Nanaimo River - Caves and Tunnels

[riverrat]

I really like this spot; it's at the bottom of the "Light Side" rockclimbing area, about a km west of the Bungee Zone.

There's this cave... (visible at centre-right):



And when you crawl in, you find yourself in a pretty dark tunnel that leads out the other side again, about four meters along. The real treat comes if you lower yourself into the water in the tunnel, and look to the left (and DOWN):



There were a bunch of salmon in there yesterday when I took this picture. Unfortunately, it was too dark and my timing didn't work out, because you can only see a couple of the medium sized ones. But at least it shows some scale.

What a place. Watching this "window" from above, you can see the vortex, with bubbles swirling madly and twisting around hard rock corners. My friend was considering going down there, but I helped his sister dissuade him. We couldn't see the section he would be pushed toward.

[riverrat]

Here is the view looking out of the cave. Note the cool underwater part at lower left!

[fitz]

The second shot is really cool, I love those pics you take half-in/half-out of the water.. really puts you 'in the moment'.

[North]

Hey that's pretty cool. I gotta check it out sometime.

[riverrat]

[riverrat]

(That's fitz.)

[Nick]

Dude. Nice feet... riverrat it would be cool if you could get an underwater flash.. Do those exist for reasonable prices?

[riverrat]

Totally - actually, there's a flash built into the camera (of course) but the housing's corners and seams get in the way - so, there's a little accessory called the flash diffuser which came with the housing. However, when I'm trying to cruise upstream with friends and go through tunnels and stuff, the non-streamlined diffuser is a real pain - so, it usually gets left behind.

[riverrat]

Just had yet another great weekend at the Nanaimo River:

[riverrat]