Trip preparation

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Aug 062012
 
Trip preparation

I regret to admit that I’ve been caught on the hop with this post. With an upcoming trip to some promising cave territory in Queensland, the usual amount of planning and preparation has been going on. One of the logistical challenges has been getting the required amount of diving, caving and camping gear across 3,000kms to a remote part of northern Australia. Last week this crystallised into a plan, which recrystallised on Friday into a plan that involved being fully packed by Monday night. With a weekend in Mount Gambier cave diving, the number of available hours between committing to the timeframe and having to have everything in boxes became a lot shorter. As such, I have no carefully thought [read more…]

New perspectives in tunnels

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Feb 202012
 
New perspectives in tunnels

About the site The photo above was taken in Tank Cave, although it could easily be taken in almost any tunnel of about the same size. Tank has shallow depths allowing plenty of time for photos, and with over 8km of interconnecting tunnels there’s a lot of clear water to play in. The cave also shows a lot of variation between different areas of the cave with white walled breakdown chambers giving way to orange tunnels and dark brown rooms. About the dive This particular dive was the first of the weekend, without any particular photography goals in mind. We travelled down the Gold Line to visit an offshoot tunnel known as the A extension. This area of the cave [read more…]

Mapping in action in Tank Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  No Responses »
Nov 282011
 
Mapping in action in Tank Cave

About the site I’ve talked about different dives in Tank Cave on multiple occasions. As well as being the longest cave available in my home region of Mt Gambier, it’s also very well suited to photography. With crystal clear water, shallow depths, tunnels that change from white walled, to black, to orange with sunken floors, air pockets, small flatteners and large chambers, Tank provides a great place to experiment with cave diving photography. About the dive The intention for this particular dive was to complete a more accurate wall profile of a room that’s approximately an 800m swim from the cave entrance. With JDZ carrying measuring tapes and survey slates and myself with camera and additional strobes we headed off [read more…]

Reflections of Underwater Photographers in Tank Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  2 Responses »
Oct 172011
 
Reflections of Underwater Photographers in Tank Cave

About my buddy As I mentioned last week, following the CDAA AGM and symposium I was lucky enough to spend a week over in Mt Gambier diving in Tank Cave and Piccaninnie Ponds with our international speakers. The first of these was Brian Kakuk who runs Bahamas Underground, a cave diving oriented training and adventure facility in Abaco, the Bahamas. The Bahamian caves are highly decorated with some extreme stalactites and other formations, so it was no surprise to discover that Brian’s buoyancy and awareness of the cave were better than excellent. If you’re looking for some tales of adventure and cave discovery, Brian writes these up in the “Exploration” section of the Bahamas Cave Research site. After a break [read more…]

Action shots in Tank Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  3 Responses »
Oct 102011
 
Action shots in Tank Cave

About the cave I’ve talked about Tank Cave before…over 8km of interconnecting, labyrinthian tunnel in my somewhat local cave diving region of Mt Gambier. Tank Cave is a single level system, with tunnel depths varying from about 6m down to just over 20m at the far end of the cave. There’s great variation in the cave characteristics, from pure white breakdown rooms with flat ceilings, big dark chambers with air pockets, tight silty tunnels with scalloped walls and long, low flatteners. The shallow depths and clear water are great for photography, with well-marked permanent lines helping you to resume navigation after peering through the viewfinder for a while. About the dive Following the CDAA AGM, I was lucky enough to spend a [read more…]

F tunnel in Tank Cave

 Cave diving, Mt Gambier  5 Responses »
Jul 182011
 
F tunnel in Tank Cave

About the dive Tank Cave is a labyrinthian maze of intersecting passages, located in the Mt Gambier region of South Australia. First dived in the 60s, the challenging narrow and silty entrance meant exploration didn’t truly begin until the 1980s. Today, the cave has approximately 11km of mapped passage. The main tunnels run on an approximate NW-SE trend, and the cave develops a distinct character in the different areas. The tunnels are named by letter and number, and tags are placed in the cave on the permanent lines at key points to aid navigation. Tank Cave is generally shallow, with most tunnels being between 10m and 20m deep, allowing for long dives. This photo was taken in F tunnel, which is [read more…]

 Newer Entries