Grotte des Oreillards

The porch gives access to a passage 1 metre wide by 2 metres high, horizontal for 10 metres, then steeply sloping for 6 metres. At the end, a low passage, then a 4-metre climb and a wide but low passage (1 metre high) 10 metres long, which reaches a rockfall that can be crossed by climbing up into the blocks. Behind it, a gallery with a stony floor that quickly joins the meander not far from the foot of the 2-metre step.

10 metres after the porch, on the left, an easy 3-metre climb, followed by an ascending crawlway, leads through two passages into the middle of the Galerie supérieure, at +6. On the left, a room 10 metres long by 4 metres wide, ascending, where the upper porch opens. On the right, towards the west, the gallery climbs for 18 metres to a large slippery block that overlooks a 2-metre step, beyond which it continues in the same direction and with the same dimensions: 1.5 to 2 metres wide by 2 to 4 metres high.

For about ten metres after the step, the gallery has a meandering form with a re-excavation ledge, evidence of an former level of the stream that carved the cavity. Then one follows a low gallery whose floor is strewn with rubble. 15 metres further on, the ceiling rises abruptly and one is in a large diaclase oriented towards the S-W, 10 to 20 metres high, 2 to 3 metres wide, about 30 metres long, still roughly horizontal, with a large block (slab) wedged across it halfway along. The ceiling then lowers, the floor is earthy, a small narrow shaft in the right-hand wall gives below into the boyau Clottes. Then the gallery rises markedly and, after a stalagmitic flow, ends in a small room with no exit at about + 14.

At the beginning of the large gallery of the slab, after 5 metres of progress, one notices on the right, at 2 metres' height, the start of a gallery. It gives access to the boyau Clottes. This develops slightly below the main gallery, but offset towards the North. It can also be reached at the beginning of the same gallery by a crawlhole in the blocks at floor level; this solution is narrower but more convenient because the other passage is now very slippery.

After a small rotunda, the crawlway turns left and heads roughly towards the S-W for 90 metres. During the first part, it has roughly constant dimensions (1 metre to 1.2 metres wide and high), the floor and walls are covered with a thin layer of fine, damp clay, and one must progress bent over or on all fours. After 30 metres of gentle descent, a fork: in fact, the two branches rejoin a few metres further on; taking the left one, one passes under the small narrow shaft that communicates with the Galerie supérieure above. 15 metres further on, one climbs slightly and arrives in a labyrinth that is narrower. By a 3-metre step, one descends into a lower crawlway: to the right, towards the N-E, it descends and becomes impassable after 12 metres (-6); to the left, towards the S-W, it rises a little and then one must slip between and over vertical rock blades and, 30 metres after the 3-metre step, in a small room, one is blocked by a rockfall. If instead of descending the 3-metre step one climbs over it, the upper crawlway continues horizontally and rejoins the lower crawlway 18 metres further on. Finally, in this upper crawlway, 4 or 5 metres after the step, through a narrow vertical crawlway, one can reach the N-E end of the Salle du Sable.

Shortly before the rockfall that blocks the boyau Clottes, on the left, one crawls up a low, sandy inclined plane 6 metres long that leads to the lowest point of a room, the Salle du Sable. Oriented SW/NE, it is 6 metres wide where one enters it, for a length of 20 metres; the floor is covered with sand in the S-W half. Towards the N-E, it continues as a gallery 3 to 4 metres high and 20 long, which narrows and ends in two blocked side passages. On the left, a few metres before the end, a narrow vertical crawlway that communicates with the labyrinth. At the S-W end, the floor rises a little and the room is closed by a rockfall. But right against the South or left wall opens an ascending passage in the blocks and blades, oriented towards the West, 1.5 metres wide, which leads after 10 metres to a pile of blocks and a 4-metre step. Here one reaches the Galerie Terminale.

At the foot of the 4-metre step, it begins with a narrow, descending passage 8 metres long that leads into the Salle des Eboulis. At most 6 metres wide, 4 high and 20 long, with a floor strewn with collapsed blocks and slabs, it is closed by a large rock beyond which, through a narrow passage, one reaches the Salle des Obus (so named because of two characteristic stalagmites side by side). From there, one travels along an eroded horizontal gallery for 70 metres. At first very high and 3 to 4 metres wide, it lowers to 3 metres and the dimensions shrink. After a low vault, it is blocked by a choke. 10m before the end, in the left wall, 1 metre above the floor, a circular opening gives access to a new gallery, the Galerie du Délire, which at this point is parallel to the previous one. On the right, towards the West, it descends slightly; the ceiling lowers then rises in a widening at the bottom of which is an unstable choke that is certainly the same as that of the Galerie terminale.

Before this collapse, we were able to climb about 6 metres between the vault and the blocks. The absence of a draught shows that the obstacle must be fairly substantial but the gallery must continue beyond; what a pity! Opposite the communication opening, a very awkward descending crawlway, followed for 8 metres. To the left of the opening, the Galerie du Délire rises; one climbs an earthy step and finds oneself in a high diaclase superimposed on the Galerie Terminale. One passes under wedged blocks and descends again by a drop into the Galerie terminale, 15 metres before the 'Obus'. Near the end of the Galerie Terminale, just before the communication opening with the Galerie du Délire, on the right, an extremely narrow crawlway, at the limit of the possible, tortuous, about ten metres long, ending in an impassable vertical diaclase, at the bottom of which one sometimes hears a sound of water. Just after the opening, still on the right, a very narrow shaft passable for 3 metres.

The total development of the cavity reaches 595 metres.

The Salle des Obus is so named because of two characteristic stalagmites side by side. In the Galerie supérieure, after a stalagmitic flow, it ends in a small room with no exit at about + 14.

At the end of the clayey crawlway at the back, listening carefully, one distinctly hears a muffled sound of running water, inaccessible but certainly very cramped. At the bottom of the impassable vertical diaclase ending the extremely narrow crawlway near the end of the Galerie Terminale, one sometimes hears a sound of water.

At the end of the meander following the R 2, one will have noticed a passage on the right bank; this is the access to the 'boyau du Bruit de l'Eau'. At first, a horizontal passage towards the S-W, 1.5 metres wide, 3 metres high. After 10 metres, on the right, a cylindrical crawlway 1 metre in diameter, of polished rock, due west, ascending, blocked after 12 metres, at +8. On the left, the passage becomes narrow and one descends 4 metres by easy steps. Small stony room. Fork: straight ahead, a very narrow diaclase that descends towards the S-E and which can be followed with difficulty for about ten metres; on the right, a crawlway descending for 8 metres towards the South-West, very low vault with an accumulation of sand, short rise and dead end.