Coming up, Jonathan and Todd explore a super small cave!
It’s a claustrophobic’s nightmare!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
It’s a beautiful day on Merritt’s Mill Pond.
Located in Marianna, Florida, just west of Tallahassee, this small man-made lake contains
entrances to seven different caves!
Today, Cameraman Todd, Zach-of-all-Trades and I are looking for one of the smallest
caves on the pond.
We rented a pontoon boat to explore as many of the caves as we can manage in our short
visit.
We head north from our rental house in search of Shangri-La cave.
It is easy to find because of the crystal clear water surrounding the entrance.
We pull our boat gently into the shallow water near shore.
There’s a small metal post to tie off the boat.
I’ll lasso…a little more!
That one’s on.
Next to us, clear water flows strongly from this spring.
It’s the kind of inviting water that cave divers crave.
We got some pointers from local instructor Mehdi Zinetti, so we know this is going to
be a very tight cave, which sounds fun.
With this in mind, we suit up for some adventure.
We have a quick peek inside, so can we figure out our plan.
We have a short chat and decide to bring only GoPro cameras, because our regular cameras
are too big for this cave!
….the main line, but I couldn’t see where the main line really began.
At last, we begin the dive, with Todd leading the way.
If you think the entrance looks small, you haven’t seen anything yet.
We fight our way in, against the flow, and discover its a pretty spacious cavern zone.
We have only a single video light to keep the GoPro rigs small.
I follow Todd into the cave while he ties off our reel.
Heading further into the cave, we quickly arrive at a tiny restriction going down into
the floor, and that’s the only way to proceed, so Todd pushes on down.
It’s a tighter squeeze than it looks.
Once I get down in there, I can see the line, but there doesn’t appear to be any easy
way to follow it.
The ceiling and the floor are so close together.
I’m wondering if I will even fit.
From behind Todd, I can see the problem.
Man, this is one tiny cave.
Todd picks the biggest opening and starts heading that way.
There is literally just enough room to squirm through.
Up ahead, Todd follows the main line.
We expected the cave to open up once we got through the first restriction.
And it has, but not very much.
I’m hanging back far enough that if we need to turn around, we won’t be kicking each
other too much.
Thankfully, the floor of the cave is not super silty, and the silt we do manage to kick up
is being washed away quickly in the flow of water.
Todd continues his slow progression upstream into the cave.
I have it a little easier because I’m following, but I have worse visibility being downstream.
Someone has laid line in here, so we know people can fit.
But Mehdi had said that in order to go further you would have to remove both tanks.
And it looks like we have reached that point.
Because I’m behind, I do a very clumsy turn around and begin leading the way out.
I’m turning around as well, but there isn’t much space!
Soon we are both turned around and heading out.
At last we claw our way back to the hole in the floor and emerge back into the cavern.
As much as we enjoyed that little adventure, I think we are both glad to be back into a
space large enough swim.
In 5 minutes, all the silt we kicked up will be totally gone.
It’s time to head back up into the light.
Since we never exceeded 25 feet, we don’t even have to do a safety stop.
Oh man!
That was…that restriction at the end where I turned, I don’t think I could fit through
without taking a tank off.
You know it looked bigger inside than it was.
And even as I went further as far as I could see into that next area, it was the same low
ceiling and mud.
But you know I tried that second time, trying to get through, and it’s like it’s just,
like I have to take a tank off it’s just not quite wide enough.
Or I have to stop eating the pizza.
Yeah one or the other!
Shangri-La is one of the smallest caves in Merritt’s Mill Pond.
It’s not deep and it doesn’t go very far.
But it’s an incredible dive for adventurous sidemount cave divers.
Meanwhile we have many other caves to explore in this extraordinary pond, and the Blue World.
Hey Everyone!
Have you subscribed to our extras Channel BlueWorld_plus?
It’s full of great behind-the-scenes and additional fun content!
Check it out now!