CATHEDRAL 2 cave description
Dive under restritions - Please read Warnings Images  

Three entrances at different levels give access to the Cathedral Number Two. After twenty metres in the nave we turn our heads to look at the beautiful scene of the light entering through the portal and the overhanging mullioned window. This view has given the name to the cave The bottom Is muddy but we have space to swim far from it. Where the nave ends, we enter the total darkness of the main room, shelters, corrosion niches, big cave formations. We are hanged in the heart of the mountain and the feeling is strong. In a side niche the difference in temperature between sea and fresh waters creates an out of focus vision. The thin stratus of mud covering the walls, increases the witchery of the moment and announces the descent in the canyon through a bottom opening. The concentration is at most and we let ourselves fall toward the deep between vertical limestone walls. Unforgettable the shape of the diver below us. Here is possible to meet the rare black faufre Oligopus ater, fish living in very deep open waters. We find also the boxer shrimp Stenopus spinosus, the cave spider crab Herbstia condyliata and the sponge crab Dromia personata. In the bottom tunnel, a solitary red coral Corallium rubrum cormus tells us we are close to the deep exit: a beautiful and narrow vertical fissure. Meditation, astonishment .. everyone lives the moment as he believes. Many years ago together with my friend Marco Ollverio, during the exploration dive, we took off the double tanks to go out and understand in witch point we arrived. Unforgettable. After a 300 metres horse shoe distance we reach the starting point to visit some parts left out at the beginning. Certainly one of the most exciting cave dives in Cape Palinuro.