Well I finally made it up North, a six hour car ride from my home near Miami, and nearly 12 years since my last visit. The caves soon convinced me to return much more promptly! On the 24th of August Steve Robinson arrived from Freeport, bags bursting with dive gear-I picked him up from his hotel and we headed north towards Gainesville and the home of cave buddy John Forder(who along with his wife Angie had offered to house our mini expedition for the next 4 days). In those 4 days we managed to squeeze in 11 great cave dives, visiting Ginnie Springs, Little River and Peacock springs. Logistically, I've a lot more work to do; if John hadn't kindly lent us his in-car GPS we'd have spent most of our time getting lost, and never have found his house again. Even with his GPS we spent a lot of time in the car, from the second day on we decided it made much more sense to have 2 sets of doubles each filled and ready to go each morning, or the lunchtime fill can eat up much of the afternoon and many of the dive sites close at 5. A lunch box would also be a good idea.
The caves themselves were a load of fun, even though the locals assured us flow was 'way down' it still led to some ammusing moments for us 'no-flow' boys. I'm really looking forward to getting back up there, with a little more work I'll be ready to add North Florida to what is already a really spectacular choice of areas for cave tours and training.
Thanks also to Rich Courtney and the gang at Cave Excursions East for making filling tanks fun, and thanks to Steve for sending me the following photos.
