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Divers to enter watery grave
11/01/2005 12:00 - (SA)
Danielskuil - Police divers are to assist a team of technical divers on Wednesday in retrieving equipment from the world's third deepest freshwater cave, Boesmansgat, in the Northern Cape.
The equipment was used in Australian diver Dave Shaw's ill-fated expedition to recover the body of Deon Dreyer, a diver who drowned in the cave in 1994.
Shaw died on Saturday after taking a 270m dive in a courageous bid to retrieve Dreyer's remains.
Shaw discovered Dreyer's body on October 28 last year during a record cave dive attempt.
Shaw was unable to bring Dreyer's body to the surface during this dive as Dreyer's oxygen cylinders were firmly embedded in the mud.
National police dive co-ordinator, Superintendent Ernest Strydom, said on Tuesday police divers would stay at Boesmansgat to assist the technical team.
"There are diving cylinders and other equipment at various depths still in the water which needs to be recovered," Strydom said.
Won't retrieve Shaw's body
He said the divers would start on Wednesday to lift the equipment.
"After that we just need to clean the place and we're finished."
Strydom confirmed on Tuesday that no attempt would be made to find or recover Shaw's body.
"It falls beyond our scope," Strydom said.
A team of 30, including police and paramedics, were involved in the attempt to recover Dreyer's body.
The team of divers at Boesmansgat are all "technical divers" and members of the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers.
Technical diving is an advanced form of scuba diving and uses special methods and equipment to explore environments and perform tasks beyond the range of recreational diving.
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