Komati Springs (South Africa) - Extending the line @ 350ft (108m)

[Dive Africa]

Hey

I am a South African Cave diver (and looking through some old records I came across some old dive reports off exploration diving we did back in 2010 to 2012 when we (myself and may mate Alan Drake) extended the line in Komati Springs (also known as Badgat (literally bath hole) in South Africa.

The reports were written in a very loose way - i.e I have noted that over different reports some of the estimated distances are different etc, ect.

You'll also note I made a number of wrong assumptions in the beginning which was proven wrong later

Some background on Komati Springs it was an old asbestos mine which was abandoned in 1972 and flooded in 1972 it has various levels. it was mined in a board in pillar manner and as an example level 1 is at 18 m and is roughly the size of a football/soccer field.

The deepest point is at 186m (610ft) Most of the exploration here happend at 107m 350ft.

Please find a crude map attached which will allow you to follow the story

I'll through some fotos in later

[Dive Africa]

Badgat – Kick down that Green Door – 2009 – Report 1
Hi I thought I’ll send out an update on my and Alan’s little project: (Print the Schematic 1st as it would give you perspective on where we are in Badgat)
Background
First a little background: About 4 years ago, just after I did my full cave qualification, I did some research on Badgat (as I am known to do). During this research I found an e-mail by a David Shimell in the Aquanaut archives recording the fact that he and Mike Fowler laid line to the end of Level 10 (106m) (some 190m from the Main Shaft). He mentioned that about 50m past the incline shaft on Level 10 (+- 140m from the Main Shaft) that Mike Fowler found, on the left hand side, a room of reasonable size. (This is as you are swimming into Level 10.) At this stage I thought nothing of it other than “that these dudes are a little of the wall to go for a 15 min swim at 108m”. Since then I have developed a bit of a better understanding 
Last year (2008) I had a discussion with Gerhard du Preez during which he informed me that he laid new line out of Level 7 down a ventilation shaft to a 132m. (we have subsequent confirmed that this level bottoms out at 124 m, with a little tunnel at the end) We are now calling this shaft the “Banana Shaft”… well because it is shaped like a big banana. He also stated that at a 106m there is a closed steel door of about the same size as the ones in level 1. This door was closed shut and after banging at it, it did not give a bit, but the vibrations of metal against metal (bailout cylinder against the door) made one hell of a roar.
Something was gnawing at the back of my brain. I then remembered the David Shimell e-mail. It occurred to me that this door may go into the room described by David Shimell, After all it is at the same depth and sort of in the same area. If this was the case it meant that we would be able to complete an awesome circuit and it would shorten (by my reckoning) the swim to the Incline Shaft at a 106m, thereby making a dive down the Incline Shaft slightly easier.
I contacted Mike Fowler (currently in the States) he confirmed the existence of the room and that it looked like it was used to load the little ore carts. This made sense to me because the Banana Shaft was most likely an ore pass used to drop ore from a shallow level to a deep level after which it would be carted to the Main Shaft in the little ore carts and taken out of the mine via the Main Shaft.
So in my mind the mission was born: kick down that door.



Operation Green Door Kick Down
I had a chat to Alan and he immediately signed up for the trip. We basically allowed one weekend a month from October 2008 to March 2009 to get the project done. We broke the project down in baby steps as follows:
1. find the top of the Banana Shaft;
2. find and inspect the door at 106m;
3. open the door;
4. explore the room;
5. link to level 10; and
6. swim the circuit.

October
Step one was easily achieved: Don Shirley draw us a quick map, which took us straight to the top of the Banana Shaft. In hindsight this was a very good thing because without this map we would probably still be looking for the Banana Shaft. We have done numerous level 7 dives but have somehow swam passed this little hole many times… (There is now (2010) a permanent line going to the top of the Banana Shaft.) You have to go through a restriction to get there. This restriction is easily missed (2010 – permanent line. We in previous years had to put a jump in every time we wanted to go to the Banana Shaft). Also the top of the Banana Shaft is just behind a small flat raising of gravel and you could swim pass the hole, no more that 2m away, and miss this hole. This was the diving for October.
I had another chat to Gerhard and after he explained to me exactly how the door and door frame fit together (same as the level 1 Green Door in fit, but it is smaller in size) I went out a bought a nice little crowbar.





November
In November the plan was to go have a look at the door as just a recce. On the Saturday (11 Oct 2009) we dropped our required bailout cylinders and put in the lines and jumps.
We have to lay a line from the entrance to the spot where the permanent line starts (18m), there we drop into level 2 (24m), from there the line goes to the H-Frame over the H-Frame, around the corner through Level 3 (37m) and down to the top of the Ladder (37m). Here we tie of the line (120m from the entrance) and follow some permanent line down the Ladder through level 4 (46m) and down through the Jungle Gym.
The bottom of the Jungle Gym (68m) is a spot of some concern (this was cleaned up beginning 2010 – but still a 4 way split, one going up) due to the fact that the permanent lines there are a mess and a real entanglement risk. On top of this, this area is covered in a thick layer of extremely fine red silt. A sneeze and you have a brown (red) out amongst a tangle of lines. From this point you have to put in a jump line through the restriction to the back passage in Level 7. The last jump that we have to place is from the Siding to the top of the Banana Shaft (68m). We also drop 4 to 5 cylinders each on various spots on the route.
On Sunday we did the push down the Banana Shaft. At the last moment I decided to take the crowbar with, just in case. Well just in case happened; the dive went smoothly, we reached the 106m door and the door just sat there refusing to go away.
About 1m above the door is small portholes which allows a peak into the room and through which Alan and I could make out was a reasonable sized room with a number (4 or 5) of timber supports (tree stumps of about 30 to 40cm in diameter) standing upright arranged in a loose circle/square, sort of in the middle of the room. I could not make out if there was a funnel (chimney?) in the roof in middle of the timber supports.
Obviously the crowbar came out of its sheath  and while stabilising with my knee on the ground, leveraging with the crowbar at the bottom of the door frame lip and pushing with my head the door gave a grunt, but did not move. I repositioned myself and gave a harder push and the door cracked as some of the metal in the door gave slightly, but it still stuck. I this stage I thought that if I cannot open it, that I might break through the door, so I pushed again and the door … gave just a little. I could now get the tip of the crowbar in between the door and the frame. I cleaned out some of the rust chips between the door and the frame moved the crowbar to the left and pushed again, the door grinded open further. I pushed hard twice in quick succession and it moved to about 70 degrees open. At this stage I was in a zero viz rust cloud – as kicking doors down and feeling one’s way around would do. We were a minute over our turn time so we regrettably had to leave. (I still have red rust stains on the top of my hoody… no not really… but did have after the dive.
I could not see another exist, but if it was the same room that Mike looked into, I would have expected the entrance to my left . This side was totally obscured by the door/rust.
It only became apparent at our 4.5m deco stop that due to the silt out Alan was not even aware that the door was open, but by the time we exited he was wearing a big grin.
Check: Door kicked down.

January
December’s tek diving did not happen because we allowed work to interfere with our diving, this is not the way things should be and this injustice will be fought tooth and nail in the future.
On the Saturday (10 Jan 2009) we did the usual dive to put in jumps and cylinders to the Banana shaft. On the way out we took the long way around through Level 3, up the Main Shaft and all the way out through Level 1. We did this to make sure we get some exercise at going through some green doors and to look at some sights to explore on subsequent dives.
On Sunday we dived down the Banana Shaft to the door at 106m. Alan had the reel and led the way in. He got stuck and had to take of his bailout cylinder and groaned and scraped trough. This steel door was a very tight fit (it is somewhat narrower than the ones on level 1,2 and 3 and is level to the ground so have to do the crawling thing) my rebreather cylinders has the gouges and rust marks to prove this. The steel door was open to about 70 degrees and I had to push it open to about 90 degrees to get through. I just sucked in my stomach and did it at an angle whilst Alan was pulling (unceremoniously) from the other side. Obviously Allan had ulterior motives in helping me through… as long as I was in the door there was no (known) way out….
The room, which we decided to call “Dragon Cage” is of medium size about 20m by 30m? with some sort of rectangular timber structure in the middle and might be unstable (looks like a big cage, hence Dragon Cage) and maybe 4m high (although the roof was obscured by the timber structure), but we did not linger in the Dragon’s Cage. As expected there was some sort of doorway to the left of the steel door and without hesitation we headed that way to complete the circuit – or so we thought.



But then the surprise… it was not a doorway into the current explored level 10, but virgin passages. Needless to say we did not stop but continued to lay about 50m or so new line. From where Alan tied off the passage was still running, in a curve to the right, with no end in sight and we saw at least one other passage branching to the left. Obviously we have no idea where these are going, but my logic still tells me that they have to link into the current level 10 somewhere? (Although my logic turned out to be not so logical . It is after all, all sitting at 106m and how would the miners get the ore out other than up the Main Shaft?) We would probably push another 50m or 80m or so at a later date. After that we would have to take scooters down. This means we might need an extra day for build up dives and to drop the cylinders and scooters, but getting away from work is a hassle.
In total 22min at 106m for 225min of diving – inside at about 16C and the 4.5m stop sitting at 25C.
So after all of that it seems that this is not “Mike’s Funnel Room” but a new unexplored room. All in all a very good weekends diving.

Future
In February we are planning to go down the bottom of the Banana Shaft at 132 to 140m. ) Rumour has it that there is another closed door at the bottom that cannot be opened…. - and which links into a 140m level with a short swim into the Incline Shaft.
In March (this only happened a year later in March – but rather late than never) we are planning to do a push down the current level 10 to see if we can find Mikes Funnel room or the Dragon’s Cage from the other side. In between we need to find the opportunity to go and explore the new passages in some detail. I still believe that it must link into the current Level 10 somewhere, but only time would tell.

[Dive Africa]

Badgat – Round and Round We Go – 2010 – Report 2
Time for an update:
Finally got to go and explore “Mike’s funnel room” (Attaching map, but as you will note from the below it will be requiring a bit of updating.)
We dropped down to vertical Main Shaft to 70m on Saturday (15/03/2010) to stage some gas and play a little. The hole is so full from all the rain that everything is now 2m deeper than the same time last year.
On Sunday, bright and early we did the swim down Level 1 (we were on our scooters so it was more of a low speed flight), through the Green Door and then down the Main Shaft, we stopped, for a second, at Level 7 to stage some additional gas and then continued on down to Level 10 (108m). A diver by the name of Andries laid some new gold line in level 10 last year: so still nice and new to follow.
We went screaming down Level 10 and noted the following, two little sidings (one after the other spaced about 30m apart on our left), followed by the entrance to the 186m Incline Shaft running down towards the left. About 20-30m on the other side of the Incline Shaft I was surprised (as nobody seemingly has ever noticed this before) to see a stair case (looks exactly the same as the one that runs from level 7 upwards (i.e. metal type droppers with a rope linking these as handrails so that a miner could drag himself up), also on the left and running in at exactly the same angle as the Incline Shaft. We have established from a previous dive that a Level 12 exist (at the bottom of the Banana shaft at about 122-124m) so assume that these might link up. We also know (from Don) that at about 140m a horizontal sde shaft runs out of the Incline Shaft (Level 14), so these stairs might go there as well.
About 20 or 30m passed this staircase, we found (on the left hand side) the entrance to Mike’s Funnel room. (It seemed fortuitous, but Andries, turned left here, continuing to lay line, and did not continue straight on down the main Level 10 passage, so we did not have to lay any line) We followed into the room, but were quite surprised to see that this is just the 1st chamber, the tunnel bends to the right 90° and then to the left 90°, creating a blind corner. So from the main Level 10 passage it would look like a room, which off course, as it turned out, is not the case. On this blind bend on the right hand side, there is another shaft going down (looks like the top of the Banana Shaft, so roomy enough) and we will have to go and look down here at a later stage J. We went passed the Blind Corner Shaft and continued on. (The general direction of this passage is at a right angle with the Main Shaft and roughly going in a northerly direction.)
Shortly after, the blind bend, we ran into a room with a bunch of wooden pillars, and then surprise, surprise (although we were hoping  ) Andries’s line ended in a tie-off onto the line that we laid in Jan last year... A big Congratulation to Andries for making the connection, but I did have a bit of a chuckle at the thought of Andries’s expression of “what the ****” when he found our line in this “unexplored” portion of the mine 
So this room was the Dragon’s Cage, but we entered from the opposite direction to the direction in which we laid line in Jan 2009. In 2009 when we entered through the little door out of the Banana Shaft; it looked as if the passage was not running to the right, so we turned left and ran down the passage (which curves slowly to the right), laid some line (I guess about 60-70m or so), turned and went out back through the door. (These passages are still running and the end has not been found yet – there are also some branch tunnels: so all for a later date. I estimate, this door to be about 20-25m or so from the main Level 10 passage.
From Mike’s Funnel Room there are seemingly some tunnels, so I suspect that this is a proper mined level, with oodles of unexplored areas....
Andries’s tie-off was about 3m from the door that we broke open (door is to the left of line, if coming in from main Level 10 passage, but is partly obscured by the pillars), so after marking the alternative exit (with some bright orange day glow arrows), we exited through the door, this door was smaller than I remembered (smaller than all the other small doors) so it took a bit of grinding to get through. On the other side of the door, I had an altercation with a line, but we were soon exiting up the Banana Shaft and out through Level 7 to the Main Shaft, completing the circuit, (the “Roundabout” J) and then up the shaft to Level 1 and out.
Total dive time of about 210min, inside water temperature 16°C and outside a balmy 27°C.
All and all a really nice dive, although Alan passed some comments about my scooter kicking up an inordinate amount of silt coming out of level 7 and “luckily he can scooter in zero viz conditions”. Well if he is to slow to pass, he should be happy to eat some dust .

[Dive Africa]

Badgat - The start of level 14 and the end of level 10?? - 2011

It is that time of year again – when the water at the deco platform is warm enough for me to stomach a 3.5 to 4 hour dive.
As you might now by now, we are still exploring some of the “outlaying areas” of Komati Springs (Badgat). Being a long weekend we had an extra day for diving so we decided to go push some lines.
On Friday (16 December) we staged gasses, as per usual. We normally stage the following gasses in Badgat:
• O2 on the grid at 5m
• Ean 50 on level 1 (18m)
• Tx 28/25 on level 4 (47m)
• Tx 20/40 on level 7 (68m)
We then use an 11/65 for level 10. Because we planned to go deeper than 120m, I also had a Tx 9/75 in the water – which I carried deeper than 120m and staged the Tx11/65 at 108m.
Arriving at Badgat, on Friday, we were just in time to secure our normal camping spots before the droves came driving in. I mean it was busy (almost as bad as Camps Bay on Christmas) - saw some good old faces: Dean, Colla, the Potch boys (secretly want to be Meg and Scooter boys ) and naturally Dave Kleiman and Silla and a new face: Riaan. Unfortunately we had the usual CMAS crowd - which Colla lovingly refers to as “the Miners” with their helmets and fire-fly-yellow head mounted lamps. There was even a crowd with 3 x MkVI Poseidon rebreathers – they must have had a hell of a good salesman….
Well back to diving. Dive planning was to do: a 68m on Friday to stage all the gasses; a 125m on Saturday to push Gerhard’s line at the bottom of the Banana Shaft; and a level 10 (108m), through the little door, on Sunday to go and push the line we laid in 2009.
General dive route was (see attached maps): in at level 1 to where permanent line starts; into level 2 through the small hole, over the H-frame, down to the ladder, through level 4, down the jungle gym; into level 7 through the small restriction, to the top of the Banana Shaft and then down to wherever.

Dive 1 - Staging gasses (68m 16 - Dec 2011):
Like with all of these weekends the first dive is tough, not so much the dive but getting all of the stages into the water. The dive started well, until Alan managed to jam is “un-jamable” Halcyon reel. When I got into level 2 and saw Alan taking a time-out against the roof, I had no real choice to take the reel and to continue to tie of on the top of the ladder. (Still don’t know if Alan did this on purpose or not – well I got stuck with the reel for the rest of the weekend.) From here the dive went smoother. We dropped all the stages, then went for a swirl through level 7 (both the front and back passages) on our way up we also took the level 3 line to the main shaft and back and then continued to deco out. Dive just under two hours.

Dive 2 – Extending Gerhard’s line (132m – 17 December 2011)
This dive started quite relaxed and to plan. We dropped through the levels as expected, just as we got to the top of the ladder, we run into the Potch boys and Riaan, making their way towards the ladder. Now I could either slow down or let them move away…but then again…. Just then I saw a gap below one of them, so without taking the finger of the throttle I whizzed below the culprit and in a graceful swoop went up and then dived down the ladder and into level 4 all the time whilst thinking… please don’t hit something – please don’t hit something. Apparently Alan, shortly behind me, only exceeded my graceful acrobatics, did exactly the same, only to turn right at the bottom of the ladder where I turned left  well boys will be boys… This stunt might have sold a couple of scooters 
The rest of the dive went smooth – we left the scooters at the top of the Banana Shaft, this was mistake, as the swim down the Banana Shaft is actually (horizontally) further than I remembered and turned out to be harder work…. next time take the scooter.
I dropped a stage (Tx 11/65) at the Little Door on 108m and proceed over the ledge and down – the line here are laid a little awkward so care is to be taken not to get entangled. Once you drop over the ledge the passage proceeds at about a 45 degree angle downward to where the line is tied of onto a metal spike stuck into the floor (about 122m)
I proceeded to tie off – right at the tie-off the roof gets very low and you have to scrape through on your stomach. We proceeded to lay line about 20 meters further, where the passage dead ends into bricked up wall - very similar to the one where the Little Door is (with those drum pipes at the top), so clearly a level that has been bricked in.
Just as I was about to turn the dive, I noted that the wall was not solid but that there was a lower wall in front of the back one. I made my way over there to find the top of a square brick shaft. The shaft is at 125m and about 1.5m by 1.5m in diameter; is perfectly square. It is covered with steel beams - one of the beams are broken and I could squeeze trough but it is real tight fit – NB!!! Getting stuck here is real likelihood.
I decided to tie of on top of the shaft. We dropped down the shaft. And just had a quick look see into the level. It is clear that there is a new level here and that it runs. Looks like there are some equipment left as well – well another loose end to come and tie up one day..
This square shaft has not been named yet… maybe “Sponge Bob”
Maybe to be explored on a later date and once we have installed the habitats.
Deco when smooth, total dive time 234min – felt a little tired after this one 







Dive 3 – Pushing level 10 line (108m – 18 December 2011)
Dive started early, but a little lazy. We dropped into the hole at level 1. I was in the lead, got to the top of ladder (level 3) I noted that Alan was not behind me. I waited for about 2 min and then turned to go and look for Alan. Just as I started to ascend into level 2, Alan showed. It later transpired that he got severely hung up in some badly laid line (by the Miners) and that he had to cut himself free – he had the decency to join the lines again, I would have just left it…
The rest of the dive went smoothish: the little door was a tight scrape – like always. Through the door we turned left and followed our old lines. I couldn’t help by think: wow, did we swim the line in this far? The previous dive was made without the help of scooters.
About 70m in there is a tunnel that branch of to the left (you get a little rubble pile) just before this tunnel. Our old tie off was about 20m further. I tied of and at full scooter speed continued to lay line. I was hoping that this tunnel will continue to curve to the right and connect the main level 10 tunnel. Well it was not to be. The tunnel abruptly ended about 60-70m (from our previous tie of and I would say about 150m from the main level 10 tunnel) in a rock fall – end of mine.
I continued to tie off and managed to severely silt the area out. (Naturally, I put the required arrow in) I had to follow line out (whilst scootering naturally. I bumped into Alan - literally – I gave him a couple of breaths to move out of the way or to start swimming and then went again – just to bump into him again . Well he got the message and moved off…
I placed some jump arrows on the line, where the other passage starts – just to be faster when we get in there again – hopefully we get to explore this passage in Jan 2012.
One the way back we head past the Little Door, to have another look at the top of the Blind Corner shaft – to me it looked more blocked up than last time when we where there, but the consensus was that, it is impassable and just too dangerous (for us in any event). Spent about 17min at 108m.
Deco went well – I decided to do continuous deco – I stay 1m below my ceiling at all times (not the usual 3m steps) Alan was quite annoyed when I ended up with 20min less deco than him. So something to remember for the future.
Total dive time just under 4 hours.

So all in all a very successful diving weekend, other than Alan again complaining about me silting the whole place out and that he “couldn’t even see his deco computer”.
Well some new things to look forward to in the new year. O yes and a merry Christmas to you all.

Regards Dries

[Dive Africa]

Komati Springs (Badgat)
Level 10 won’t end – Discovery of an all-new Passage!!!!! -

Its Easter weekend, which means we have an extra day for diving. Yipeee!!!!
As you guys know by now, we pushed to the end of the main Back Passage at level 10 (108m) in December of last year, which left just one branch passage in 10 to explore. You’ll note from the heading that I was wrong and we were surprised (once again) at finding a new passage – but we didn’t find it where you’d think – more about this later….
Have a look at the attached map, it will make following the story a little easier.
Luckily Batgat was not as busy as it could have been. Some of the familiar faces there were Colla and Dean (good to see them diving regularly again) Chris Serfontein (with his MkVI with 5l cylinders nogal ) and of course Gerda’s favourite friend: Johan Boshoff from Divestyle fame…. (said with a little sarcasm)…How do you know JB has done 50 trimix dives last year? He tells you about it…  (Sorry JB but 1min training trimix dives only count when you are a student ) and then there were, you guessed it, Colla’s helmet wearing, miners. Some new faces: Kat, a Pom, who had to choose between doing her cave course in the RSA or Mexico and chose the RSA, (I know the Brits are crazy but hell not this crazy) and her course mate (can’t remember his name, sorry mate).
The nights were chilly, about 10C, but nothing that a camp fire (and Captain and Coke with lots of ice) could not cure.
Dive plans were as follows:
• a 68m on Friday to stage all the gasses;
• a 108m on Saturday to push the left of the “Y”, which remained unexplored;
• another 108m on Sunday to go to the end of the Main level 10 line (seemingly the only people who have been there are Dave Shimell (a DIR Yank (how do you know somebody is GUE trained…)); Mike Fowler in 1999 and Dave Shaw in about 2005.
As always, we were diving Megs and using Silent Submerge N-19 Scooters.
We took a slightly new route: in at level 1, hooked a left into the big hole between level 1 and 2 (we would normally have gone to where permanent line starts, into level 2 through the small hole), over the H-frame, down to the ladder, through level 4, down the Jungle Gym; into level 7 through the small restriction, to the top of the Banana Shaft and then down to Level 10 and through the Little Door.

Dive 1 - Staging gasses (68m – 6 April 2012):
We staged the normal gasses:
• O2 on the grid at 5m
• Ean 50 on level 1 (18m)
• Tx 28/25 on level 4 (47m)
• Tx 20/40 on level 7 (68m)
We went down through the levels, dropped into level 7, took a very leisurely swim towards the Main Shaft, looking into every nook and cranny, past the main shaft into the short passage on the “wrong” side of level 7 back to the Main Shaft, into level 3 all the way back to the ladder and out. There were some students laying line around the green door on level 3 and it being a particularly silty area, viz was down to a meter or two.
As we finished our dive Don and his students were in the kitting-up area, Don produced a new line cutting device, a Trilobite EEZYCUT, and after cutting a proper thick nylon rope (the type you tie stuff onto a bakkie) with no effort whatsoever, I took one and immediately attached a lanyard and replaced my old tired and blunt one…. This turned out to be a choice with some significance and consequence…..

Dive 2 – Pushing our Line – Junk Tube (107m – 7 April 2012)
We took the planned route down through the Little Door, turned left and about 60m further reached the left unexplored line. I tied off and opened the scooter up. This passage was about 2m x 2m, just big enough to scooter in.
So we scootered and scootered and scootered and I thought: was this passage ever going to end? and we scootered and scootered and I noticed that my reel was running empty; I got concerned and we scootered some more…. and then finally the end of the line. It just sort of tapered off and ended. I took my new line cutter out, put the lanyard around my arm, cut the line and tied off. A little silt but not too bad .
We laid around 100m of new line. I would guess we were about 280 to 300m from the Main Shaft.
We turned and started home. About halfway back down the passage, I decided to place an arrow (I already placed one at the end of the line) but as I reached down for the line, the line just disappeared.
My new line cutter, still dangling from my arm, able to cut a thick nylon rope with no effort, had hooked and cut the thin cave line like, well uhm, a white hot knife through butter….. oops.
I got hold of the one end of the line, had to go searching for the other end, found it and made a quick knot.
We decided to call this tunnel Junk Tube – its floor, from beginning to end, was covered in junk: pipes, beams, girders, pylons etc
The rest of the dive went well, a little chilled towards the end (Oh, I found a stainless steel cup digging through some debris on deco). Total dive time 200min.
I only had about 15m of line left on my reel and told Alan that we had to use one of his reels the next day as the sacrificial reel. He gave me a reel, told me it is a piece of junk and that it always jams. I should have known….
Had a couple of R&Cs that night from my treasure cup. 


Dive 3 – End of Main Level 10 (107m – 8 April 2012)
Down to the Little Door, squeezed trough, hooked a right towards the main level 10 passage. On reaching the main passage we turned left. About 15m further I was surprised, no really, to see a new unexplored passage to my right. I had some mixed feelings: I thought we would be exploring the last bit of level 10 today, but seemingly there are more to see…. 
We pushed on and I was really surprised to see the end of level 10 only about 20 further. Somewhat quicker than I thought. There was some rock fall, with one big rock obscuring the passage. I took the time to pick up the line, (laid by Dave Shimell and Mike Fowler some 12 years ago) as it has gone slack and tied it off tighter. I placed my normal neon orange arrow on the line (I dropped and lost a couple of arrows). We looked over the big bolder and the passage did indeed end there.
Heading back we arrived at the new tunnel (now on my left). Being ahead of schedule we decided to tie off and to go for a sally down the new tunnel. I tied the reel off, swam a meter and it went clunk, what?! I had a look and the line was jammed tight. Well, I thought: whoopsi-daisy and poppycock… yes, those were honestly my exact thoughts. Took my new line cutter out and cut the line. I decided to take a swim down the new passage. We swam for a bit and saw the passage started turning to the left, it clearly was going. It was time to turn and come back another day.
As I got back to the main passage, I decided to add another arrow, marking a jump and making the next tie off (with my reel) quicker. As reached down to attach the additional arrow I saw the end of the line disappear into the dark… I cut the poppycocking line by accident, again. I snatched at the disappearing line, just grabbed the end and made a quick knot (again). In the action I lost my EEZYCUT - I haven’t even paid for it yet, but maybe it is a good thing.
On the way back we missed the turn. When we saw the staircase (going down) we realized our error: wrong way. We turned around and headed out without any further incident…. Well almost, going up the Banana Shaft as I was moaning at Alan and waiving his reel in his face, he grabbed it from me and threw it down the passage. If you find it, you are welcome to have it .
Total dive time 180min.
So a mixed dive, goal achieved but not without fun.

Lesson learned: put your cutter away after use 
Alan did not complain about me silting out the place… maybe because for once he could keep ahead 

Regards Dries

[Dive Africa]

The door at 108 can be seen at sec 17 and 18 of the following video (not taken by me) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sba1WulUpHQ

Here is a nice clip in Komati down to level seven 68m https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=1CaiZczbF0k

[Dive Africa]

Here is a copy of Dave Shilmell's original's 1999 dive report to Aquanaut:

Trip reports posted on the techdiver list
From: "David Shimell (shimell)"
To: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: New End of the Line at Badgat
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 15:45:23 +0100

Jim

This email is a combination of DIR evangelism and a dive report for those
interested in such things. Recall your email recently:

>For the benefit of our sometimes doubtful audience, what effect did your
>rather expensive changeover from strokedom to DIR have on your diving
>experience?

I usually confine my emails to big issues such as cable ties , but it
occurred to me that I had another angle from which to answer to your
question. Here is a personal account of a dive I did at the weekend. The
big boys have done bigger dives, but for me the dive below was one of my
most serious and fun dives to date.

This weekend Greg Maud and myself pushed the end of the line at Badgat,
South Africa. We are both DIR divers and perhaps it was this equipment and
philosophy that helped. Mike Fowler had hoped to "slip away", whilst his
partner Don Shirley was not watching, and join us on the dive.
Unfortunately, over the weekend the South African Free Diving Championships
were being held and so the IANTD Badgat Dive Centre was busy mixing gas for
support divers.

Badgat is a disused and flooded quarry with an extensive and deep cave
system. Water temperatures are around 25 Deg C (77 Deg F) in the shallow
deco stop depth. In the cave, it gets colder but I keep forgetting to check
the temperature. Badgat is an altitude dive being 900m (2,970') above sea
level.

Outside the cave, there is a pit which is 54m (178') deep and a cave system
in various levels: 9m (30'), 18m (60'), 24m (80'), 38m (125'), 48m (158'),
68m (224'), 108m (356') and beyond. The entrance to the cave is at 12m
(40'). After spending the weekends of the last two months exploring the
shallower levels with various dive partners, I wanted to check out the 108m
(356') level.

The dive went something like this:

Descend to the cave opening at 12m (40'), drop to 18m (60') and follow the
permanent line for 130m (429') to the vertical shaft. We allowed 11
minutes for this portion of the dive as there is a restriction to pass
through. The swim through murky water at this level was slow but there was
no rush. We were a few minutes ahead of schedule arriving at the shaft and
hung around to let the clock catch up.

We dropped our 50% deco bottle at the 24m (80') level and dropped down to 36
(119') metres and switched from 35% to our bottom gas 11/59. Our 35% stage
was dropped here. Again, ahead of schedule we hung around for a minute,
starting our descent 14 minutes into the dive. The plan was to reach the
bottom of the shaft at 17 minutes but our descent was slower than expected
and arrived two minutes late at 108 metres (356'), or so. Must improve this
next time.

Visibility in the shaft and deeper sections of the cave was around 40m, so
it was a great sight to see the bottom loom out of the blackness and the
permanent line beckoning to us to follow. As we approached the bottom we
glided into swimming mode and started along the line.

The passageways at this level are roughly 3 metres (10') wide and 2-3 (
7-10') metres high. My primary light illuminated the walls clearly and the
visibility was so good that just blackness loomed in the distance. We swam
at a comfortable yet fast pace and after about 4 minutes reached the end of
the line, 100 m (330') from the shaft. What an impressive sight! To the
left of the main passageway was a large alcove with an opening the size of a
garage door. This opening lead to a straight shaft descending at 45 degrees
down and retaining the proportions of the opening. Indications are that
this inclined shaft goes to 150m (495') plus. However, our plan was to see
if the 108m (356') level ends with a rock slide, as is the case with the
shallower levels, rather than to gratuitously gain depth.

I tied on to the end of the existing line and continued along the
passageway, adding a further 40m (132') to the line, making a total of 140m
(462') from the shaft and 380m (1,254') to the surface. At the new end of
the line, the passageway just went on and on, confirming that it does indeed
extend under the pit above. At this point we hit thirds, so I tied off and
we started the swim back, reaching the main shaft 29 minutes into the dive.
I started deep stops at 70m (119') with a slow ascent between stops until I
reached my first "mandatory" stop at 39m (129'). In total, I added 10
minutes of deep stops to the schedule. Away from the agoraphobic visibility
of the lower levels, the swim through the training murk of the 18m (60')
passageway was slow and relaxing and reminded me of good old Blighty.
(People from the UK say things like this to propagate the myth that UK vis
is poor, thus keeping the excellent wreck diving to themselves!) I combined
both the 18m (60') and 15m (50') stops during this swim.

We did our final deco on O2 hanging at the exit point, with back gas breaks
which I included as deco. Total in water time was 151 minutes.

Equipment-wise, I dived twin 12 litre cylinders of 11/59 and 10 litre stages
with 35% and 50%, my oxygen was in a 7 litre, with a 12 litre safety
available. Sadly, my WKPP scooter which would have been ideal for this dive
is in the UK.

My deco was without problems. Greg was running a more conservative profile
and had to do unplanned additional time at 6 m due to a previous shoulder
problem which resolved itself after his extended decompression.
Contingency gas was available for this. My tables were produced with Abyss
2.02 (125 Algorithm, safety parameters set to zero). Deep stops were not
planned in but executed (added) into the actual profile. 8 minutes of back
gas breaks were counted as part of the deco whilst on O2. The "mandatory"
deco stops suggested by the Abyss were followed and not shortened. Greg
used DECOM for his dive planning and, as mentioned earlier, had a profile
more conservative by 23 minutes.

Thanks to Mike Fowler and George Leonard for mixing the gas at this busy
time. Thanks also to Lo Vingerling for in-water support. Mike
"if-only-I-could-get-the-Halcyon-though-the-green-door" Fowler, was a bit
miffed at not being able to join us, as planned, but this was his most busy
weekend of the year. We originally had planned to do the dive with a stage
of bottom gas to increase our bottom time. However, I must confess that on
the dive of the previous day I found that I had a leaky dry suit and could
not guarantee it would not leak on the day of the "big" dive. I didn't
fancy 3-4 hours being wet in water, so we adjusted our dive plan. Perhaps
we would have got to the end of this level? I only hope I have an
opportunity to find out!

After the dive, I was fortunate enough to I met one of the divers who had
placed the original line three years ago. I'm not sure what equipment they
used but as I understand Heliair (50/50) was used on the dive. This has an
END of 50m. The old line was placed over two dives. Hmmm.

Now the nub of all of this, referring back to the DIR equipment
configuration aspects, is that we adopted a DIR philosophy and added 40%
more line in our first dive. This dive was fun. Although I was excited
during the dive, I remained very relaxed as is illustrated by my RMV which
was just over 13 litres/minute (0.47 CuFt) except for O2 which was
considerably lower. Our equipment and configuration allowed us to enjoy the
dive rather than worrying about extraneous matters or being numbed by
narcosis.

David Shimell
________________________________________
From: "David Shimell (shimell)"
To: techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject: Badgat: Update
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 15:55:43 +0100

All

A few weeks ago I posted a note on my recent dive with Greg Maud at Badgat,
South Africa. Since then the has been extended to the end of the 110m
level. Here is an update of my recent dive with Mike Fowler for those
interested.

On my previous dive on 21 March 1999 the end of the line stood at 140m from
the bottom of the shaft or 380m from the cave entrance. This dive was
planned to be short due to my leaky dry suit. Suit problem resolved, a
longer in water time could now be contemplated.

Unfortunately, my previous dive partner, Greg Maud could not make it but
fortunately Mike Fowler of the Badgat Dive Centre was available to dive.
The objective was to lay line to the end of the at 110m tunnel. To this
end, we planned a maximum of 30 minutes bottom time and carried ample spools
of line. The dive on 3 April 1999 went something like this...

The gasses I used were as follows:

11/59 bottom gas in twin 15 litre cylinders and a 9 litre stage.
19/35 travel and deep deco gas.
35% travel and deco gas.
50%.
O2.

Mike dived CC but also had the following cylinders staged for use only in
case of failure:

35%.
50%.
O2.

For the bottom, Mike also carried an OC stage of 11/59 bottom gas again in
the case of failure.

In addition, we staged deco safeties as follows:

50%.
O2.

Setup divers pre-staged 6 cylinders of deco and safety deco gasses and the
O2 was placed at our point of entry. I travelled in on 35%, 130m along the
primary line at 18m to the "green door" restriction, arriving at the shaft
6+ minutes into the dive. Visibility was a poor 3m due to other divers
spoiling the conditions. We waited for the run time to reach 10 minutes and
descended, dropping past the staged 50%, continuing down to 38m to drop the
35% and pick up my 19/35 gas. We left 38m at 14 minutes on schedule and
descended in excellent vis to 68m where I dropped my 19/35 gas and switched
to my stage of 11/59, 16 minutes into the dive. We reached the bottom of
the shaft a few seconds behind schedule at 18 minutes.

The tunnel at 110m had excellent visibility of about 30-40m and we started a
swim at a good pace (British understatement) following the existing line.
As we reached the inclined shaft on the left, 100m into the tunnel from the
shaft, I hit thirds on my stage and switched to my back gas. (The inclined
tunnel is inclined at about 45 degrees and the size of a garage door and has
yet to be explored.)

We reached the end of our old line and I tied on my spool of line to the
loop I left a few weeks ago. The swim continued. A little further on we
reached a door on the left with a large room the other side. This is
unlikely to go beyond the end of the tunnel but interesting to explore
another time. Very soon we reached the walled out section of the tunnel,
190m from the start of the base of the shaft and 430m from the cave
entrance. This proves that the tunnel extends entirely under the pit above.
The whole length of the tunnel was 2-3m in width and about 2m in height.

We tied off. On the return Mike had a good look into the room now on the
right and later confirmed that it is of reasonable size. Thoughts are that
this could be explored on a subsequent setup dive. After looking at the
included shaft area once again, we reached the shaft 35+ minutes into the
dive. We started deep stops once I reached my deep deco gas of 19/35 at 68
m. Deep stops were about 1 minute every 3 metres. My first "mandatory"
stop was at 45 m and I did about 8 minutes between 68m and 48m, adding a
further minute to each of the 45 and 42m stops. This was mostly because I
am lazy and adding 10 to my run times is easier than adding 8!

We exited the cave together nearly 90 minutes into the dive and swam to the
shot line at the entry point. Drinks were awaiting including a nice warming
soup brought down by our support divers. It must have been a funny sight
watching Mike and myself alternately breath-for-gulp, buddy breathing O2 and
buddy drinking soup. Thank goodness for my pee-valve!

I did 5 minutes of back gas breaks every 20 minutes and counted these as
deco. The schedule for 110m, 18 minutes ABT was as follows:

68-48 1 - deep stop every 3 m - 19/35
45 1+1 - 19/35 (Abyss Mandatory + 1 minute deep stop)
42 1+1 - 19/35 (Abyss Mandatory + 1 minute deep stop)
39 1 - 19/35 (Abyss Mandatory)
36 2 - 35% (Abyss Mandatory)
33 2 - 35% (Abyss Mandatory)
30 2 - 35% (Abyss Mandatory)
27 3 - 35% (Abyss Mandatory)
24 4 - 35% (Abyss Mandatory)
21 5 - 50% (Abyss Mandatory)
18 6 - 50% (Abyss Mandatory)
15 9 - 50% (Abyss Mandatory)
12 12 - 50% (Abyss Mandatory)
9 21 - 50% (Abyss Mandatory)
6 70 - O2 (Abyss Mandatory)

Total RT was 197 minutes on surfacing.

I used Abyss 2.02 (125 algorithm) to calculate the "mandatory" stops which
were not shaved, but back gas breaks were included as deco in the 70
minutes. Interestingly, had I programmed in the deep stops, I would have
had an additional 16 minutes deco to do, which on top of the 10 minutes back
gas breaks would have extended my dive by 26 minutes.

I was amused to get out of the water after 197 minutes, a full 15 minutes
ahead of Mike who was diving constant PPO2 rebreather. However, Mike had
the last laugh when it came to the gas bill. My RMV was a-high-for-me 17 on
the bottom, 11-13 on deco gasses except for O2 which was 7 litres/minute.

I used roughly than half of my available gas, excluding safeties which were
untouched.

I felt fine after the dive apart from being cold (but not so cold as to
shiver) and having a headache which cleared after 2 hours. I think the
headache was due to cold rather than poor flushing of the lungs as I never
get a headache on a dive (until now) and I flush my lungs well despite a low
RMV and 3-4 breaths per minute on deco.

I shall not be able to dive Badgat again for a few weeks as I have a wedding
celebration to go to. I've been trying to get out of it but as it is my
wedding celebration, my wife insists!

David Shimell

[FW]

../I shall not be able to dive Badgat again for a few weeks as I have a wedding
celebration to go to. I've been trying to get out of it but as it is my
wedding celebration, my wife insists!

David Shimell

[Jay]

Nice report!

[Dive Africa]

sorry seemingly the map that I attached did not work that well = this one is good