Abysmo Cave

South America - Day 37

Abysmo Cave Repel and Snorkel

We had to set off early for the today's activity to make sure we were back in time to pack our gear & get on the bus for the next journey section of the trip.
The activity for the day was the Abysmo Cave. Pictured is a fissure in the ground similar to a few other limestone caves I've been to, particularly around the Margaret River area in Western Australia's South West. The caves I've been to all have steps & handrails to get down into the cave. Not this one

The Abysmo Cave is a little more difficult to access than most. This is why we were at the climbing gym the night before. We had to put our gear in a big bag that was sent down by rope. It was just up to us to rig up and descend into the cave.

It's 72m to the bottom of the cave and even though we were repelling, it took a long time to get down there. It was pretty fun and the longest repel I've ever done.

The landing point at the bottom was a small floating platform. Oh, did I mention that the Abysmo Cave was flooded with 20m of water? There are two floating platforms in the cave joined by the walkway in shot. The second platform is for setting up for snorkeling and scuba diving

As you can see, it's quite a way from the surface. I took this photo standing on the landing platform.

The Abysmo cave is very difficult to photograph. There is little natural light and there is no lens in the world wide enough to capture what you see. This one was the best I could do with my SLR. If you look closely at the photo you will see some limestone structures in the clear turquoise water.

I can't take credit for this photo (and probably could be done for copyright), but it's the best I can do to get the message across. The cave wasn't always flooded & had conventional stalagmites & stalactites like most limestone caves. Once the cave flooded, the water started to erode the stalagmites leaving behind these ghostly structures. Yes you can scuba dive but the cost is quite prohibitive. We took the snorkel option & I don't see that scuba diving would have bought us much more to look at. Having said that I'm sure that looking up toward the surface from the bottom of these 15-20m towers would have been something quite unique. 

The first thing we did once we were down in the cave was to climb aboard a rubber dingy and take a tour of the cave. Our cave guide paddled us around avoiding the stalactites (above). The water was crystal clear so we could look into the water and see the entire 20m to the base of them. They were so strange and surreal.

On our little boat tour, we saw some more conventional limestone cave structures like this forest.

This unfortunate animal (probably a deer) discovered the cave some centuries ago, but it was the last thing it did.

The water wasn't nearly as inviting as Rio da Prata the previous day. The bright sunshine, multitudes of colourful fish & pleasant water temperature was replace by darkness, 16C water temps (I shouldn't complain because I dived in 12C in the rive in Perth last week) and eerie white figures. We had full length 5mm wet suits with hood, gloves & boots. This time the gear was to protect us from the chilly water. We looked a bit silly, but the only other person who we knew in that cave was Mike & he looked as silly as us.

The cave wasn't devoid of life. These little tetras were doing there bit for the ecosystem in the cave. There mustn't be much food in the water because they came and attacked our toes as soon as we put them in the water.

I'm not too sure how long we were in the water for, but it was quite a while. We swam a lap around the entire pool checking out all the little niches in the place. Initially we used our torches but once we worked out that they were only good for looking at small patches, we turned them off and let our eyes adjust. Once they did it opened up a the most surreal dive I've done. I can only compare it to the first time I did a night dive for intrigue but this was completely unique and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The stalactites had become eerie shadows in a strange blue world. I can't really even describe it properly. I guess it's just one of those things you just have to see for yourself. It has whetted my appetite for diving after a year and a half in the frozen north. 

Repelling down into the cave was all fun & games, but we still had to get back to the surface. The only way up was to climb. They hooked us up and sent Mike and Kerri toward the entrance. It turned out that the climb to the surface wasn't as easy as it looked. We climbed about 5 m the night before. That was easy. This fast became hard work. It took a few minutes just to take up the stretch from the rope and get off the landing deck. It ended up being a 30-45min epic climb to the top. It was still totally worth it.

I had half an hour to kill in the cave while the other two were climbing.
For a short time each day (weather depending) the sun shines through a fissure in the cave and the light beam appears (if you can actually spot it landing in the centre of picture). It was  there for no more than 10 mins.

The operators of the cave were good enough to take some photos as we were coming up. The one below was taken a few minutes before Mike & Kerri reached the surface.

By the time I'd come up as well, we were all exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. We jumped back in the cab & headed back to the hotel.

The day dragged on a bit after that. We had a shower & packed our gear. in doing so, we discovered that Kerri had left her pocket camera in the cab! NO! We spent some effort trying to track it down & retrieve it without much hope. Suellen was pretty confident so we crossed our fingers. [Edit: We did manage to retrieve the camera but it only arrived from its extended holiday in March! It's a very long story but we did get it back along with some of the photos we took in the cave and some from Rio da Prata the previous day. Phew!]

We had a few hours to kill before we had to leave. Kerri was by that stage feeling quite ill and crashed in the one room the group still had to keep our gear. I spent some time on the Internet and wandering around finding snacks for the next 24hrs of travel. The small bus finally arrived to take us to the "near by" city of Dourados to hook up with a night bus. We had dinner at a western style shopping mall food court (it was the first sign of the western world for over a month).
We caught the night bus around 11pm. It wasn't the most comfortable bus but I was so shattered that I slept anyway.

Rio da Prata

South America Day 36 - Rio Da Prata

Bonito has many different water activities to participate in including where we'd been the yesterday.
Number 2 on our list was Rio da Prata. It was also the must do activity among the three we ended up doing.
The essence of the Rio da Prata activity was floating down a clear stream for 45 mins. It was so much more interesting than it sounds. I hired a dive camera and water proof case from the local Kodak shop in Bonito (the rest of the gang chipped in for it). I was designated as the camera man for the trip.

 There was a welcoming committee at the visitor centre.

We took a fairly lengthy taxi ride out to Rio da Prada. We were told not to put on any sunscreen, deodorant or perfume on before we went. The stream is pristine and with the large number of people floating down the river each day, the man made chemicals would upset the delicate ecosystem. The wet-suits weren't so much to keep us warm, but more to help us float (we weren't allowed to touch the bottom) and give us a little protection from sharp rocks.
They bundled us into the back of a decked out utility truck and took us to the head of a trail. We walked for about 10-15 minutes to the head of Rio da Prata. They have a timer to make sure that each group are separated by enough time to give allow everyone to stay apart and to give the animals a break.

We assembled in a small area next to a jetty. We were allowed to stand at this point (inside the ring of rocks you can see here), but nowhere else. They made sure everyone knew how to snorkel and we were ready to go.

We were sent off around this large pool which is the head of the river. It was full of fish & really clear.

Bonito is on the edge of the Pantanal area and is influenced by the huge amount of rainfall. Rio da Prata exists because the pressure created by the water table in the area is pushing water from underground into this river. This sink hole is one of a few points where the water comes gushing out from underground. The ground not only filters the water, but the minerals give it a blue tint before it appears through these vents.

After the lap around the pond, we re-assembled at the jetty and set of one by one. It was a narrow stream and the less other people around, the more fish we would see.

The scenery above and below the water was brilliant. The green jungle above the water and the tinted turquoise water below.

 

As you can see, Rio da Prata is absolutely teeming with fish and they're mostly species you see in your local pet store. It was like swimming in a giant aquarium! The yellow and red fish (Piraputanga) were the main species that were at the pools yesterday.

 

 

 

 

This is what I mean about swimming in your home aquarium. The tetras (fish) in this photo can be purchased at your local pet store for a few dollars.

 These Dourado are the apex predators in the river. They look a lot like the Piraputanga but have a big mouth with rows of sharp teeth.

 We continued to float along for quite some time. The stream would widen out for a bit then narrow again.

At one point the stream became very shallow so we had to get out and walk a little. We crossed the path that we had walked along initially. To get back into the river we had to jump into a rapids section. It was quite shallow and the rocks were very jagged & nearly bought me unstuck while I was taking some video footage (above).

Not far from the rapids the stream opened out into a fairly wide and deep pool. The springs pictured were probably responsible for the widening.

After the pool, the stream opened up and joined with another. I didn't want it to end and continued to float along until I was dragged out of the water. Special K, on the other hand, was done. She decided again that she hadn't signed up for this and jumped in the boat so she would be back on land as soon as possible. She's a strange one.

This is the point where I was made to get out of the water. This was what I saw when I looked back into the water. If you look close enough you can see a few Piraputanga right at the edge. I just wanted to go around again. I recommend the Rio da Prata trip to anyone who has even a slight chance of getting to Bonito.

Even the taxi trip back to Bonito had some interest. These burrowing owls had their nest between the dirt road and the barbed wire fence. I guess it's safe for them. The barbed wire keeps the cattle out and they were far enough off the road to avoid the cars.
This evening we had to go to a two story office where we had to do some climbing training for the activity we are going to do tomorrow.