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Last Day!
Last Day in Mexico Today!!!
Feeling very tired now, but it's going to be a long time till I get this chance again, so I'm not missing out. We are going back to the Taj Mahal just for one dive today. Matt told us about a place called The Chinese Garden. He says it is beautiful. You may remember this place from the course: Blah blah blah T Blah Blah T etc.
This was probably my most relaxed dive coz we have done it twice before, so remember some of the route at least up to the "your're gonna die" sign. Jimmy and I are team one so go off first, after the sign. I remember Matt telling us there was a white line in front of us and a bit further in, a white line on either side. We need to take the left line after joining the one in front. Off we go down the middle line and I can't see the left line.
Then the passage gets smaller and I am sure we have missed it, so we go back a bit, still can't see it, so decide to carry on the line we are on. To get to the Chinese Garden we need to find a tunnel to our left and a rock that the line goes around at a 120º angle.
We find it and need to head down the tunnel. I put a line marker on, telling us the way out, and tie my reel on to it, then we head down the passage. 15 minutes later we find a line into the Chinese Garden. This is a restriction area and in a Halocline which means that Jimmy behind me can see nothing.
We enter a room and I come above the Helocline. This is amazing and very weird. Earlier on Andy had lost a spool at this site and Matt put it down to the "Cave Gods". Sometimes they have to take something back for letting us in there. Coming above that Halocline was so clear that it looked like you had popped your head above water. The topside of the halocline even had ripples. I could hear the Cave Gods going "Go on… take your reg out. You know you want to". But I could still hear my bubbles so I knew I was underwater. I wonder how many people have actually tried to breathe. If it wasn't for the bubbles, you really wouldn't know you were under the water.
On the way out, back through the restriction, Jimmy is in front now and I can see nothing coz of the Halocline and I am reeling our line in. We see Per and Andy just about to come in and we get back to our line marker. At this point we realise how easy it is to get lost in a cave. I had marked the line the wrong way out!! On the way in, Jimmy hadn't noticed this either, even though we had both checked it and OK'd each other. Per and Andy had taken the scenic route, so we then came across their reel. I knew were we were, as I recognised the rock, but Jimmy's heart started racing thinking that maybe the marker had been correct.
This is twice now that the caves have made me respect them. It would be so easy to go so wrong. Always respect the cave.
Back to DAY TEN:
ONE LAST THING…
Back to the beginning:
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