Today is adventure day. The dive group and some of the crew are going to motor with the tender down a river and then dive in the Blue Hole. Dan, the captain/cruise director hasn’t been there in 15 years, so no one is really sure what we are going to find. By 8:30 am we are leaving the Mother ship, boarding the tender and heading up river into the Heart of Darkness. The river was, in semi recent times, populated with head hunting local tribes. This practice ceased in the 1960’s but as you will read we were met by several groups on the way up the river, no bows and poison arrows though.
We get approval from the locals to do this trip and part of the negotiation, along with some cash, to take two fellows with us to guide us up the river and help carry the dive gear. The slow motor upstream is filled with views of large trees, the occasional homestead and many folks standing on the shore watching us go by. I wave at everyone to say Hello. In every group is a myriad of children as school is on a break.
We get to a spot and moor close to the shore. We have to walk a short distance from here. The dive guides have the unfortunate chore of carrying our dive tanks and gear. The locals take us the “quick” route of up and over a steep hill on very rough terrain. When we get to the top, we see the colour of the water in the blue hole and am amazed and just want to jump in.
Up is just fine (I’m a better up mountain goat) but the down is extremely steep, almost like rock climbing. One dive guide is quite concerned about me and has a tight grip on my arm as I scale down the rocks placing my hands and feet carefully.
Once down, I sit on a thick tree branch just above the water. Slowly all the divers get their gear on and disappear into the blue. Murray and I do the same and get a shock when we plop into the crystal clear water. The water temperature is 25 C or 73 F. I peer down into the depths and the sun’s rays filter down and it is gorgeous.
We descend to 40 feet and swim a tour around the lake, me taking photos and Murray taking videos. Our dive lasts only about 30 minutes due to the cold.
Instead of climbing up and over the hill again, it is suggested we float down the stream/river to where the tender is moored. Little did we know what lay in wait for us.
Dan goes first and once he disappears around the corner, R, D, Murray and I start out, followed by B, B, J and W (a dive guide). Apparently Dan had shouted “wait till I check it out before you go”. No one heard him. We float with our BCDs and tanks in front of us holding on to the straps. Dan wasn’t quick enough to warn us and one by one the first group goes over a waterfall! It was not too high, a foot or two, but a waterfall none the less, with jagged rocks at its base submerged in the roiling water.
Murray tells us he was having trouble getting his arm out of the strap of his BCD and went over the waterfall on his back. D tells us he called out to Murray to WATCH OUT! and then Murray disappeared. OH SHIT! and then AAAAHHH! as he realized he is next and then goes over.
R and I go over almost the same time. Just before I tumble over I see Murray downstream and he is lower than me. Here I go!
D comes out with a scraped hand. Murray hits his hip on the rocks, tears his wetsuit and now has a nasty contusion on his hip, a sore calf and a bruise on his shoulder. R takes the worst tumble and hits his forehead. When I see him, his face is covered in blood. This spill causes him to let go of his BCD and it hasn’t been seen since. I crash over, my tank jams on the rocks, I flip over my tank and hit my mask so it becomes askew on my face. Fortunately, I have my regulator in my mouth and did not let go of my BCD so manage to get it dislodged. I end up with a small bruise on my knee and one on my arm.
B goes over the waterfall, scrapes his knee and films the whole trip on his GoPro. Dan manages to stop B, J and W from the experience and they get out and walk through the trees to where we are beached. We are fortunate that no one was hurt more seriously, but it cost a wetsuit, a BCD, a set of regulators and a tank.
Time is spent trying to locate the BCD and tank. The best guess is that it is lodged in the rocks right below the waterfall where is it impossible to search. R’s BCD was only partly inflated, whereas mine was fully inflated, so that might have added to it getting stuck on the rocks. It is decided the gear is gone and we pile back into the tender and motor back to the mother ship.
Today, with the stressful trip over the hill to the Blue Hole, missing and broken gear and the injuries, the adventure turned into an ADVENTURE!
