Bue Marino
By Tom Felden
Travelling to Sardegna with the family is always fun. Diving some WWII wrecks in the south is too, but what makes this island really interesting is its caves. I made arrangements with Toddy, one of the owners of Protec Sardinia, for a cave diving trip and since I only had one shot at diving on this trip to the island, we planned a dive in Blue Marino. This is a beautiful decorated underwater cave ending in a sump which is even more decorated.
Unfortunately most of the caves are in the northeast and we were staying in the south so I had to get up very early. The camera setup and the rest of my equipment was already in the car so I started after a short wakeup shower at 4 am. The trip was full of potholes, ups and downs, curves every motor biker would like to ride, sheep crossing the road, and a single gut “accompanying” me on the last serpentines down to the shore as I arrived in Cala Gonone four hours later. Just in time. Toddy is already sitting on the porch of the hotel.
“Hi Tom, come on, take a latte macchiato with us. It’s a good way to start the day.” Start the day?! But I didn’t mind and took a seat. Toddy introduced me to his staff Patrick and Bruno, who have been cave diving here with him for some years now. Then he told me something about his current projects and a bit about the different caves on the island and their histories.
Back in the 1960s, divers of the Italian Navy were the first to dive Bue Marino. Later, in the 1970s, Ferri Richi from Italy and Jochen Hasenmayer from Germany explored systems like Grotta de Fico, Sa Oche, Su Bentu and others on the island. They were followed by French and British cave divers who pushed Cala Luna, the system Su Guanu and Su Gologne beyond a depth of 200 feet. Today more than 3,000 caves are known. Toddy and his team frequently dive five systems: Utopia, Cala Luna, Del Fico, Bel Torrente and Bue Marino. Some of them are shallow, others deep, and some with giant tunnels and highly decorated sumps. The dry cave of Bue Marino is open for visitors to view the stalactite formations, but we are going to dive the first part of this cave, which is several kilometers long and has not been explored to the end.
We finished our coffees and then I took a look at the facility and picked up the tanks. After the briefing it was time to load our gear into the old Land Rover and Patrick took us down to the old port. There we put everything into the inflatable and off we went. Powered by a 200-horsepower outboard, it was a fast ride down the coast. The cliffs looked like a Swiss cheese, lots of caverns and cave entrances all the way. Some entrances are above water level and can be visited by foot, but most of them are too remote for easy access.
After a 20-minute ride, we arrived at Bue Marino. The cavern and the first chamber of this cave could be visited by foot. It is here where Toddy had to check our group in. The entrance for cave divers lies at the wall of a large dry cavern. Here we threw all our equipment over board and Toddy anchored the boat outside of the cavern. We descended through a small duck under and ascended in a large room where old wooden steps for tourists still can be found.
After crossing this room we reached the entrance of the cave behind a small bridge. The maximum depth in the entrance is 45ft. There is a halocline with very milky water we had to swim through for the first fifteen minutes. Suddenly it sounded as if something in my system was leaking as I heard bubbles. I gave a signal to Bruno and he checked my rig finding nothing. Everything was fine. Must have been the bubbles hitting the uneven ceiling that made those sounds.
The water was still milky, but the first formations of flowstone could be seen on the walls. I took the first pictures because I didn´t know what was still to come. The cave got more shallow and really big. Toddy, the guide, was leading and Bruno was behind me. I could see the lights of the second team behind us like needles, darting from wall to wall, trying not to miss a single spot. Toddy signaled me with his light where the most interesting formations were. We changed position to get some good stills of the scene and moved on to the next spot. I took picture after picture.
The water cleared up as we left the halocline and the scene was breathtaking. Stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone wherever you looked. There was almost no flow and after 45 minutes we surfaced in the first room. Here is where I realized that my four-gigabyte chip might be not sufficient to take home all the impressions. After all, Toddy had told me about the formations in the first sump and that they would be worth some pics as well. I tried to cut it down to the best formations, but my right index finger pushed the button again and again.
Twenty minutes later we surfaced in another hall. Here Toddy explained that the dry part of the cave wasn’t far and that we were straight in front of the restriction, where flowstones from both walls almost touch. The distance between the walls wasn’t more than two feet and it wasn’t easy to pass without touching either wall. Of course everybody wanted to get a picture when passing this restriction so I had to go first. A couple of shots later everybody was through and we went on to the sump.
Toddy dove through a small tunnel to reach the section behind a hill we had to climb. There we took some over/under pictures of the cave. After that I had to take my camera out of the housing, because it would have been impossible to walk and climb through this part of the cave with heavy gear. The ground was very slippery in the first part and we had to watch our steps. The hall we entered next was at least 60 feet high and highly decorated. Looking at the counter on my camera I realized that I have to get rid of some pics I took to be able to shoot better ones here.
Parts of the cave floor were covered with fine sand, but most of it is solid rock. In a line we walked below flowstones which looked like frozen water splashing down a slope. For the others it looked funny, but it’s not that easy to swim through a pool in a drysuit, trying to keep your camera out of the water. Moving on we had to climb rocks using ropes and crawl through tight places. The scene changed with every new section of the cave. From giant stalagmites to ceilings covered with straw-like stalactites in all colors from white to dark brown, it was breathtaking.
Finally we reached a pool with very steep banks and this was the point where I had to “call the dive”. There was no chance to cross this pool without flooding the camera. Everyone agreed and after three hours in the dry cave we geared up to start our dive out. The second team left first since I wanted to take some more pics in the small tunnel. I could have stayed there forever, but now my light quit firing. Work done; time to go. After a long swim of 70 minutes, we reached the cavern zone again. Exhausted, I took off my gear and climbed the ladder to our boat. On our ride back I realized that this was one of my best dives ever and that I had to come back to see what lies behind this pool as Toddy told me there was more diveable cave behind this sump.
After a long debriefing and downloading my pics for my friends, I started my car. It was well past midnight when I hit the sack, still overwhelmed by the impressions of this beautiful cave.