Utopia Exploration caving project 2019

On Thursday, 25 July, at 23.00 he dived deep into the “Utopia” cave system, beginning this year’s exploration of the cave. All preparations prior to the dive were a complete success and after carrying out the appropriate procedures “Toddy” set off to explore the unexplored section.

“As I passed the habitat that night, I felt fantastic knowing that this would be my home in the morning when I returned from my dive. After reaching a depth of about 30m, I rechecked my duplicated CCR, checked all the parameters and all the equipment to make sure everything was in order. I then added gas in my Seacraft GHOST scooter and started my journey. I entered the cave and really enjoyed this time just for myself.” – wrote Thorsten “Toddy” Wälde on his return

Ahead of him were 5 km of unexplored corridors, waiting for their discoverers. After swimming about 2.6 km, which took 50 minutes, the depth drops to 80 m. Moving forward, the cave gradually becomes shallower, at 70 m, then at 60 m, and then has a rather difficult profile as the depth often varies from 60 to 12 metres. After about 2 hours you reach the last shaft, where the depth reaches 118 m.

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This is where Wälde reached together with Rick Stanton in 2015. Now he moved on, railing another section of the cave. Swimming for another 200m, the depth decreased, first to 113m and then to 101m. At this point the passage began to narrow rapidly and the diver realised that this was the end of the road and that the deep spur was not a continuation of the cave.

After about 7h he returned to the habitat and began decompression. On 26 July at 10.35 he left his safe haven and headed for the surface where the entire surface team was waiting for him. We will soon find out more about the progress of the ongoing Utopia Exploration project.

Source: Protec Sardinia

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