I've long felt drawn to the prospect of cave diving and caving in general so when the opportunity to join another diver on a full cave course arose, I jumped at the chance. In retrospect, I suspect the excitement of finally getting to cave dive may have silenced the part of my brain that normally reins in such ideas when the reality of excessive travel rears its head. Just for once, I didn't care - I was going cave diving!

Arriving at our Gîte (pronounced 'Jeet') accommodation - a quaint converted barn in the small village of Payrac - we’re greeted by our instructor, IANTD UK Training Director Phil Short. Known for his passion for all things subterranean, Phil literally lives and breathes caves and is never happier than when he's several kilometres back in an unexplored cave in some remote part of the world. From the dark and muddy sumps of Wookey to the remote phreatic caves of the Siberian wilderness, there are few individuals better placed to introduce us to the world of cave diving.

Two of us would be undertaking the IANTD Full Cave Diver course - myself and fellow trainee cave diver Matt. In addition, we’re joined by tech instructor Howard who would be starting his cave instructor internship - a very long and difficult road for any would-be instructor. Introductions made, we settled in for the night.

After a good nights rest, day one saw us up at the crack of dawn for the start of our course. With all the necessary paperwork completed, we start our training with the traditional kit configuration workshop - an opportunity to look at the specific equipment requirements that cave diving places upon the diver and to tweak our own rigs to iron out any issues that could potentially hamper us in the cave environment. Cave diving is all about efficient, streamlined kit so this part of the course is quite important. Whilst my kit seems to escape completely unscathed, Matt's kit bares the brunt of both Phil and Howard's attention - within 5 minutes, it’s reduced to a heap of component parts only to be miraculously rebuilt into something leaner, meaner and far more efficient...

With all this theory still spinning in our heads, there was to be no let up in the pace as we wake at 6am the next morning for our first day of in-water training. Returning to St Sauveur, our first dive of the course would take us tantalisingly close to the cave entrance. Sadly we wouldn’t be going in, though, as the next 80 minutes would be spent running through a skills circuit to ensure that our core skills were up to check. With both Matt and myself already trimix-trained, many of the skills were already suitably embedded so we cruise through the drills without too many issues. The final skill, though – scuba unit removal underwater – does provide a few chuckles as removing and replacing a heavy twinset on a steep slope proves to be a lot more challenging.

With Phil confident that we’re not complete numpties, the moment had finally come for our first taste of cave diving. Reentering the head pool at St-Sauveur, we frog kick our way down towards the cave entrance with Phil leading, Matt second, myself third and Howard bringing up the rear. St-Sauver slopes to depth quite rapidly so this first taster would see us going no further than a short distance past the first constriction 60 metres inside the cave. Dropping our stages shortly after the constriction, we continue into the cave with Phil pointing out scalloping - small dish-shaped depressions in the rock formed by eddies in the flowing water - and intricate goethite formations – an iron-oxide mineral that covers the walls like a black spiders web set against the stark coniferous limestone walls of the cave itself.

Our first cave dive was to be a gentle introduction with no skills or drills to worry about. From this point on, though, each new day would follow a familiar pattern with a first dive giving us an opportunity to work on our team protocols, communication, awareness and navigation skills with Matt and myself taking it in turns to play the role of ‘line man’ (the first diver into the cave that leads the dive) or ‘light man’ (the second diver in responsible for aiding the line man and providing light whenever he needs to place or remove a line arrow or cookie). Our second dive of the day, however, would focus on new cave-specific skills.

Determined not to repeat the mistakes we’d made at St-George, the next day finds us at the Emergence de Ressel – perhaps France’s most famous cave system. A spectacular cave that surfaces (if you can call it that) directly beneath the river Célé, entering Ressel is a spectacular experience as you drop through the muddy brown river water into the crystal clear water exiting the cave less than a couple of metres beneath the surface. We’d already spent a day at Ressel earlier in the week practicing gas drills and successfully managing not to die (again) whilst performing the all-important ‘lost line’ drill. This time, however, the pressure would be ramped up as we push further into the cave and make another attempt at the blind exit drill.

For this dive, Matt would be line man with me taking on the light man duties. We follow the main line down through the murky brown river water into the crystal clear waters of the cave and make our way along the 150 metres of clean-washed limestone passage until we reach the first ‘T’ (two-way junction). Dropping our stages shortly before the junction, Matt places a line arrow on the exit side of the line before leading us off along the deep route towards a jump line set a couple of metres away from the main line. With me providing light, Matt runs a reel across to the jump line and we follow it off the main line up through a vertical chimney to a shallower section of the cave 10 metres above us. Running a second jump line to rejoin the main line, we then continue into the cave towards the second ‘T’. Placing a second line marker at the junction, we briefly journey on until we reach the top of a large shaft that drops to 45 metres before gradually descending to a maximum depth of 55 metres (and deeper further in).

Turning the dive as we hit our first third of gas, we switch team order and start making our way out following a ‘figure of 8’ route back along the deep route, up through the chimney to the shallow section (removing jump reels as we go) and then back to the first ‘T’. Picking up and switching back onto our stages, we slowly make our way back along the main passage towards the exit. As we approach the final leg of our journey, we switch off our primary lights and take in the fabulous sight of the green glow of the cave exit before us – a sight that never fails to leave even the most experienced cave diver speechless. Ressel truly is a magical place.

Our final day of the course would find us parked on the grass verge near a cave that I’ve always wanted to dive – Fontaine de Truffe. Much smaller and more claustrophobic than the caves we’d already dived, Truffe is famous for its stunning geology and crystal clear water. Unfortunately this natural beauty does come at a price for Truffe is also one of the most difficult caves to enter, requiring the diver to literally drag themselves through a very tight passage with their face pressed into the gravel to ensure clearance with the cave roof. If you’re the sort of diver that suffers from claustrophobia or simply worries about scratching your tanks then a dive at Truffe is not for you – few get through without picking up a few ‘battle scars’ on their kit!

Floating on the surface of the muddy head pool, Phil enters the cave first followed by Matt and then myself. Maneuvering past a large rounded off rock in the floor of the cave entrance, I grab the main line – a thick rope in this section of the cave, thankfully – and pull myself through the zero viz with my face pressed into the gravel. I can hear my tanks scraping along the cave roof but there’s no going back so I continue thrashing to move myself through the constriction. Eventually I pop out into the cave interior to be greeted by the other members of my team. After a quick valve check, we begin making our way down the cave passage with the nagging thought that we’ve got to go back through that constriction to exit the cave still ringing in my head!

We’d been blessed with pretty good viz in all the caves we’d dived so far but the viz in Truffe was simply breathtaking – we’re talking triple-distilled vodka pure! Within the tighter confines of Truffe, we’re able to really appreciate the intricate scalloping and the formations that it produces in the soft limestone rock. 160 metres into the cave, we surface into a section of dry cave at the end of sump 1. Many divers turn around at this point but not us – we climb out of the water in full kit and make our way through a section of dry cave (mostly walking but one section does require us to crawl on our hands and knees due to the low ceiling) to the start of sump 2.

Dropping into the water, it’s immediately obvious that this section of cave is a lot tighter still with barely enough room to maneuvre. The three of us switch to ‘pull and glide’ to propel ourselves through the cave taking in the fabulous cave around us. After a further 180 metres underwater, we reach the end of sump 2 and surface at the base of a deep rift. Due to the low water level, this is as far as we can go – our penetration of Truffe has sadly reached its end.