The diver behind the camera

Speleological video dive in Kalimba, challenging one's buoyancy skills, sinus equalization, body positioning and camera handling technique.

Cave crawling

After three long days of room rest, another cave dive at last. Not just in any cenote, this time we went to my favorite: Kalimba. Upon entering & exiting the dry cavern to check the entrance pool I got tapped upon the shoulder by two bats, which I took for a good omen.

With me again to record the action: my tiny CamOne infinity in its original DiveBox, its optics now turned about 95° counter-clockwise for a small lets-try-it change, but I don't think its better than 90°?


The CamOne infinity, snuggly fitted in its DiveBox, was mounted on a Sea&Sea tray together with two TillyTec LED 2000 VIDEO lights.

Richie led for 50' into darkness, going left at the T, before I gave the turn-around sign with still more than 2/3 left of my nitrox mix, and headed back towards daylight. This shallow cave section, part of Sistema Sac Actun, gets tight here and there, requiring some finger crawling and precise maneuvering to get one's body & tanks positioned as required to fit through the various restrictions. Cozy indeed. I like!

Kalimba

What can I say... yet another dive in Kalimba indeed. Longer and further than ever before, meaning I had to restrain myself from shooting so as to be able to reach our target area, a fantastic 45' swim away from the entrance, allowing for about 5' of sightseeing before having to turn around again. Total bottom time: 2h. Remaining air pressure: 55bar (from 210). Raw footage: 894MB.

Kalimba

Today my enjoyment at diving my favorite cenote was a bit hampered by less than perfect buoyancy control and thus less than optimal weightlessness, resulting in a rather bumpy dive. To my happy surprise though, I still managed, in my humble opinion, to take some pretty good cave crawling footage :o)

Kalimba

Another great dive in Kalimba, this time involving one jump and one T, both times to the right. A 102' underwater trip of eyes-wide-open speleological pleasure. Mind you, though wonderfully decorated this system is very fragile and often restrictive, requiring perfect buoyancy control and careful crawling through various passages. Meaning should anything go wrong you'll need more than just a cool head to get out again. 50' into the cave is a long way back indeed. But then, nothing like a bit of risk awareness to keep a clear focus and sharp senses.

Kalimba

Kalimba is an amazing wonder of underwater speleology at its best, low ceilinged and often restrictive, it forces one to get close to its fragile beauty. Everywhere you look, its petrified past stares back at you. I could make a whole movie here.

[ entrance fee: 100 Pesos ]

Cave dive in Kalimba

It's late afternoon when we finally head out for a second dive. Hannes has some takes in mind he wants to try out. Attila, Aktun's current instructor & guide, and me join in as 'actors' and wannabe 'underwater movie makers'.

Again we stick to the main line to keep it simple. Hannes directs the dive in. Stopping us to position himself before signalling us to perform the scene. On the way back, first Attila then I get to handle Hannes video camera to try out some more takes. Quite a lot of fun actually. And for a first try the results are not too bad. At least Hannes got some footage with himself in it now. Stalagmites are great of course, but a diver in the picture always adds some perspective and a sense of dimensions.

Kalimba (entrance: 100 Pesos) is a low cave system with some tight vertical passages, ideal for photo and video shoots. But also a very fragile environment requiring a lot of caution and perfect buoyancy control. It's located along the road to Coba, and connected to Grand cenote. Bottom time 84'. After which I'm just wiped out. Two long task loaded cave dives in a day was a bit too much too soon for me. So tomorrow I'll be taking a day off...

Cenote Kalimba

Kalimba is a dry holy cavern, with a small altar to one side. A small shallow pool inside gives access to a whole other spiritual world. The underwater chambers and passages are low ceilinged but beautifully decorated with fields of fragile stalactites.


This is cave crawling at its best, with a couple of narrow restrictions requiring some careful maneuvering to squeeze through. As in most caves, several jumps can be made to explore interesting and less traveled side passages.


The Kalimba system connects to the Sac Aktun system, allowing a great traverse dive from one to the other. That is, if you know the way and have done the necessary preparatory work.