After my own cave-diving trip, I think ‘hero’ is the right word for rescuers
Thailand’s rescued boys’ football team made their first public appearance this week after being rescued. I recently tried out scuba diving in an underground lake and can only express awe at the bravery of the cave divers who rescued them.
My dive into a cavern on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula began with a descent into almost total darkness. This particular cavern’s water was clear, except for the clouds of mixed salty and fresh water that, when you enter them, turn the whole world into a blur. Propelling myself down into the wavering greyness, guided only by the light of our guide’s torch, I started to feel almost as if we were disappearing, and wondered what exactly I was doing.
As I emerged from the cloud, my gauge told me I had been drinking in air greedily. And I was already lost. But for our dive master and the guide rope chained to the rocks,
Despite the wonders I saw, I don’t think I will ever repeat the experience
I would have had no idea which way was out.
Below us was a very strange sight: a lake. The salty water had collected at the bottom into a big, grey pool full of pale tendrils. We swam over it, towards a fluorescent green shaft of shaft of light piercing into the water. It must be some kind of artificial torch, I thought. But as we came closer, I could see it was a spotlight of sunshine shooting through a hole in the rock above us. We swam up to it and emerged in an enclosed air dome, where huge, spongy bundles of tree roots had punctured through the rock to get at the fresh water below.
All of this took no more than half an hour, yet it felt like an eternity. It was an experience that, despite the wonders I saw, I don’t think I will ever be tempted to repeat.
My respect for the cave divers in Thailand now knows no bounds – men who swam for hours through cold, black, silty water, slithering through 40cm gaps, knowing that a fit, capable man had already died there in order to rescue a dozen sons of strangers. The word heroic is overused, but not here.