| Caving | Get here via Google? View our Website |
There are hundreds of limestone caves in the Alpes Maritimes up to 10km in length and 500m in depth. If you are interested in exploring these caves, check out the following websites for more information.
If you are new to caving, or wish to be accompanied by an experienced guide, Lou Païs offers a guiding service, and can provide all necessary equipment.
Show Caves
There are also a number of small show caves near Basses Beaumettes, grouped around St Vallier de Thiey (45 minutes drive).
The Grottes de Saint Cezaire (left) are relatively small, but with some very fine, well-lit formations. The guided trip thought the dry cave is conducted at a leisurely pace and you are allowed to return to the surface at your own pace. Unlike many show caves, photography (without flash) is not discouraged.
The Baume Obscure/Souterroscope offers a pleasant self-paced excursion along its 500m length. Basically, you will be given a torch to supplement the existing lighting (or replace it, when it goes out!), and be left to explore the cave by yourself. The cave starts as a dry passage, but then is joined by an underground stream. The formations are good, but damaged in places.
Finally, the
Grottes des Audides and Parc Prehistorique offer a somewhat different
experience. The cave is relentlessly vertical, without much in the way of
formations, leading to an attractive pool marking the end of the public section.
In fact, the "show" part of the cave is just the initial section of a much
larger system, nearly 2 km in length and 186m deep. As with the Baume Obscure,
you are left to your own devices to explore the cave.
To round off the trip, the owners have also created a "prehistoric park", comprising a number of tableaux, lovingly created from cement and sack-cloth, depicting scenes from prehistoric life.
If you have seen enough
of show caves, but the full speleological experience seems a little much, or if
you want to try something completely different, then why not try out the
Via Souterrata at La
Mouliere (thirty minutes drive from Basses Beaumettes).
This
is the world's first via ferrata inside a cave! You will descend vertically into
a pothole with the aid of iron rungs, make your way over a number of wobbly
bridges, clamber up and down a few vertical walls and squeeze through narrow
passages before climbing 15m up a very steep and in some places slightly over
hanging, wall on rungs to exit the cave further
down the mountain. The cave system you go through is 350m long and 35m
below the surface.
The trip is led by an excellent guide who is extremely experienced and tells you all about the formation of the caves you go through, wild life that lives in various parts of the caves, and about the sport of caving.
The
cave is warmish, the temperature averages 10 degrees all year round, and dry, even in the wettest of weather, and there are plenty of
impressive calcite formations to see along the way.
Throughout
the trip, your safety is protected in exactly the same way as with a via ferrata,
where you are clipped into steel cables to prevent you actually falling off
anything. No technical climbing ability is required, and there is also an escape
route, should the final steep wall be too much for you.
Groups are generally a maximum of ten people with a guide. The Via Souterrata is not suitable for children under 10 years old or less than 1m 30cm, as you need to be a certain height to reach the rungs!
The
cost of the trip is 20€, which includes all
necessary equipment. The duration of the trip is approximately 2 hours 45 minutes.
The Via Souterrata is open all year round (by appointment only in winter). Telephone: 04 93 60 34 51.
More photos of the Via Souterrata can be seen here.