Diving the end of Elk River

 Cave diving, Victoria  1 Response »
May 282014
 
Diving the end of Elk River

Last weekend was our twelfth trip into Elk River cave. We missed the Easter trip with a few people away (out on the Nullarbor, in my case) and it was good to be back two months after the last trip. In March Steve spent his time beyond sump 5 pinning down and re-routing the existing line to make the inevitable zero-vis exits as painless as possible. This work, and the stash of tanks staged at the end, set us up well for a push beyond the end of the line this trip. In addition to putting Andreas in sump 7 to push, I also intended to accompany him with camera in hand. On previous trips I had carried the camera [read more…]

Waterfalls in Boulder Jenga

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
May 132014
 
Waterfalls in Boulder Jenga

About the cave Tassie has some beautiful caves, which are also known for being somewhat of a summer-only destination. Not that it’s any warmer underground in the JF in summer…but it can be a touch drier. The cave pictured above is JF398, the entrance of which was discovered and tagged back in the 80s. Earlier this year the massive boulder pile that fills the entrance down to 35m below the surface was passed, and the cave named Boulder Jenga. Exploration occurred during one of the driest periods of the year. A small stream above the entrance sinks into the cave and recent rain made our trip last weekend a little wetter than initial exploration. About the trip With the key [read more…]

Restrictions in Olwolgin Cave

 Cave diving, Roe Plains  No Responses »
May 062014
 
Restrictions in Olwolgin Cave

About the cave Olwolgin Cave is well on its way towards having more underwater passage than any other cave in Australia. With miles of intersecting tunnels, crazy rock shapes, dark water and white silt, it’s a photographer’s playground. About the dive As you saw in the video I posted last week, we had a lot of fun on our first dive of the trip. With nearly three hours in the water and lots of footage in the can, I wanted to move back to photos for the subsequent dive. We also moved from Upstream Olwolgin to Downstream Olwolgin, leaving the breathers behind and strapping on sidemounts instead. The tunnels here are bigger, and with only one diver to hold strobes [read more…]

Footage from Upstream Olwolgin Cave

 Cave diving, rEvo, Roe Plains  2 Responses »
Apr 272014
 

About the site I dived Olwolgin in 2010 and again in 2012 after the Downstream section had been discovered and while it was still being referred to as Unamed Cave. Even now, at a point where the Upstream areas of the cave have been dived extensively and finding additional passage is less likely, swimming through the twisty tunnels is an exercise in optimism. Dark water beckons from under scalloped limestone, just asking to be checked. The rock shapes here are beautiful. About the dive I’ve been out on the Nullarbor doing some filming up on the high plains, and it was nice to have a few days to play once the work was finished. Unlike my last trip out here, [read more…]

Elk River trip report

 Cave diving, Victoria  No Responses »
Apr 082014
 

It’s been a little while since my last update here. I find I’ve gotten into the habit of posting and talking about the photos from the most recent weekend, which leaves me in a spot of trouble when there either aren’t any, or I’m not able to share them. So while I can’t show you last weekend’s filming trip, I can share our latest Elk River adventures (even without pictures). Three weekends ago we had a great trip into Elk River sans camera. The joint purposes of the trip were to remedy the line in sumps 6 and 7, and to place dye in the stream for tracing. With a smaller team than the last few trips we cut the [read more…]

Sump one in Junee Cave

 Cave diving, Tasmania  1 Response »
Mar 182014
 
Sump one in Junee Cave

  About the cave I talked about Junee Cave last week, after our long weekend trip two weekends ago. The weekend was photographically focussed and I was keen to capture the straws and decorations in the dry cave between sumps one and two. Since we had to go through the water to get there it seemed silly to miss the opportunity for underwater photography, although I didn’t have high hopes for great images. About the dive While the defining feature of For Your Eyes Only may be the straws that line the ceiling, the defining feature of sump one is being cold. And dark. And often very silty. When I last visited in 2009 we had a large group of [read more…]

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