CAVE DIVING EXPLORATION
Cave Diving Exploration is the essence of our sport, that’s why we, as passionate cave divers, train and dedicate our life to the activity. All the history of Sulawesi Dive Trek comes from the passion for exploration. And now, we want to share this passion with you.
It all started in 2016 when we wanted to go on a cave diving trip in Indonesia. We searched all over the Internet and found very few information about cave diving in the Timor area. We thought it was impossible for such a big country not to have caves. We started looking at geological maps and shortlisted a few potential targets that could hide caves underground. We turned our attention to South-East Sulawesi following the recommendations of fellow cave divers that briefly visited the place few years ago.
We arrived in Bau-bau and met the local diving community that shared with us the informations they had and helped us find caves. We found around 50 caves only in the Bau-Bau area, before moving to Wakatobi. Once again thanks to local divers, we managed to find many caves in Wangi-wangi and Tomia : we were hooked up!
Since then we’ve not stopped exploring the region, extending our explorations to Pulau Muna and the rest of the province, training local divers along the way. Now in 2019, the dynamic is still raising , more explorations are still going. We have extended our scope to Papua and Sumatera. We’re planning on going to Java and other areas in the near future.
We’re always willing to share our passion of exploration with other divers. But due to the remoteness and the challenge implied by diving in unknown places, this activity is only for very serious and experienced cave divers. Therefore if you want to join one of our exploration expeditions, please contact us beforehand to discuss the possibilities.
UPCOMING EXPLORATION
BINONGKO
(WAKATOBI)
NOVEMBER 2019
Binongko is the fourth and last island of the Wakatobi archipelago. This mysterious place is outside of any touristic path and is barely explored. Many mystic stories have been told by Wakatobi inhabitants about the magic and mysteries hidden in the extensive network of caves across the island. We received many information and photos from the local community showing caves filled with water. This trip will require a few hours boat drive to the island. Everything will be loaded on board for a full week exploration that will probably require SRT Knowledge.
KARST MAROS
(SULAWESI SELATAN)
Q1 2020
The Maros Karst in South Sulawesi province is one of the biggest karst forest in the world. Extensive dry caves exploration are still ongoing, made by the very active local caving community. So far caves that are more than 20 km long have been unraveled with many archaeological treasures and thousands years old painting. Many explorations have been stopped on flooded sump. Our goal is to penetrate the dry caves and reach the sumps to push the explorations. This will require a huge team to carry all the dive equipment on the dry part. The main goal is to connect the biggest cave with the giant spring of Batimurung National Park.
the AGAR ALAM
(SUMATERA SELATAN)
Q2 2020
The Pagar Alam area is home to an extensive karst area yet most is still unexplored. An unknown number or caves, most of them hiding underground rivers can be found in the area. The approach to the cave zone requires a few hours hike in the amazing hills of South Sumatera forest. We have been exploring the area and dry caving around to pick our targets for the next cave diving exploration. This expedition will require long walks in the forest, exhausting approach and descents on deep pit with Single Rope Techniques. The local caving community is very active and ready to assist to form the big team required to explore this area.
PAST EXPLORATION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Cave exploration needs extensive logistics in order to safely find and dive underwater caves. We took a lot of attention and time to get everything we needed to organize efficient and safe cave diving expeditions :
- Alkin W31 portable compressor in frame with additionnal filter and 2 DIN Whips.
- Additionnal filter capability to produce clean air. The filters are replaced according to manufacturers specification according to the humidity level of the air.
- Oxygen clean tanks : Aluminium S80 and S40, Steel 2 liters, 4 liters and 6 liters.
- Haskel Oxygen Booster, yearly serviced.
- Cave diving equipment : lights, line, reels.
- Pure medical grade oxygen for gas mixing and incident management.
- UHP Helium 99,999% purity for trimix and CCR.
- Caving equipment and ropes for SRT.