by Alexander Van Terheyden

Created on: March 04, 2010

The Great Blue Hole – Belize

The kit went on - and the dive plan had been mapped out, I sat back against the edge of the boat and dropped in backwards.  Swimming out to the edge of the Blue Void several metres in front of us it was time to put the regulator in my mouth and descend.  This would be one of the quickest descents ever.  First off we descended to the Sand bank just on the edge of the hole - all seemed like fairly normal regular dive – so far.  A couple of Grouper fish coming in at 6ft swam past and gawked at the strange folk that had just entered their environment.  As I came to the edge I looked down the wall into what could only be described as looking into an Abyss of total darkness.  The descent began.  As I reached 50ft the water temperature suddenly dropped from luke warm to very cold - fortunately my wet suit was doing a fine job. Continuing the descent I would observe the cliff formation and the odd fish that would stare with interest.  If I didn’t look at the cliff and instead looking below or next to me the reality was I saw just blackness and my fellow scuba divers - however in looking up I could see the sun gleaming on the surface way above me.

Within 10minutes I had reached 150feet - not bad I thought - the deepest I have been.  I probably dropped another 10 feet on top of the 150 due to the sheer excitement of being in such an alien environment, fortunately I didn’t suffer the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis - apparently very common past 120 feet.

The most amazing sculptures were to be seen above and below me as I proceeded under the Blue holes shelf as the wall suddenly disappeared and opened up to a labyrinth of ancient cave structures. Stalagmites below me and Stalactites above me, the size of these geological masterpieces was outstanding - I spent a good time weaving in and out of these structures - safe in the knowledge that if there was an earthquake (they’re fairly common in this part of the world) I would be seeing the Reaper - but as The Cult once said - "Don’t fear the reaper!".

As I emerged from the caves remains and swam into the darkness of the Blue Hole - there was probably at least another 250 feet of water below me and 150 feet of water above me - I and my dive Buddies stared up towards the surface. Light and darkness merged to create an astounding sight above me as the sun beat down on to the surface far above me.  Suddenly, without fail,

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