Wonders of the gat at Wondergat!

It was with much trepidation that a group of us found ourselves at Wondergat. After all the stories about how dangerous it is, together with Shona’s infamous dive where she attempted to return to the shore with nothing, minimal sleep and a briefing lecture, I think Shona and I were ready to run!
But was it amazing – WOW!
It started VERY early on Saturday – some mad person/people decided that it would be a good idea to leave Jo’burg at 4am which meant getting up at 3 so we could all get to designated departure point, repack cars (any idea how much space diving stuff + camping stuff takes up?) etc and leave by 4. Except that not only were we late, but some of the mad individuals who decided 4 was a good idea (Paolop!) were very much later! Lots of coffee needed, so much so that we waited outside a Wimpy in Swartruggens for 20mins to get some – watered down Ricoffy would be a good description. So another coffee stop was required in Zeerust – watered down Nescafe… Mmm – not starting well!
But eventually we got to Wondies and set up camp. The desired power nap didn’t happen as need to do dive planning. And have an intro to the site - it is an advanced diving only site, formed by a natural sinkhole, near Mafikeng. It is the deepest natural hole in South Africa, with the shallowest part of the bottom at about 30m and a huge cave on one side extending much further and much deeper and where most of the fatalities have occurred. As it is dolomite that has been eroded over time, and due to stromatolites, the walls of the hole are amazing, with lots of nooks and crannies hiding the most amazing little creatures. The first dive was great – just an orientation at about 10 – 15m around the edge of the gat… We saw the wagon wheels (thought to be remains of stromatolites) and some living stromatolites (look like fluffy cottage cheese disks with a wavy surface) and an amazing variety of fish. Then it was back for lunch, filling of cylinders, finishing setting up camp, including putting up hammocks (thanks Peter!) and back into the water for our 30m skills dive.
And what a dive – any other attempt by Shona to have a shocking dive pales in comparison to this one! We went down to “The Bell” at about 30m to do skills – mask removal, DV (the tube that takes the air from the cylinder to your mouth) retrieval, buddy breathing if there was time… So Hardy (the awesomest instructor ever!) shows us how to do it, and Shona duly tries. Mask off = fine, DV out = fine, DV retrieved = fine, purge DV to put back in mouth (water goes into it) = problem. The 2nd stage/Octo (the bit that goes in your mouth) jams. No problem, Shona calmly reaches for her 2nd Octo – except that it starts free flowing, then stopping. So basically an out of air emergency at 30m. Not fun. But both Hardy and Shona were so calm (or appeared it anyway!) and Hardy quickly gave Shona his 2nd Octo (they are meant for buddy breathing so) and dive is terminated with an emergency ascent! Although scary at the time, it was an awesome dive to see how good our training at WUC is and that we can handle any emergency. And Shona even came up wanting to go down again! We blame it on Bastjin - he was our good luck symbol on Saturday and that was the only dive he wasn't with us!
Then it was night dive time with a full moon! It was almost brighter than during the day and the night life was amazing! Apart from sea dives, it honestly was one of the best dives ever! We all came up on such a high and with a lovely fire waiting once we were out of wetsuits, we sat and chatted (awesome chats and hilarious laughs – thanks especially Peter and Hardy) and drank wine until we suddenly realized it was 2am. After the fire and warmth of the conversation and presence of good friends, bed seemed colder than ever – it was freezing! But Shona managed to convince Paolop to bring us proper coffee (have to camp in style!) in bed!
Sunday was an awesomely warm day so we soon warmed up and were back in the water for skills again and some buddy breathing. This after some dive planning well explained by Francois. All went well at 30m this time (thank goodness), except that I didn’t get to do my skills. We came up to 10m and did some “blind” (as there are no reference points) keeping buoyancy and swimming at the same level and then came up. The comments on the surface (for people that have never been married, and are involved with others, Shona and Chris, you sure get divorced often - what about 3 times in 2 days?). Huge laughs on the surface and I still had to go down to do buddy breathing, but only at 8m so I think I got lucky. Thank goodness as I was still laughing and might have battled deeper!
Then it was packing up time – uuugghhh! I really didn’t want the weekend to end and the thought of driving back wasn’t great, so thanks Peter (again!) for leading the way!
Overall – “wonder”ful weekend with “wonder”ful people!
Very few pics – but check how beautiful the gat is:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lancasterjenny/WondersOfWondergat?authkey=Gv1sRgCMCNkICmtc2_pQE#