Eight students go dry caving and snorkeling

Over the Valentine’s Day weekend, eight students went dry caving in the Withlacoochee Forest located about two hours north of Admiral Farragut Academy.  They explored up to five caves that were big enough to crawl into and this year Dylan Lee ’19 found a new passageway.

Watch video of their trip by Patrick Hales ’17

“Some you are on your belly crawling the whole way and some you can stand up and walk around,” said Mr. Davenport , who is the scuba instructor at Farragut and has been doing dry cave trips for many years.

The students spent the morning caving and during the afternoon they checked out two springs found in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area.

“The first spring, Buford Spring, requires walking 300 yards into the forest and then another 100 yards through a swamp where you sink up to your thighs in mud,” said Mr. Davenport.  “Then you come to a completely natural spring that goes to depths around 160′.  The second spring we visited was Eagle’s Nest.  It is considered the Mount Everest of cave diving due to its depths (300’+) and remoteness.”

For Jack Seabrook ’16, who has been twice now, it’s one of his favorite trips.

“All we have to see are our headlamps,” said Jack. “Although Mr. Davenport has been there a ton of times, he still makes it exciting and fun. There’s a lot of holes that you could never imagine being able to fit in and without telling you whether you can or not, he will let you test it. Being pulled out of a tight spot is half the fun.”