The International Congress of Speleology

Switzerland, 1997

This congress is held eveiy four years, the last being in China during 1993 and the next in Brazil in the year 2001. During August four members attended this congress in the Jura town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, an important place in the watch making region of Switzerland. The area has beautiful rolling hills and forests broken by meadows with bell tolling cows. To the north and the French frontier the hills drop steeply into winding limestone gorges. A spectacular one caries the river Doub which is the border between the two countries.

The Swiss had organised everything efficiently; the lectures and field trips to either caves or geological sites. Most of the lectures were of a deeply scientific nature, in French or English, and covered new discoveries. Some of these were subject to cancellation; in fact three were cancelled one after the other, though this was not the fault of the congress organisers but simply the speakers not tuniing up.

There were some two and a half thousand cavers forrn all over the world, with what 1 thought was a poor turnout by the Brits. Other than the hosts, there were many French and Americans with one lone Finish caver, and a delegate from the Cameroon. The Swiss pubhshed a news-sheet each day of the congress which kept eveiybody in touch with events.

Wednesday was a day off and the whole congress went on an excursion to some the region’s not so best kept secrets: the Musee d’Horlogerie, with many time pieces under one roof and then the Moulins Souterrains, a flour mill   which   was  powered  by an underground stream with the whole works deep underground, but in the latter part of the last century was converted to be a hydro-electric plant. Later delegates went on a boat trip down the river Doub to the impressive Saut de Doub waterfall, about four times the flow as Hardrow force and twice the height, all the way impressive crags and cave entrances loomed through heat haze. However all this was to Swiss yodelling songs and, as we returned, the boatswain playing Auld Lang Syne.

On the Tuesday evening there was a trip to an ice-cave nearby called le Glaciers de Monlise situated near the town of Le Locle some 10km up towards a forest area. Within 20 minutes of the road and in a clearing there was a deep chasm with fixed ropes aiding the descent to a wide ledge. From there a wooden ladder of dubious origins was climbed down to the bottom of the 60 ft chasm with a temperature drop of around 23°C. A low opening led to a chamber with a floor of ice sloping down to the right, however the ice a had a depth of some forty feet and it was possible to descend a sloping shaft and from underneath explore the sides of the glacier. On reaching the surface a fire was lit and food cooked over the flames while eveiybody thawed out fiom crawling over the ice. Drink and food were consumed, and many languages spoken until late into that starlit night.

The Swiss went out of then way to be helpful and the assistance from the local community also was impressive, Free public transport being just one of the visible contributions. It was a week well spent and excellent value.

YRC members attending:

Ged Campion, Richard Sealy, Harvey Lomas & John Whalley