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LUSS spent two weeks in Spain in July 1995. The members of the expedition
were (from left) Andrew Brooks, Sean Butler, Derek Cousins,
Rebecca Lowes, Mike Dollenger, Geoffrey Beaumont and Tony Chandler.
Here we are all sheltering from the sun, except for Tony who seemed
to enjoy it!
The camp was high in the Eastern Massif of the Picos de Europa with
great views of the surrounding limestone country.
We actually did a bit of caving; this is a picture of me posing
while on a photographing trip into Cheese Cave.
Unfortunately I do actually look like that :-)
This area of Spain is well known for its cheese which is matured
inside caves. Our main effort was concentrated in one such cave,
Cheese Cave, which is no longer in use. Unfortunately
the flies also liked cave entrances so scarves and goggles were
necessary for getting through the entrace! Derek, shown here,
is a hard caver and so doesn't need either of them.
A short way in from the entrance was the Constriction of Doom.
Geoffrey is shown struggling through it with his helmet on, an
unusual occurrence.
The chamber containing the second pitch contained some magnificent
formations. One, a common feature throughout the cave, was a large
calcite waterfall.
Crystals littered the walls. I don't know what type they are though.
You may not be able to see it very clearly but this is a little
calcite stream containing beautiful milky calcite.
Some ribbed formations.
The calcite flows had, in places, very white surfaces which reflected
any stray bits of light which came their way. The effect was quite
spooky if seen out of the corner of your eye.
A second cheese cave had recently fallen into disuse and had not
previously been explored. At the bottom of the first pitch we
found a great false floor.
As with all the other caves in the area it ended with a tight
constriction!
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