ADAM HAYDOCK

PETRIFIED FOREST & THE PAINTED DESERT ARIZONA

March 21, 2011

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EL EDEN & CORRAL CENOTE

December 26, 2010

Adam Haydock entering Cenote Corral Mexico

I was really excited to be going to dive these cenotes once again and I got to pick out a location that appeared to be really beautiful based on the pictures I have seen from the past. I am fascinated how the Yucatan is a swiss cheese karst feature that is basically a corral reef in a jungle with a vast network of cave systems and a high water table with a saltwater layer.

Sea Shell Cenote Corral

We get to the dive shop and take our time as we make it over to El Eden Cenote where two Cenotes exist including one large collapsed sink filled with crystal clear freshwater, fish, and a large cave entrance titled El Eden Cenote.

Looking out from El Eden Cenote

We are getting ready to stride into the water and do our dives when I noticed my camera taking in water! I brought it up back to the surface and ended up having to leave it back as there was some sort of small crack in it.

Cenote El Eden

We got a chance to do two dives in this cave which I was excited about but the other guys I were diving with were a bit more frightened about going into a cave system. I reasonable fear but since we are with a qualified instructor I wasn't too worried about it and once we were inside, the passage rooms were pretty big!

El Eden Cenote

We looked above and we could see the sunbeams blasting through the canopy above and into the water which was absolutely amazing to see and I was really impressed by how beautiful this was. once traversing through the cave system, we came up to a an air pocket and found a large root system from a surface tree where the roots stop just below the water level.

with a Dive Buddy in a air pocket in El Eden Cenote. Roots from a tree on the surface

We continue on and connect over to Cenote Corral which is another nice cenote with a impressive entrance and fossils locked into the limestone walls.

El Eden Cenote

The passages were quite large in size and easy to swim through as we could see super far ahead of us when we were inside the cave.

El Eden Cenote from the inside looking out

I was also impressed to see the different kinds of fish that exist in these cenotes as I have never seen anything quite like this before and the underwater caves that I am use to are full of mud and zero visibility. This was beautiful!!

El Eden Cenote

I liked how everything was set up with the stands and how some of these cenotes are like waterparks of sorts so all kinds of people can enjoy these amazing karst features of mexico.

Fish in El Eden Cenote

I can not wait to come back soon and come with a group of cave divers and check out some of the other cenotes off the map but these are beautiful classics.

Formations in El Eden Cenote

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BONNE TERRE MINE

November 27, 2010

The following day I got my dive gear ready to dive a famous mine complex called Bonne Terre Mine. This place is a commercially run business with a flooded mine that has all kinds of extended mine systems underground. It is a pretty interesting place but there are a lot of people that come here to dive this place. It is a recreational diving facility so it works out pretty well for all levels of diving and they also teach cavern courses for people interested in learning about the first stage of cave diving.

They also got a lot of rules governing these dive trails that they outline and you have to dive certain trails before you are able to advance on to the next class of dive circuit that you can complete. I was not sure when I was going to come back here so I went on trails 11, 12, 14 which are the first three people have to do. Also make sure you bring your dive book back or else you will have to dive these first three trails again….weird…

So I get signed up with 12 other people in my group and we head down a dry shaft to a passage room the took us to the dock site and the floating dive center they got set up. They had the mine lit up and it was a nice operation with tanks and a fill station right at the waterline.

The water was crystal clear which was nice too but we were not allowed to bring lights into the dive as they were not allowed. We stride into the water and perform a safety check in shallow water to make sure everything is working. We than take a tour around some of the artifacts that were left behind when the mine flooded like a drill piece, stairs, and other machinery. We made a circuit around some passage and came back to where we started. We all get out and an hour later perform our second dive deeper around some pillers and into a truss system. The Ambient light peered into the passages we went through which was interesting and the artifacts of a mine that use to operate were still present.

The third dive was very similar to the second dive but with the water at 55 degrees and spending pretty much all day in the water, I started to get a bit chilly. Once we ended the three dives I packed up and left back in a snowstorm to Chicago just before the snow got really bad.

Overall it is a nice place to visit if you want to see some history and go diving in a overhead environment but it is not on my list of places to visit due to how commercialized it is. Is it worth a visit?. Absolutely!

pictures from :

http://www.tdconline.com/diving/bonneterre/bonneterre.html

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BENNETT SPRING DIVE MISSOURI

November 20, 2010

Bennett Springs State Park small cave passage eaten away by a river course

Bennett Springs is in a central eastern section of Missouri that is home to a massive and relatively unknown cave system that resurges hundreds of cubic feet of water each minutes from the depths below. This Spring is open to cavern diving in the winter months and a major restriction stops most people from pushing through the pressure of water at this restriction. My Dive Buddy and I enter the clear water with good visibility and enter the impressive cave just 50-60 from the shoreline. The bottom slopped down 30-45 degrees and there must have been over a hundred trout hanging out near the lip of the cave. It was really interesting to go past them as we descended down into the main restriction. We descend down and it gets darker and darker until we can just barely see the entrance. The ground was smooth stones that have been tumbled and what we say next was something I was not expecting.

In Bennett Springs underwater Passage

We get to the restriction and the water pressure was so great we could no longer move! It was pushing our bubbles behind us and it was even wedging us into the sides of the passage. WOW that is impressive waterflow. Furthermore, the water pressure was tossing smooth pebbles from the restriction up to where we were!! I attempted to reach and grab the restriction to push my way through without any success. We made another attempt on our second dive without success but we had a blast going into the cave system. from what I understand people have gone past this restriction and the cave continues with more restrictions but plenty more is yet to be discovered here in this cave system in Missouri.

The Following day I went on a day hike to the dry cave that a river cut through which was interesting to see as well. it was a bit of a hike to get there but I had enjoyed the hike and highly recommend going there.