Grotta del Bue Marino

Grotta del Bue Marino, Sardegna 2003

The first time I visited the freshwater springs in the Golfo di Orosei was in 2001. We acquired a rare permission from the local authority to survey the known water spring Sorgente Su Cologone. On that occasion, I visited also the cave Grotta del Bue Marino, located near Cala Gonone. The cave has three main branches. “Ramo sud” discovered by Jochen Hasenmayer, “Ramo nord” which was explored in the past by the Czech speleogroup Hranicky kras and recently discovered “Ramo di mezzo”, also by Czech cavers.

In 2003, we organized diving expedition to this cave for only two people. Staying inside was planned for 3 to 4 days, behind system of first 16 siphons. We have designed and constructed ​​watertight cylinder with equipment for bivouac, which had to be connected with other bottles behind underwater scooter. The first day, we transported the 300kg of material to the bivouac before 17th siphon. The next day, our trip continued through 10 next siphons, the last of which is long 300 m with -30m depth. A few hundred meters beyond the 26th siphon is main tunnel splited into several springs. It is interesting, that some of them are partially saltwater. The third day we’d spent with transportation of our things out from the cave.

When we finished this, we left the diving material at the entrance to the cave for later pick up with our boat. But throughout the next four days there was a strong storm in the Golfo di Orosei, and so one of our scooters got without using its own power to Arbatax fishing village located some 50 km south. After its discovery on the beach in Arbatax, the local press released a story about the police discovery of torpedoes 🙂 When the peak of the storm was over and we could go by boat to the cave, we found nearby the entrance only a few residues of our original equipment.

 

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