Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is Bushman's Hole and why is it significant?
It's Thursday, October the 28th, 2004. In South Africa, the undulating plains of the Kalahari Desert stretch out beneath a pale sky, the ochre-colored earth and scrub brush warmed by the brilliant sunshine.
But in an isolated corner of the country's northern Cape province, this vast rolling expanse is suddenly interrupted, punctured by an enormous sinkhole, as if a titan's fist has punched through the landscape, leaving a deep, gaping wound in the ground. The walls of the abyss plunge down towards a small, duckweed-covered pond below. At first sight, there is nothing remarkable about it.
But beneath the surface, this pool opens up into a spectacular bell-shaped chamber, a submerged natural cathedral. This is Bushman's Hole, one of the largest freshwater caves in the world. Nobody is entirely sure how deep it may go. No light or sound penetrates its depths. It is an inhospitable alien place, a dead zone. And yet today, life has come to Bushmans.
Deep below the surface, a tiny pinprick of light descends steadily through the infinite darkness. It's a torch belonging to 50-year-old diver Dave Shaw. He glides gracefully downwards with single-minded focus, guided by a weighted shot line. At around 260 meters, or 850 feet, Dave reaches the silty, sloping bottom of the chamber.
And then he did something that no one has ever done at those sort of depths. He got out a reel, joined it to the line, and started to reel out down the slope.
Dave pushes deeper into the unknown, keen to explore the uncharted floor of the cave. He has just achieved an elite status. At this point, more people have walked on the surface of the moon than have ever successfully dived to these sorts of depths. He is now nearly as deep as the Eiffel Tower is tall. Dave swims slowly forward, sweeping his torch from side to side.
Only the third diver in history to reach the bottom of this extraordinary cavern. But then his light catches on something unexpected and shocking.
So he's reeling out and he actually had gas that would have taken him to 300 meters. But at 270 meters, he saw a body.
Encased in scuba diving gear, the body is lying on its back, its legs outstretched, its arms floating. Exposed to the water, its head and hands are mere bone. Yet a diving mask is still strapped disquietingly to its skull, the face turned up towards the black void above. Barely hesitating, Dave abandons his exploration and swims towards the body.
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Chapter 2: What discovery did Dave Shaw make during his dive?
Although relatively new to the activity, Dave has already completed a number of impressive dives by the time he visited Komati Springs in September 2002. And what he lacked in experience, he more than made up for in ambition and ability. During Don and Dave's first dive together, it was clear this was the beginning of something special.
We felt like we knew each other quite well. I watched him kit up, and he kitted up just like I would. It very much fitted in with my profile of diving with people. Anyone can turn up to me and give me a whole list of qualification, but until you actually get them in the water, you don't really know what they're going to do.
So the first dive always is the checkout dive, and then you gradually extend from there. But when Dave joined me, it felt like he'd been diving with me forever.
As their time in the water together increased, so too did their friendship. A deep, almost brotherly bond soon formed between the two men. They even looked similar enough that they were frequently mistaken for siblings. Crucially, they were equals in the water, able to dive together to extreme depths where few could follow.
We literally played in the water. I used to call it a ballet, where he would go one way, I would go another, and we used to meet in the middle somewhere. My cave is like a three-dimensional maze, so you can literally go in all sorts of directions and meet up if you know what you're doing and where you're going. So really that's what we did. One day I would lead, another day Dave would lead.
We used to call it Batman and Robin. Everything we did was just a pleasure. It wasn't about depth. What it was about was actually using the equipment that we were using to the end of its ability to really put the machines through their paces and actually enjoy being there.
It wasn't long before Don knew Dave was ready to tackle something more challenging than Kamati Springs. And in June 2004, they visited Bushman's Hole together.
That was the start of Dave's Adventures of Bushmans. It's a poetic place. It's one of the big five, or what I call the big five Ks of Africa. And each one comes with its own thing, but they're all deep. But we were actually exploring the depth in a big open space that is pitch black, but bright when we shine our lights on it. It was just an amazing place to go. So Dave was hooked then.
On their second visit to Bushman's in October 2004, with Don acting as his support diver, Dave became only the third person in history to return from the floor of the cave and set a world record for depth on a rebreather in the process. What nobody could have known was that he would also find D'Andrea's body.
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Chapter 3: How did the team prepare for the body recovery mission?
It's a drill that we practice many, many times, but I've never put oxygen in at 250 meters. The display on the handset jumped up to 2.6 bar pressure of oxygen, which is really unhealthy.
Even as he tries to delicately feed oxygen into the system, the levels of the gas in his rebreather grow dangerously high. Don is forced to switch to his open circuit backup tanks. But that comes with another problem.
The first thing you do when you go open circuit is look at the gauge to see how much gas you've got. Now, when you look at the gauge, just like a second hand on a watch, with every breath, it clicks back, like a second hand going backwards. So I knew that I didn't have many breaths. At that depth, I'm 26 bar pressure. So 26 bar pressure is every breath is multiplied by 26.
So that gas is not going to last too long. So I know I've got to get off this open circuit.
Back to plan A. Don needs to get his rebreather stabilized soon. If he can't, he may not have enough gas in his backup tanks to reach the nearest emergency cylinders nearly 100 meters above. Drawing on his years of training, he performs a procedure known as flushing the loop, reducing the oxygen in his rebreather to safe levels so he can switch back to the machine.
Slowly, he gets things under control. Crisis averted, for now. But manually inserting gas and monitoring his levels is going to be a full-time job. All his attention now has to be directed towards his own self-preservation. And if he is having to focus on himself, it means he cannot focus on Dave. He cannot go any deeper. The bleak situation leads to a painful decision.
Now I know there's absolutely no way that I can go down to Dave. And Dave's not moving. So this is, in priming terms, this is where you'd cut the rope. So now I must leave. But all the time I'm thinking, Dave is not dead to me. Maybe something will happen. Maybe he'll come out. Maybe I'll be able to follow the line. But I've actually got to come up now.
With one last glance of the unmoving light of his friend, John begins to head back to the surface. Having gone deeper than he planned, he now needs to work out a new schedule for his ascent to limit his chance of getting the bends.
Also known as decompression sickness, this occurs when a diver resurfaces too quickly, not allowing enough time for nitrogen, another gas absorbed into the body through breathing, to be safely released. Without proper decompression stops, the nitrogen can form highly dangerous bubbles in the blood and tissues, leading to dizziness, difficulty breathing, and even paralysis.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did the divers face during the recovery dive?
I'm on open circuit, and if you vomit, you tend to take the regulator out of your mouth, vomit, and then put it back in, clear it, and carry on breathing.
When he is finally able to, he gingerly starts grappling his way up the line towards the next decompression stop. Above, a figure moves down towards him. A support diver is coming to check on his progress.
He's coming down to see how I am, and I write on a slate, I'm having a hard time, nausea and vomiting. And I have to write it like that so they can't misconstrue what I'm saying. I've come out of that dream and I can control what's going on, but I can't move my body. I can't get my legs into the place I want to be. I can hold on to the rope, but I can't get myself horizontal.
I can only stay where I am. And any time I try and do something, I spin.
Rapidly, the news reaches the surface team. Don needs urgent aid. A tether is made to clip him to the shot line in case he loses consciousness, and a rotor is agreed to ensure at least one diver remains with him at all times. But despite this, Don's situation remains dire.
It's been a couple of hours since he entered the water, but as he nears the surface, his decompression stops need to become longer and more frequent, meaning he still has more than 10 hours to go. The climb is grueling. Don's throat and stomach are raw from retching, and it takes all his strength to maintain his grip on the shot line.
But even as he edges laboriously closer towards the light and air, this strength is fading. Too weak and dizzy to maintain a diver's usual horizontal position, which allows gas to flow directly into the lungs, Don is forced to breathe vertically. Soon, every inhale is a painful effort.
As I got closer to the surface, I was getting to the point where I couldn't breathe anymore. Normally, when you're in the water, you want to be horizontal. If you suck gas in and when you're in a vertical position, you have to use all your muscles to actually bring it down. So the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm are working with every breath to really suck the gas down.
And I was getting to the point now where I couldn't breathe.
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