Χαρτογράφηση Σπηλαίου Κόρφου 2017

Columnist: Vassilis Petroulias

April 2017, my friend Vasilis Athanasopoulos and I decided to travel to the sea area of Corinth after receiving information about the existence of an underwater cave.

Our boat lazily slices through the waves along the coast until we reach an isolated area with the mountain above us. Rocks everywhere, we load up with our cave diving equipment, helmets, lights, reels, cutting tools, double tanks, etc. and dive into the blue.

We travel a long underwater distance and where we had begun to despair, a cave opening illuminates our gaze. An opening approximately 8 meters wide and one meter high. We penetrated inside by simultaneously deploying and placing our speargun, forming a safety line of entry and exit. The water is murky, which indicates the existence of a spring. The water temperature is 14 degrees Celsius and the maximum depth of the cave is 8 meters. After measurements, we found that the flow of the spring is approximately 20 km/minute and the water is brackish. How far inside does the cave continue? And before even a few minutes have passed, the surface of the water appears. We emerge and discover a very large land area. Should we take out our regulators or not? Is the air breathable? The existence of Guano from Bats, flies and many other elements led us to the safe conclusion that the air is breathable. We walk on land and, as in the underwater part, there is a rich decoration of stalactites and stalagmites on land. We looked for a connection to the surface but we did not find one. We did the first Land Mapping. We searched with great patience the entire land area and immediately after we put on our diving equipment and dived into the underwater magical world of the cave of Korfou. The water source that sent the current towards the open sea helped us to emerge from the cave in a relaxed manner into the bright world of the open sea.

We excitedly share our discovery with the diving community a little later.