Cave diving. I have read Dead Man´s Handshake (a very scary essay in Bonnington´s book Quest for Adventure) and The Darkness Beckons (even more scary history of cave diving, written by Martyn Farr ´at a time when many of the original participants were still alive and available for interview´). That, I thought, would put me off for life.
But, well OK, this was only cavern diving (less serious and more spacious than true cave diving), in a cenote in Mexico called Chac Mool.
A cenote is a freshwater pool forming the visible part of a submerged cave system Some of them extend for miles under the flat landscape of the Yucatan.
Random notes....
- Less scary than I had imagined - good visibility, powerful torch, and 1:1 with the dive master.
- Interesting stuff: a) a thermocline, where the warm water below meets the cold fresh water above, together with b) a halocline: a subtype of chemocline caused by a strong, vertical salinity gradient within a body of water. The overall effect is like a floating mirror-mirage until disturbed,which becomes quite hazy when disturbed. Only visible when you are in it, or very close to it.
- Underwater stalactites and stalagmites, formed when the limestone cave was above ground millions of years ago.
- Swim around in passageways large and small, stop at an amazing air bell (roof decorated with cave straws) where you can take your mouthpiece out and chat, and generally gawp at the darkness.
- Not deep (12m max), very up-and-down dive profile.
- Fish in the cave seem to be able to swim between the two layers of water with no problems. How do they do that?
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