Elk River push dive

 Cave diving, Caving, Victoria  No Responses »
Dec 022014
 
Elk River push dive

  We were back in Elk River cave on the weekend, once again searching for a way on and through the current final sump. Over the last year or so we’ve laid 250m of line into sump 7 over several push dives. To achieve those dives there have been 15 trips into the cave – to survey, photography, resupply and explore. As the end of the sump got further and further away the dive required larger and larger tanks. This means each push dive trip requires two or three resupply and stocking trips to carry tanks to the end. One of those was just a month ago, where we carried “normal” sized tanks into the cave. Normal-sized for regular side [read more…]

Blenny central under Mornington Pier

 Macro, Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Nov 252014
 
Blenny central under Mornington Pier

About the site Mornington Pier is currently under reconstruction. In the last 12 months they’ve removed and replaced almost all of the pylons, changing from the old wooden pillars to new steel and plastic contraptions. All of this work hasn’t done much for the underwater scenery with many of the critters that could manage it moving on. The bottom has been scoured down in places and until the greenery grows back there won’t be very many places to hide. On the other hand the local fishing community hasn’t had easy access to the end of the pier either. I spent the dive surrounded by schooling old wives, juvenile sweep and yellow tailed silver thingies. Being on the rEvo made me [read more…]

Sunbeams in Sinkholes

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Nov 192014
 
Sunbeams in Sinkholes

About the dive Kilsby’s is gorgeous…I’ve been there many, many times and it’s usually great. Then on some occasions it moves from being great to being truly awesome. These photos were taken on one of those days. On this particular weekend the whole cave diving world was booked in to dive Tank Cave. Myself and my parents had three awesome dives at Pics, Pines and Kilsby’s without seeing another soul. The water in both the Cathedral in Pics and in the main cavern of Pines was crystal clear. And then there was Kilsby’s. In early November I wasn’t sure if we’d be seeing much sunlight in the water. But by 9.45am or so the sunlight was just starting to creep off [read more…]

Tassie cave rescue exercise

 Caving, Tasmania  No Responses »
Nov 042014
 
Tassie cave rescue exercise

  Since getting back from my trips after to France and Komodo, it’s been all work on the weekend front. Our Elk resupply trip and a weekend in Mt Gambier to talk at the CDAA AGM were followed by a trip down to Tassie to participate in a cave rescue exercise. The Tassie exercise was co-ordinated by Andreas of the STC, and partially funded by an ASF grant to get Al Warild down south from NSW to run it. Cave rescues in Tasmania are likely to be vertical affairs and the 4 day course focussed on rigging and lifting stretchers up and out to sunshine. The group attending included cavers from NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and all corners of Tasmania. Personally speaking, [read more…]

Sunday afternoon in Pines

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Oct 282014
 
Sunday afternoon in Pines

Weekend before last was the CDAA AGM and associated talks and dinner in Mt Gambier. After giving a talk on my evolution from cave diving to sump diving over the last ten years and listening a bunch of excellent presentations from the other speakers, it was great to get in the water on Sunday. Steve and I headed to Pines, a site I haven’t visited much since finishing my Tank pre-requisite dives some years ago. My Pines dives in the intervening time have mostly been with cave-rated buddies or for gear checkouts and involved photos of sunlight in the main cavern. So it was nice to be back, on the rebreather and headed for the Crazy Czech’s Room. Steve was [read more…]

Resupplying tanks into Elk River

 Cave diving, Caving, Victoria  2 Responses »
Oct 212014
 
Resupplying tanks into Elk River

After a trip over to Eurotek to talk about Elk River, and a couple of cancelled trips where for various reasons we didn’t get in the cave, it felt like it was time to go caving rather than talk about it. Our last trip into the cave was a push trip back in winter, where high water levels led to a sporting trip home back up the waterfalls. Steve and I laid some line and we also used a lot of tanks. Too many to carry out in one go – some of those empties were still in the cave. So this trip was to both retrieve the empties and replace them with full tanks for next month’s push trip. [read more…]

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