Maraou (Traouc)

The entrance shaft, very fine, reaches 36 m in depth. Its dimensions are 3 x 1.5 m at the start; it narrows at the constriction at -5 then becomes spacious again, reaching 4 x 2 m towards the bottom. At its base, the floor is strewn with a small stony scree. The gallery of the "Corinettes" passage is fairly low, about 1 m in height. The crawlway that continues it measures 3 m in length. The 64 m shaft breaks through the floor of a gallery in a joint, perpendicular to the slide, and opens at the expense of a fracture oriented North North East-South South West; marked by several levels, it forms a fine succession of short verticals (P 25, P 12, P 5, P 22) of reasonable dimensions. At the top of the P 64, the South side "La Décoiffe Rcklès" ends after a few metres at a pinch choked with a small scree (perhaps the base of a shaft?). To the North, the gallery develops over about twenty metres; on the left a tiny orifice opens onto two parallel fissures. Further on, the walls close in, forming a fold followed by a last alcove.

The low point of the right-hand part, the "Grindolines", is choked with concretion at -41. The second step gives onto a slide of concretions that pours into a 64 m shaft. To the North of the P 64, access is gained by the right of the slide, a ledge across the concretions and a slight pendulum allowing one to reach a rising floor, clayey and patinated. The last alcove is very well decorated with concretions.

At the base of the entrance shaft, two ways present themselves. On the right, a not very obvious crawl leads to two small chambers; a constriction and a 3 m step follow, leading to the "Grindolines", the low point of this part. On the left, one reaches the "Corinettes" passage: the gallery seems to end after about ten metres, but at floor level a 3 m crawlway, greatly enlarged by explosives in anticipation of a future rescue exercise, allows one to reach the rest of the cave. Behind, the regain is made on a narrow edge separating two steps of 3 m and 2 m; the first, on the left, is the arrival of a chimney that certainly communicates through some fissure with the entrance shaft (voice connection). The second gives onto the slide of concretions that pours into the 64 m shaft. In the first section of this shaft, a window has been dynamited and gives onto a P 8. At the bottom of the great shaft, the descent continues by means of a narrow fissure, and a 9 m downclimb ends the explorations at the level -117. At the top of the P 64, on the North side, access is gained by the right of the slide; on the left, the two parallel fissures have been descended by downclimbing over about fifteen metres (but not surveyed). a climb was made above the P 64 over almost 25 m: after 13 m of aid climbing, one steps onto a small ledge; the most obvious chimney, which visibly ends a few metres higher, is left for a passage between erosion blades, reaching a small highly crumbly recess from which two other chimneys start, one of which, 4 m, constitutes the high point of the ascent.