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EXPLORATION DREAM
I have a friend & dive buddy who lives Port Richey, Florida. He tells me each and every time he visits me here in Mexico, "You are living The Dream…diving and exploring in the Yucatan." I would have to say, I am definitely living my dream and I consider myself extremely fortunate to do so. I make no claims to be the best or #1. Such things hold no meaning to me. I do, however, consider myself at least a little above the average diver. You will find that most cave divers share the same inflated opinion of themselves (Maybe the attitude comes with the double tanks and 8 days of skills & drills.)
The average diver does the occasional weekend dive while occupying the rest of their leisure time in the comforts of his or her own home reading of the exploits of others. They watch Discovery Channel or National Geographic Explorer, just as I once did.
While suffering the commercials, they think to themselves "That could be me…I could be doing that!" I watched…I dreamed…I moved! I now do that. I joined a very elite group of people exploring the unknown, if I may borrow the line, " To boldly go where no man has gone before"(read while you hum the theme from Star Trek). Very few people are able to make the following statement "I was the first person on this earth to see this incredible place." I recently found just such a place, a long overlooked unexplored cave. May not mean much to others but it just thrills me to death.
If you are a cave diver then Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is the Mecca you pilgrimage to. The small coastal town of Akumal is the hub of local cave diving exploration. This community has housed or been the base of operations for many cave explorers.
Each explorer or team had projects in the depths of the jungle where there are no roads. Having traveled in this jungle experiencing the great physical effort required just to reach the desired location has instilled in me an immense amount of respect for those who explored here long before me. I have also developed a fondness for the horses (obnoxious four legged tick magnets that they are) that carry the heavy tanks and most of the gear.
Typically caves in this area flow from deep in the interior of the jungle toward the sea. They are filled with the most pristine, clear water imaginable. Explorers spent countless hours seeking new cenotes in the jungle that could possibly further their exploration, or maybe begin a new one. Many incredible caves have been discovered, with miles of passage filled with untouched geological formations.
At the north end of Akumal sits Yal-ku lagoon and just out the "back door," right behind the houses is an entrance. Maybe past explorers were just too exhausted to bother with anything so close to home. Or maybe they thought, why would you want to swim through something right on the coast, with saltwater, low ceilings, silt covered bedding plane and the potential of no visibility that changes with the tide (all very valid reasons I might add). Regardless of why, this cave was left untouched for all of these years, as if waiting for me.
I thought it best to work in reverse, by starting in the lagoon at the fresh water outflow heading inland. Although not the most novel of ideas, it has worked out quite well. Yal-Ku lagoon is the recipient of a sizable amount of freshwater. The vast majority delivered at low tide, mixing with the already present saltwater. With no known flowing system of cave across the highway I had no real destination except to follow the flow. My objective, follow where ever the cave cared to lead me. Swimming against the low tide outflow of water, I found a passage that runs parallel to the shoreline and just west of the coastal road. This was definitely not the normal cave tunnel, which I had become so accustomed to swimming through. At low tide I could easily follow the flow of freshwater to the limits of my air supply with no end in sight. This passage led through several restrictions and ended at a silt-filled collapse. Survey data later proved this to be very close to the roadbed at the north end of Yal-Ku lagoon. This would become one of many disappointing dead end leads. Following the same passage south, I drifted passed many promising yet still unexplored leads. Dropping down into the openings in the tunnel floor, I passed through that not so illusive halocline to depths varying between 80 and 130 feet. This tunnel is the top of a very large fracture with many collapsed or caved in sections.
Naturally, this has interested the local geologist Dr. Charles Shaw of the Ecology Center in Akumal, Centro Ecológico Akumal. Dr. Shaw has analyzed air and satellite photos of this area for many years, basing several geological hypotheses on the presence of this series of coastal fractures. Dr Shaw never imagined how deep the fractures would run this close to the ocean.
The farther my explorations took me away from the lagoon entrance, the more changes I encountered in the appearance of the cave. I was no longer finding the array of sponges, sea creatures, and other strange life that had been so prevalent near the lagoon exit of this system. The cave transformed into a flat limestone bedding plain of eroded phriatic tubes, with silt and percolation present in a quantity I had never before encountered. These conditions quickly prompted a reevaluation of my tie off practices and the distances in between them. (If you are not somewhat adaptable you are likely to become extinct prematurely.)
The next significant find was the skeletal remains of several large sea turtles. The turtle remains were found in a location that was not accessible due to their obvious size limitations, to date, 15 skeletons have been discovered in this section of cave.
This system basically named it self, Aak Kimin, dead turtle in Mayan. (No way was I calling this thing, Greg's cave? Now that would have been rather arrogant of me, and very cheesy at that!)
Just minutes into a dive attempting to connect the turtle cemetery section to another area of the system, I had to turn. The passage before me had shrunk down to side mount country in a hurry. Discouraged, I returned to the main chamber. This is the same chamber that I now use as my main entrance and staging area. On a whim, I dropped through a crack in the primary floor to take another look at the large sea turtle skeleton 45 feet below. Taking a passing look at the turtle shell resting there, I continued along the rubble pile that I thought to be the floor. It was not the floor! Nor was it any where near it by a long shot. I dropped beneath the collapse; finding the entrance to the largest and most impressive fracture yet. This area actually forms a huge hallway under ground with shear walls and various rubble pile restrictions. These restrictions make a false floor covered in silt from above. Some time in planet earths distant past, the level of the ocean has been at least 200 ft. below its current level as there are drip formations present here at that depth.
Presently, the main line running through this section of Aak Kimin begins at 75 ft. dropping to and traveling at an average of 135 ft. The various floors, false and otherwise, hang beneath you along this hallway and vary from 150 ft to 185 ft. At 185 ft. lies what seems to be a final floor, which continues sloping to a depth of 220 ft. A jump-line now runs to that very last tie-off. There is an approximated 10 feet of silt on the floor, and the walls actually shear off to the side disappearing into the mounds of sediment. Aak Kimin is currently recognized by the QRSS as the third deepest cenote in the state of Quintanna Roo, and the only deep coastal site in the area. With numerous possible leads remaining, I will continue the exploration & survey with a map in progress.
I would like to personally thank all of those amazing people who explored so many incredible places leaving behind their line and markers for others like me to follow.
(I also thank you…for not looking too close behind your house. I was no longer content with following).
You never know where your dreams may lead you…follow one of yours and see for yourself. I should now act as a responsible person leaving you with the friendly warning. Be very careful what you wish for…you just might get it. (I did…and I would not trade a single moment of it for anything else in this world).
G. L. Brown
Cave diver…Explorer…Cartographer…Photographer…& Day Dreamer Extraordinaire!
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