Gouffre du Trabanet P2 ou Aven de Callong

The barrenc Capella is a group of three fairly close shafts P1, P2, P3 that meet at about -70 m. At -28 m, a small chamber opens to the west. At -80 m is the bottom of the first shaft, made of collapsed blocks and tree trunks. At -110 m, one enters a high joint perpendicular to the one that brought the explorers: for a width of 6 to 15 metres, the ceiling disappears into the darkness, 30 or 50 metres above their heads. To the west, a 3-metre shaft is followed by a high narrow fissure. To the east, along a gentler slope on a clay floor, one advances about forty metres to a fairly high stalagmitic barrier that almost blocks the passage, leaving only a narrow fissure. From this point to the -125 m level, one crosses a fairly unstable scree slope that, vertically, leads to -130 m. a vast passage with a raised ceiling then opens up; fairly steep at first, it then runs alongside an extraordinary, very ancient stalagmitic flow. At -155 m, the wall is smooth, polished, and covered with potholes. The passage turns abruptly to the south and west; one is in a narrow joint facing a vertical shaft. At -177 m, de Joly finds an earthy floor; the slope stops at -180 m on a cracked floor indicating stagnation, as do the earthy walls: this is the current bottom of the barrenc Capella. On the way back up, at -180 m, a small side chamber is discovered to the south-east.

The very ancient stalagmitic flow shows frozen, parallel sheets more than 5 metres thick, closely following the shape of the floor; one would think one were facing a torrent leaping over a dam. This observation shows the great age of the cave. a fairly high stalagmitic barrier almost blocks the passage to the east.

To the west, a 3-metre shaft followed by a high narrow fissure gives passage to a stream. During floods, the water must linger in the passage at the bottom.

At about 10 h, Monsieur De Joly begins the descent, first delayed by the clearing of numerous stones wedged in the fissures or balanced on belay points. At -40 m, a belay point made of tree trunks and stones allows him to wait for the arrival of Monsieur Gèze, after having tested the solidity of the natural scaffolding. Having descended a few metres lower without discovering any body, the explorers continue the descent, the shaft continuing in that direction. In order to avoid the branches and trunks, they climb back up amid large blocks and discover a very wide passage sloping at 50 %, where the floor is covered with calcite plates whose surface is coated with clay; the descent is dangerous and must be done with a ladder between the legs. No equipment remains except a 40-metre rope; belayed by Gèze, de Joly commits himself and disappears, walking in opposition between the steep walls.

Account taken from the work mentioned in the “Documents” section. In the middle of the bottom of the first shaft, at -80 m, is the skeleton of a dog, a little deeper that of an ox, but despite the investigations, no suicide; no characteristic smell reveals a body. The story of a “coupe” that would once have been thrown into the pit out of malice would therefore be true. The explorers are roughly in the middle of the shaft composed of coulières that runoff water has eroded in the dark grey rock of the Aptian; in front of them, narrow fissures separate the limestone beds. They must be beneath the barrenc located in the talweg of that of Capella, 30 metres upstream. Curious opposition between two very close parts, one showing a grotte fossile (fossil cave) and the other a living one.