I loved the Little Lulu stories, where she would fantasize that her bedroom rug would turn into a pool of water, and she could dive down into the center of the world.
~ Lynn Johnson ~
One last dive and I am on the road. My car looks like a dive shop exploded in it and the non-ending wetness is beginning to take on a life of its own. I guess it is time and I am ready.
One last dive at Ginnie Springs and I will head back. Jack has offered to join me once more and I appreciate his patience and his advice. I will end the trip as I started it with a left post leak. This time it is caught before I get in the water and a new O ring puts things right again.
Our plan is to swim the main line to the Roller Coaster Tunnel and jump off there and travel up to the jump back to the main line. I have not been in this section of the cave yet and look forward to it.
Coming through the eye, I once more have spots of my line catching my tank. My practice was sans O2 bottle and I will need to change that. We make our way up to the ceiling in the Gallery and pass over the Catacombs and through the Lips. Past the Bone Room Jump and the Hill 400 and on by the Mud Tunnels.
The cave is slowly getting blacker, the farther back I go. I try to imagine it as it was before, layer after layer of black on black, limestone covered in the dark rich color of goethite and holes worn through from the waters flow making patterns that would play in the light. How quickly that all changed and how amazing the difference below the river from that that above it.
At the Roller Coaster I make the jump and lead into a tunnel that earns its name with the rolling floor and changing scenery. There is so much to see as I look about. I will need to come again to take it all in.
Jack did a tremendous job of describing the changes that would occur in the tunnel and how to recognize each jump and landmark. Progressive penetration, a wreck diving term we happened to discuss at dinner the night before is just as useful here in the caves. Each dive now I am making my way a little farther back, and each dive I am familiarizing myself with the cave more and more. Dump air here, stay high and left, right up ahead, go heavy, start tapping in, fins up, right to the Bone Room, left to the Hill 400, tall and narrow, low and wide and so it goes. On and on, to places I have not been and sights I have not seen.
Back out to the sandy floor with the lone rock center stage; there is some deco to be done and we spend the time rewinding my reel. Up to the river floor and the darting fish and the clear blue water.
A little bit gets added each time I come. People, places, experiences. Little Lulu was right. There are places where the river bottom opens up and you can dive down into the center of the world, a world filled with water and amazing sights to behold. Things to learn and stories to be told.