About the cave
Engelbrecht’s Cave run right under Mt Gambier itself, with houses and roads sitting over the cave up on the surface. They’re also a tourist attraction with excellent coffee and an hourly cave tour during the day. Being closer to town means there’s a little more substrate on top of the water table, and thus a few more stairs on the way down to the dive.
We were diving Engelbrecht’s West on this occasion, which has a first sump leading through to an internal dry chamber with three more short underwater tunnels radiating off it. I’ve taken split shots in the chamber before, partly because it’s nice and peaceful – no tourists to disturb you on the other side of the first sump.
About the dive
The guys at the cafe let us know that Wests hadn’t been dived for two weeks when we were there. With no recent rainfall either it was certainly nice and clear. The first sump is very shallow and has dark organic silt, followed by a somewhat narrow pathway up to the internal chamber. I headed up first and found a great rock to sit on and shoot down without silt creeping into the picture.
About the photo
With Stefan heading up the rockpile towards me, I discovered by lifting the camera so the top 10% of the dome post was out of the water, I could get this split shot from a different angle. Usually the key with splits, especially where there are people half underwater and half above water, is to hold the camera as straight as possible and minimise the size of the water line in the image. A very slight angle on the camera can lead to chopping someone’s head off in favour of showing off the underside of the water’s surface.
In this case I had a diver fully underwater and a bit more leeway in finding the “right” amount of water-line. I like the texture in the rippled surface and the different perspective on the traditional over/under. On the other hand, I’ve started to become more bothered by the amount of cave damage in these frequently travelled areas, and the scratches on the rock detract from the image I’d like to take. So nice concept, just need a fresh cave with a suitably placed sitting rock to test it out in….I’m sure I can find one of those!