Centro Autorizzato

MATKA VRELO (Macedonia)
July/August 2012

21st July
Gigi and Alessandro leave Venice for Igoumenitsa by Ferry-Boat.

22nd July
We arrive in Greeceland in the evening, some hours in late. We decide to have dinner and sleeping near the beach in Igoumenitsa.

23rd July
After passing through Greece and Macedonia, in the late afternoon we reach Matka, where since few days is already operative the Belgian team (Marc, Roger and Thomas) who, besides having restored the line to 110m, has found a new gallery by-pass (which was called "Wafel'' s Junction") which avoids the crossing-35m after the "Peoni Hall", leading directly to the "Green Card Gallery", just before the pit.

24 luglio
Day dedicated to the transportation and setup of equipment.

25 luglio
Gigi and Alessandro continue the placement of the emergency decompression line, while Roger and Thomas are dedicated to the topography of the new gallery.

26 luglio
Unlucky day! Upon entry into the water Gigi ripping the suit, because of a screw protruding from the platform. Considering it was a dive that would have served and especially to test it out, as completely new (withdrew from Parisi the morning of departure from Venice!!), Better not to speak about it...
The good news is that, finally, Macedonian friends (Kiro, in particular) have been able to take out from the customs the head of the Rebreather Gigi, shipped directly from Italy after a last-minute repair.
Meanwhile Roger dives to clean up the cave from old sections of wire, Thomas made some shots, and Marc-up to 100m into the pit to check its condition after the rain of the the last days: the visibility is a bit worse but remains at more than enough. The water temperature is 13 ° C.

27 July
At 12:30pm Gigi, Marc and Alessandro are at the Press Conference with the Major of Skopje.
Meanwhile Roger dives to finish the cleaning from the pieces of the old line and for fix better the one in the new passage.

28 July
Also today the bad luck is on us. Marc cuts the flash cable of his camera with the scooter ad a lamp of Gigi's helmet implode at -136m.

29 July
Gigi and Alessandro make few reparations on the equipment and prepair the sidemount rebreather for the next dive. Roger and Marc dive for take photos.

30 July
Finally a positive day! Roger goes first to place the tank for the depth and the sidemount rebreather after the initial bottleneck. After this Gigi start and falls into the second exploration shaft, reaching a room, in which he has already identified a possible continuation. Finish the dive at-156m. Alessandro and Bojan assist him during deco. Marc is able to document with several photos the various phases of the dive.

31st July
Rest day for Gigi and Alessandro. Roger and Marc dive: the first finish to clean the old line from the deep by-pass and the second explore the roof of the main shaft till -3m.

1 August
Unfortunately, another wasted day. Because the planned inauguration of the new dam "Matka2" was waiting for a wave of full throughout the Matka Kenyon. We waited in vain all morning and then decide to put off until tomorrow the dive.

2 August
End of the 2012 expedition. Gigi explores the new room (named Meru Room for obvious reasons...) till to-165m leaving the bottom after 30'. Alessandro, Danco and Bojan assist Gigi during deco and carry all the material out of the cave while Marc is dedicated to photos. Roger coordinates from the platform. The dive was 170' long.

3 August
At 10:00am Press Conference with the Mayor of Skopje before leaving with friends Belgians for Greece.

4 August
Embark from Igoumenitsa to Venice.

Partecipants:

	Aleksandar Acev - Macedonia
	Aleksandar Bulevski - Macedonia
	Bojan Angeleski - Macedonia
	Bojan Petkovski - Macedonia
	Danco Gjorgjijevski - Macedonia
	Daniel Atanasovski – Macedonia
	Gjorgji Trpeski – Macedonia
	Ivan Zezovski - Macedonia
	Kiro Angeleski - Macedonia
	Nikola Paskali - Macedonia
	Sanja Gjorgjevik - Macedonia
	Vasil Sokolov (Vasco) - Macedonia
	Marc Vandermeulen (Asterix) - Belgium
	Roger Cossemyns - Belgium
	Thomas Schubert (Wafel)- Belgium
	Alessandro Fantini (il "Pifferaio") - Italy
	Luigi Casati (il "Gigi") - Italy

Thanks to:

	Caving Association "Peoni" - Skopje
	Cave DIving Association "Vrelo" - Skopje
	the Minister of Economy, Valjon Sarachini
	the Major of Skopje, Koce Trajanovski
	the Onorary Consul of Belgium, Elena Nikodinovska
	the friends of Association "Canyon Matka"
	the Macedonian Civil Protection
	Police Special Task Force: Stevikj Zoran, Manev Petre, Kjokjorovski Velko, Gievski Sashko, Stankovski Koska Igor, Panev Dafche
	the journalists, photographers and cameramen who have accompanied us


	Leaving from Venice... Photo: Alessandro Fantini		Relax on the platform... Photo: Roger Cossemyns

	Gigi ready to start to put the tanks in the deep zone Photo: Roger Cossemyns		Asterix go for taking some photos Photo: Roger Cossemyns

	Roger is going to dive Photo: Bojan Petkovski		Unfortunately this is really a "big hole" !! Photo: Marc Vandermeulen

	Kiro (Our hero!!) and the head of the Reb just take out from the customs Photo: Alessandro Fantini		Press Conferense for the presentation of the Expedition "Matka Vrelo 2012" Photo: Alessandro Fantini

	Gigi (with the translation of Betty), Kiro and Marc with the Major of Skopie Photo: Alessandro Fantini		The belgium and italian teams at dinner

	The Pifferaio in the macedonian jungle Photo: Roger Cossemyns		Gigi before the jump Photo: Roger Cossemyns

	The lamp that have imploded at -136m Photo: Roger Cossemyns		The Pifferaio ready to go to assist Gigi during decompression Photo: Roger Cossemyns

	Works in progress... Photo: Alessandro Fantini		The sidemount rebreather Photo: Marc Vandermeulen

	Gigi starts for thedive Photo: Marc Vandermeulen		His retourn... Photo: Marc Vandermeulen

	During deco... Photo: Marc Vandermeulen		Checking all the equipment Photo: Marc Vandermeulen

	In deco with The Pifferaio Photo: Marc Vandermeulen		Pifferaio checks the deco emergency tanks Photo: Marc Vandermeulen

	Some notes on the new room... Photo: Roger Cossemyns		Waiting (unsuccesfully) the the wave of full throughout Matka Kenyon Foto: Roger Cossemyns

	Gigi returns from the point at the Meru Room Photo: Marc Vandermeulen		The Pifferaio carries out some equipment from the cave Photo: Marc Vandermeulen

	Picture with the "Friends of the boat" Photo: Roger Cossemyns		The new topography of the cave (In red the 2012 explorations) Photo: Roger Cossemyns