Jim Thompson made diving Marniosa possible in August 2000.

Picos De Europa, Spain

Marniosa 2000

August

The expedition to dive the second sump in Marniosa, didn't go quite according to plan. Saying there was a planned expedition in the first place is perhaps a little misleading.

As soon as work finished, Chris and I set off in our heavily over loaded old Volvo car to drive from Bradford to Spain via Dover and France. I assumed the other 'team members' knew about the 'expedition' from a conversation I'd had with Colin Boothroyd at the start of the year...

Colin in a dilemma

Unfortunately I neglected to tell him I was actually going to come to Spain. By that time he'd arranged his Spanish trip as a strictly family holiday. I knew there was a big LUSS reunion at Tresviso and imagined there would be enough people wanting to go down Marniosa.

Marniosa 1986

'The cave was rigged on our first day, and Colin Boothroyd passed the sump on day two. A 35m sump lead to 650m of spectacular stream passage ending in a15m pitch. Colin returned after 4 hours beyond the sump to a cold and bored Steve Jones.

Steve was at the sharp end the following day, when he and Gavin Newman went back to descend the pitch, whilst Colin and Ian Rollands surveyed. At the bottom of the pitch a deep pool was crossed, but tight rifts led to another sump. It appeared that an easier lead was in the roof, so an aid climb was undertaken opposite the 15m pitch.

This was completed after a number of trips by Colin, Ian, Steve, Fran Hampton, Rich Barker and Rob Parker. A further 600m of stream rift was found, terminating in yet another sump. Unfortunately, a lot of this section was tight and sharp and particularly unconducive to bottle carrying. A total of 1.5km of new passage was surveyed in Marniosa, and a through trip to Agua in years to come is definitely possible.'

Saved by Töno Puertas

Marniosa 2000

Eventually Chris and I staggered up the mountain into Tresviso on foot, having failed to drive our car up a goat track, only to discover there was a perfectly good road into the village. I'd failed to listen to Chris, who'd previously pointed out the road on the map. We were fortunate to find some English people, who happened to be complaining about Colin and who guided us to Miguel's bar. I can't say that Colin, fresh from a day out with the children, was overjoyed to see me. It also became clear that the LUSS reunion wasn't intended to include much serious caving and there wasn't even enough rope to do the cave. I wasn't too bothered, because I was sure there would be things to do and anyway it's a beautiful area. However as the night wore on and more red wine was consumed, plans were hatched to do the dive. These plans centered on Jim Thompson, a UK caver living and working in the area. He recruited Töno Puertas, who had rope, equipment and friends who wanted to go caving. His equipment store was incredibly organised in a fabulous old building, converted into a hotel, from which he ran adventure holidays.

I have to say that the Spanish cavers displayed distinctly more style than their UK counterparts. First there was Monica, Töno's girlfriend. She arrived in a Porsche, not that I am influenced by such things you understand. Then there was Jesús Medina - the name says it all, and Don Juan, a real gentleman and diver from Madrid. Somehow Colin was persuaded he could spare a couple of days to go caving. We rigged the start of the cave without too much trouble, but Colin's memory of the cave was a little hazy. At a point which Colin said was twenty minutes from the sump, Jim and the Spanish cavers had to go out, because they were working the next day. Three hours later Colin and I were still ferrying equipment to the sump, through some fairly torturous cave passage.

Monica

Don Juan, "You never told me it was that bad Colin!"

I kitted up and dived; only to discover this wasn't the sump, but a deep pool. I walked on some more and dived again; this time I laid about 20m of line, only to discover I'd actually dived through an underwater oxbow in the main passage. Finally we found the sump. It was beautifully clear, spacious and 35m long. We carried the bottles and equipment further into the cave and then left, having achieved as much as we could that day.

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