{"id":3812,"date":"2019-01-20T09:31:34","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T07:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charleroi-metropole.be\/?p=3812"},"modified":"2019-01-30T10:31:16","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T08:31:16","slug":"les-grottes-de-neptune-cachent-un-lac-encore-inexplore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/les-grottes-de-neptune-cachent-un-lac-encore-inexplore\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grottes de Neptune hide a yet to be explored lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grottes de Neptune, Couvin<\/h2>\n

An underground lake is hidden in the Grottes de Neptune<\/a> and remains unexplored today, despite attempts by cavers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201c\u2018The water takes 48 hours to flow out of the cave. That\u2019s nearly 2 km, that\u2019s excessive, there is definitely an underground lake there\u201d,<\/em> says Pascale Somville, caver. And yet, it has been several years since the area of the Grottes de Neptune has been explored.<\/p>\n

Pascale Somville is one of around 15 cavers active in the Groupe Sp\u00e9l\u00e9ologique de Charleroi [Charleroi Caving Club], one of Belgium\u2019s oldest caving clubs. They meet at Petigny once or twice a year to explore the Grottes de Neptune.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the lake which tourists cross on a boat, there is a passage to the siphon. There, we can see cracks. We tried to slip through but it\u2019s too narrow for a human\u201d<\/em>, continues Pascale Somville. \u201cThere are small passages or areas filled with water, it\u2019s impossible for cavers to go any further\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"grotte-lumi\u00e8re-son-visite\"
The grottes de Neptune can be experienced by way of sound and light shows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last known point in the caves for accessing the lake<\/h2>\n

\u201cDivers have explored the siphon\u201d<\/em>, continues Pascale Somville. \u201cThey have been to a depth of around 10 metres and then it was impossible to go any further<\/em>\u201d. She is thoughtful : \u201cBut one day, we\u2019ll find it\u2026<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst waiting to access the lake, the research continues. Studies by the Universities of Mons and Namur have shown with fluorescein colouring that the water flowed for more than 2.5 km underground before emerging on the surface.<\/p>\n

We tried different passages, but all to no avail<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"sp\u00e9l\u00e9ologue-grotte-explorer-neptune\"
The cavers explore the Grottes de Neptune once or twice a year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thousands of underground discoveries yet to be made<\/h2>\n

To try and find this famous lake, the latest explorers tried several techniques. Firstly, entering via the secondary tunnels, but these were too narrow for a human.<\/p>\n

Then, breaking various layers with a crowbar or by hand, except that the rock is much too hard. \u201cYou would have to break it with explosives. We don\u2019t have the skills\u201d, <\/em>\u2019 she says. A Flemish club tried to get in with dynamite, but they quickly gave up due to the hardness of the rock. \u201cSometimes, all you need is luck\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"visite-grotte-bateau\"
Tours of the Grottes de Neptune end with a boat trip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enjoy being underground<\/h2>\n

Whilst waiting for this lake to be discovered, the caves can be explored thoroughly. They are around 2 km long, with two tunnels, the smaller one is 422 metres long and the larger one is 1,080 metres long, with the addition of a few chambers. The large chamber is more than 19 metres high, from floor to ceiling. \u201cThe pleasure from caving does not necessarily come from crawling or slithering through tiny passages \u2013 in fact, I avoid it, I am a touch claustrophobic \u2013 , but rather from discovering large secret underground chambers\u201d,\u00a0<\/em>says Pascale Somville.<\/p>\n

We feel a bit like the last explorers of the world discovering the depths of the earth<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another pleasure for cavers: observing the fauna and the flora. Here, in the caves, we can see stalagmites and stalactites but also bats, insects, spiders, butterflies, niphargus (a sort of small prawn which is not eaten). \u201cWe count up to 6 – 7 species of bats, or around 30 chiropterans. With those hidden, we estimate that there are 4 times as many,\u201d<\/em>, explains Daniel Lefebvre, another caver.<\/p>\n

And for those who don\u2019t have any caving equipment, it is entirely possible to visit the Grottes de Neptune, on foot and by boat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact:<\/strong>
\nGrottes de neptune
\nRue de l\u2019Adujoir, 24
\n5660 Couvin
\n+32 (0)60 31 19 54
\ninfo@grottesdeneptune.be
\nwww.grottesdeneptune.be<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9Pictures\/Christophe Vandercam<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grottes de Neptune, Couvin An underground lake is hidden in the Grottes de Neptune and remains unexplored today, despite attempts by cavers. \u201c\u2018The water takes 48 hours to flow out of the cave. That\u2019s nearly 2 km, that\u2019s excessive, there is definitely an underground lake there\u201d, says Pascale Somville, caver. And yet, it has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168,404],"tags":[331,292,268,338,293,280,34,112,123,43,32,116],"class_list":["post-3812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-heritage","category-discovery","tag-autres-en-28","tag-autres-en-19","tag-autres-en-7","tag-autres-en-31","tag-autres-en-20","tag-autres-en-14","tag-bar","tag-children","tag-history","tag-nature","tag-sport","tag-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3812"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4241,"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions\/4241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-site.fidelodev.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}