Everything started out fine and we got some great shots just swimming in the spring. We like to get to the spring by about 8h15 because then it's empty of people and nice and quiet. A group of vultures come to roost at the spring at night, and we get there early enough to find them decorating the trees, and pavilion roofs, and lifeguard chairs.
Then we kitted up and went to start diving. We already have a lot of kit on, adding strobes and a huge camera makes things that step more difficult to handle. So the plan was that Kev would hold the camera, extra strobe and my scooter and I would reel in to the main line, then I'd pick up the strobe and scooter and we'd start taking photos. We had used this reel yesterday and before diving I looked at it, saw it was loose and loopy, but decided that the distance was short enough that I could reel out without getting it tangled. This is always a bad choice to make. Sure enough after the second tie-off it got tangled, no fixing the loose mess, I went up to fetch a new reel and Kev stayed down to start taking pics at the entrance.
All good still, I collected another reel from the car, jumped back in and repeated laying the line into the cave. Kev was there snapping away. Once down into the cavern, I stopped to turn on my torch and Kev called me, so I turned to him and he was pointing and saying scooter. I indicated he must have the scooter and then it hit me, he was trying to tell me that he'd left the scooter here where I was tying off and it was nowhere to be seen. My whole body flushed with panic. I immediately tied down the reel and started moving out of the cave searching. I went far into the spring along the flow but saw nothing. Nooooooooooo. Kev came out and started searching the spring area outside and asking the lifeguards who hadn't seen anything. I dived back in and scoured the entrance and the cavern itself ... nothing. The sinking feeling was horrible.
The rest of the day was spent hunting every nook and cranny of the spring. Kev got help from Edd and Cave Adventurers and they motor-boated around the outside of the spring in the pond. We were convinced it wasn't outside, but where could it be inside? Then Kev dived again and thought he saw something far into a narrow crevice. Edd to the rescue with his side-mount setup and huge amount of diving experience. He dived in and started swimming through cracks and crevices that Kev and I could never fit through.15min passed, and then, he found it! It had taken a little journey through a siphon and eventually popped out again and Edd spotted it sitting high up on a shelf. Thank goodness!
Relieved and fairly shaken, Kev and I packed up. We had arrived at the spring at 8h15 and we left at 15h00. We must have searched for 5 hours! Thanks so much to Edd and Bobby and Frank and Ben for helping us find it! Without them I would have been Minnus-less after just a few dives.
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