The following gives a little insight about Greg's life of "living the dream" in the Yucatan and some of his work. Unfortunately Greg's dream was cut short last year. Enjoy...
EXPLORATION DREAM
I have a friend & dive buddy who lives Port Richie, Florida. He tells me each and every time he visits me in Mexico, "You are living The Dream diving and exploring in the Yucatan." I would have to say, I am definitely living my dream and I consider myself extremely fortunate to do so.
(You will find that most cave divers share the same inflated opinion of themselves)
The average diver does the occasional weekend dive while occupying the rest of their leisure time in the comforts of their home reading of the exploits of others. They watch Discovery Channel or National Geographic Explorer, just as I once did. While suffering the commercials, they think to themselves
"That could be meI could be doing that!" I watchedI dreamed!
Now it is me, I do that.
I very proudly joined a very elite group of people that love what they do; they explore the unknown. Very few are the people able to make the following statement "I was the first person on this earth to see this incredible place." I recently found just such an incredible place: a long overlooked, unexplored cave.
If you are a cave diver, Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is the Mecca that you pilgrimage to. The small coastal town of Akumal is the hub of local cave diving exploration. This community has housed or been the base of operations for many cave explorers. Each explorer or team has projects in the depths of the jungle where there are no roads. Having traveled in this jungle, experiencing the great physical effort required just to reach the desired location, has instilled in me an immense amount of respect for those who explored here long before me. I also developed a fondness for the horses that carry the tanks and most of the gear (obnoxious, four legged tick magnets that they are).
Typically, caves in this area flow from deep in the interior of the jungle toward the sea. They are filled with the most pristine and clear water imaginable. Explorers spent countless hours and days seeking new cenotes in the jungle that could further their exploration or maybe start a new one. Many incredible caves have been discovered with miles of passage filled with untouched geological formations.
At the north end of Akumal sits Yal-ku lagoon. Just out the "back door" behind the house. Maybe past explorers were just too exhausted to bother with anything so close to home. Or perhaps the coastal systems lacked the glamour of the jungle; requiring divers to swim through saltwater, low ceilings, silt filled bedding plane and potential zero visibility subject to the tide (all valid reasons I might add). Regardless of why, this cave was left untouched for all of these years, as if waiting for me!
I thought it best to work in reverse, by starting in the lagoon at the fresh water outflow and following the water inland. Although not the most novel of ideas, it has worked out quite well. Yal-Ku lagoon is the recipient of a sizable outflow of freshwater, the vast majority delivered at low tide, mixing with the already present saltwater. With no known flowing system of cave across the highway I had no real destination except to follow the flow. My objective became at that point, no more than to follow where ever the cave cared to lead me. Swimming against the low tide outflow of water, I found a passage that runs parallel to the shoreline and just west of the coastal road. This was definitely not the normal cave tunnel, which I had become so accustomed to swimming through. At low tide I could easily follow the flow of freshwater to the limits of my air supply with no end in sight. The passage led through several restrictions and ended at a silt-filled collapse. Survey data later proved this to be very close to the roadbed at the north end of Yal-Ku lagoon. This would become one of many disappointing dead ends. Following the same passage south, I drifted passed many promising yet still unexplored leads. Dropping down into the openings in the tunnel floor, I passed through that not so illusive halocline to depths varying between 80 and 130 feet.
Naturally, this has greatly interested the local geologist Dr. Charles Shaw of the Ecology Center in Akumal. Dr. Shaw has analyzed air and satellite photos of this area for many years, basing several geological hypotheses on the presence of this series of coastal fractures running parallel to the shore. Dr. Shaw never imagined how deep the fractures would run this close to the ocean.
The farther my explorations took me away from the lagoon exit, the more changes I encountered in the appearance of the cave. I was no longer finding the array of sponges, sea creatures, and other strange life that had been so prevalent near the lagoon. The cave transformed into a flat bedding plane of eroded phreatic tubes, with silt and percolation present in a quantity I had never before encountered in any inland cave system. These conditions quickly prompted a reevaluation of my tie off practices and the distances in between them.
(If you are not some what adaptable you are more likely to become extinct prematurely.)
The next significant find was the skeletal remains of several large sea turtles. The turtle remains were found in a location that, due to obvious size limitations, was not accessible via swimming from Yal-Ku lagoon. To date, 15 skeletons have been discovered in this section of cave. This system basically named itself, Aak Kimin, "dead turtle" in Mayan.
Just minutes into a dive, attempting to connect the turtle cemetery section to another area of the system, I had to turn. The passage before me had shrunk down to side mount country in a hurry. Discouraged, I returned to the main chamber. This is the same chamber that I now use as my primary entrance and staging area. On a whim, I dropped through a crack in the primary floor to take another look at the large sea turtle skeleton 45 feet below. Taking a passing look at the turtle shell resting there, I continued along the rubble pile that I thought to be the floor. It was not the floor! Nor was it anywhere near it by a long shot. I dropped beneath the collapse; I had just found the entrance to the largest and most impressive fracture yet. This area actually forms a huge hallway underground with sheer walls and various rubble pile restrictions. These restrictions make a false floor covered in silt from above. Some time in Planet Earth's distant past, the level of the ocean has been at least 200 ft. below its current level, as there are drip formations present here at that depth.
Presently, the main guideline running through this section of Aak Kimin begins at 75 feet then drops to and travels at an average of 130 140 feet. The various floors, false and otherwise, hang beneath you along this hallway and vary from 150 to 180 feet. At 180 feet lies what I believe to be a final floor. It continues sloping to a depth of 220 feet with a jump-line running to that very last tie-off. There is an approximated 10 feet of silt on the floor, and the walls actually shear off to the sides, disappearing into the mounds of sediment. Aak Kimin is currently recognized by the QRSS as the third deepest cenote in the state of Quintanna Roo, and the only deep coastal site in the area. With numerous leads remaining, I will continue to explore and survey until I am too damn old for this crap.
I would like to personally thank all of those amazing people who explored so many incredible places, leaving behind their line and markers for others like me to follow.
(I also thank youfor not looking too close behind your house as I was no longer content with just following).
You never know where your dreams may lead youfollow one of yours and see for yourself.I should now act as a responsible person leaving you with a friendly warning. Be very careful what you wish foryou just might get it.
(I did and I would not trade a single moment of it for anything else in this world).
G. L. Brown
Cave diver, Explorer, Cartographer, Photographer, Day Dreamer
