This weekend we went down this cave and visited the old mine with the "Werkgroep Speleologische Vorming" (WSV) to test some new caving techniques and materials (of which I will report later) and had a meeting about the course program for 2011-2012.
As you can see from the following pictures, stalactites and stalagmites are starting to form everywhere. Multiple pools with cave pearls are being formed and the last remains of the mining activities are being consumed by nature.
It's not all beauty however: the area near the old entrance was frequently abused by youngsters. Because access is now a lot harder (you need to know SRT to be able to enter) this abuse has luckily stopped. There is however still a lot of trash lying around as you can see on this picture:
Also a lot of household waste was thrown down the hill by the citizens :
Picture from the public gallery of Dennis Verbruggen
We already removed 2 large trashbags full of waste from inside the mine, but a more coördinated cleaning session has to be set up together with the township.
More information about the history of this mine and a survey of the mine and cave can be found on the excellent site "Eclairage souterrain" and on the website of the Belgian Alpine Club (CAB).
As a side note (because it's the year of the bat):
On January 19th the Speleological Society of Namur (SSN Namur) will be conducting a bat count in this mine and cave. Following bat species were found during previous sessions:
- Myotis dasycneme (Pond Bat)
- Myotis daubentonii (Daubenton's Bat)
- Myotis emarginatus (Geoffroy's Bat)
- Myotis nattereri (Natterer's Bat)
- Myotis mystacinus (Whiskered Bat) or Myotis brandtii (Brandt's Bat)1
1 Note: As it is difficult to distinguish Myotis mystacinus and Myotis brandtii in the field these are often just counted together and noted as Myotis mystacinus/brandtii.