The 1st Balkan Cavers’ Camp took place in the village of Teshel in Bulgaria in 2007. The second one was held in 2008 in Kokinogia – Greece. The 3-rd Camp was organised by Turkish Cavers Union in 2009 in Olimpos area, Antalia County, Turkey. The honour to host the 4th Cavers` Camp had the Romanian Federation of Speleology. According to the registration data between 14 and 18 July 2010, the Padis area, located in Apuseni Natural Park, Bihor County, gathered at least registered 226 cavers from 9 European countries: Bulgaria (58), FYR Macedonia (2), Germany (4), Greece (5), Hungary (20), Poland (3), Romania (117), Slovenia (5), Turkey (11). The tents of the cavers in the area were located in such a big area, that for sure the number of the cavers there was much bigger than the official registration data! The majority were the cavers from member countries of the Balkan Speleological Union!
The respect to the greatest Unions’ event manifested Emre Baturay Altinok – President of the newly founded Turkish Federation of Speleology; Peter Beron – President of Bulgarian Federation of Speleology; Viorel Lasku – Chairman of the Romanian Federation of Speleology. The official opening of the Camp took place at the evening of 15th July. The event opened the president of Balkan Speleological Union – Mr. Viorel Lasku and Dr. Peter Beron – the veteran among the present cavers.
The next days the program of the Camp included penetrations in some of the most interesting and spectacular caves in Apuseni Mt. – like the Cave Humpleu (length 40 km), Pothole V5 – the deepest cave in Romania (652 m), the amazing Cave “Cetatile Ponorului” (7.5 km). The participants visited some other vertical and horizontal caves among which were the famous Scarisoara Ice Cave and maybe the most beautiful Romanian cave in the tourist class – Peshtera Urshilor.
During the camp took place the international cave rescue exercise as a part of its general program. The décor of this event was the «Cetatile Ponorului Cave». The event was under the coordination of SALVASPEO ROMANIA (Cave Rescue Romania) and organized by Salvamont Salvaspeo Bihor, Department of the Administrative County Council Bihor. The exercise gathered Speleo-rescuers from Romania (97), Bulgaria (19), Slovenia (1), Poland (4) and Hungary (14). The cave rescue exercise was directed by the Technical Counselors Ionut Latcu and Tudor Rus, with the operational partnership of ISU “Crisana” Bihor (the Department for Emergency Situations Bihor), SMURD Bihor (the Emergency Mobile Medical Rescue Service) and Administration of Natural Park Apuseni. The rescue scenario consisted of three victims, trapped into a cave by water flows: two of the victims – one dead and one with hypothermia were at about 2000 m from the entrance, area “La Venetiana”. The third one, physically exhausted, found at 350 m from the entrance, area “Sala Taberei”. The hypothermic victim was re-heated and evacuated from the cave on her own feet; stretchers evacuated the other two victims, the corps and the exhausted person. From the cave entrance, the victims on stretchers were taken over by the Salvamont teams and transported over vertical walls, with support of complex system of fixed and mobile ropes to the plateau, were the SMURD ambulance was waiting; the duration of the outdoor Salvamont evacuation was over one hour. The rescuers used over one tone of equipment, including over 4,000m of ropes. The report of the event revealed the full success of the action and showed the capacity for team-work of the rescuers coming from different countries and the cooperation between different administrative bodies involved in action. Some impression from the event you can find at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RorHFjKezMc In the evening hours there are no presentations as it was expected, but the camp fires and the hut gives enough atmospheres for social contacts. The farewell party around the big fire pursued with traditional soup borsh, wine, cuika (raki), etc., took place on 17th July. It was the apogee of the Camp nights, full of emotions and fun for all participants!