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The end of Davorjevo brezno?

Diving attempt in the final siphon - 2013-02

Last weekend, we finally managed to coordinate our too full schedules and, as if that was not enough, successfully avoided the rampant respiratory viruses. We needed a large ensemble, especially carriers, who would be willing to carry the heavy tanks and other scuba diving equipment to the syphon at the end of Davorjevo brezno. Of course, we forbade the diver Matej to carry it, as his physical strength was more important during the dive. Luckily, six valiant members volunteered to be the hard workers, and Rok and Božo enriched our team further. Italian cavers under direction from Luis ensured that the action was international, while cameraman Antonio, who is preparing a documentary about the wonderful cave, was also in attendance. A crowd, that's for sure.

Despite that, we managed to stream through the tunnels at a moderately fast pace. Mojca, Mojč and Alan worked diligently and helped shoot the parts of the cave in need of photographic refreshments, but, strangely, this didn’t take up too much of our time. And so we surprisingly caught the remains of the other team, who were busy stuffing themselves into neoprene suits at the bottom of the largest hall. The last one to transform was Matej, who had to be rushed by the carriers before him, as he had an anxiously anticipated water performance ahead of him as the star of the day.

The water level in the lower floor of the cave was much higher this time, and spiced up the way to the final syphon. All together, it looked like a great underground canyoning and I think the cave was the most beautiful it had ever been. Even so, we could not afford any photographing related stops, as we were in a hurry to get to the syphon as soon as possible. But we did save photographic evidence of it for later, on our way back.

Matej’s dive sadly ended 75 meters far and 25 meters deep, where he had to turn around before the too narrow and very muddy continuing. For humanoids, the cave ends here, and that is probably how it will stay. The syphon demands a strong (both physically and in numbers) diving support, which is, due to the length and depth of the cave, quite the organisational challenge. “There are many more syphons that we need to swim through,” Matej added shortly.

The return to the surface, despite the large attendance, went smoothly, which was an excellent opportunity for more photographing. After a short annoyance with the flash, a new hope of an evening pizza ignited in us, since we had all thought we would not be able to have it due to the expected late return. And because hope is the last to die, we finally awaited it in the nearby Kozina.

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Copyright Peter Gedei