that had to be moved. Most of the times the digs don't end up revealing anything spectacular, but once in a while a real beauty is discovered (like the "Grotte du Bois de Waerimont" and the "Grotte des Emotions"). You can find the complete list of discoveries on this page.
After the presentation people could enjoy the exposition with some nice pictures and surveys of these discoveries, as well as some drawings and paintings from Annette Van Houtte.
A cabinet filled with archeological and paleontological objects discovered during various digs was also getting a lot of attention. Especially the skull of a cave bear (Ursus speleaus) was impressive.
If your interested in exploration and you want to follow us working towards the next discovery, I can recommend our grotto's blog: http://scavalon.blogspot.com
Update 28/12/2010: As of today a huge new picture gallery is available here, covering not only the clubs discoveries but also some pictures from visits to some of the most beautiful caves in the world.
A special word of thanks goes to our grotto's sponsors Proviron, De Berghut and Chronos.