60plus
Contributor
A ScubaBoard Staff Message...
I have done some caverns and swim throughs before but never been far from exit and always had light from exit so torch not needed. Recently I dived The great cave of Lindos “Cleobulus Tomb". This is only open to AOW and above and the dive ops require you have done at least 1 dive with them before the cave dive so they know you are reasonably competent. There were four of us on the dive plus the guide who carried an extra side mount tank with a long hose. On entering the cave I kept looking back as the light from then entrave got further away and finally disappeared. I was a bit nervous but concentrated on keeping my breathing gentle, staying close to the guide and watching my air consumption. None of the cave was tight and there was no silt, some of the caverns were huge stretching above and below as far as could be seen in the crystal clear water. There were large shoals of brown shrimp which when lit by a torch gathered on the cave walls and scampered up them in a moving mass, a bit like something out of an alien or horror movie. Upon coming out of the cave towards the light the water was a brilliant, almost glowing blue. Dive time in the cave was about 15 to 20 minutes.
On our second dive of the day we went into a much smaller cave. We were finning along gently, line astern nose to fin when we came across a Monk seal. These are about 8ft long and 600 lbs and can be aggressive if they have pups so after getting a good look at it from a few yard we exited the cave fairly quickly. Monk seal sightings are very rare. They are critically endangered and estimates suggest there are only about 600 left.
