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It’s difficult to forget this dive and the shape of the two superior entrances (-7mt) giving the name to the Grotta degli Occhi. The maximum depth is fifteen metres where Is the atrium Illuminated by some openings. Beautiful reflections of light and on the wall the fan bryozoan Hornera frondiculata. Let's avoid a dangerous muddy branch. On the ceiIing, a passage brings us lo the upper level (-7 mt) where we have the nicest view of the eyes We surface in two air bubbles with a clear outside connection. Breathing and speaking are possible here. Here are particular roky coralloid formations shaped like small champignon mushrooms and like caull flowers. On the bottom a very big single stalagmite and a side niche with stalactites. In the niche there is also a roky shelter representing an ancient sea level. The tiny pale red crystals, here and there, are the red foraminifera Miniacina miniacea, a protozoan visible without microscope. Let's go out through the eyes to continue the dive on the right direction. We reach the entrance of the Grotta del Sangue ( Blood Cave), so called for some red concrections in the sub aerial part . It's a typical marine origin cave, carved by waves in the lime stone rock: low depth, no cave formations, bottom slowly rising and presence of ripple marks (bottom ondulations of pebbles or sand , created by the waves. In fact where the cave stops (-3 mt) there Is a sand accumulation. Very clear is the warm sulphureous water spring with white sulphur bacteria colonies. We see the thermic and saline stratification and slipping in a hand (without glove) we feel the difference in temperature. A lot of tourist boats visit the Grotta del Sangue, so stay dose to the bottom and don't surface. In one side the "variant" opens, a tortuous cuniculus for very experienced divers, leading to the inner lake where we admire an ancient shore levels stratification. During the safety stop before surfacing, good observers will see the young leaf snail Elysia timida. |