Cavers dive 3 kilometres deep and explore 260 unknown metres of the Moraig cave

© Levante EMV

This is a frontier never crossed. Uncharted territory. The speleodivers of the Moraig Exploration Group  have now returned to this fascinating submerged cave that has its entrance in the Cova dels Arcs, in the Moraig cove. Eliseo Belzunce and Vicente Gil, from the Moraig Exploration Group, and Frank Behier, who is participating in a University of Valencia research project on underwater troglobitic fauna, have been cave diving this weekend and have returned on Monday to enter the amazing cave.

New topography of the cave

The Moraig Exploration Group began investigating this aquatic cavity in 2013. At that time, 1.200 metres of cave had been explored. These speleodivers have reached three kilometres, they have ‘opened’ 1.800 new metres. And this Sunday, Eliseo made in one go 260 metres of an absolutely unknown gallery. The specialists are carrying out a new topography of the cave. By adding up those 260 metres, they would have reached the distance from the cave entrance to the football pitch and the urban centre of Benitatxell but very low, in the bowels of the earth. And that is amazing. Those who know the geography of the coastline of the town can get an idea of the magnitude of this exploration. The speleodivers have gone deep into the depths of the Puig de la Llorença mountain.

Newly discovered gallery, a labyrinth of total darkness

The experienced cave diver describes the newly discovered gallery: "It is wide and has ten metres high and ten metres wide sections. Its dimensions are very similar to the beginning of the cave. It is changeable, of course. There are times when the width is close to ten metres and the height is five metres and the other way round". This gallery is not easy. The water has to be very clear, crystal clear, so that the cave diver can make his way through. "If we can't see the two walls, it's difficult to find our way. But with the recent rains, the aquifer has collected a lot of water and, as it hasn't rained for 20 days now, the conditions are optimal. In addition, there is still current and that also helps us to locate the new galleries. The current is, in a way, Ariadne's thread in this labyrinth of total darkness; it helps to find the course of the underground river.

Three kilometres from the entrance to the cave, the water is still brackish. Now, after the rains, the aquifer runs clean, but when there is a long period of drought, contaminated water seeps into one of the stretches; it is like ‘a sewer’. And in these turbid and dirty conditions, it is not possible to dive.

Extreme security

Those 260m of new gallery are a lot of progress. It takes a couple of hours of diving to reach the point where cavers enter unknown territory. The dives usually last between four and four and a half hours. These specialists are very well prepared. Safety comes first. They use air recyclers (they carry an emergency second and if it fails they can return with the circuit open and change the oxygen cylinders they leave at different points in the cave). They also use thrusters to move through the submerged passages. ‘We carry duplicate or even triplicate equipment,’ says Eliseo.

Bernhard Pack, the pioneer

The topography being carried out by these specialists will be exhaustive. It will provide an in-depth knowledge of the mysterious Moraig cave. Until now, the topography published is the one drawn by a pioneer, the German cave diver Bernhard Pack (he and José María Cortes paved the way). "Bernhard is an idol for us. What he did was absolutely barbaric. With the means he had at the time, the 1990s, his exploration had enormous merit", stresses Eliseo Belzunce. The German diver was passionate about the Moraig cave. He lost his life on a dive in 1992.

The members of the Moraig Exploration Group hold Bernhard Pack in high regard. He has made great strides in safety and technology. When the current explorers publish the topography of those three kilometres covered, of that frontier to which gaining a metre is a feat, the research carried out by the German more than 30 years ago will be even more valuable. This cave is fascinating. An underground world. A submerged world.

© Levante-EMV