Got our clothes, lunch etc packed and drove the 5km’s to the Abismo
Anhumas. The two Danish
girls were being suited up, and down they went. We could see some of
their descent from the main hole. The descent we made went through a
small hole and down a crack for the first 10 feet then we were in the
cavern proper.
They were pretty
good with their safety. John and I both had a belay device and rope
and we were also tied loosely together, this also had a third rope
controlled by one of the guys up above . This meant we had 3 ropes
holding the two of us. So lots of redundancy. I was a bit
disappointing as it was such hard work going down. The weight of the
rope made lifting it above the belay device very hard and it only ran
freely the last 5 feet!We landed on the pontoon and then crossed to other side of cave to sit with the girls, while waiting for the 2 frenchies. Hard to explain the feeling of repelling down 70m to a darkish cave. there were a couple of small red lights going.
We all went for a
quiet paddle around the edge in a rubber ducky. Amazing structures, stalagmites and stalagmites. Just as we started out in the boat
a small shaft of sunlight entered the cavern and reflected off the
ceiling. It was magic. As time passed the shaft increased inside
until by the time we were leaving it was quite light.
The Frenchies and I
dove with the guide. It was awesome looking up at the huge
stalagmites as they stood from the bottom of the lake. Their tops a
couple of feet below the surface. The lake goes down 80m but we only
touched on 18m. I was quite cold even with 5mm wet-suit. The guide
showed us a skeleton of a 5 foot long 4 legged animal.
The climb out was
fun, and with a lot of bounce in the rope. John and I were again tied together
but this time on a longer leash. So we had our feet in a stirrup
which was connected to our harness at the waist and at that point we
were connected to the rope with a belay device. Our hands held
another belay device above us which was also connected to our
harness. Stand up in stirrup and move hands above head. Sit in
harness lift feet high stand up move hands above head for 72m. We
did have a few stops to rest….
A great experience
all round.
Drove south as the
afternoon became later the light was gorgeous. Finally found a camp
on a farmers track beside some eucalyptus and his Soya beans