Shexit

Namibia Sunfish Expedition

This was a wow trip. In the past there was a whole lot of guessing going on concerning the sizes and dimensions of the underground and submerged caves in Namibia. As they are so vast and deep, ordinary humans/divers could not adequately map the terrain.

Enter Sunfish, “a user friendly and person-portable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) with field proven Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM).”

Sunfish being launched in Dragon's Breath

Years ago, Don mentioned to Bill Stone, the founder of Stone Aerospace, that we have some big caves in Southern Africa that needed exploration, and a couple of years ago an expedition was launched to visit three of the sites. Lake Guinas was an open sinkhole explored to (I stand corrected) 150 metres by divers. Harasib was a semi enclosed site explored to 162 metres. And Dragon’s Breath was a completely enclosed underground lake explored to 132 metres. Each site reconnaissance is worth its own story as each site had its own unique challenges, but this write-up only covers the trip briefly. We endeavour to write more about each site separately.

In a nutshell, the Sunfish gets programmed to go map a specific area using multi-beam sonar and come back to base station once the mission is completed. It can also be told to map another area while underwater. On this trip it was tethered with fibre-optic to transfer data back to the programmers in real time. It can also be and was on occasion driven with joystick controls.

Guinas was the first choice for a set-up site as the Sunfish had to travel to Africa disassembled. So, reassembling it and testing it where the surface was open and accessible to the support team was the way to go. A few programming glitches were sorted, the hole was mapped, and we pulled all the gear.

We went to what we deemed to be the second hardest site – Harasib. This was over a hundred meters drop to the water, so all equipment has to be lowered via a pulley system, and of course once done, brought back out again. Divers and surface support had to also go down the same route so SRT skills was a requirement. The Sunfish went to work. The first chamber went flawless, but then the tether got stuck between some stalactites in the shallow end. Don had some recovery work to do to free the Sunfish and at the same time not get entangled in the loops of fibre-optic cable that he was pulling form the stalactites.

Once freed, it went off to map the deep end, lost communications at just over 250 metres which was out of reach for even technical divers. There were quite a few worried programmers on the surface. This was a true test to see if the Sunfish could now come back from the deepest part of a cave on its own reconnaissance. That’s why the Stone Aerospace was out here – to test these scenarios, but I believe they would have preferred testing this scenario at a depth where Don could jump in and help if necessary. But at over 250 metres it was out of reach. It performed very well indeed, and a few breaths were let out when it surfaced.

The next site was deemed the most difficult. Mainly because of the many pitches and narrow openings to get into and back out of the cave. It took a lot of huffing and puffing to get Sunfish through some very tricky spaces to the underground lake. The subterranean lake is deemed the biggest non sub-glacial underground lake in the world. The surface part is a couple of football fields big, but the underwater part is so much more!

By this time the Sunfish was as happy as a fish in water and it did not take long to map the cave. What took most of the time though, were the photographers asking divers, top-surface lighting crew, and the Sunfish to go through their paces and pose for the cameras. Chilling work for the divers and reasonably boring for the lighting crew that had to hold lights at various angles. The shots they got was worth all the trouble though.

The short video I made gives you an idea of the trip. Don and I try and make the journey to and from our destination part of the experience. Gone are the marathon drives to get there and back again. We add stops and overnights in order to enjoy life and smell the roses along the way. I hope you enjoy the video.

Namibia Project Sunfish

Stone Aerospace is an aerospace engineering firm founded by engineer and explorer Bill Stone, located in Austin, Texas.

https://sunfishinc.com/

https://stoneaerospace.com/

Mexico Cave Diving 2019

A year after the previous trip we hit Tulum, Mexico again. Couldn’t stay away for long. We usually go in the South African winter (June, July) for a few reasons… One being that our dive site Komati Springs is quieter and we can shut up and go; another is that it is not busy in Mexico as we don’t like crowds.

Manni brought his daughter Jessica along and she started her Cavern course there. What a privilege. So our daily excursions were grown up’s 😉 did a full penetration dive, then Don would take Jessica on her cavern portion and do the drills and skills while Manni hovered close by like an anxious parent. Ok, not true – he was there to record all her baby steps – so he says…

On this trip there were no in-between breaks, so the ears started dictating breaks. We have observed the fact previously that non-professionals don’t last as long in the waters as professionals. And by professionals I mean dive instructors who do this on a full time basis. Just like muscles, ears also have to be trained to last the journey.

It is advisable to have a 2 day break between diving, but people are usually committed to work and only have limited time to travel, dive and get back. Don and I extended this trip again and did some sight-seeing. This time going South from Tulum. I will do a write-up of that portion separately.

Komati Springs Elephant Escapades

Exiting our site sometimes has its adventures. Besides forging rivers after the rains, yesterday we were challenged by Master Elephant. Either he lost his herd, or was at the kicking out age (called musth state)*. He was a bit stressed and as we passed him, he had to challenge us just in case we were the bad guys. I think it was a matter of “attack before being attacked” in this case…

*The below is an extract from BBC Earth. It is an interesting read:

There was a mistaken belief that young males get kicked out of their families. But this came from observations of males that had left their own family and joined another, “where they are not as welcome as they would be with their own family,” Poole explains. Matriarchs and coalitions of females were seen chasing young males, and people thought the males were being shunned by their own families.

Komati Springs Cave Diving

You are entering another environment. I started diving this cave in 1996 and fell in love with it. People think of a cave as a dark and scary place. Yes, it’s dark; it can be the darkest place on this earth. But actually, you are taking a light that allows you to see as far as that light can penetrate. Most of the time it’s like being in a crystal-clear palace under the ground.

For more, please visit the video done by Jason Boswell.

Komati Springs Caves

Mexico Cave Diving 2018

After a very long 48-hour journey starting in South Africa with a 3-hour drive, we faced an early (ok, not too early) wakeup call on the first dive day in Tulum with no sympathy for jetlag. As those who’ve met me know, just hand Andre her coffee from around the corner; make sure it is strong, and don’t speak until it has been consumed!

We sent Manni ahead as the advance party to a) reconnaissance, b) to acclimatize so someone is sensible on the ground at least, and c) to keep the humour rolling. All survived.

The dives were superb and exceeded everyone’s expectations. It would be a difficult vote as to which site or dive was considered the best. Certainly one stood out as the most “interesting” (we shall leave it there to protect the innocent.. or if you pay me enough).

Concerning the group, we chose very wisely; there was the driver who also doubled as the body guard and videographer, the nutty professor (font of all knowledge), the poison tester (read margarita tester), the joker (cannot cope without the joker), the rookie (so the rest of us look professional), the super-star-cum-director and most importantly, she who must be obeyed! The overall factor was all were cave divers.

Our pet project was a take-home video of half an hour featuring all divers in equal parts. Ok, a bit of an exaggeration because Manni the videographer hardly featured in front of the camera, I was the token see-the-rump-in-the-video model (much like when you go to a nature reserve and all photos you go home with are of the animal’s rumps as they flee across the grasslands). I was also the editor and you have me to thank for cutting the 30-minute version (yawn) down to 6 drooling minutes, which you can check out below. Alas, Bruce, Leo, Willem and Alouette was in the other dive group so there were just bits of them like passing ships in the night. Just enough to prove that they were indeed there.

The above-water touristy things were not the priority on this trip, but there was enough of it to have fun and dry out the ears. It made for nice diversions that can be joked about forever and a day (again, for the right amount I can be persuaded to tell all). The forecast re meals in town was generally: “99% chance of margaritas”. No one got poisoned as Mr. Poison Tester did a superb job.

Will we go again? For sure! When? Mexico July 2019 here we come!

Mexico Cave Diving

Komati Springs

We are truly blessed to live in this wonderful place. There are not many habitations left on this planet where the only noise you hear is the roar of lions, calling of jackal, bark of baboons and trumpet of elephants. The neighbours at home are a little too much, with their constant croaking love calls (toads) and tweeting (birds). Still, the toads do a great job annihilating the mosquitos.

Getting to our property is fraught with traffic jams. Many a time there are delays because the giraffe did not want to get off the road, or the lions were sunbathing in front of our gates.

Our space has a myriad of functions with the main one being a scuba dive site. We personally focus on technical dive training – like cave, rebreathers, deco diving and deep mixed gasses like trimix. The site is open for recreational divers as well. There is an open hole with training grids, and the cave divers have a three-dimensional cave system to play and practice in. You can read more about the diving on the Komati Springs website.

Another function here is what we call rope work which includes abseiling off a cliff of about 10 meters (33 feet) and down a mine shaft where you get to water at 20 meters (66 feet). The shaft has been rigged to be able to simulate other sites in Southern Africa that we visit for diving purposes. Practice makes perfect.

There is game on site, like wildebeest, impala, kudu, eland, waterbuck, duikertjies, warthog, civets, servals, and our four horses who think they are wildebeest. They are lucky beasts indeed as they can do what they like when they like. The predators and elephants surround us but are on the outside of the fence, so all is safe inside to wander around on foot.

As we have grasslands, forests, abundant water and mountains, the birdlife is incredible. Apparently over 250 species. Walks on the property is heaven. We often take a beer or some wine, walk to a nice spot, and watch animals and the sunset.

The local entertainment is the troop of vervet monkeys who come along every so often to drink from the small stream in front of our house. The monkey kiddies are just like human kiddies – they play on every available object; the favourite one being our vehicle. This is where tag and wrestling matches take place.

We like to share the site so if you are in the area, give us a shout. We do have security, so booking is important.