Cave divers near the source of the Punkva river in Czechia

Cave divers exploring the Amatérská Cave in the Moravian Karst have come closer to the spot where the Punkva river is formed by the confluence of two streams. According to Nejezchleb, it cannot be far now. “Last time we estimated the distance at a few hundred metres; now it will be high tens, 150 metres at most,” he said.

The way ahead gets harder

Pushing further upstream will, in his words, be noticeably harder to navigate. While the divers previously followed a clear tunnel, they are now entering a more tangled system of passages and fissures below the area of Milan Šlechta’s Maze. There is a risk of ending up in dead-end branches or missing the confluence: cave divers could slip into the Sloup Stream without noticing the point where it joins the Bílá voda.

To avoid that, the explorers plan extra control measurements of water properties at known levels during the next expedition. That will let them check whether they are still swimming in the Punkva or have already entered the Sloup Stream.

Drought helps the explorers

The ongoing drought and low water levels are helping the work. Sediment stays settled on the bottom, which gives exceptional underwater visibility of more than five metres.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz