Quintana Roo, Mexico

“Exploration of the Dos Ojos (Two Eyes) region, the northeastern-most extent of the system began in 1987. In 1994 the discovery was made of a cenote that led to what is now the deepest cave segment in the system called “The Pit” and gives this section of cave a depth of 119 metres (Barton 2001). “The Pit” is also the deepest section of cave passage of all of the cave systems in the coastal zone of Quintana Roo” (“The Sac Actun System, Quintana Roo, Mexico”. Kambesis, P.N. and Coke IV, J.G., 2016. P181, Para 5. In:  Boletín Geológico y Minero, 127 (1): 177-192 ISSN: 0366-0176).

I had been discussing diving in Mexico with Derek Aughton, one of my main Divemasters at Deep Blue, a month before I’d put him in touch with Budgie Burgess, a long time mate from my military days who had moved out to Mexico to become a cave guide, (and who now holds legendary status amongst the regular expedition divers there) Derek had already been across and dived extensively with Budgie the previous year and was very descriptive about “El Pit” assuring me any trip out there should include a dive into the Pit. Eventually Ellie and I had decided to have a couple of weeks there, in the first week  I had already done two of the cenote dives in Dos Ojos, the Barbie run and the Bat cave, I was already enthralled with the huge interconnection of the Karst plain of Baia and wasn’t surprised that virtually every dive I would do around Tulum would have been accessible in a sort of Mexican Underground way, essentially just stations on a main line, some at different depths but all sharing the vast tunnel network

Derek had described El Pit as exactly that, a deep sink hole in the Limestone of the area, I had no idea at the time just how deep it would prove to be, but looked forward to what was going to be the deepest dive I would carry out whilst in Mexico. I had seen very dramatic photo’s taken in El Pit, frankly some were incredible, almost to the extent you felt they could not possibly have been real, but must be some kind of A.I or Photoshop creations…….? How wrong that would prove to be! I knew El Pit was around 40m or so deep from Derek’s descriptions, I knew there were several passages off the pit which could go deeper if you were fully cave diver certified, however I also knew that I wasn’t a trained cave diver and would not get to see those passages, or where they eventually led, I didn’t feel cheated by that, it is what it is and rules are there to ensure everyone’s safety, I was just looking forward to seeing what the environment down there looked like!

In the pre- briefing for the dive, on the way from Bahia Principe (our holiday resort) in the truck, Budgie covered the more recent explorations and discoveries that had been made, from Paul & Jill Heinerth’s (married at that time) first 100m dive in 1997 into what would be called the Wakulla Room (named after the cave system Paul & Jill were very familiar with back in the USA) and culminating in 2000  with a 119m dive by Dan Lins & Steve Bogaerts proving, so far, to be the deepest at El Pit. Latterly Jill Heinerth went on to push what is shown as the BMB passage into “Jill’s Chamber” and discover more possibilities in a passage named, perhaps with a sense of Irony, “The Next Generation Tunnel” If these dives whet your appetite for more there is a great article you will enjoy in Advanced Diver Magazine here: https://advanceddivermagazine.com/_PDFORDER/isfg/6ali/ADM%20ISSUE%206.pdf  

I had decided to dive the cenotes using my AP Valves Inspiration rebreather. I knew the advantages of 4 hours of diving on one canister of sofnolime would far outweigh the time allowed by a twin-set, and I had no real idea how I would take to long immersions in caverns with little, if any, light. Cave diving is distinctly different to any other type of diving and I knew that even the “tourist” dives available to me as a non cave-trained diver, would involve time in confines that couldn’t be argued with, lightless, anonymous tunnels, completely unfamiliar to me, neither Budgie or I were getting any younger, and we both loved steak egg n chips perhaps a little too much! Having successfully carried out hour long dives in Dos Ojos I was happy the Inspiration would finally prove the way forward for diving for me despite set-backs with the original handsets and the battery box issues I’d had in the early days of diving it. The change to the Juergensen Hammerhead handsets, and the far better 4 cell controller, seemed to have put those issues behind me, the solenoid was, as far as I could determine, a better controlled item and the handsets were far easier to scroll through and had, so far at least, a 100% record

El Pit is a collapsed cavern in the limestone substrate that covers most of the Quintana Roo, part of the Yucatan on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, the area from Cancun down through the Mayan port of Tulum to Chetumal and indeed on into Belize, famous in my past life as a glory posting in paradise, but more famous in the wider world for its Blue Hole, a Jaques Cousteau find and the site where he did some ground breaking dives. In geological terms the region is described as a Coastal Karst Aquifer, which I distill, for the purposes of my limited intellect, to mean a Limestone plateau system, eroded by rain over millennia to form underground connections via caverns, tunnels and eventually ceiling collapses forming the native “Cenotes”. The presence of the ubiquitous Stalactites and Stalagmites within the systems proving that for long periods of time these caverns, tunnels and caves were above sea level, but now, through climate changes and land movements, have become flooded, sometimes partially, mostly completely, leaving them both a wonder and a challenge to modern mankind

Descending into El Pit is a phenomenal experience, the view is quite magnificent and, even from the surface some 30m until you reach the Hydrogen Sulphide halocline, a perfect level of mist which gives you the impression of a graveyard at twilight, especially as there is a dead sapling still standing on the remains of the cave roof, collapsed to the floor in a desolate pyramid of broken Limestone and debris…..El Pit is a truly epic experience just for that sight alone, nevertheless, there’s a whole lot more to see as you circle the 40m level at the collapse pile…..

My dive did not go to plan, I went from the awe of the view down to the halocline, and a feeling of wonder at my surroundings, to a nagging feeling something wasn’t quite as it should be, to….well, read for yourselves as my Navy Dive Log tells it: “26/02/15 The Pit – Cenote – Mexico This is a large hole which as usual is a cave roof collapse & is a deep & interesting feature of the area as there is an obvious halocline @ 30m or so. We spent 15 or so minutes at 36m then ascended to see the eerie interface between salt & fresh water which is like diving in jelly or shower gel & wrecks your vision blurring everything!! There is a tree @ around 18-20m and the fall-in from the roof makes a level there which with what looks like a layer of mist gives the impression of a graveyard – eerie as hell & ominously so as the inspo was getting harder to breathe which led me to cancel a trip into a side tunnel & concentrate on solving the issue – just got worse whatever I did, loop-vent – dill flush – nothing worked – went to bail to find the sling reg clip jammed in the hang rope – GREAT- a near death experience in a pseudo cemetery!! Managed to free it-just in time!! Ascent was slow n steady no drama…was a flood!! Buddy Budgie”  

The autopsy (thankfully, not mine….) revealed a flooded canister, somewhere water was getting into the loop, not enough to completely flood the canister but sufficient to fill the lower section where the air transfer between loop and sofnolime takes place, slowly but surely increasing breathing resistance and simultaneously endangering the diver by increasing the amount of exhaled carbon dioxide, and, try as hard as I could, I could not locate the leak. I stripped, pressure tested and re-assembled the unit several times until I realised, either my eyes were not up to the job anymore, despite my recently re-tested and almost new glasses, or that the issue was so small as to have been eradicated in the stripping and re-lubing/sealing….so why had pre-dive suction tests not picked it up …….perhaps they weren’t carried out for long enough, perhaps I’d dislodged something on entry although I didn’t recall a harsh entry…..in the end I put it down to operator error and insufficient pre-dive testing, maybe due to excitement or perhaps an over emphasised feeling of anticipation to get in the water, either way it would have been a stupid way to go out…..and then the entanglement of the side-mount regulator and the sense of an imminent “end”…. I admit there was a moment, several in fact, when I’d almost given up, another minute and it would have been over….. I had been at my physical limits so much so that my sight was starting to suffer….

If there was a defining point when I made a conscious decision to abandon rebreather diving then perhaps this was it, although that wouldn’t manifest until I’d been back in the UK for several months and had discussed things many times with Ellie, my wife. Ellie had instantly picked up something wasn’t right when I’d arrived back from the dive and met her at the beach, she said it was when I said “it is now” when she had greeted me with “everything good hon” as I’d not usually say something like that and it seemed odd, that and the redness in my eyes which I’d never had previously….likely some blood vessels had bled a little. I was dismissive at the time, saying it had been a bit of a do but nothing more, but I don’t think Ellie was convinced and she asked me several times that night not to dive “…..that stupid bloody contraption” again

I dived El Pit again in July of the next year, Ellie loved Mexico and we had only done half the things we wanted to on our first trip, so I agreed wholeheartedly we would return the next year, so 2016 my Navy Log reprises El Pit thus: “The Pit Bahaia Mexico. Return to the collapsed Cenote where the YBOD (Yellow Box of Death) nearly killed me last year. GREAT dive down & round the core of debris where the roof fell in and created a 40m pit with a 10m cone in it. Down & round the lone tree in the “mist” which really still resembles a cemetery & is wonderfully spooky then up in circles to see the strata & stalactites hanging in the grottos in the wall. Back into the cavern at the 20m ish depth which leads upstream & downstream & would get you to the sea or back to Dos Ojos depending which way you went. Up to finish watching the bubbles of 15 or so other divers which resembled a Jacuzzi as we exited. Wonderful dive Air In 200 Out 160 Viz 30m Buddy Budgie”. I notice now that all blame has, rather tongue in cheek, been assigned to the inspo and any mention of “operator error” has been cheerfully set aside from my previous attempt to make myself a permanent feature of Boot Hill………

By now though, rebreather diving was a thing of the past for me, a year on and I’d decided that I had carried out the in-water drills as well as could be expected, that the failure had not been evident sufficiently to show itself before the dive and, really, if something as small as the leak had been, had compromised the unit so much that recovery had not worked effectively, then whichever that was assigned to (me or the unit) was enough. Either I just did not have sufficient rigor to dive the unit safely or, following manufacturing (wholly un-admitted by AP) issues surrounding the handsets (hit me twice, both times on different sets but knocking out the other too) and then on the known, but again dismissed, battery box bounce issue (dislodging of the 9v battery killing power to the unit) early in my ownership, and an unresolved investigation into “Pixilated” handset displays during an especially cold Stoney Cove dive one January, I had decided the disadvantages outweighed the advantages of closed circuit diving in terms of my diving….after all, I wasn’t trying to get up close to photograph marine life, nor was I regularly diving below 60m…. the risk just did not stack up for me any longer

We again decided there was still more to do in Mexico and Ellie and I returned in 2017 for an early holiday, in May of ’17 I found my way back to El Pit for what would be until now, my last dive there and my Navy Log records: “Cenote ‘The Pit’ Bahaia Maya Mexico. 1^st dive of the holiday back in Mexico and a dive in perhaps my favourite Cenote. The Pit is a maul down stairs in the heat but as we were 1^st in it was crystal & calm with the usual 35m Viz – descent went well no tooth issues (I’d not long since had root canal work following a dive on Vassilios T in Croatia….) & we dropped through the halocline @ 20m to pass through the Hydrogen Sulphide mist @ 30m and hit our plan to 35m then ascend through the ethereal mist past my ‘cemetery’ on the hill and the lone tree sentinel at what could have been my demise 2 years ago – round to the back of the spoil heap & up to the cave runs @ 20m & 15m in the back wall then on & out of this vast cathedral of crystal water & effervescence – a wonderful dive Air In 210 Out 110 Viz 35m Buddy Budgie”

El Pit is a magnificent dive, from the trek into the jungle to reach it, to the kit carry down the wooden steps to reach the dive platform and the eventual descent into its beautifully clear waters, it finds a place in amongst the most unusual dives I have done. That is not just because it is a Cenote and part of a huge system of mystical passages and caverns under the Mayan homelands, with all their bloody history, which reach from miles inland, through jungles full of ancient pyramids and ruins, where Jaguars still patrol ghost-like and unseen, eventually to meet the Caribbean Sea. But it is so much more than that, it is immense, when you enter El Pit the surrounding cavernous hollow beneath you opens out into something like the size of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, the debris pile hidden by the halocline, and what seems an impenetrable mist with a lone tree sticking defiantly out of it, despite having died aeons ago, it seems to invoke that timelessness which clearly captivated the Mayans who treated the depths and tunnels around them as sacred openings to the other world…….and that is what El Pit is….it’s the “Other World”, dark and light, giving and, in equal measure, maleficent, and beautiful whilst very quickly becoming terrible……..in short it is our connection to the underworld, just as the Mayans believed it to be………

I will conclude by saying, this piece is about El Pit and Cenote diving in Mexico, not a hatchet job on rebreathers, (friends of mine have successfully used them far longer than my 10 years of occasional use) and those that commit to them completely, and abandon open circuit entirely, seem to be most devoted to them, that just wasn’t me, my diving just did not really warrant that divergence, or perhaps that level of commitment

Why not take a dive with me into El Pit, 2016 on open circuit:

As ever I would like to thank those who’s pictures, support and background information have made this a far better piece than I could have produced alone, namely, Joram Mennes, Hazel Barton, @mantarayo, voyagemexique.info, Paul & Jill Heinerth (via Advanced Diver Magazine), Eric “Budgie” Burgess and finally my long suffering and beautiful wife Ellen all of whom have in different ways, enriched my life immensely……..

Tulum: Dos Ojos

In 2015 when the subject of holidays came back around Ellie had, I think, already decided where she wanted to go….I had mentioned to friends from our dive group that one of my longest serving diving mates Eric “Budgie” Burgess had become a cave diver & guide out in Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula when they mentioned they were off on holiday there, I’d said look Budgie up if you are thinking of cavern dives as he will know the right people to go with in the area. On their return a few weeks later sat at one of our regular Chinese meals in Stafford, Chris was waxing lyrical about the whole Mexican holiday from Bull Sharks to White sand beaches and pure Blue seas…..I think that had a profound effect on Ellie as all I heard from then on was….can we look at Mexico this year…….

I had no objection to a holiday that had been described as “unbelievable” I just hoped it lived up to Chris’ description and Ellie’s expectations, I knew I would be happy, I was straight on e-mail to Budgie to let him know we were coming and to see when was best for diving…….. I also needed to know what diving was available to a non cave certified diver in what I knew was not a wreck infested coastline! Budgie had no problem setting me up some sofnolime for the trip as I was on the Inspiration by this point, although it had not always been an easy marriage, I had already run through the standard equipment failures the early models were prone to, battery bounce, dual handset failure, and a couple of odd issues too, one at least “self-inflicted” when I had a CO2 breakthrough and started to lose visuals, luckily I bailed out quickly enough to open circuit on that occasion. I’d had the odd cell anomalies too, which had eventually prompted me to change to a Juergensen Hammerhead controller, that had stabilised the unit as far as I could tell and I had decided to persevere, what better time to fall back in love with it than in the Cenotes of the Yucatan!

Budgie chose Dos Ojos as an introduction to the Cenotes and I met him at the front of the hotel on a gloriously hot February morning in 2015 for the ride in his truck to the site. I had a reasonable understanding of Cenotes from geography lessons decades before, along with history it was one of the only two subjects I actually enjoyed in school. I knew that Limestone areas were ancient, that they were once under Oceans and that the entire of the rock was made up of tiny dead crustaceans, compressed for millennia under the weight of those Oceans, eventually becoming a form of solid rock and that the structure was easily eroded by rainwater and that when a land mass raised from the sea, once released from the weight of glaciers after an ice-age passes, or when land is raised due to subduction of tectonic plates in volcanic regions, the exposed limestone becomes subject to rain erosion, where water has already permeated through the limestone by the action of freshwater streams and rivers. When that water level is dropped by the lifted land or lowered sea levels, then the waterways leave air spaces above, caverns and tunnels close to the surface. Those airways lead to rainwater permeating through the limestone to drip from the exposed ceilings of the caves and tunnels, the water that drips carries Calcium Carbonate, the residue from the limestone trapped in minute quantities within the leached water, when that water drips from the ceiling some of that residue sticks and builds down forming Stalactites, some is deposited on the cavern or tunnel floor, leaving what becomes over eons of time Stalagmites, given long enough these hanging and towering limestone forms can join together to become pillars from floor to ceiling. Should the water level rise again these forms become submerged and the process stops, leaving pilars, Stalactites and Stalagmites under the submerged Cenote water table in the flooded caves and tunnels of the Yucatan and similar areas worldwide. In geological terms it doesn’t take long before the surface erosion of the limestone can cause collapse of the cavern and tunnel ceilings that are closest to the surface, leaving Cenotes, or holes in the land, thought by the Aztecs and Mayan locals to be passages to the afterlife and held as sacred

Dos Ojos, or “two Eyes” when translated literally reflects the two openings that show at the surface resembling eyes when you approach from the main entrance, although the left and bigger opening is far more obvious, I don’t recall seeing the other myself until under the water on the return leg of the run. I was still in the Green Navy log in 2015 and I recorded: “24/02/15 DOS OJOS (Two Eyes) Cenote Mexico The Barbie run – through the first cenote I have dived with Budgie – the first dive we have done together despite 25 years in the business together!! A small cavern entrance with a wide pool to descend then winding through the caverns through the tunnels & into air bells. The scenery is fantastic the Stalagmites & Stalactites everywhere with shapes cut into the Limestone by water & the rains when the caves were dry hopefully captured some of this on the Go-Pro – Awesome experience but the rebreather is still a maul – still a pain re- buoyancy Viz unlimited Air In 3L 180 bar out 80 bar Buddy Budgie”  As an introduction to caverns & cave diving Budgie couldn’t have chosen better, the “Barbie” run (so called because someone, I will not lower myself to insults, for whatever incomprehensible reason, tied a plastic Barbie into the cave line half way around) starts with the main pool and then winds left past the ceiling where it dips below the surface in some places and is above it in others making ideal sites for snorkelers and also making an amazing play of light onto the surface and in shafts and holes of light, it’s a truly beautiful visual treat, one which I will never forget and which brings a smile whenever I think back to Dos Ojos and that first Cenote dive!

The next dive was still at Dos Ojos but a different run known as the Bat Cave for reasons that not only sound obvious but become even more so in the descriptive, and no, there are, thankfully, no plastic bats attached to the cave lines on that run! We had a little break between dives and I wandered around and took some photos and checked over my kit in preparation. All runs at Dos Ojos are shallow, I doubt we passed 10m at any point, I can’t honestly recall, suffice to say I knew I would be fighting the solenoid and buoyancy again at some points of the dive even at 1.3 set-point

Now I was looking forward to this dive after the Barbie run, the sheer excitement of being both underwater and underground was a thrill, the play of light in the system, often a single shaft of pure sunlight from a collapsed roof above, could create amazing effects when passing through the water and illuminating hanging tree roots which had worked their way  over decades through the Limestone ceiling surrounding the opening and extended down into the crystal clear cenote stream below, looking like weird underwater plants reaching down to touch you as you swam under them, especially odd when you had missed a root set looking in another direction with your torch and they gently brushed your face……

The log book records: “24/02/15 The Bat Cave – the second run on Dos Ojos Cenote Mexico a reverse of the first run but a passage off it into a lovely overhead cavern which has hundreds of Bats living in the ceiling – we surfaced after a 20 minute swim through the same wonderful Cenotes caveways & passages mostly black but for our torches and the odd shafts of light from collapsed roofs or jungle breaks into the caverns – another great dive Air In 80 out 20 Buddy Budgie” I have to say I loved the dive and the rebreather wasn’t quite the maul it had been on the Barbie run, perhaps it was mostly me, perhaps I lacked the subtlety needed to operate the unit, perhaps it was the limited use I had been able to give the Inspiration in the years following closing Deep Blue Diving and putting so much into my working life? Whatever the case, the Bat run had lived up to my expectations entirely, a beautiful and gentle swim through tunnels that expanded and contracted in size as if breathing underground as we passed through, patterns of erosion embedded into the walls, black as pitch for most of the run, there were less shafts of light on this dive, but when they came through they were mesmerising. I guess just over half way the dive shallows out as you make your way up an incline and realise you are going to surface

You are on the debris pile of rubble from the ceiling collapse which you haul up on, above you is a single shaft of light surrounded by an almost domed roof, lower than, but bearing a passing resemblance  to St Paul’s, but with Bats hanging from the ceiling nooks and crannies between the Stalactites and flying around before exiting through the open roof portal, or dropping in, to fly, almost erratically, until locating their favourite perch and joining those others just hanging around in the sunlight of the outside jungle

The dive out starts to show more light as you wind your way through the tunnels in and out of rock-falls and around Stalagmites and Stalactites lit by your torch beams, and occasionally from the surface through openings to the surrounding jungle. The Bat cave is perhaps just over half way on the run so there is plenty to see on the journey back to the main pool and cavern entrance, all things said there is little between the two different runs other than the enjoyment of a hidden cavern which, were it not for diving and snorkeling, would probably never have been seen by any but the Mayans, a beautiful way to spend a day……..perfect!

It is especially difficult to meaningfully portray dives in words, especially those that are particularly spectacular visually, so  images make all the difference and I am indebted to those who took the images used to illustrate this article on-line, especially Naill & Coline, the only attributions I could find specific to photo’s!

You can see what I mean, and you can look for Stalactites, Stalagmites and Limestone Pillars if you take the dive with me, this dive is on open circuit in 2016:

Its April of 2004, Two years before I had treated the family to a two week holiday in Florida to do the theme parks with our three lads, Lee Lewis & Kai, I had spent a lot of time away diving, weekends at Stoney or the pool in Fenton with trainees, weekday evenings at Denstone pool and occasional night dives on Wednesday evenings at Stoney too……Now these things needed to be done, my wages from JCB were only just covering the bills, if I wanted to keep diving (and that wasn’t really an “option”) then I had to make up the spend somehow, that meant training divers and Deep Blue Diving. It also meant additional pool and classroom hire costs and purchasing and maintaining dive kit, so it was a tight line I was walking, and, like cave diving, if that line gives……well, I had to keep that from happening! All that time taken from Ellie and the boys was only ever partially made up with them using the pools to swim and dive, and sneaking down under the water to “buddy Breathe” on the FSAC club members and Deep Blue Divemaster’s alternate regs, something they loved to do, because Ellie would be scared witless with how long they were underwater, before they would surface half way down the pool laughing their asses off……….. But so much time stolen from a young family takes its toll, the burden of that fell on Ellie, practically bringing the lads up on her own, I was a shit dad in that respect, and I felt it too, I wanted to give something back whenever I could. The 2002 Florida trip was all about the family, we did the parks, Disney and Universal, we did Gator-World, Sea-World, International Drive, Busch Gardens and the Everglades air-boats and the kids loved it, it was an amazing time and a wonderful place, so I was determined to go back again, to give something more if you like…… two years on and I’d squirreled enough away to take the family back and do the whole thing again, but this time I wanted something for myself……just a day I promised Ellie…..at Ginnie Springs!  

  Now, ever since my un-planned cave dive in Istria in Croatia, (formerly Yugoslavia), during my 7 months tour with NATO there, I had a fascination with caves, and the idea of another look at the dark interiors of those sacred tunnels and caves underwater, where so few mortals go…….. I had read The Darkness Beckons and been fascinated by the descriptions of exploration and preparation for exotic caves with subterranean flooded passages and “sumps” blocking the path of those lesser mortals who would go no further, their passage blocked by the water before them…..and I’d seen the pictures of those breaking Wookey Hollow and Tulum, Wakulla and Ginnie Springs and pushing the boundaries of those systems ever further. One of those I trained at Deep Blue, Rob, who became one of my Divemasters, had started to do some diving with a cave legend, Martyn Farr, and he was diving the sumps of Welsh mines and would eventually go on to an expedition in Russia, featuring in one of Martyn’s articles in Diver Magazine, surrounded by Ice, in a God-forsaken cave under the Steppes, or was it the Urals, I’m not too sure, but it was extreme and ground-breaking……..Now that would not ever be me, I knew that, I am not interested in pushing envelopes and putting together teams to go to the ends of the Earth and see if anything is there, but I was intrigued, I wanted to see more of caverns and caves, to at least get a feel of what that diving was like, Ellie thought I was mad, I didn’t have an argument for that, but she agreed I could steal a day from the family holiday and take a trip to Ginnie to dive  

  I had been hearing about Ginnie Springs for years, more so recently as I was diving more and more on Nitrox with IANTD, the CEO Tom Mount was a regular cave diver and Don Shirley, my Nitrox “shaman” often talked about Tom and Kevin Gurr, an acolyte of Tom’s, who ran IANTD UK & Europe. I knew the Florida Aquifer was big, that there were cave dive groups pushing to extend Wakulla springs system and I was hearing more about another new phenomenon (to me) called the “Re-breather”, something allowing these teams to carry out phenomenally long (4 hour) dives in these systems using re-cycled air from their breathing, in a kind of loop, from which Carbon Dioxide was removed and to which Oxygen was added to minimise the gas that was carried by the diver, but extend the dive time to extraordinary lengths….but more on that in another post to come. So the main name I had been hearing was Ginnie springs, quite a distance from the Theme Parks, a good 3 or 4 hour drive, but a place set-up for visiting divers, unlike Wakulla, accessible to people like myself, untrained, tourist divers with a “need to Know” but no commitment to taking a specific route on a cave diving course yet  

By way of an introduction to Ginnie Springs, Ginnie is a privately owned park located in Gilchrist County, central North Florida, about 6.5 miles from High Springs, USA. Ginnie sits alongside, and encompasses part of the Santa Fe River, to which it is connected. The water is clear and cold and the caverns are, as is usual in Aquifers, carved out of a limestone rock landscape by water erosion resulting in clean sandy bottoms. Ginnie Springs has been privately owned by the Wray family since 1971 and opened in 1976, however it took until the 1990’s, when scuba diving in the USA became more accessible and grew hugely in popularity, (some would say as a result of PADI and the ascendancy of such a widespread common training methodology) to result in the Wray’s opening the springs to the public. Although in the litigation prolific culture of the US and, sadly, due to an increasing number of scuba diver deaths in cave systems, the Wray’s installed an iron grate at the entrance to the main cave system and placed warning signs for divers, the grim nature of them now spread wide in the outside world, and common in most of the USA and the Mexican aquifer of the Yucatan

Ginnie Springs is far more than just a diving experience, visitors can swim, snorkel, canoe or Kayak, and “tube” (Think Tractor Tyre innertubes) along the Santa Fe River, nowadays they can also stand up paddleboard and there are various springs visitors can enter and swim in. Ginnie is a source for local bottled spring water, the water of the spring is crystal-clear, and the underlying Limestone geology assures around 100,000 miles of subterranean coverage, providing the drinking water for the whole state and its population. Tragically Nestle was recently granted permission to take over 1.1 million gallons a day from the aquifer that feeds Ginnie, and other nearby springs, sparking a national and perhaps even somewhat global outcry, quite rightly in my personal opinion. The natural balance of this system is delicate and should not be taken lightly, those who dive the caves of Florida keep a keen eye on conditions, they are the state’s first litmus test of the heath of the underground water Florida relies upon

THE BALLROOM

When you first set eyes on Ginnie Springs, having signed the waivers and conditions paperwork in the shop, you see the spring is a large, bowl-shaped pool measuring around 30m across and 5m deep. For those kayaking or “Tubing” there is a long run connecting the basin to the Santa Fe River. Ginnie’s main attraction, for those diving her, is the cavern, whose wide, open entrance is found at the bottom of the basin, across from the entry steps. When I visited it was close to mid-day and there were swimmers, snorkelers and even a few on Tubes, already enjoying the powder Blue water and I couldn’t wait to get in, it was a hot day and I was out of the air-conditioned cab of our dive guide Kent’s big Yank Chevrolet truck that had carried our diving kit up from the dive-shop back at Kissimmee  

  Ginnie’s cavern is among the handful of Florida sites that are considered sufficiently safe to allow divers who lack formal cavern or cave diver training to explore. The steel bars fitted across the entrance to the main cave system are there for a reason, as is the warning sign, divers die in caves, it’s not compulsory, but there is way more than “Sod’s Law” to diving deaths in caves and caverns. The inquisitive nature of the human condition makes most curious as to what lies beneath, add to that long and twisting passages, flooded throughout most of their length, throw in sometimes deceptively fast currents, expect the odd equipment failure, and then consider the light which only penetrates for the first few meters of any cave system and you have most of the reasons divers die in caves……..Of course there is stupidity, venturing beyond your training, light failures, making it almost impossible to regain the cave lines running where others have gone before, should you take your hands off for even an instant….there is carelessness where swimming with the current in a system leads you to over extend your air or gas supply, which you will inevitably use more of, swimming against the current back towards the cave entrance……..and then there is the opportunity to lose yourself, some of these cave systems go for miles, and there are many parallel tunnels, branching off, easy to end up in the wrong one, easy to feel lost and a surge of panic well up increasing the breathing rate and, therefore, the gas consumption. It isn’t surprising that the owners at Ginnie fitted the steel bars at the very back of the Ballroom, where those tempted beyond their training might do themselves harm……It is nice to see though, that divers of all experience levels are allowed to take lights into Ginnie Spring’s Ballroom to explore the cavern. The upper room of the cavern, in the light penetrating area is illuminated by natural light from the entrance. Looking back from this room toward the entrance provides a beautiful view, the cavern’s upper room walls are composed of highly reflective limestone, adding to the natural beauty and throwing reflections off the air-bubbles constantly streaming up towards the cavern roof

Our dive guide Kent had driven me up to Ginnie in his big Chevrolet truck, along with the kit for the four of us to dive that day, there were two others joining us at the site itself. I had a great journey up discussing diving, the American way of life, Limey’s and all manner of topics, it was an enjoyable trip. Kent had worked as an independent instructor with the Kissimmee dive-shop for some years now and, as a cave diver, was a natural selection to take a few tourists out for a day in the caverns. Once we had signed a dozen waiver’s and insurance disclaimers, and had the dive brief from Kent, we kitted up under the purpose built sun shades, using the kit tables kindly provided for the purpose by the Ginnie Springs owners…….it was time to dive!   My log book records: “Ginny – Springs Florida USA – A glimpse of the realms of cave diving. The training grounds of the greats – (Sheck) Exley – Palmer – Farr. The cave system starts here but is now grilled shut about 40m back in the cavern where water surges up at 1kt. The cavern is a delight with a squeeze & several off-shoot grotto like areas. Trapped air on the roof reflects like a mirror ball when lit from below – a superb dive with ghosts of greats as buddys – just out of sight!! Air In 250 – Out 150 Buddy Kent”

There is a good descriptive of what can be seen in the cavern on Ginnie’s own web-site, it says: “Moving to the back of the upper room, divers pass through a large opening into the amphitheater-sized area called the “Ballroom.” Although surface light is clearly visible from most places within the Ballroom, divers will want to carry dive lights to see everything there is to see. The Ballroom provides divers with the opportunity to examine many of the unusual geologic formations that are unique to the Floridan Aquifer. The Ballroom’s ceiling contains an excellent example of spongework–a gigantic, limestone Swiss cheese. Midway between floor and ceiling, divers will find evidence of a bedding plane–a distinctive horizontal crack that is crucial to the movement of underground water. At the northwest corner of the Ballroom is a beautifully carved phreatic tube–a perfect example of the most common form of underwater cave formation. Nearby, a larger bedding-plane formation collects air in mercury-like pockets on the ceiling” I couldn’t have put that better myself, hence the quote, the Ginnie web-site is not half bad and whoever wrote it was succinctly descriptive

The Ginnie web-site description goes on to say “At the very back of the Ballroom (a maximum depth of 17m), is a large, welded grate. This grate prevents divers from entering the dangerous, silty and maze-like cave system that lies beyond. Nevertheless, most divers enjoy pulling themselves up to the grate, so that they can experience the “in-your-face” force of the 35 million gallons of water a day that pass through the opening. A large-diameter, heavy duty guideline runs from the back of the Ballroom to the cavern entrance. This helps ensure there is never any doubt as to which way is out” I suspect the description of “…dangerous, silty and maze like cave system….” is a somewhat overly emotive way of reminding those diving the cavern of its potential dangers

    We had spent almost an hour in the cavern and had a wonderful dive, I had seen all I could having done several circuits around the cavern, and behind the boulders and into the smaller spaces of the various areas of the cavern in its lit, and its darker areas at the back. It was time to get something to eat and drink before we took on the “Devil’s Ear”, which Kent had told us would be our second dive of the day at the dive-brief. After a brief dry-off and something to eat and drink Kent described the next dive at the Devil’s Ear, part of the Devil’s Spring System and home to three separate springs, the aptly named Devil’s Eye, Devil’s Ear and Devil Spring or “Little Devil”, which produce nearly 80 million gallons of water between them daily. Kent explained that, despite our use of dive torches in the cavern, Ginnie Springs enforces a strict no lights rule at the Devil’s Ear, allowing only certified cavern or cave divers to enter the water in any of the Devil’s Spring system while carrying dive lights, which helps prevent non cave trained divers from entering an area where lack of training, or experience could get them in trouble

  The Devil’s Spring, or “Little” Devil, is a meter plus fracture at the head of the Devil’s Spring System run. Around 17m long it is almost as deep, Ginnie’s web-site puts it beautifully saying “Divers who descend to the bottom of this crack will be rewarded with a breath-taking view as they look skyward, even from the very bottom, it is not unusual to look up through the clear water and be able to count the leaves on the trees overhead. Devil’s Eye is a round opening, 20 feet across and equally deep. At the bottom is the entrance to a small, intricately decorated cavern. Certified divers may enter the cavern and explore up to the limit of what they can see, using available sunlight” and I wouldn’t disagree with one word! Kent took us a little further into the fields and trees surrounding the dive shop and lodge and on to another kitting up area, smaller than that of the Cavern

The dive took place in the late afternoon and there were, again, beautifully constructed wooden stairs into the water making entry easy, my dive log describes our second dive at Ginnie springs: “Ginny Springs – Florida – USA The Devil’s ear – named as the pool in the Santa Fe river (tributary) where you enter is (ear shaped) then a sharp descent in a very narrow crack with currents at 1-1.5Kt which are impossible to fin against but fun to try. The famous “Reaper” warning is here. After that we swam the Santa Fe & back up into Ginny a magic dive. Air In 230 Out 150 Buddy Kent”. Now Kent had warned us we could encounter ‘Gators in the river swim following our 15 minutes or so in the opening to the Devil’s Ear in the dive briefing. I could see it may be an issue as the water in the river swim took on a beautiful bright Green hue, something to do with the vegetation in the swampy areas around Ginnie, the levels of Tannin, the colouring in some Scotch Whisky’s, and the entirely different flow characteristics I suppose

  Ginnie springs describe the Devil’s ear as “…..a canyon-like opening located where the Devil Spring run joins the Santa Fe River. At the bottom of this opening, water gushes from a cave opening with nearly fire-hydrant-like force. Although the water in the Devil’s Ear basin is generally crystal clear, it is common for it to be covered with a thin layer of tannin-stained river water. This phenomenon enables divers to sit in the basin’s clear water and look up at the sun and trees through a unique, stained-glass effect created by the river water”

We spent almost an hour between the dive in the ear and the swim up the river back into the cavern sump, it was a wonderful day and I had loved every minute of it. Whilst my first ever cave dive had been unplanned, and at the mercy of those I was diving with, and required a level of trust in them to return me to the surface safely afterwards…the two dives at Ginnie Springs had been completely different, planned and briefed well and something I was the instigator of, I loved both dives and, if I could, I would have asked Kent to take me further into the system to see a little more, would he have done so…… I doubt it, but I had enjoyed the day so much I’d have definitely asked!

  I should start this with the due-Diligence piece really, so here goes, Caves and Caverns are unique and beautiful environments, they often see so few visitors as to be considered “pristine” environments. Those environments, especially caves, present very unique challenges and, without putting too dramatic an implication on this, they can easily become fatal for those who do not embark into their depths with healthy respect and specific training. So please do not take these pieces as encouragement to cavern or cave dive, if this kind of thing is an attraction, take the time to undertake proper training before you push into another world, that’s not how things started for me, however it SHOULD be how it starts for you………The dangers are well described elsewhere, in diving text books and tales of adventure by people like Martyn Farr,  Phil Short and Richie Stevens, legends within the tight knit cave diving fraternity, check out Martyn’s book “THE DARKNESS BECKONS” which is practically the cave diving “standard” and which I loved! 

  My own cavern & cave adventures started in Croatia (26/09/1992), completely by accident, and without any real understanding of what I was about to do. This was not a planned event for me, I had been diving with a couple of Croats, Igor & Jellicho, over the last couple of months as part of a UN recreational diving programme. I had been asked to set-up the programme by my boss, WO1 Chris Cjaia, for those of us from the British Army serving in what had recently been “Yugoslavia”, as a provision of recreational activity for R&R (as the briefing from HQ said we would not be allowed out of country (back home) whilst on the 6 month tour). We were in “Former Yugoslavia” as part of the UN forces in “UNPROFOR” a multi-national undertaking, supposedly as a physical, but non-combative, barrier between the opposing forces of Croatia and Serbia following some brutal, if localised, confrontations in places like Vukovar and Mostar. This was the UN  desperately trying to stop the country descending into self destruction following the outbreak of hostilities, as Croatia announced its intentions of state-hood (in the vacuum after Tito’s death, when it was clear he left no obvious successor), and meant the far richer republic of Croatia, with it’s burgeoning coastal tourist industry, had a perfect opportunity to ditch the largely peasant based farming economy of Serbia, and the rest of the Six republics (Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia) that had been forced to become “Yugoslavia” following WWII, and the Yalta conference, where the victorious Allies carved up what had been Nazi, axis alliance countries…… 

  So, I am in Pula on the Istrian peninsula of Croatia and I am looking for a suitable outfit to support the Open Water phase of a planned BSAC Novice 1 and 2 qualification “in theatre” so those on this tour get an opportunity to do something different and take some of the pressure off, whilst serving in such a conflict, without being able to get back to the UK for R&R in the usual manner. This means searching out anyone still willing to operate in an economy that, in real terms, is “tanking”……. Chris Cjaia gave me a simple brief, go coastal, find someone who is still operating, check them out and offer them some would-be divers……….How could I refuse? As is often the case in such circumstances, there is always someone who can see opportunity…… even if the rest of the world has gone to Hell in a handcart locally! Step-in Vlado and his business partner Slavko, who ran Murgons dive centre in easier times along with their dive guides Igor and Jellicho……… 

  So, I have contacts, I have a viable dive centre with reasonably modern dive equipment, now to try some diving…..just to ensure everything is “Kosher” you understand…… I have had the go-ahead from our local Officer in Charge (OiC), Captain Nick Stansfield, and have taken a couple of local dives, which I will detail in another thread on here, and, oddly, Igor says “You’ll need a good torch for this next dive Colin”….unusual, as its daylight, in the Adriatic sea and, so far, the viz has been Twenty or Thirty metres or better…..I’m intrigued!  Bear in mind this is my Fourth dive with Jelicho and Igor over a period of Four months and I have already put several UK forces trainees through their Novice 1 and 2 open water skills in the bay at Punta Verudella successfully. It seems that Igor and Jellicho have come to the conclusion I’m alright, and an OK diver, and that means I’m ready to be shown their local jewel……. 

  It doesn’t take much imagination, considering the title of this piece, to figure out what comes next, an intriguing need for “a good torch”, the fact I’d previously expressed a love for some winding swim-through’s (different piece, yet to come…..) that we’d carried out earlier in the year, and Igor with what could only be called a “shit-eating grin” on his face telling me to “trust me”, but as time had passed following that dive, and knowing that there were deeper dives available locally which might warrant a torch, I could be forgiven for being a little clueless…… So when Jellicho said “we’re taking you to see the washing machine…” I just couldn’t figure out what was going on….truly!  The inflatable trip out wasn’t long, perhaps 15 or so minutes until we slowed and prepped to enter, then a backward splash into the beautifully warm Adriatic, everyone OK…..fine, then the descent, we were a bit closer to the headland than we had been before, and I remember wondering what the lads had in store, but after a 10 minute swim along the face of the rocky outcrops we had moored next to, a gaping hole showed in front of me and I had a decision to make……Did I trust Igor and Jellicho enough to follow them into what was, quite obviously, a cave……… sitting at somewhere between 15 and 20m the entrance was wide, this wouldn’t be a squeeze, but I could see why they had called it the washing machine! The Adriatic is not a large sea, it sits between Italy and Croatia, it is strategically important as evidenced by campaigns by both sides of two conflicts who sought to wrest control from both the local populous and from each other, but it isn’t often an angry sea, it’s tidal range being somewhere round a meter (compared to some areas of the UK with 8m range.)….But you could see the surge into this cave, the sea crashing up and causing the gaping mouth to froth and millions of bubbles form like an angry aquarium aerator going crazy….. I knew I shouldn’t enter, I wasn’t trained to cave dive, but I trusted Igor and Jellicho, they weren’t going to take me anywhere more life-threatening than diving itself was and I bit the bullet and followed………..  

  I switched on the torch and it lit up well, I don’t know if it was Igor or Jellicho that led us in, but the surge was amazing and yes, I could believe I was in a washing machine as the bubbles were all around, only added to by our exhaled air, as we pushed through the yawning cave mouth and started to make our way down the tunnel beyond the cave entrance. The swim got easier within 10m or so and the surge was obviously calmed a little as the tunnel widened as we swam further in. There was nothing outside our torch beams as we swam on, but I could make out disturbance up ahead and we were getting shallower and shallower….. It was  an amazing feeling to me to haul up onto what was, effectively, a hidden, subterranean  beach inside the Limestone headlands of Istria. We crawled carefully up the small pebble beach and lay back on our cylinders, just out of the water, to listen to the gentle waves lapping the pebble beach and watched as Jellicho lit the surrounding caver with his torch. This was something truly beautiful, not full of Stalagmites or Stalactites but a large cavern, under water, with a pebble beach……like every Atlantis movie you ever saw, or 20000 leagues beneath the Sea……wonderful to see and you imagined, just out of sight, a winding staircase up to a hidden exit into some castle or cave system long forgotten by all but a few…..   The swim out was brilliant too, the tunnel being between 30 and 50m or so long, the re-entry to the water surreal as we made our way, by torchlight, towards an ever bigger bright Blue circle that marked the caves exit, and another rinse cycle, before we could ascend to the waiting inflatable and the inevitable round of Shit-Eating grins……and mine was…..by far the broadest of them all…….epic!