Spending a whole weekend freediving in a breathtaking freshwater sinkhole, as part of Deep Weekend’s freediving event for Aussie dive-enthusiasts, was a no-brainer for Chagi.

 

We acknowledge that this adventure is located on the traditional Country of the Bungandidj people who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them as the Traditional Custodians and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

What’s Deep Weekend?

Run over three days by Australian freediving record holder Adam Stern, Deep Weekend offers courses, fun dives, group meals, and theory workshops with a motley crew of people who like to hold their breath. 

Deep Weekend gives you the chance to fully appreciate the weird and wonderful world of freediving; the pursuit of diving underwater with a single breath. The thought of doing something completely opposite to what’s essential to life (breathing) may make some feel claustrophobic, but for me, freediving is meditation. 

@adamfreediver

I’d already been to Adam’s Deep Weeks (a week-long freediving camp) in Bali and Mexico and had fallen in love with the experience. Travelling around the world to gather with fellow aquaphiles was addictive. Deep Weekend gave me an opportunity to try it in my own backyard.

The Limestone Coast

Deep Weekend is run in Mount Gambier, along the Limestone Coast region in South Australia. Covered by ocean over 2 million years ago, the Limestone Coast is scattered with volcanic craters, cave systems and, to a freediver’s delight, sinkholes. 

These sinkholes would’ve been covered underground for thousands of years, until the ground slowly collapsed in. There are quite possibly hundreds of these unique formations, but only a few are open to the public.

One of Australia’s most mind-blowing dive sites is Kilsby Sinkhole. It’s been passionately taken care of by the Kilsby family for over 130 years. The drive down the white limestone road might look unassuming, with sheep grazing on the property, but once you’ve parked the car and peered over the edge of the lookout you’ll be itching to dive into the chasm below. 

 

Magic in the Underworld

Adam and our instructors, Arty, Hao, and Tim, were setting up the dive buoys while nine of us were lathering ourselves in KY jelly to make tugging our 5mm open-cell wetsuits on a bit easier. We had a two-hour slot to freedive so we were rushing to make the most of it. As soon as I dipped my head underwater, I couldn’t help but incoherently splutter through my snorkel for two reasons.

  1. The water was an icy 14℃
  2. It was ethereally beautiful

The shards of blue light beaming into the dark water were unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It was like peering into another world. The visibility was insane in both directions. Looking up you could see the crisp hole in the sky, and looking down, the rocky terrain of the sinkhole floor. 

@adamfreediver

@adamfreediver

Geared up from head to toe in neoprene, I was ready to train. With Kilsby sinkhole being 27m deep, my fellow level three freedivers and I weren’t aiming to hit depth PBs as most of us were already diving beyond that. Instead, we chose to focus on exercises that would increase our tolerance to CO2 build up, or work on our finning technique. Guided by my amazing instructors, I feel like I made some progress over the three days. 

 

 

The great thing about Deep Weekend is that there’s absolutely no pressure to train. Sometimes, I just wanted to hang at the bottom of the safety line so I can take in my surroundings. The watery silence that engulfs you when you’re underwater is unparalleled. The feeling of weightlessness when you pass negative buoyancy is what I imagine floating in space to be like. It’s truly magical.

@adamfreediver

Cruising Through Freshwater Forests

One of the other major draw cards for visiting Mount Gambier is to snorkel in the freshwater ponds. They’re not just any old ponds, but crystal-clear, spring-fed limestone ponds with up to 80m visibility. 

We booked a time slot at Ewens Ponds before our afternoon dive at Kilsby. Looking around, the grassy reeds didn’t seem too special, until we dunked our heads in.

 

 

The underwater forest looked like someone had turned the saturation levels up in a photo – it was so vibrant and vivid! We lazily floated from pond one down to pond three through narrow channels, taking time to explore the glassy pockets of water in between. 

Read more: Ewens Ponds is a Sinkhole Snorkelling Haven

Ewens Ponds is open until midnight, so a few of us opted to book a night snorkel (freediving isn’t allowed at the ponds). We piled into the cars, tired and somewhat regretting our decision with our wetsuits still damp and cold from the afternoon dive. But the instant we stepped out, we knew we’d made the right decision. 

 

 

Thousands of stars glittered down on us as we cruised through the springwater. The ponds came alive with eels and nocturnal fish waking up to hunt. At one point, we all switched our torches off. It was a bizarre feeling to be stargazing at the Milky Way while floating in a cold pond with the sounds of cattle echoing around us.

Foraging a Fresh Feast

The one thing Adam was most excited about on this trip was lobstering. The sleepy town of Port Macdonnell, crowned ‘Australia’s Southern Rock Lobster Capital’, comes alive during lobster fishing season between October and May. 

We set off in groups at low tide, ducking under forests of seaweed to inspect rock crevices for our catch. Each person was allowed to bag four lobsters and five abalone per day. This was my first time foraging for seafood so I felt a bit like a fish out of water! Thankfully, my dive mates managed to snag enough for us to have a feast. 

Everyone was Adam’s sous chef in the kitchen the next day. There was shucking, slicing, a grocery shop, frying, test-tasting, another grocery shop (more garlic please!), boiling, crunching, and finally, admiring our handiwork. 

As we sat around the huge dining table excitedly exchanging stories of past freediving trips and dreaming up new ones while savouring our harvest, I couldn’t help but feel an immense sense of gratitude that I’d found a hobby as satisfying as freediving. 

 

Buddy Up

The most important rule in freediving is to always dive with a competent buddy. It’s extremely dangerous to freedive on your own as there are a lot of things that could go wrong. Thankfully, the community of freedivers I’ve met so far are a bunch of legends and I’d willingly put my life in their hands again.

The ‘Freediving Family’ Adam has created spans continents, and his courses have the aim of showing people the many wonders of the underwater world. After attending two Deep Weeks and one Deep Weekend program, I’ve made countless buddies around the globe who share my passion for this special sport. 

@adamfreediver

@adamfreediver

The lessons I’ve learnt from my instructors and peers are some that I’ll take with me throughout life. Achievements big and small, from being able to finally equalise your ears properly to smashing out a PB, are always celebrated with hoots and words of encouragement. The energy that runs through each event is an absolute buzz. 

I’d never have guessed that holding my breath would be essential to giving me life.

Feeling inspired? Check this out: How To Start Freediving

This piece was brought to you by a real living human who felt the wind in their hair and described their adventure in their own words. This is because we rate authenticity and the sharing of great experiences in the natural world – it’s all part of our ethos here at We Are Explorers. You can read more about it in our Editorial Standards.