Where No Human Has Gone Before

16 Jul 2024

 

“It´s very exciting to have been at a place where no other human being has ever been before! There were so many exciting impressions, and after two-and-a-half years of preparation everything went well, nobody got injured”, an excited cameraman and spokesperson of the group from Germany, Stefan Pape, said. Of the eight experienced cave divers who made it down to the lake, six reached the 155 meter mark – three of the divers went as far as 157 m. The only Namibian who was part of the team, Chris Steenkamp, reached 101 m, the deepest a Namibian has ever dived in Dragon’s Breath Cave.

 

 

Strict diving ethics were applied, meaning that nothing was left in the cave or the lake except for the lifeline, which is now suspended from the starting point of the 157m dive mark, from where the divers turned back. Even urine flasks were removed again!

 

The idea to dive down to at least 155 m in the world’s largest known underground lake (discovered in 1986) came from expedition leader Tom Baier, who has been to Namibia about 20 times in the last 13 years. Two of the German divers, who all are members of the private club “Scapehander”, had never been to Namibia before. Six members had visited Dragon Breath Cave before, but only two had been in the water of the 2-ha big lake which lies 85m below the cave’s surface. Dragon Breath Cave is situated on a private farm in the Otavi, Tsumeb and Grootfontein area.

 

All members of the Scapehander Club are experienced cave divers, who have trained in flooded mine shafts using state of the art equipment but had to learn and practise to abseil and climb up a rope for the adventure in Namibia. They had to find innovative ways to get their equipment 85m underground through narrow holes and crevasses. Waterproof bags, measuring 40 x 60 cm, had to be made to be able to transport most of the equipment down to the underground lake’s surface onto boats and rafts that had to be assembled in a big enough space in the ceiling.

 

“It took us three days to get floats, inflatable boats, air pumps, diving equipment, lights, cameras, ropes and food down onto the lake. Altogether 1,8 tons of equipment had to be moved down to the surface of the lake through narrow crevasses, down holes and from the cave’s ceiling down to the water”, Pape explained. It took another two days to get everything out again.

 

The group started at 08h00 after breakfast on Monday 17 June 2024, going down the cave and abseiling the last 25 m from a hole in the ceiling down onto the boats and rafts on the lake. There is no beach or rock on the edge or in the lake, only vertical cliffs. At around 13h00 the eight men were in the water getting ready and eventually descended at the one end of the lake where the floor drops at an angle of 30 to 40 degrees. According to Pape and Baier, the angle gets less steep further down. Steenkamp and one of the other divers stopped at 101 m because the camera of the diver was only able to descend to around that depth. It took the divers 7.5 hours to get back to the surface. This deep dive was only possible with special (rebreather) equipment and using a mixture of oxygen and helium. Upon the ascent, the divers had to pause for a few minutes every three meters for the body to adjust before moving on. During the last surface stop before reaching the surface they had to wait up to 150 minutes.

 

“When you are thirsty you can take a mouthful of water from the lake because it is crystal clear water, but not more because you cannot go to the toilet”, Pape mentioned. Once back on the rafts and inflatable boats the men rested for six hours and had something to eat. The temperature at the underground lake is 30° C and humidity is 100%. Eventually it took the team two hours to exit Dragon Breath Cave again. They eventually arrived back at camp at 06h00 the next day.

 

“It is exciting to be at a place so far away from any civilization, go and dive in a lake very few people have seen and enjoy the underwater cave and explore it”, the team members said. A few shrimps, worms and lice were noticed at the bottom of the lake in various water depths but no fish.

 

All divers paid the expenses for being part of the diving team out of their own pockets. All of them thank the Namibians who helped them, especially Chris Steenkamp and his company Dantica Diving. Steenkamp is not only a local expert but also supplied all the necessary equipment. The members of the Scapehander Club brought their own diving suits, rebreathers, masks, diving computers and other personal items. All cylinders, ropes, rafts, compressor, boats, watertight bags and other equipment were supplied by Steenkamp.

 

The German group of cave divers arrived on 13 June in Namibia and departed on 2 July 2024. Read more about their adventures and experiences in a follow-up article.

 

 

Dirk Heinrich