Serbia 2011 Cavebase and DIR-Austria
Participants Cavebase: Peter Gärtner, Darko Petkovic, Manu Schoch
Participants DIR-Austria: Clemens Schützenhofer, Oliver Ferner-Prantner
Guest: Tomasz Stachura
We had planned a project in Serbia also for the year 2011 to continue the efforts of the last year. It should be again a joint project with members of Cavebase and DIR-Austria, as a guest we had invited Tomasz from Santi. We got to know him personally at the boat show and talked about whether he would like to accompany a project with us. With Oliver and Clemenzo from DIR-Austria, we have maintained a friendly relationship for several years, so this was a good idea for everyone.
03.10.11 Arrival
For the common journey through Austria and Hungary we met with our Austrian friends near Vienna and drove to the border Hungary - Serbia, where we then collected Tomasz.
Crossing this external EU border is always a challenge and adventure at the same time. This time it took us less than 2 hours to pass - record breaking. But without Darko's connections and the friendly support of the city of NIS we would have had greater difficulties. After the border we first stopped and had a coffee.
From here on we had another 4 hours of driving ahead of us. Manu changed cars and kept Tomasz company for the drive through the night. First destination was the area around NIS. There we chose the same accommodation in Niska Banja as the last two times. But before that we had a Serbian kebab. In Niska Banja Bane was already waiting for us with a welcome drink (slibovitz.)
04.10.11 NIS
After clearly too little sleep, we first enjoyed a Serbian breakfast with all kinds of homemade baked goods. The day was full of appointments and so we left soon.
First we had an appointment at the city hall, a small reception with a press conference. We met our old acquaintances from the geologists / speologists scene and also immediately agreed on a few excursions for the next 2 days.
But before we went to the caves, we urgently needed a culinary refreshment, Balkan plate in a roll.
Our first destination was an already known location near Cerjanska pecina. A few people from the town had enlarged the entrance for us, cleared away a few stones and made a pumping test. Overall, this entrance looked quite promising. Peter slipped into his dry suit and wanted to have a look with small equipment. With D7 on his back and secured with climbing rope, he started digging and managed a few meters. With the loamy ground, the visibility was quickly at "0". Unfortunately, the slope in the entry area quickly became unstable and so we decided to stop digging for the time being. But we agreed to revisit the site the next day to see how quickly the sediment was settling and when we could expect diveable conditions again.
During the last visit we had visited a second cave nearby, this one was next on the program. For this we had to cross a stream and overcome a few meters of dry section. And there we were again at the mud slide. The water was crystal clear. But one wrong step and a few pieces of clay came loose and the view was suddenly destroyed. In the water two iron bars could be seen, a sign that other divers / explorers have already thought about how to dive / explore this cave. For us, today's discovery tour ended here.
We made an appointment for the evening with Mrs. Dragana Michalowic at the Italian restaurant, she was kind enough to organize a bus for the trip to the city.
05.10.11 NIS
For Darko, Peter and Manu the alarm clock rang a little earlier today. The three of them let themselves be carried away to an interview on breakfast television. Back at the accommodation we packed the cars, settled the bill and said goodbye to our friends in Niska Banja. The first thing we wanted to do was to take another look at the position from the day before. As expected, the visibility was still very poor, a little better, but far from the conditions before our digging attempt. One thing became clear to us, for further attempts this cave needs a few days break in between. We spent the afternoon doing a little scouting.
As a farewell we distributed our T-shirts (Tomasz had brought them this time), we also got a small souvenir of the city of Nis, a group photo with all of us and we were already on our way to our next location. It went to Krepoljin to our well-known trout farm. Here a small Balkan platter was already waiting for us. Along the way we discussed the schedule for the next two days, one day for the set up and one day for the push dive and then clean up.
06.10.11 Krepoljin Krupajsko Vrelo (Trout Farm)
In the best weather all started euphorically with the preparations. Now it was time to bring all the equipment to the cave pool. A few stages and pensioner tables came first, as well as the small equipment for the set-up dives. Peter and Darko were the first to jump into the water to check the conditions and set up the line from the pool to the main line. In the meantime we brought scooter, heater tube and more stages and double equipment to the pool.
The first information was sobering, the visibility was in the dived area maximum 3m, no dream distances, but also not impossible.
Before the next team went into the water, we first dragged the habitat together into the cave pool.
Immediately afterwards Tomasz and Manu prepared for the deep support. They should check the line situation in the further course of the cave, if necessary mend the line and deposit a few stages in the shaft. On 21m the first decostages were deposited, on 57m the deep decogas as well as a heating tube for Oliver were deposited. The deep bottom gases were to be placed at about 80m. Fully packed with the stages for Clemenzo and Oliver and of course their own tanks, the team dove down. The line was intact everywhere and so the two reached the shaft quickly. At 21m there is a small ledge in the rock face, ideal to put the bottles in. As they continue, it gets trickier and trickier. The shaft is almost vertical, as well as the line runs almost vertically with few tie offs. So we attached slings / leashes in the wall to clip the bottles in. On the way back we met Clemenzo and Oliver at 21m. To groove in they brought in the 75m gas and put it down at 36m. After 2 hours the deep support team was out again.
The divers to the habitat were just getting ready. For most of them it was the first experience to place a habitat. The big dive did not make a habitat mandatory, but it undoubtedly increases the comfort and deco quality. And so we wanted to take the opportunity. With mean visibility of 2m no suitable place could be found, after several attempts we broke off. For all a good experience.
Tomasz used the day for extensive photo documentation above and under water.
07.10.11 Krepoljin Krupajsko Vrelo (Trout Farm)
Hmmmm, the day started for Oliver and Clemenzo with enough carbohydrates, such a pasta breakfast always takes some getting used to. But this day was different from the days before. You could literally feel the tension in the air. Everyone worked with concentration. The schedule was discussed once again in detail, the timetable was fixed on the whiteboard. Tomacz went into the water earlier and waited for the divers under water to take some photos.
Around 11:00 Oliver and Clemenzo dived down.
For the rest of the team, the cleanup work was already starting. Salvaging the habitat was much easier than expected thanks to three lifting bags. Hardly back the team Darko and Manu had to enter the water again. They had the task to take the no longer needed bottles from Oliver and Clemenzo at about 36m. To their astonishment they met the two (keeping to the schedule) already at 17m in the shaft. They took the no longer needed bottles, asked for an "OK" and brought everything outside.
Something seemed to have happened, but both were fine, that was the most important thing. Actually, we wanted to do a few more surveys, but considering the tight schedule we decided to do a quick clean up.
It took two more shorter dives by the support team and with the last deco minutes the cave was practically cleaned up. Tomasz accompanied the diving teams the whole day in the shallow part with his camera, despite bad visibility and difficult conditions our venture could be documented quite well. Many thanks at this point!
Oliver and Clemenzo came out of the water quite exhausted and disappointed. They had already reached the end of the line at 123m, tied in the reel for line extension and wanted to start further exploration of the cave. However, a material failure at depth unfortunately forced the team to abort the dive. This reduced the planned bottom time to 5 minutes and the total dive time from 6 hours to 4.5 hours.During the ascent, the two had recorded some survey data in the shaft. To relax and to switch off, the two jumped into the pool with thermal water.
Infectious activity spread among all of them. The last warm rays of the sun and the daylight had to be used to pack the cars.
We ended the evening with a Balkan plate, Pivo and beautiful pictures from Tomek's camera.
08.10.11 Departure
Plans are there to be modified according to the situation. Our planned early departure failed already because of the opening hours of the police station, where we had to sign out again. So, after completing all the formalities, we set off at about 9:00 on the rainy road towards home.
For the crossing Serbia - Hungary (EU) we had to switch to another / smaller border station "due to dust". The passage went surprisingly fast. We had finally arrived in the EU again. From here on we went quickly towards Budapest, where we finally separated and changed to the original constellation of vehicle occupation.
The last 1000km did not want to pass, heavy rain and traffic jams on Germany's highways gave us the rest. Arrival after 18h drive at 3am.
In this sense,
Your Cavebase
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