Gard Bramabiau, the abyss that made caving

Brambsa funny name… It comes from theLanguedoc Occitan bramabuòu which means the “roaring ox”, which is justified by the crash of a fall.

You are there and nearby, while you are there, know that there is the house of vultures, a bison ranch, Lake Pises, the Mont Aigoual weather station, Aven Armand, the lake of happiness , the Foux arboretum, the Caussenard farm of yesteryear, the path of the dead, the boatmen of La Malène, the Dargilan cave, the paths of Saint-Guilhem or even Montpellier-le-Vieux, just to make the trip profitable if you come from far away!

At the same time, everything is more or less far from here. Here ? 120 kilometers from the center of the department, the underground Bonheur River is located in the Aigoual massif.

Here you are at the heart of the abyss of Bramabiau.

It is Wednesday June 27, 1888 in the morning. The carriages loaded with the weight of men and equipment enter Camprieu noisily. The peasants, then busy cutting hay, stop their work and crowd around the strange caravan.

Unaccustomed to such visits, they ask a thousand questions… They make fun of these “gentlemen from Paris” finding their project bizarre to say the least: it would therefore be today or never that the Happiness of Darkness would agree to reveal its secrets.

After 1,300 meters of adventure, the researchers all left the cave. A major feat had just been accomplished, a certain Edward Alfred Martel had triumphed over the disbelief of the peasants.

They all went to the Camprieu town hall to write up the report of the first crossing of Bramabiau. Today it is considered the birth certificate of caving.

Bramabiau is one of those grandiose and bizarre works of nature. A true cradle of French caving, the organized tour offers a very accessible one-kilometer circuit and a one-hour guided tour along the underground Bonheur River.

In the heart of the Aigoual massif, in the heart of the Cévennes, this famous River of Happiness is born in the open air. On contact with the limestone, it will rush under the Causse de Camprieu to emerge 800 meters further.

It is in this place that cave lovers are least likely to experience a feeling of déjà vu. Temperature 10°C, after 30 minutes of descent to the abyss. The guided tour allows you to understand the circulation of water in karst reliefs. New developments allow you to discover dinosaur counter-prints.

The descent begins with the first steps in the undergrowth, where the coolness is relaxing in the middle of summer. The descent is gradual and you can discover or rediscover more than 70 species of plants.

As we descend, the sound of the river freed from darkness rises, still invisible, but suddenly, the alcove appears in all its splendor, a true monument of nature.

We walk alongside, then cross the river following a horizontal path. We arrive in what geologists call “a remote karst” and which poets call an “End of the World”, that is to say a vast half-cove in which a spring is born, or here “reborn”. The walls of the half-cove are absolutely vertical, very inclined and 70 to 120 meters high.

At the end of the guide's commentary, you will have to reach the exit tunnel, dug and built in 2005/2006 and therefore make a final stop to contemplate the dinosaur footprints discovered during the digging of the tunnel.

Here we are at the end of the visit, the tourist has spent more than an hour underground and traveled one kilometer within a long cavern which contains 11 kilometers of listed underground networks.

Reopening in April 2025 of the Abyss of BramabiauSouterraine river, Route de Meyrueis, 30 750 Camprieu. Altitude: 1126 meters. Website: https://abime-de-bramabiau.co