Cave
Meet The British Underground
It’s cold, dark, you can barely see two meters in front of you, and you’re diving alone. Oh, and there’s a sump up ahead. Welcome to the British Underground! Not exactly a scooter-ride in the warm, clear, stalactite studded caves that lay beneath Riviera Maya. Here British caver and training officer for the Somerset Section of the Cave Diving Group Michael Thomas guides us on a tour of British cave diving and explains why it may not be everyone’s cuppa tea.
by Michael Thomas
Header photo courtesy Michael Thomas. Diver entering Keld Head in the Yorkshire Dales.
Recently someone approached me about British cave diving wondering what in particular makes it so very different from Mexican cave diving, for example, and why it’s so appealing to a select few. In the U.K. we have two types of underground diving. The first is the significant number of flooded mines that have given rise to some world-class mine diving that’s becoming very popular with technical divers from around the world. The second type of underground diving is traditional British cave diving, which, due to the nature of U.K. caves, involves both dry caving and cave diving. The aim is to explore the caves underwater or in the dry underground following it as far as possible. We are now finding that technically trained mine and cave divers are starting to learn the art of dry cave exploration in order to further their knowledge and adventure, some even gaining enough experience to join the Cave Diving Group in the U.K.
Firstly, a little about myself if I may be so bold. My diving career is now in its thirty-third consecutive year, from starting out as a trainee open water diver with BSAC to trainee cave diver within the CDG to becoming the Training Officer of the British Cave Diving Group Somerset Section in the U.K. Since 1996 I’ve had links to TDI and currently hold Full Cave Instructor, Sidemount and Tech Instructor status with TDI, active mod 3 CCR cave diver, and on the British Cave Rescue call out list as a diver.
My diving life crosses all paths of British and worldwide diving, from open water to cave and tech. I’m actively involved with technical diving conferences and a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society of the U.K. My father was a cave explorer before me, and my son has also taken the same path. You could say, caves and diving are our lives.
See The CDG
To understand British cave diving we first need to understand the CDG. The Cave Diving Group is the representative body for cave divers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland and is a constituent body of the British Caving Association (BCA). Its function is to educate and support cavers for recreational and exploratory operations in British sumps. The CDG also helps control access to numerous cave sites, including Wookey Hole and Gough’s Cave in Somerset, and Keld Head And Hurtle Pot in Yorkshire, in conjunction with the BCA. The group was formed in 1946 by the late Graham Balcombe, and its continuous existence to the present day makes it the oldest amateur technical and cave diving organization in the world. Graham Balcombe arguably invented cave diving in the U.K. with his audacious dives in Swildon’s Hole cave and Wookey Hole cave in 1935.
Now the huge difference between the Cave Diving Group and other cave diving training agencies is you can’t just sign up and pay to do a training course. From the very start in 1946, the prerequisite for joining the CDG was always and is a knowledge and experience base of dry caving skills, though in modern years we also require an open water certification. Once you have made yourself known to one of the four sections that make up the CDG—Somerset, Welsh, Northern, and Derbyshire—and proven you have dry caving skills and can get along with your new-found friends, you are voted in, hopefully to whichever section you approached.
As a trainee member of the cave diving group, the training is apprenticeship based and generally takes between 12-18 months. At the end of that, a written exam and an underwater test is completed, and as long as your section is in agreement, the qualified diver status is awarded. It’s a slow process but ensures adequate experience is gained in a variety of different sites and conditions, producing a cave diver that is capable of exploration cave diving, rescue work, and continued training of new members.
The Solo Mentality
Probably the one difference with most U.K. cave diving, that is a world away from agency standards, is the CDG approach to team diving. In all but a few sites in the U.K., the CDG considers solo diving the safest way to approach the dive. While divers might enter the cave together as a team, and dry cave their way to the dive base (dive site within the cave), once they are in the water they typically dive solo. This is because a diver is usually unable to help another diver in the water. Then they meet up on the other side if more dry caving is to be done.
CDG trainee divers are taught from the beginning to be solo divers or work within a team as solo divers, something we call “team solo.” Most dive sites in natural caves in the U.K. are unsuitable for team diving. The few sites that are suitable for a team to operate together, such as Wookey Hole in Somerset, Hurtle Pot in the Yorkshire Dales, and Porth Yr Ogof in South Wales, should really be a team of only two divers. Passage size and visibility generally means divers can’t see the third team member if at the back or front of the team. The mine diving sites are much more suited to team diving with larger passages and clearer water. The links below offer more information on mine diving in the U.K. [Ed.note: Global Underwater Explorers does not sanction solo diving.]
The article, “Solo Cave Diving,” on the CDG website explains why it recommends solo cave diving as the safer alternative for U.K. sump conditions. It lists some of the advantages of solo cave diving as follows:
- There’s no one to get physically jammed in the passage behind you (thereby blocking your exit).
- There’s no one behind you who may get tangled in the line and have to cut it—leaving you with no guide home.
- There’s no one to accidentally disturb your ‘out tags’ at line junctions (e.g. in one cave there are 10 branch lines off the main line in the first 500 m/1640 ft of passage).
- There’s no one to cause silt problems (but yourself).
- There’s no chance of being called upon to share air—in small passages.
- There’s nothing to get confused about—communication in sumps varies from difficult to impossible.
- There’s no one to provide you with a false sense of security.
- There’s no one to worry about but yourself, so you can concentrate on your own safety.
Equipment Configuration
Due to the generally small passage size of British caves and the sometimes energetic nature of transporting equipment to a cave dive base (station), sidemount diving is the normal equipment configuration. Sidemount started in the U.K. in the 1960s with a need for streamlined and lightweight diving equipment. U.K. cave divers today will have a choice of sidemount harness for the project they are involved with. In a short, shallow, or constricted dive, the diver will use a wetsuit and a lightweight, webbing-only harness with no buoyancy, as it’s not needed if your chest is on the floor and your back on the ceiling.
In slightly larger cave passages, the modern British cave diver will use one of the now-common sidemount harnesses that are available. Many British caves require vertical cave techniques to reach the water, so the divers have modified the sidemount harness to be able to descend into the dry cave, do the dive, and then climb out. It’s very rare to find a British cave diver with an unmodified sidemount harness. For exposure suits, many short dives and some longer dives, if significant dry caving is expected before or after, the dive will be done in a wetsuit even though water temperature is on average between 7-10 degrees C/45-50 degrees F. This is for practical reasons, as it’s very difficult and potentially dangerous caving in a drysuit, so better to be slightly chilly during the dive and caving safely.
For larger sites and when the diver is expected to be underwater most of the time, a drysuit is sometimes carried to the dive base and put on underground, to be utilized for the dive. As most divers are solo diving, having two short standard-length hoses on their regulators is normal, although for team diving or cave rescue, a standard long hose is used on the right.
British cave divers always use helmets, as they provide protection from the environment in the dry caves as well as underwater, and are a great place to carry lights. Hand-held primary lights are used in larger, clearer passages with the helmet lights in reserve. For dive lines, we use 4 mm thick lines as permanent dive lines and we have fixed junctions in all caves— no jumps or gaps. Standard line arrows and cookies will not fit on a U.K. line. Pegs are used, or permanent markers on junctions to show the way home. It’s very unlikely you will see another dive team in the cave on the day you are visiting, and following a thicker line in sometimes low visibility and cold water is much safer and more comforting than trying to follow a technical diving line.
Exploring U.K. caves
The raison d’etre for the Cave Diving Groups formation was and still is the exploration of caves, including the surveying and reporting of that exploration and the training of new divers. The CDG publishes a journal four times a year with exploration reports and many books on the subject of U.K. caves and techniques. If it’s not surveyed and reported, it’s not explored. Now, it would be extremely tedious to the reader if I listed all exploration in underwater caves in the U.K.—we have thousands of reports—so I’ll mention a few of the classics to set the scene, and remember all exploration can be researched in the CDG journals.
If visiting, most U.K. cave divers are happy to show you around or even get you involved in projects, although they will be of a very different style of exploration than found in Bahamas or Mexico, for instance, where swimming into hundreds of metres of new cave is possible. Big breakthroughs in the U.K. are rare, and if a diver explores 10 m/33 ft of new cave with ongoing passage seen, they will be happy.
Wookey Hole Cave Somerset, Somerset
Exploration in the home of British cave diving started in 1935 and carries on to this day. Slow and determined work by some of the great names in cave diving, including Balcombe, Martyn Farr, Rob Parker, Rick Stanton, and John Volanthen have seen this multi sump cave reach 90 m/294 ft depth beyond chamber 25 in extremely committing passages. Smaller side passages throughout the cave are still being explored.
The Llangattock Cave Systems, South Wales
Under Llangattock mountain lies many kilometers of caving—two caves, Ogof Daren Cilau at 27 km long and next door Ogof Agen Allwedd at 32.5 km, provide access to many cave diving sites that have provided incredible exploration over the years and will hopefully provide more in the years to come. One of the longest dives in the system is the Pwll y Cwm resurgence at 630 m/2066 ft long, surfacing in the downstream end of Daren Cilau.
Kingsdale Master Cave and Keld Head, Yorkshire Dales
One of the true classics of world class cave diving is the Kingsdale to Keld Head system. Graham Balcombe, of Wookey Hole fame, conducted dives in 1945 in Keld Head, and in 1978, Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham broke the world record with an 1829 m/6000 ft dive between Kingsdale Master Cave and Keld Head, connecting the two caves. In 1991, the underwater system was further extended, linking it into King Pot cave access to the valley floor, a traverse of 3 km in British conditions. Today, divers continue to explore and extend this system.
Speedwell Cavern Main Rising, Derbyshire Dales
This dive site requires a reasonable amount of dry caving effort to reach the dive base. The dive itself is multi-profile with a descent to 36 m/118 ft then up to 2.5 m/8 ft via a constricted rift, then finally down to 71 m/232 ft at the end. In the 1980s John Cordingley and Russel Carter worked the site and finally, 71 m/233 ft was reached by Martin Groves in 2002. The way on was lost in boulders and boiling sand with the water surging upwards. This was confirmed by John Volanthen in 2006. A change in geology and future technologies await.
The Green Holes of Doolin, Ireland
In the years leading up to the 1980s, open water divers reported cave entrances in the sea on the Doolin coast. These completely submerged caves are extremely weather dependent due to taking the full force of the Atlantic Ocean. But after experience gained in the Bahamas’ Blue Holes, British divers tried their luck exploring what became known as Green Holes. Several sites including Reef Caves, Hell Complex, Urchin Cave, and the longest Mermaid’s Hole have had successive and continued exploration. 1025 m/3350 ft penetration being reached in Mermaid’s Hole by Artur Kozlowski. Exploration continues when the weather allows.
Swildon’s Hole Cave, Somerset
A true classic sump diver’s cave with long sections of active wet streamway takes the visitor down to a series of eight short sumps that require diving and more caving to reach the terminal sump and end of the cave at Swildon’s 12. Wetsuits and lightweight sidemount harness and small cylinders needed. A grand day out.
Porth Yr Ogof Cave, South Wales
One of the finest and reasonably easy physical-access cave dives in the U.K. The dive starts from a small pool after a short climb down between boulders. A shallow and comfortable passage winds its way up the valley passing Rawlbolt Airbell 150 m/492 ft from base and Four Ways airbell around 200 m/656 ft from base. At 250 m/820 ft from base, a cobble squeeze can be passed to the surface in the dry upper cave. The flow in this cave can be very high and the passage size varies from 1 m wide to 3 m wide, making progress upstream interesting and downstream on the return exciting.
Hurtle Pot, Yorkshire Dales
Probably the most dived cave in the U.K. due to its easy access and the possibility of longer dives upstream in a large passage towards Jingle Pot Cave and an area called The Deep reaching 35 m/114 ft depth in a low complicated passage towards the end around 460 m/1508 ft from base. Downstream a 400 m/1312 ft long traverse can be made to surface in Midge Hole cave reaching 20 m/65 ft depth on the way. This cave floods dramatically in bad weather, and constant line repairs need to be made by local CDG divers.
Peak Cavern, Derbyshire Dales
Peak Cavern is an extensive dry cave with several significant cave diving sites located within the system. The resurgence is a classic training dive in a lovely bedding plane style passage reaching the surface in the main cave. Ink sump within the cave, nearly 200 m/653 ft long, leads to Doom’s Retreat, an area worked by Jim Lister and the most extensive digging project to find a new cave beyond a sump in the U.K. Far Sump at 385 m/1263 ft long leads to an extensive dry section of cave with some extremely technical caving that can now get you to surface on the hills above.
Pollatoomary Resurgence, Ireland
Not many easy surface access cave diving sites that go deep are to be found in the British Isles, but this one in Ireland is one. A resurgence site that reaches 103 m/336 ft but in dark, unfriendly waters. Original exploration by Martyn Farr in 1978 and taken to 103 m by Artur Kozlowski.
In summary, British cave diving is historically one of the oldest branches of the sport of cave diving. The Cave Diving Group’s knowledge and standards and procedures evolved over the years to the safest method to explore or dive in U.K. style caves. It is not diving in Wakulla Springs and does not pretend to be, although several CDG members got involved in the early Wakulla expeditions. It is at times cold, wet, and unpleasant, but also can be extremely rewarding, with new caves found or just a superb dive in excellent conditions. U.K. style conditions can be found all over the world—think of the Thailand Rescue in 2018—and it’s in these conditions that the CDG system is at its best. If you’re wanting more information on the CDG or sump diving and vertical access sump diving, please give us a shout. Just remember—a pint of English beer is supposed to be warm. Stay safe and dive well.
Dive Deeper:
Website: The British Cave Diving Group
From GUE’s membership magazine QUEST: “British Cave Diving: Wookey Hole and The Cave Diving Group” by Duncan Price
Books about British cave diving:
A Glimmering in Darkness by Graham Balcombe
The Darkness Beckons by Martyn Farr
Interview with Cave Diving Legend Martyn Farr
Historical British cave diving films:
Trailer for documentary film ‘Wookey’ by Gavin Newman
The Underground Eiger (1980s)
Articles by Michael Thomas:
Slow Down Young fellas-Attitudes in Technical Diving
The Difference Between Caves and Mines
Michael Thomas’s diving career is now in its 33rd consecutive year, from starting out as an open water diver then a trainee cave diver to becoming the Training Officer of the British Cave Diving Group Somerset Section. He is also a Full Cave Instructor, Sidemount and Tech Instructor with TDI, active mod 3 CCR cave diver, and on the British cave rescue call out list as a diver.
Thomas is heavily involved in U.K. diving projects and training, plus overseas diving and caving. Diving is life or is life diving?
Cave
Madagascar Madness
Earlier this summer Jake Bulman and the Protec Team launched their 2023 expedition to Madagascar’s formidable Malazamanga cave known for massive tunnels, formations the size of buildings, and its unbelievable cobalt blue water. They then journeyed to Anjanamba, which despite enormous passageways, consistently turned into tight, restrictive spaces before opening up again. Having appeased the cave spirits and returned safely, Bulman offered up this account.
by Jake Bulman. Photos by Phillip Lehman. Lead image: (L2R) Jake Bulman, Patrick Widmann and Ryan Dart motoring through the first mega-room after Ryan’s Chamber, Malazamanga.
Deals made. Plans Laid
As I sat in the Paris airport working on my computer, Patrick Widman gestured to me to remove my headphones. He and Phillip Lehmann sat across from me and asked if I wanted to make a deal. Assuming I was walking into some kind of joke, I replied with a hesitant “Sure.” “Next summer you come with us to Madagascar, if you…“ “Yes! Deal, ” I answered before he finished explaining my end of the deal. It didn’t matter, the answer was yes. Patrick finished laying out his already agreed deal, headphones went back in and everybody went back to what they were doing, except for my thoughts, which went to “Holy Shit! I’m going exploring in Madagascar!”
Now nearly a year later in June 2023, we were back in Paris, this time packing all of the bags for the flight to Antananarivo (“Tana”), Madagascar’s capital city. When we got there we met up with Tsoa, who is the local contact, translator, organizer, and overall critical part of the team. Our bags headed to Toliara with the drivers while we spent the day doing some errands.
The next day was important to me, not because i turned 30, but it marked the end of a bet Patrick and I made in 2020, for which I had now won $100. The victory was short lived, however, as I spent that day stuck in my hotel room violently sick. Welcome to Madagascar!
After a short flight, overnight in Toliara, then an hour long boat ride along the coast, we reached Anakao Ocean Lodge. This place is a bit of a shock to the senses after traveling through the poverty stricken cities. Luxury in the middle of nowhere; it would be our basecamp for the trip. As Patrick and I posted a photo of the place, Phillip sarcastically mourned the loss of any “hardcore expedition” image people would imagine.
The next day we planned to meet up with the National Parks’ representatives, organize porters, transport all the equipment to the site, then get in the water and place all of the deco tanks and scooters we would need, and finally be out by dark to avoid being stranded overnight. This may seem overly ambitious, and it was, but is a good example of the overall approach of the project. Always go all in, no shortcuts or laziness, and if it was not possible in the end, no worries at all. The goal is to have fun with the group and do awesome stuff, which we always did.
”This is the most epic cave ever”
Phillip Lehmann on Malazamanga
Musing on Malazamanga
Malazamanga, a cave of indescribably massive tunnels, formations the size of buildings, and amazing blue water dominated the first part of the trip. We set up a little basecamp in the mouth of the cave, each of us with our own spaces to change, hang up our suits to dry, and change sorb each day. The entrance swim is a tediously frustrating one for rebreather divers: 20 minutes of low ceilings, bouncing from 20 m to 5 m/66 ft to 16 ft and back several times, never allowing space to sit “in trim”, and no flow to remove any of the inevitable silt that came from passing with multiple scooters, stages and divers.
However, once you reach Ryan’s Chamber, the first big room, you find a staging spot for leaving scooters and tanks for the following day, and a small tunnel leading to the real, intimidatingly massive, Malazamanga.
Patrick and I went to the deep section right away (45-50 m/138 to 164 ft) and spent three days trying to find the way on, while Phillip and Ryan Dart looked around the shallower parts of the cave (20-30 m/66-100 ft) for any leads that had not been checked. Patrick laid line while I surveyed behind him through a wide but low space that became swirling silt and clay by the third tie off. We reached a vertical shaft, Patrick asked me to hold and ran a line into a smaller tunnel below us that led to a restriction. In spaces like this where zero visibility is guaranteed, diver two will be pushing through restrictions blind, having no idea the shape or size of the space around them, which is a recipe for disaster, so I waited on the line for Patrick to return and started a timer.
As fifteen minutes showed on the timer, it started to feel like a long time. How long do I wait before doing something? Five more minutes rolled by, and my mind started to run… What if he has a problem? Does he need help? Memories of having to get somebody out of a similar space once before came to mind. But this time it was Patrick though, if he truly needed help it would be a serious situation. I decided to give him until 30 minutes from when he left, and then I would go in (slowly). With four minutes remaining, a glow appeared before Patrick explained that “it’s tight, but it goes.” It was a long wait that meant a bunch more deco, but this could be the way on.
The next day I was tasked with pushing the End Of Line (EOL) while he and Phillip looked elsewhere. After twisting, turning, removing tanks, and wondering if this was a good idea more than a few times, I pushed through a few ups and downs, but the cave unfortunately ended in a basement section at 52 m/170 ft. No going leads. Time to head home.
Breakthrough and Packing Techniques
Our daily routine started at 06:30 with a breakfast of bread, fruit, eggs, tea and espresso. We’d leave the garage at 07:00, meet the porters at the bottom of the hill in the national park and send the equipment with them. Phil would then educate us on the risks of breakthrough, importance of proper packing techniques, and the impact of dwell time. All of which are critical to making espresso.
After making espresso, the handpresso is put away, we hike the 30 minutes up the hill, get dressed, dive four to six hours, then head home. Back at the garage by 08:00 pm, fill tanks for an hour, eat dinner at 09:00 pm, and then sleep. All the while making jokes, sharing stories, talking about life, trying to blind each other with lights, and being shown the same photo of Rosie, Phillip’s pit bull, with a “look at this awesome photo” preceding the photo display by a few seconds.
All in all, going diving required some effort, not to mention the week of traveling with piles of luggage to get there, the week to get home, and all of the time spent organizing beforehand. In terms of “cost (time/money/effort) per hour underwater” it is some of the most expensive time I’ve ever spent underwater.
One day, after a significant amount of problem solving in the hot, muddy entrance tunnel of the cave, we finally got everything sorted and started doing checks. Halfway through, Phillip said, “I’m not into this. You guys go. Nobody is paying me to do this,” and started to remove his tanks. Considering the “cost per hour underwater,” I think many of us would go whether we wanted to or not, giving in to a sunk cost fallacy-like sense of commitment.
We reformed a plan for the two of us, a few angry birds levels were completed on the surface, and everybody went home excited to see the survey data. There is a lesson to be had here for many of us, about what is actually important and ignoring those perceived, often self-induced pressures to carry on even if it doesn’t actually make sense.
We scoured every corner of the section we were in, until a hole underneath a formation showed a large room on the other side. I tied in at ~40 m/~130 ft, headed down the slope to where floor met wall, removed my tank, locked the reel, threw it through the hole, and headed in. Once my torso passed the squeeze, still inverted in the water, I put my tank back on, grabbed the reel, and swam the direction that I remembered it went. I passed the cloud and made a tie off. Turn, tie off, into a bedding plane, tie off, big room, tie off, and stop.
The floor suddenly featured huge, wavy marks that everybody recognizes as signs of flow. A lot of it. Massive clay bricks fit together like tiles in the riverbed resembling floor. A promising development, I tied off and ducked my head under the lip of the ceiling. Instantly the ceiling met the clay bed and the cave ended. Water unfortunately doesn’t consider human size in its choice of direction. Back to the drawing board.
“Fuck it, let’s just see what happens”
Patrick Widmann
To Breathe or Not To Breathe
At the time, the furthest reaches of Malazamanga was an enormous collapse with no way beyond it except a few air domes. We were aware the air domes may not be breathable, but lacked a proper analyzer for that. After some thought, Patrick decided that we would just give it a go one at a time. We surfaced and knelt close together as Patrick closed his DSV and took a short breath of the gas. Wearing an expression resembling somebody tasting less-than-appetizing looking food he took a second breath.
Watching intently, I saw the expression quickly change from hesitant but ok, to uncomfortable to concerned as he put his DSV back in and opened it. I was ready for him to pass out as we sat there breathing, but nothing happened. We knew it was likely not breathable, but I wanted to see what it felt like! I removed my DSV and took a breath. A humid, thick, shockingly hot breath filled my lungs and I was not going to take a second one. No way that was safe, I thought, as the burning in my lungs slowly faded.
Patrick climbed out with just his rebreather (and flowing oxygen) and took a quick look around, but no luck. As he was getting dressed again, I popped my head into a few holes and found a passage that looked to slope downwards on the other side of a tight squeeze. I ran a line in with Patrick behind me, and tried to push through but couldn’t fit. After removing myself and the cloud of unavoidable silt surrounded us, I grabbed the rock that was in the way and flipped it over. If you have ever moved a big rock in a collapse, in a never-before-dived cave, you can imagine the visibility afterwards. We backed out, went to check a few other places, then returned hoping for slightly better visibility.
Patrick was the next one in, leaving a tank on the line with me this time, and he extended the line down the slope on the other side. I heard rocks falling, tanks banging on rock, grunting, laughing, bubbles moving along the ceiling, and then he returned with his hands shaking like crazy. Whatever was over there, was not for the faint of heart it seemed. After a bit of cooling down, he went back into the cloud, which was followed by loud yelling. Excited yelling. We exited, and planned our return for the next day. What lay beyond the 6 m/20 ft deep, vertical, awkward, tank-off restriction was an open space that continued downwards to what appeared to be 40 m+.
The next day, I was going through first. We rehearsed the shape of the restriction and the series of movements needed for passing it on the surface. It was weaving through the space where collapsed boulders met the sloping ceiling, and any extra force on the wiggling rocks meant possible collapse. The plan was for me to pass, tie into the EOL, and head off. Patrick would pass behind me with the MNemo and survey in. Adding tie off after tie off, I headed deeper, then flattened out, then up through an opening to my right. Now it was my turn to yell, the cave had returned to its previous enormous size!! This celebration lasted three tie offs, as we climbed yet another collapse that was quite clearly the end. Cut line, put reel away, look around knowing that nobody will ever be here again, and head home.
On to Anjanamba
Several options lay ahead of us, which Patrick and Phil weighed over dinner. Continue searching in Malazamanga, or get the filming done then head north to Anjanamba, or spend the next two weeks surfing. The last option was apparently way more valid than the joking suggestion I had taken it as. Fortunately, the second option was the choice. We spent a day scootering around with lights in hand and on the DPVs. Screen grabs of the video were used as photos for this article.
We also had two surfing days, where I (having never surfed before) mostly tried to not get annihilated by the waves. My second goal was “not to kill anybody” as Patrick and Phillip repetitively warned me not to do it with my oversized board (only a stand up paddle board was available). Fortunately I’m a very strong swimmer, as I spent large chunks of time crashing and burning, then being tossed around by the ocean.
”This is the most epic cave ever”
Phillip Lehmann on Anjanamba
Heading up to Anjanamba featured a boat ride, a seven hour drive that resembled one of those truck commercials trying to show how tough its product is, and a journey through the Mikea National Park which had no paved road either. During lunch break everybody commented how much better it is now than it was several years ago, describing it as “pretty smooth” and “less violent” in the same sentence.
We visited the local village, where residents are the spiritual keepers of Anjanamba, to talk to the chief and say hi to a friend of Tsoa who had just had a baby. While there we got a tour of their newly built school, joked with the children a bit, took a photo and headed home. For a lifestyle that is so drastically different to our own, with so much less of everything tangible, the village seems a happy, lively place with kids running and playing. However it is easy to see the need for food, schooling, health products, and basic medical care to name a few.
Appeasing the Spirits of Anjanamba
Anjanamba is the location of the filming of the “Spirits of the Cave ” series (see DIVE DEEPER below). Described as a much more dendritic, Mexican-like cave with a blue color that puts the famous Mexican salt water tunnels to shame. The name of the series doesn’t come from nowhere; this cave is home to several spirits. In order to appease them, a few things need to be accomplished.
First, we must visit a big, double trunked baobab during the walk there. We remove our hats, gather near the meeting point of the trunks, place a pointer finger on one tree and pinky on the other (think bull horns hand shape), bow our heads and ask the spirits for two things. One, that they allow us to find an epic cave that goes. Two, that they grant us safe passage and everybody returns home safely. The ever-present, always watching lizard that lives there looked down in approval. The locals however, who had no idea what we were doing, waved us back to the path with a smile and laugh.
Once that is done, a ritual must happen with the Mikea people (in which the National Park is named after). Patrick and Phil have already been through it, so it’s just me. The chief started the ritual, as they each took a sip from a bottle of rum we had brought. Tsoa explained to me afterwards what they had been saying (asking the spirits to accept me, safe passage etc). Notably, it included nothing about finding mega cave, but we had already covered that during the lizard tree ceremony I guess.
The guys had warned me about the second part of the ritual, which had me eating a part of the cave – sand, dirt, rock, whatever. The chief continued speaking, and Tsoa told me it was time. I pinched some sand, put it in my mouth and swallowed. Phillip verified it was all gone. In the background I hear Patrick stifle a laugh, and my long-held suspicion was proven true, this was not actually part of it. The locals found it hilarious, and it wasn’t as if I was going to say no in any case. Diving time.
As usual, we were quite late and had made very ambitious plans which didn’t quite pan out. But we did as much as we could, then headed back to our new home at “Laguna Blu.” Like in Anakao, we had great food, friendly staff, beautiful views and comfortable sleeping.
Reel Bashing
Having laid less line than we had hoped in Malazamanga, we were keen to “bash some reels”. Anjanambas current EOL lay at more than 2287 meters/7500 feet with an average depth of 18m/60 ft or so. It featured enormous tunnels and decorated rooms, yet consistently turned into tight, never-quite-ending spaces before returning to vast rooms with pristine formations all over the place.
Patrick and I each carried a stage, and I carried the back up scooter. Passing through the 30 minutes of sideways swimming, weaving up and down, belly scraping, up and down cave with a negatively buoyant scooter in between my legs meant it was not always smooth sailing. Fortunately it usually got stuck when I was in the back so nobody saw. We reached the end of the line, Phillip tied in and headed off with Patrick recording and me surveying behind them.
From my POV, it looked likely to end every 10 tie offs only for the line to weave into a little corner of the room and continue, with nothing but a light dusting of silt at each tie off as signs of my team ahead of me. This repeated for another 457 meters/1500 ft of line until the reel was emptied, everybody cheered and fist bumped with excitement and then decided that we really needed to head home.
Our DPV charging plan didn’t pan out, so after each day Patrick and Phil drove over to a neighboring location and ate lunch while the scooters charged. I went back to Anjanamba and swam some of the closer lines checking for any going cave. After extending a few EOL’s, the sections had been checked without much luck. After a few days of exploring in Anjanamba, which mostly featured a repeating pattern of restrictions then big rooms, we finished our last diving day with nothing clearly going, but a few hopeful areas left.
End of the Line
As we reached the end of the trip, instead of feeling tired as we expected, we found ourselves ready for more. We had lots of sorb left, but had used every last liter of oxygen. Unfortunately, it was time to take a group photo with the locals, dry our equipment and start the journey home. Not only did we have flights to catch, but we had classes to teach less than 12 hours after landing in Mexico.
After five weeks of expedition, we had managed to get the most out of every day, be on time almost never, and explore some amazing cave. More impressively, I don’t recall a single argument or bad mood at all, which is rare when you spend 18 hours per day with the same people. Until next time, the villagers return to their normal lives, we go back to the Caribbean, and the spirits of Anjanamba can rest again.
We did have one last day before heading home, in which we would make a discovery. What will come of it is yet to be seen, but I’m sure it’s going to be a mega-epic either way. In fact, probably the most epic cave ever.
DIVE DEEPER
The Protec Team‘s past Madagascar Expeditions:
YouTube: Spirits of the Cave (2017)
YouTube: Spirits of the Cave 2 (2019)
YouTube: Spirits of the Cave 3 (2020)
Originally from Canada, Jake Bulman is a full-time cave diving and CCR instructor at Protec Dive Centers in Mexico. The last several years of teaching have been almost exclusively sidewinder focused, from try dives to CCR Cave classes, 4C to 24C, and in several countries around the world. Outside of work, he can be found on exploration projects in local caves of a wide range of depths, distances, and sizes.
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