THE SPRING OF THE MILL at CASTELCIVITA 2001
The
spring of the Mill is situated in the village Torre di Costantino which belongs
to the municipality of Castelcivita (Salerno),. The river which crosses the
valley into which this spring is draining receives its water through the homonym
exit and about ten small losses at little distance from it, which in total gives
a middle flow of around 1,8 mc/s. The carst system which has developed here
has brought forward one of the principal tourist attractions of the region of
Castelcivita: the Caves of Castelcivita, visited by numerous tourist groups in
search of emotions. Initially the speleologists and the researchers considered
it to be simple, to define the layout of the connection among the Spring of the
Mill, the Cave of the Ausino and one of the various sumps inside the cave of
Castelcivita, considering that the horizontal distance among the varied parts (around
300m) was short, and the level difference among the two entries small (only 29m:
the Cave of Castelcivita is at 94m masl and the Spring of the Mill is at 65m
masl).
As
usual the laws of the nature don't follow the logic of men.
They reserve interesting and maybe even
uncomfortable surprises.
In
1994 cave divers of the Speleological Group of Folignate verified the connection
crossing a sump between the Cave of Castelcivita and the Cave of the Ausino. Not
having a topographical map in precise scale, the speleologists - geologists of
Naples made a new topography and connected the entries of the three caves. They
positioned the topograhical reliefs onto the general map and realized that the
conduct of the Spring of the Mill develops toward south in perpendicular and
opposite direction to that of the Cave of the Ausino and the Cave of
Castelcivita.
Exploratory history:
To
remember the history of the first underwater explorations in this territory it
is necessary to go back to the end of the sixties, when some brave divers
started to explore the Spring of the Mill and other sumps of the area.
At
the beginning of the seventies a group of cave divers was formed inside the
Italian Alpine Speleological Club of Naples. The group began a systematic work
of exploration inside the sumps of the cave of Castelcivita, of the Ausino and
of the Spring of the Mill. After having explored 100m of tunnel and reached a
depth of -27m in the source of the Mill, a tragic accident it ended the life of
three young cave divers of the group: the consequence was the issue of a town
ordinance that prohibited the access to the spring since then. In the early
nineties the Speleological Group Folignate finally got the permissions and took
up again the explorations, after a hard job of convincing the preceded
authorities.
In
1993 Massimo Bollati, a member of this group, reached a depht of -110m at a
distance of around 325m from the entry.
When
the bureaucratic barrier started to appear more comprehensive and with the
certain possibilities to continue the exploration, in 1995 J.J. Bolanz and Luigi
Casati (Speleological Group of Lecco C.A.I. Lecco) unite their forces and
abilities to continue.
Bolanz in fact, reaches -117m and passes a horizontal tunnel for around 40m; in
the following days Luigi Casati continues the exploration and ascends again to
about -105m, passes 85m of new tunnel, and pushes the limit of the exploration
to 450m from the entry. The dive
time is 49 minutes from departure from the surface to the first stop of
decompression; from this point until the moment of resurfacing another 388
minutes pass. The temperature of the water is 15° and the decompression is
completed without the aid of specific gas (argon inside the dry suit). Even the
present rigid habitat is not used, because the initial narrow passage prevents
the transport into the inside of the cave. During the decompression, at the
depth of -55m., Luigi Casati notes a chimney of discreet dimensions which
ascends vertically from the vault of the tunnel. The spirit of the cave diver
doesn't neglect the duty to effect a topographical relief which allows the
layout of a new and more detailed sketch up to a depht of -60m and to trace a
general indicative longitudinal section for the rest of the exploration as soon
as possible. The studies of the topographical tables on the desk show that the
key point of the exploration is situated at -90m, where a narrowing of the
tunnel creates a strong increase of the current which limits the possibility of
progression to dry periods: considering the climate of the area the summer
period is selected as the only favorable period.
In
1996 the planned program is cancelled due to a summer which is too rainy.
Further the bureaucracy once again closes the gates and the spring returns into
the drawer of desires, until Luigi Casati and Jean Jacques Bolanz succeed again
to get the permissions to continue through a friend, Enzo Franco, who will deal
with the filming activities for the television broadcast Blue Line - RAI 1).
Explorations 2001:
The
trip for Luigi and his friend Zdenek, Massimo and Francesca begins with a heavy
load on Saturday 21 July at 5 o'clock in the morning: around 35 quintals stowed
in the trailer and in the two cars.
The
maximum cruising speed is 60km/h in order to avoid useless risks: 18 hours of
travelling to pass 900km which separate from the spring. We arrive deep into the
night. The day is employed for unloading and putting in order the materials in a
hut made available by the manager of the restaurant S. Spirito, the central
place to eat, sleep and prepare.
The
works begin on Monday with the layout of a new guide line: the one present in
the spring which is five years old is not reliable anymore. Inside the tunnel,
in some points where it is interrupted it forms a real cobweb: to remove the old
line under these conditions is very dangerous but essential because of the
eventuality to remain entangled during the exploration, when being loaded with
lots of equipments and concentrated with other aspects, which is still worse.
In
these days the current is low: the conditions are ideal; on Tuesday the new
guide line is laid out to a depht of -115m. The team will be complete only from
Friday on, which is the day of the first exploration.
Wednesday and thursday serve for positioning the emergency tanks, the tanks for
the decompression and the scooter. Jean Jacques arrives thursday evening and
brings the portable decompression chamber: installed inside a van in order to be
transported to the most opportune place, it will be used for first aid in case
of an accident.
Friday morning everything is ready. Luigi
can depart for the real exploratory dive: he is geared up with more than 100kg
of material and during the journey he will pick up the same amount: everything
necessary.
Luigi reaches the old limit at 425m from
the entry where he leaves the scooter and the last emergency tank.
The tunnel continues to ascend reaching a depht of
-92m at 470m from the entry. The available gases calculated for the progression
don't allow him to keep on ascending: it is necessary to return back and to
program a different progression.
Saturday and sunday serve the team to bring emergency tanks to a depht of -110m
and to place new tanks for the decompression.
Monday everything is ready for the new
attempt. After a small series of disturbances with the equipments, finally
around 11 o'clock Luigi manages to start.
The
descent to the scooter positioned at a depth of -21m proceeds in a perfect way.
Once reached the scooter, he picks it up and disappears quickly into the dark.
Once reached -40m., using a
hyperoxic mixture, he finds the tank that will serve for reaching -110m, ready
to be used. He loses more than two minutes to effect the gas change. The body
position is not the best because the gallery in this area has a strong
inclination, the bottom is covered with sand and one cannot be lean onto it
because it slips downwards: to control the buoyancy of the scooter and the two
cylinders is not easy. The visibility is quickly reduced because of the sandy
bottom. Once finished the gas change, Luigi lets himself go down in freefall,
following the guide line, and after few meters the visibility is excellent again.
The energy of the propeller can be fully exploited. Once reached the narrowing
at -90m he slows down in order to avoid hitting the ceiling of the tunnel. At
-110m. he reaches the second tank. Also in this place the sandy bottom creates
the same problems as met at -40m. Nevertheless the gas change is quicker: in
less than one minute he can go on. In the deep zone at -117m he sees a niphargus
that lets itself be transported by the current. Luigi starts the section in
ascent towards -92m depth; when he meets the explorer reel left in place ready
to be used the preceding time he turns off the motor of the scooter: he begins
the new exploration with propulsing only by fins. After 20m of progression the
line on the explorer reel is jammed. He realizes that he has to interrupt it. A
fraction of a second to decide to use a piece of line of the emergency reel: he
cuts the line of the jammed exploprer reel, connects it with the one of the
usable guide reel, prepares the jammed explorer reel to be recovered upon return,
and again he starts to explore. These manoeuvres have wasted time and precious
gas for the exploration. He continues until he reaches a hall from which the
tunnel starts going down again. 25 minutes have passed and it is necessary to
turn back. Luigi fixes the exploration line, recovers the explorer reel and
starts to return. In the end the point of progression reaches is 550m from the
entry at the depth of -82m. The reentry is really quick because of the strong
current in favour, which now is pushing him instead of slowing him down as
during the progression.
The decompression lasts 6 hours: he takes
advantage of the time and even if being under water he eats a melon, a fruit of
the biological season, macrobiotic and excellent for restoring the lost liquids
during the enterprise.
Considering the development of the cave
there are good perspectives to continue but the destiny puts it on hold: this
will remain the definitive exploration for 2001 even if an attempt to continue
had been prepared; Jean Jacques in fact the following day made a dive for
bringing two tanks to -110m but after 10 minutes he had returned: the electric
contacts of the scooter were " all mixed uo" making it impossible to switch it
off.
This breakdown which happened in the
first part of the cave at little depth could have been serious and dangerous if
had happened in the deep zones distant from the entry.
For this motive, with the impossibility
to fix the scooter at the place and not having a substitution, it is decided
unwillingy to clear the field.
Places and memoirs of a well organized
exploratory job are left behind: the result is more than good, but as it happens
often one is already ready to imagine the moment to start the continuation.
Thanks:
A great technical support is given as
always from the company UTEN Gas of Gorle which delivers the necessary gases for
this type of dives (helium and oxygen), to the company Mutevole which prepares
specific dry suits particularly isolating using material of avant-garde and to
the company TECNOSINT srl Parish of Soligo, Treviso which has effected jobs of
lathing and modifications of the underwater scooters.
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