The Blue Hole off the coast of Belize in Central America has become known by scuba divers as one of the world’s most unusual dives.
The hole is about two-kilometres across and is in fact the collapsed roof of a massive limestone cave system that millions of years ago either subsided into the ocean or was flooded as ocean levels rose.
The lip of the hole is 12m down in blue, clear water when the sea bed is of sand and coral. As you descend you can peer over into the seemingly bottomless black deep of hole. And then you drop down the face of the hole, silence only broken by scuba bubbles. A further 15 metres to 20 metres down the hole widens to a huge cavern with giant stalactites, as thick as a person and up to 10 metres long.
At that point something described by the divemaster 15 minutes earlier began.
The divemaster, like many Belizeans a descendant of black slaves brought to log mahogany early last century with a heavy Creole accent, explained that this was a deep dive.
“”A hundred and thirty, maybe a hundred and forty feet, man,” he said. “”That’s 40 metres for you metres folk. Maybe 45.”
That would make it my deepest dive. But here the visibility was astonishing and the water temperature was a constant 30 degrees.
“”We’re gunna do two decompression stops, man,” the divemaster continued.
He explained the timing on the way down and the stops on the way up.
You see, the trouble with diving is that the deeper you go the greater the pressure and the greater the pressure the more nitrogen gets absorbed into your blood. If you come up too quickly the nitrogen behaves a bit like the carbon dioxide in a lemonade bottle which has the top ripped off too quickly. The gas comes out of solution and forms bubbles. Bubbles of nitrogen can be fatal in blood in the brain or in the joints it gets stuck restricting movement — hence the bends.
The other side-effect of two much nitrogen in the blood is nitrogen narcosis or the narcs. In mild form causes light-headedness and a general feeling of well-being.
It was about this our divemaster began his stern warning: “”When you get down among those amazing stalactites, man, you’re gunna be very deep. You’re gunna get a feel fuzzy feeling, man. And we have some important advice here.”
At this is white teeth gleamed as he broke into a smile.
“”We say just dive back and enjoy it, man.”
And hence, at 42 metres down drifting among the giant stalactites and peering down into the black gloom of the great hole, I started reciting Coleridge’s Kubla Khan through the scuba bubbles:
(Ital)Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
(end Ital)
We had nine minutes amid the stalactites before the nitrogen demanded our ascent. And then we hovered around the splendid coral allowing the nitrogen to escape harmlessly from our blood.
Alas, it is virtually unphotographable. The scale is too large and light to poor from the distance needed to take it all in. It is usually photographed from the air for postcards.
The Blue Hole is perhaps a reason to go half way around the world to dive the world’s second largest barrier reef when the largest barrier reef is right here in Australia?
There are other reasons: the dancing nurse sharks of Ambergris Caye; the astonishing tube coral; and the nearby Mayan ruins.
The sharks (not to be confused with the larger grey nurse sharks of Australia) at Ambergris are much more lively, inquisitive and aggressive than sharks I have dived with in Australia. But their diet is one of small fish, not large humans and so it is safe to dive among them. Indeed, it is better to be free of dive gear and snorkel among them as the picture of my brother, Gregory, stroking a shark shows. But to photograph them I found it better to be on scuba just above the sea-grass bottom.
At the time I was hounded by a giant sting ray which kept nudging me with its abrasive grey skin. It was a sort of David Attenborough figure imposing itself between the camera and the subject wildlife, but unlike David it could not talk under water.
Ambergris Caye is a few kilometres offshore, but it would be silly not to spend a few days on the mainland. Belize must be on the cutest nations on earth. Population 220,000. It has its own Governor-General and a Parliament of 21. It has no defamation law to speak of so the newspapers carry delightful swags of vicious political scandal and personal slurs, but they carry no sexual smut. The highest building in the nation is a Mayan pyramid built some 900 years ago and the second-highest building in the nation is another Mayan pyramid. Most buildings are Queensland-style weatherboard. It is very laid-back. The largest city is Belize City of about 80,000, but the capital is Belmopan, a village of 7000 with two hopelessly outsized government buildings. It was begun in the 1960s after a hurricane all but destroyed Belize City in the 1960s.
In Belize City you can stay at the mahogany- and history-rich Fort George (part of the Radisson chain) or one of dozens of elegant weatherboard guesthouses.
I booked flights through Flight Centre. They say quote Canberra-LA-Belize from $XXXXXX.
I dived the Blue Hole with the Blue Hole Diving Centre (www.ambergriscaye.com/bluehole). They were competent and reliable. The town of San Pedro in Ambergris Caye has oodles of accommodation from hammocks to four star with prices accordingly. I stayed at the Belize Yacht Club right on the water _ admittedly spoiling myself, but then I was just diving back and enjoying myself, man.