There were one or two difficult and dangerous passages. In the water I found a stick for Jean Claude who didn’t have one.
A little earlier [Jean Claude] slipped in a water puddle. We removed several stalactites. A little further on, while passing over a fissure, I dropped my stick but was able to fish it out again. It was humid in the cavern and a suffocating heat overcame us progressively as we penetrated further. The noise of a waterfall got louder. After turning the 1st corner, we no longer saw daylight. We ascend, descend, are hot and finally get close to the waterfall only to be stopped by the water. There we rest and refreshed ourselves by plunging our hands into the cold water and wet down our head. Then we turned back and start the trip in reverse order. At the large stalactite, where several names and dates (1906) were engraved, Jean-Claude carved “24-2-44 BF.” Then we went on. Our ears were boiling hot and humming. Fortunately the return journey was covered more quickly than the way in. We cooled off wherever there was water. Finally rays of daylight reached us. That’s when Jean Claude fell into the water up to his knees, where he fell earlier on our way in. We took a few more stalactites and finally some puffs of fresh air reached us. I found some violets on emerging from the cavern. On our return at Jean Claude’s, we had a snack, then went to see the blacksmith. J.C.’s father gave me some tickets. He was scheduled to guard the tracks this night. About 6 pm I headed back and got to the College about 7 pm. Several interns had already returned. The principal told us that the refugees would arrive this evening and would sleep in the freshmen dorm. I quickly fell asleep because on the home trip I was riding against the wind and I was bushed. Bernard lent me a book.
